Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a worldwide audience future Japanese generations should not have to keep apologizing for World War II, reported the Associated Press. “We must not let our children, grandchildren, and even further generations to come, who have nothing to do with that war, be predestined to apologize,” Abe said in the address given on Aug. 14, marking the 70th anniversary of the Japanese surrender.
Although he didn’t issue an official apology, Abe expressed his “feelings of profound grief and my eternal, sincere condolences” and also added “we Japanese must squarely face the history of the past.” The full official text of the statement can be found at www.atimes.com.
Reactions to his statement vary with positive and negative feedback from leaders and citizens from around the world.
The US News and World Report reported the Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Hua Chunying stated, “Japan should have… made a sincere apology to the people of victim countries, and made a clean break with the past of militarist aggression.”
Ned Price, the U.S. National Security Council spokesman, representing the USA welcomed the statement as honorable and a sincere attempt to reconcile, “We welcome Prime Minister Abe's expression of deep remorse… as well as his commitment to uphold past Japanese government statements on history,” said Price.
He continued, “For 70 years Japan has demonstrated an abiding commitment to peace, democracy, and the rule of law. This record stands as a model for nations everywhere.”
South Korean President, Park Geun-hye, however, said it lacked the apology that many had hoped for and left “much to be desired.”
She continued, “History can't be hidden, and it remains alive through the testimonies of survivors who are still with us today. … We urge the Japanese government to quickly and properly solve the issues related to the 'comfort women' who were forced to serve the Japanese military.”
According to history.com, Japan officially resigned from WWII on Aug. 15, 1945. Seven days after the Nagasaki nuclear bombing, the official peace treaty was signed on Sept. 2 on the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. The USS Missouri now sits in the backyard of BYUH at Pearl Harbor.
BYU–Hawaii students have reacted and shared their opinions adding more insight to the situation.
Yi Ning “Teresa” Hwang, a senior from Taiwan studying International Cultural Studies had grandparents who were taken under Japanese control during World War II. She believes the burden or guilt of the older generation shouldn’t be passed on to the younger generation, while saying the younger generation of Japanese people need to know their history. “It makes sense. He [Shinzo Abe] wants to release the guilt that the younger generations have to carry.”
She said instead of apologizing, Japan and other nations should, “work on learning the true past. Learn from history to avoid making the same mistake. ... I think all countries should work on learning the true past. I think it’s hard for younger Japanese people to talk about it because they don’t know that much.”
Jahn Wang, a junior from China studying business management and accounting, said he agrees with Abe’s point only if politics are not involved. “If we only are talking about the younger generation and not politics, then I pretty much agree with Abe’s statement. Thus, young children or adults who have never been involved in a war to be guilty for what their elder generations did. However, I think, for this generation, although they are innocent, everyone in the world should know about the history, and learn a lesson from it.”
Wang said that lesson is to make the world free from war. “As a Chinese saying says: Thrive in calamity and perish in soft living.”
Referring to Abe’s statement, Nobuaki Suzuki, a senior from Japan studying business management said, “It’s probably true, but he shouldn’t have said it that way.”
Suzuki continued, “We know what we did. We know it was wrong. I can see and learn from the third person point of view. … It doesn’t make sense for someone to keep apologizing if they weren’t even a part of it.”
While he noted that it’s important to study history and learn from it, he continued, “We cannot live in the past, we can learn from it and move forward.”
Brigham Madsen, a senior from California studying business management echoes what Nobuaki said by saying, “As an American, World War II is in the past. If anyone is to be punished it should have happened by now. … Not that is should be forgotten, but still holding the Japanese people accountable doesn’t seem right to me.”
Mari Yamaguchi of the Associated Press reported Emperor Akihito, the son of Emperor Hirohito from the WWII time period, said in an address for the 70th anniversary of Japan’s surrender, “Reflecting on our past and bearing in mind the feelings of deep remorse over the last war, I earnestly hope that the ravages of war will never be repeated.”
Yamaguchi reported it was seen by the Japanese media as a “rare” stance from the emperor who is forbidden by law to speak about politics. Some saw it as a political rebuke to Prime Minister Abe’s statement.
Shine Kang, a senior studying international cultural studies from Korea, said, “My initial reaction was filled with anger and sadness at the same time because this issue was not the first time for Koreans, or even Japanese.” She said the history mentioned in the Prime Minister’s comments “represent an important part of Koreans’ true national identity.”
She continued, “I think that the Japanese government needs to correct their argument by considering both sides: Korea and Japan. For the younger generation, the correct perception of history is really significant for building identity and nationality. … Koreans really hope the Japanese government teaches correct history to the younger generation with full acceptance and understanding about what they did to Koreans in the past.”
Eugene Rey Panesa Aloc from the Philippines, a sophomore working on his general studies, explained what it was like for him to overcome prejudice and stereotypes as part-Japanese in the Philippines. “Growing up in the Philippines gave me a very different view about Japan and its tradition as a whole. I almost despised my lineage on my mother’s side just for the mere fact that she’s part Japanese. In elementary and secondary schools, we were taught that the Japanese government was once a monster and will always be a monster that terrorized our country during the World War II era.”
Aloc said he never wanted a Japanese roommate when he came to BYUH. During his second semester in 2012, he moved into his new room in the Hales and, to his surprise, his new roommate was Japanese. He said, “I was so surprised when I got a new roommate who was from Japan. I could not understand it. Why him? I never trusted him. I never talked with him. I always replied with a blank face, and I never wanted to see him.”
During the weeks that followed, Aloc decided to talk to the Housing Office to give him a new room or a new roommate. Before he went to the Housing Office, he prayed “fervently and for courage” to explain to his Japanese roommate why he wanted a room change.
He said, “I confronted him and talked with him for the first time in three weeks. I told the story of how the Japanese treated our ancestors’ decades ago. I told him how they killed, butchered, murdered, tortured and raped the children and the women, how they left thousands and thousands of Filipino people grieving and mourning for the loss of their loved ones.“
My roommate's eyes started to change. His physique told me he was sorry and he started crying. He told me he never knew what his ancestors did back in the Philippines. He felt so sorry for us. He told me that in modern Japanese culture, they are trying to forget all those bad things of the past and they are trying to recuperate for the loss and damages they inflicted upon countries after countries.”
Aloc continued, “I felt so sorry for him. Now I had understood that every time he greets me, it was a genuine act of friendship. For almost 22 years of my life, I believed that Japanese are monsters that will never change their way of living. I wasted my time harboring hatred towards them. I now fully understand and believe that they are one of the most friendly and hospitable people I had ever met in my life. Takuya Hoshino will forever be my friend.”