WW2-ANNIVERSARY/JAPAN-ABE STATEMENT-REAX Japan PM's "utmost grief" over war provokes mixed reactions at home

Record ID: 143903

  • Title: WW2-ANNIVERSARY/JAPAN-ABE STATEMENT-REAX Japan PM's "utmost grief" over war provokes mixed reactions at home
  • Date: 14th August 2015
  • Summary: TOKYO, JAPAN (AUGUST 14, 2015) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE JAPANESE FLAG TRAFFIC SIGN READING (JAPANESE AND ENGLISH): "PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE" EXTERIOR OF JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE RIGHT-WING VEHICLES RALLYING BEFORE PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE ACTIVISTS BROADCASTING THROUGH LOUDSPEAKERS ON RIGHT-WING VEHICLES VOICE FROM LOUDSPEAKERS, SAYING
  • Embargoed: 29th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA1W27QLAY12CIDKAS4QVJIXCE1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS NOTE, PLEASE REFER TO 0078-WW2-ANNIVERSARY/FILE-PART ONE AND 0079-WW2-ANNIVERSARY/FILE-PART TWO SENT ON AUGUST 9 FOR FILE MATERIAL
    Japanese people expressed mixed opinions on Friday (August 14) after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced a statement marking the 70th anniversary of World War Two's end.
    In the statement he read during a news conference at 6 p.m. local (0900 GMT), Abe expressed "utmost grief" for the suffering Japan inflicted in World War Two.
    Abe also said Japan should "never forget that there were women behind the battlefields whose honour and dignity were severely injured", but made no direct reference to "comfort women", as the women - many of them Korean, forced into prostitution at Japanese wartime military brothels are euphemistically known.
    Tokyo and Seoul have long been at odds over the issue of comfort women, with South Korea saying Japan has not done enough to atone for their suffering.
    "I think the apology won't reach the hearts of those being apologised to if you do not say precisely whom you're apologising to," a Tokyo commuter, 39-year-old Hiromi Suzuki said after the statement was published.
    Abe offered no new apology of his own in the statement, and said he upheld past official apologies including a landmark 1995 statement by then-premier Tomiichi Murayama.
    A Japanese businessman said Abe seemed to be cautious in his statement.
    "I think he was very careful in choosing words because 'apologise' is a sensitive word to say for the Prime Minister who represents the country," 46-year-old Naruyuki Tanaka said.
    Outside the Prime Minister's office in Tokyo on Friday, a right-wing group rallied outside the Prime Minister's office in vehicles and called on Abe, through loudspeakers fitted to vehicle roofs, to visit Yasukuni Shrine, a historic shrine in the capital where many Japanese World War Two victims are buried.
    Beijing and Seoul had made clear they wanted Abe to stick to the 1995 "heartfelt apology" for suffering caused by Tokyo's "colonial rule and aggression".
    The remarks by Abe, who is seen by critics as a revisionist who wants to play down the dark side of Japan's wartime past, will be closely analysed in China and South Korea, and parsed by ally the United States, which wants to see an easing of tensions in the region.
    Another commuter on Friday evening called for more effort by the Japanese government to rebuild friendship with other countries.
    "What is more important than the word is the action. I hope the government will make more effort to bring back the friendship with neighbouring countries," 40-year-old Manabu Komazaki said.
    Abe's statement comes as he pushes for a more robust defence policy through measures domestic critics said violate Japan's pacifist constitution. Public doubts about the bills have triggered a slide in Abe's ratings to below 40 percent.
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