TOKYO, (Xinhua) — Regrettably, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe disappointed his audience on Friday as he diluted Japan ‘s wartime responsibilities in his war anniversary statement and his historical revisionism will push his country further away from normality.
The prime minister defended in his statement that Japan was forced to launch wars in the past in order to “overcome” the country’s diplomatic and economic deadlock caused by Western countries’ economic blocs.
Regarding aggression and colonial rule, the keywords used by then Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama in his 1995 landmark statement, Abe, however, skipped stating that Japan was a culprit of such barbarities before and during the war, but only said that incidents, aggression and war should never be the means to resolve international disputes and Japan will abandon colonial rule forever.
He also refrained from offering a fresh apology for Japan’s wartime wrongdoings and said that his country has repeatedly apologized, adding that it is unnecessary for the Japanese young generation to keep apologizing in the future, although he mentioned previous governments’ apologies and deep remorse.
On another closely watched issue of “comfort women,” the prime minister superficially touched on the point, saying those women’s dignity and honor were severely injured during wars in the 20th century, without pointing out Japan’s responsibilities for the damage.
By issuing such a statement that is full of historical revisionism to mark the 70th anniversary of WWII ending, Abe has served a devastating blow to the international community, which restored peace and stability seven decades ago at the tremendous cost of millions of innocent souls.
Japan’s continued historical misperception will definitely resurrect historical ghosts that will continue damaging ties between Japan and its neighbors who greatly suffered from Japan’s wartime atrocities.
With such historical revisionism, Japan will never be the country that the prime minister described in his statement as contributing to world peace, but will only serve as a troublemaker to further shake the stability in the northeast Asian region.
Recent history has clearly shown how devastating Japan’s wrong historical perception can be.
The unwise and shortsighted choice by the prime minister himself has pushed his own dream of leading Japan to become a normal country further away, and his contradictory words and actions will combine to further make the normalization a mission impossible.