Written by Mari Yamaguchi
Tokyo (AP)As worries about the quickly dwindling memory of the misery of war and the painful lessons learned from the era of Japanese militarism mount, Japan paid respect to more than 3 million war dead on Friday as the nation commemorated the surrender that ended World War II 80 years ago.
The first time a Japanese leader has used the word since previous premier Shinzo Abe avoided it in 2013, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba used it in an Aug. 15 speech to express regret for the war.
Ishiba referred to the war as an error, but he made no mention of Japan’s aggression throughout Asia or offered an apology.
The tragedy of the war will never happen again. Ishiba declared that we will never make a mistake. Once more, we must hold the regret and lesson learned from that conflict close to our hearts.
He promised the following generation that he would keep his peace pledge.
Around 4,500 officials, grieving families, and their descendants from all around the nation observed a moment of silence at noon on Friday, the day Emperor Hirohito’s surrender address began on August 15, 1945, as part of a nationwide commemoration held at Tokyo’s Budokan auditorium. Later, participants presented the war dead with chrysanthemum flowers.
Dozens of right-wing politicians and supporters from Japan gathered to pray at the Yasukuni Shrine, which is only a block away.
The shrine pays tribute to Japan’s 2.5 million war victims, including those who were found guilty of war crimes. Visits to the shrine are interpreted by victims of Japanese aggression, particularly China and Korea, as a sign of a lack of regret for Japan’s wartime past.
Instead of praying at the contentious shrine, Ishiba sent a religious jewelry as a personal gesture and avoided Yasukuni.
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However, the agriculture minister, Shinjiro Koizumi, who is regarded as a leading contender to succeed the struggling prime minister, offered prayers at the temple. He told reporters that he promised the spirits that there would be no conflict. He stated that it is critical to remember those who gave their life in defense of their nation.
The well-liked former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, whose 2001 pilgrimage to Yasukuni as a serving leader infuriated China, is the father of Koizumi.
Koichi Hagiuda, the leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, and right-wing MPs Sanae Takaichi and Takayuki Kobayashi, former ministers of economic security, also paid a visit to the shrine on Friday.
At Yasukuni, 87 lawmakers from a nonpartisan group led by Liberal Democrat Ichiro Aisawa also offered prayers and made a commitment to maintaining peace in Japan and the Indo-Pacific area.
Separately, Sohei Kamiya, leader of the far-right populist group Sanseito, prayed alongside 70 members of his party’s local assembly and 17 lawmakers. The prime minister ought to come to Yasukuni, he told reporters.
Japan was reminded of its wartime crimes in their nations and other Asian nations by China and South Korea.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi denounced efforts in Japan to deny and whitewash aggression, to fabricate and rewrite history, and even to salvage the charges of war criminals.
He went on to say that we can only be respected if we confront history head-on and learn from it in order to go forward into the future.
Ahead of a planned travel to Japan for a summit with Ishiba, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung called on the two U.S. allies to put aside their concerns about Japan’s cruel colonial rule in Seoul.
He urged Tokyo to acknowledge our traumatic past and work to sustain trust between our two nations, saying that some historical issues are still unresolved.
Since leading war criminals were enshrined at Yasukuni in 1978, Japanese rulers have ceased to visit the site.
In his speech at the Budokan memorial on Friday, Emperor Naruhito reflected on our history and recalled the feelings of profound regret, expressing his wish that the devastation caused by war would never be repeated.
Naruhito reaffirmed the significance of educating the next generation about the terrible history of the war as we work to ensure future peace and happiness for all.
He has visited Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and Hiroshima as part of the 80th anniversary, and in September, he is anticipated to fly to Nagasaki with his daughter, Princess Aiko.
Hajime Eda said he will always remember his father and those who never returned home when his ship was struck by a mine while he was returning from Korea. Speaking on behalf of grieving families, Eda stated that it is Japan’s duty to teach others about the futility of war, the challenges of reconstruction, and the value of peace.
After learning about their great-grandfathers who lost their lives in battle, a number of youths participated in the ritual.
After reading a letter her great-grandfather sent from Iwo Jima, 15-year-old Hiroshima high school student Ami Tashiro said she attended a memorial commemorating the battle’s conclusion last year. She also wants to participate in the hunt for his body.
There are significant concerns about how Japan should transmit its history to the next generation as the population of wartime generations quickly declines. Since the 2010s, the nation has seen revisionist opposition under Abe, who sought to restore national pride and rectify a self-deprecating perception of Japan’s wartime past.
Following Abe’s example, Japanese prime ministers have refrained from expressing regret to Asian casualties since 2013.
There has been controversy around certain MPs’ denial of Japan’s military involvement in the enormous civilian casualties on Okinawa or the Nanking Massacre.
A few of his unit’s fifty members returned from Taiwan, including his late father, who was replaced by 64-year-old Naoya Endo in Yasukuni. He stated that he hopes there won’t be a conflict during his lifetime and is concerned about the rising tensions in the world. He bemoaned the fact that many Japanese no longer feel pride or affection for their country.
The Mainichi daily urged Japan to cooperate with its Asian neighbors as equal partners in an editorial published on Friday.
The Mainichi stated that it is time to present a vision of a world free from war, grounded in the lessons learned from its own history.
Contributions to this article came from Associated Press journalists Kim Tong-hyung in Seoul, South Korea; Huizhong Wu in Bangkok; and Mayuko Ono, Ayaka McGill, and Reeno Hashimoto in Tokyo.
