Japan apologizes for war 'suffering'
| • | Focus: Paying the price of peace |
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SAN FRANCISCO — Saying her country had caused an "incurable scar," Japan's foreign minister yesterday commemorated 50 years of peace by apologizing for the "tremendous damage and suffering" of World War II.
Associated Press
Makiko Tanaka, reiterating an apology made by Japan's prime minister in 1995, said Japan has never forgotten the "tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries during the last war." She made special note of former prisoners of war, hundreds of whom have sought reparations from Japanese companies that benefited from their slave labor.
Japanese Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka spoke of the war's "incurable scar."
"Facing these facts of history in a spirit of humility," Tanaka said, "I reaffirm today our feelings of deep remorse and heartfelt apology ..."
Tanaka's apology came during a 50th anniversary celebration of the so-called San Francisco peace treaty, signed by Japan, the United States and 46 other countries on Sept. 8, 1951. The accord formally ended World War II and removed troops that had occupied Japan after its surrender in 1945.
The treaty also forgave Japan its transgressions and permitted the nation's return to international participation.
Some scholars and historians said Tanaka's words did not go far enough, including Uldis Kruze, associate professor of history at the University of San Francisco.
"This could have been an opportunity for the government to go further," Kruze said. "She chose not to. It would have been the right time to expand and be more inclusive.... (This was) an incremental step of inclusion."
The Japanese took an estimated 36,000 U.S. soldiers prisoner, most of whom were forced into slave labor for a variety of corporations hurt by the war-caused lack of manpower, said Elisabeth Rutledge, spokeswoman for the organization Justice for Veterans.
Of those prisoners, only 21,000 came home and only 5,400 are still alive, Rutledge said. Many have joined lawsuits seeking compensation for the work they were forced to do for Japanese companies, such as Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Kawasaki and Nippon Steel.
To Lester Tenney, 81, Tanaka's words were worse than an insult. Wearing a hat with the words "Survivor of Nippon and Corregidor," and sporting his war medals, Tenney listened to Tanaka's speech and called it "a travesty."
"I thought it was ludicrous, absolutely asinine for her to even issue a statement," Tenney said, his voice shaking with emotion. "What a travesty of justice that that would be considered an apology," he added.
Tenney, a member of the 192nd tank battalion, survived the Bataan death march in the Philippines after being taken prisoner on April 9, 1942. He was later trundled onto what he describes as "a hell ship" to Omuta, Japan, where he shoveled coal for 2 1/2 years for a Japanese corporation.
Tanaka yesterday echoed what is considered to be the most significant apology made by the Japanese, the regrets voiced six years ago by then-Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama.
"Facing these facts of history in a spirit of humility, I reaffirm today our feelings of deep remorse and heartfelt apology expressed in Prime Minister Murayama's statement of 1995," she said.
Tanaka was flying to Honolulu last night and is to meet today with Adm. Thomas Fargo, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet to lend encouragement to the Ehime Maru recovery effort.
