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As Hiroshima on Thursday marked the 70th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing and Nagasaki follows on Sunday, Japan, starting from the two cities, is in mourning commemorating the painful sufferings brought by World War II, and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to issue a closely-watched statement next week to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the war.
However, unlike the statement officially issued by Abe's predecessor Tomiichi Murayama in 1995, the new version may be a controversial one that may nullify the landmark 1995 statement that offered an apology to the victims of Japan's wartime aggression and colonial rule.
According to a report by an advisory panel to the incumbent prime minister over his upcoming statement to be released next Friday, the document did not mention whether the prime minister should offer a fresh apology to the victims for Japan's barbarities before and during World War II, but said that "based on the deep remorse over the war, Japan has been reborn as a country that is completely different from what it was in the first half of the 20th century."
Meanwhile, the report said that Japan expanded its aggression and colonial rule since 1931 and the war it waged caused great damage and casualties, adding the then Japanese government and military leaders were seriously responsible for the wartime wrongdoings.
Abe, who received the report Thursday afternoon, said that he will convey a message to the world based on the report. However, considering the prime minister's addresses on different international occasions, the well-known historical revisionist will likely dodge a "heartfelt apology" and dilute the key wordings like "aggression and colonial rule" in his war anniversary statement and merely state a "deep remorse" for the country's dark past.
Abe has reiterated many times that he will follow the Murayama Statement as a whole, but will not repeat the same words like " heartfelt apology" and "aggression and colonial rule" in the 1995 statement since the ultra-right leader has always said that there is no universal definition for "aggression."
It is notable that the report echoes Abe's rightwing ideology. In its note on the word "aggression," the report said that there were some dissenting views concerning the use of the word " aggression" since "the definition of 'aggression' has not been established under international law;" "there is objection from a historical perspective to stating that the series of events from the Manchurian Incident onward constituted 'aggression';" and " there is a sense of reluctance towards stating that only the actions of Japan constituted 'aggression' while other countries were taking similar actions."
Furthermore, the report tried to beautify Japan's aggressive war as a war for Asia's liberation. "To be sure, many nations in Asia gained independence as a result of the Japanese war from the 1930s up to 1945. Nevertheless, many decisions were made in the name of self-preservation and self-defense... and rarely were they made to liberate Asia. Indeed, there were Japanese people who fought to liberate Asia, and the independence of Asian colonies progressed as the outcome," said the report.
If this is Japan's perception over its past wrongdoings, it will be unacceptable for those who suffered greatly from Japan's wartime aggression and it is a dangerous signal for the world as Japan is pushing forward a series of security bills allowing its troops to engage in armed conflicts, for the first time in 70 years under the same banner of self-defense.
Brian A. Victoria, a visiting research fellow at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies in Kyoto, said in an editorial Thursday carried in the Japan Times that there is a "parallel universe" for Japanese leaders to continue to condone Japan's wartime actions.
"In this parallel universe Japan was not an aggressor but, on the contrary, was forced to take up arms in self-defense and valiantly sacrificed itself in a 'holy war' to liberate Asia from Western Imperialism," Victoria pointed out, adding Japan, in the parallel universe, honors convicted war criminals as the country's heroes who Abe described as "sacrificing their souls to become the foundation of the fatherland."
However, the researcher broke the myth by saying that "the truth is that, like its Western adversaries, Japan was yet another colonial power seeking to expand its empire by war" and added that "more importantly, Japan as liberator is a useful myth on which to base Japan's current attempt to create a nation that can once again go to war far beyond its borders, ignoring the prohibitions of Article 9 of its 'peace Constitution.'"
Such a "parallel universe" is generated by a powerful ultra- right group called Nippon Kaigi, or Japan Conference, and about half of the prime minister's Cabinet members, including Abe himself, are openly affiliated with the rightwing group, which experts say "praises the invasions, massacres and rapes of its East Asian neighbors as wars of liberation."
The panel's report also reflected the prime minister's idea that he will stress in his statement Japan's more proactive contribution to world peace and stability through his doctrine of "proactive pacifism" and the way of approaching this goal is to improve Japan's security system by exercising the right to collective self-defense to bolster declining U.S. power in the region.
But questions are being asked as to whether there has been any real reflection and sincere apology for Japan's wartime atrocities, or if the prime minister truly wishes to dispel the mistrust overshadowing East Asia about Japan's real intention of beefing up its defense forces with an excuse of "self-defense" -- a similar situation the region faced in the 1930s.
For Japan, there is a question needed to be answered: what is the historical perception the country should have to mark the war anniversary and to face the future?
"Yet, a key question remains: What does the future hold in store for a nation whose leaders claim that convicted war criminals are actually the 'foundation of the fatherland'? While myths and parallel universe die hard, human beings are far easier to kill," Victoria concluded.
