Ishiba says Japan will continue to pursue peace at ceremony marking end of World War II

Japan Today

a day ago

Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako bow at a memorial service marking the 80th anniversary of Japan's World War II defeat, at the Nippon Budokan hall in Tokyo on Friday.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday vowed to keep in mind Japan's "remorse" over World War II as the nation continues its pursuit of peace 80 years since its surrender, becoming the first premier in over a decade to use the term at the annual memorial ceremony for the war dead.
Ishiba has chosen not to issue a cabinet-endorsed statement for the 80th anniversary, unlike past leaders who released them for the 50th, 60th, and 70th milestones. The statements have been closely scrutinized by other Asian nations that suffered under Japan's wartime aggression.
Speaking at a government ceremony in Tokyo to mark the end of World War II, Ishiba redoubled his country's commitment to peace in the face of ongoing global conflicts, stressing the importance of aging survivors passing down the "painful" memories of the war to future generations.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, left, walks to deliver a speech as Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako look on at the Nippon Budokan hall on Friday.
Image: AP/Eugene Hoshiko
"We should never repeat the devastation of war. We will never ever make a mistake in choosing the path to take," Ishiba said when addressing the annual event for the first time.
"The remorse and lessons from that war should once again be engraved deeply in our hearts," he said.
He became the first Japanese prime minister since 2012 to use the word "remorse" at the annual commemoration ceremony. Following the precedent set by his recent predecessors, however, he did not directly mention Japan's wartime aggression and the suffering it caused across Asia.
A moment of silence was observed at noon, the same time 80 years ago when Emperor Hirohito declared his country's surrender in a radio broadcast.
Emperor Naruhito, accompanied by Empress Masako, also expressed "deep remorse" at the memorial, saying the calamity of the war should never be repeated.
Participants, including about 3,400 family members of those killed, mourned around 3.1 million casualties of the war in Japan. The number includes victims of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Hajime Eda, 82, who was just two when his 31-year-old father, a soldier in the army, died, noted there are still many people falling victim to acts of aggression, ethnic conflicts and religious confrontations.
"Having experienced the severity of what came after the war, our country should seize the opportunity to stress the emptiness of fighting, the difficulty of reconstruction and the preciousness of peace in the world," Eda told the ceremony.
The passing down of wartime experiences has taken on greater urgency due to the aging of survivors. For the first time, more than half of the participants at the memorial ceremony were born after the war.
Ishiba chose not to visit Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo for the 80th anniversary. The shrine is a source of diplomatic friction due to it honoring convicted war criminals along with millions of war dead.
As head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, however, he sent a ritual offering to the Shinto shrine, a move apparently aimed at appeasing his party's conservative support base.
He laid flowers at Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery in Tokyo, where the remains of around 370,000 unidentified soldiers and citizens are interred.
The event took place as Ishiba's grip on power has been significantly weakened following his party's poor results in recent elections. He has faced calls from some hawkish party members not to override the 70th statement made by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is believed to have sought an end to the practice of repeatedly issuing apologies over the war.
Japan has spent the decades since the war committed to promoting peace under its war-renouncing Constitution, which permits the use of force only for self-defense.
Still, wartime history has long strained Japan's relations with China and South Korea. China fought what it calls the 1937-1945 War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, while the Korean Peninsula was under Japanese colonial rule from 1910 to 1945.
The United States, which fought fierce battles with Japan after its 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor and later dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, has become Japan's closest security ally since the war.
At ceremonies last week marking 80 years since the atomic bombings, Ishiba stressed the need for Japan to work toward a world free of nuclear war and nuclear weapons.
Russia has brandished its nuclear threat as its war in Ukraine drags on, while North Korea continues to advance its nuclear and missile programs. In June, the United States attacked Iranian nuclear sites.
© KYODO