Apologies but no atonementpublished at 10:28 British Summer Time
10:28 BST
Shaimaa Khalil
Tokyo correspondent
Defeat in World War Two stripped Japan of its military might. Under US occupation, it became a pacifist country. Article 9, introduced under the occupying forces after the war ended, says: “The Japanese people forever renounce war and the threat or use of force.”
Japan rebuilt as a democracy and economic powerhouse. But the country has never fully or legally confronted the atrocities committed by its imperial army in China, Korea and across Asia.
There have been many apologies by several leaders, but they’ve always fallen short of fully addressing the specific of Japan’s atrocities and repenting for them. It’s a stark contrast to Germany’s reckoning with its Nazi past.
“It’s understandable that overseas people are confused,” says Jeff Kingston, a professor of Asian studies and history at Temple University in Tokyo.
He tells me there’s never been a unified national stance on how Japan views its wartime history – especially with eminent conservative political leaders like the late former prime minister Shinzo Abe. That’s why this part of history is glossed over in school textbooks, for example, and that’s what makes official apologies feel vague and hollow at times.
“Many Japanese leaders have apologised over the years. But they don’t get into specifics about what Japan did. And every time they make an apology or express contrite views there would always be another prominent conservative voice that would deny or denounce these views.”
“It muddies the waters and leaves people convinced that Japan hasn’t grasped the nettle of history the way Germany did.” Kingston says.
The US, too, has never apologised for the atomic bombing of Hiroshima or Nagasaki. Eighty years on, Japan stands as a modern democracy and a global economic power – yet the shadows of its violent past still stretch into the present.