Japan marks WWII surrender as China calls for more ‘sincere’ apology

The visits by the Japanese ministers to Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japanese war dead, including 14 Class A criminals convicted by the Allies in trials that followed World War II, came a day after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe issued a much-anticipated speech marking the 70th anniversary of Tokyo’s surrender in World War II.

Park said she would focus on his remarks Japan would uphold statements of apology made by previous cabinets over the country’s wartime conduct.

South Korea’s president, Park Geun-hye, said Abe’s Friday speech contained “regrettable elements”, but she did not elaborate.

“Only by facing up to its aggressionist and colonial past and through honest introspection and apology could Japan truly take on its historical responsibility, win back credibility from its Asian neighbors and the worldwide community and create a new future”, it read. Calling Mr Abe’s speech an attempt “to cover up past crimes”, a North Korean spokesman said: “We categorically denounce and reject such an act of Japan as a shameless act challenging our sovereignty and dignity, worldwide justice and human conscience”.

Abe has not visited in person since December 2013, when he said he did so to show respect for those who died for their country.

Tomomi Inada, policy chief of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party; Haruko Arimura, minister in charge of female empowerment and gender equality; and internal affairs minister Sanae Takaichi paid a visit to the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward.

Japan and South Korea have always been at odds over the issue, with Seoul saying Tokyo has not done enough to atone for their suffering, despite a 1993 apology.

Why are Japan’s apologies forgotten?

Coloma said Japan’s “reflection upon the lessons of war” was connected to its commitment to “renounce violence, threat or force as means of settling worldwide disputes, and to pursue peace as the path to long-term global prosperity”.

(AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi). Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe leaves after delivering his remarks during a memorial service at Nippon Budokan martial arts hall in Tokyo, Saturday, August 15, 2015. But he made no direct reference to “comfort women”, a euphemism for the girls and women – many of them Korean – forced into prostitution at Japanese military brothels.

Abe, who has said he wants to fix ties with China and South Korea and could visit Beijing as soon as next month, was not expected to visit Yasukuni himself today.

The statement comes at a pivotal moment for Japan, a moment when Abe is trying to draw a line under Japan’s history and become more “forward looking”.

“The wars of aggression launched by Japanese militarism inflicted untold sufferings on the people of China and other victim countries in Asia….”