{"id":5738,"date":"2015-08-14T23:55:54","date_gmt":"2015-08-14T22:55:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/?p=5738"},"modified":"2015-08-14T23:55:54","modified_gmt":"2015-08-14T22:55:54","slug":"japan-expresses-grief-over-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english.thesunrisetoday.com\/index.php\/japan-expresses-grief-over-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan expresses grief over war"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Japan\"<\/a>Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Friday he had utmost grief for the \u201cimmeasurable damage and suffering\u201d Japan inflicted in World War II, but future generations of Japanese should not have to keep apologizing for the mistakes of the past.
\nMarking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II in the Pacific, Abe said he upheld past official apologies including a landmark 1995 statement by then-Premier Tomiichi Murayama, but offered no new apology of his own.
\nThe war\u2019s legacy still haunts relations with China and South Korea, which suffered under Japan\u2019s sometimes brutal occupation and colonial rule before Tokyo\u2019s defeat in August 1945.
\nBeijing and Seoul had made clear they wanted Abe to stick to, as expressed in 1995, \u201cdeep remorse\u201d and \u201cheartfelt apology\u201d for Japanese \u201ccolonial rule and aggression.\u201d
\n\u201cUpon the innocent people did our country inflict immeasurable damage and suffering,\u201d Abe said in a statement. \u201cWhen I squarely contemplate this obvious fact, even now, I find myself speechless and my heart is rent with the utmost grief.\u201d The remarks by Abe, seen by critics as a revisionist who wants to play down the dark side of Japan\u2019s wartime past, will be analyzed not only in China and South Korea but by ally the United States, which wants to see regional tension ease.
\nIn an initial reaction, a commentary by China\u2019s official Xinhua news agency said the \u201ctuned-down apology is not of much help to eliminating Tokyo\u2019s trust deficit.\u201d
\nIt added: \u201cInstead of offering an unambiguous apology, Abe\u2019s statement is rife with rhetorical twists like \u2018maintain our position of apology\u2019, dead giveaways of his deep-rooted historical revisionism, which has haunted Japan\u2019s neighborhood relations.\u201d
\nLater on Friday, China\u2019s Foreign Ministry said Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui had conveyed Beijing\u2019s position to the Japanese ambassador.
\n\u201cJapan should make a clear explanation and a sincere apology to the people of the countries who suffered from that era of military aggression,\u201d the ministry said on its website. It urged Japan to \u201ctake concrete actions to gain the trust of its Asian neighbors and the global community.\u201d<\/p>\n

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