(Newswire.net — January 21, 2015) Beijing, Beijing — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has a knack for pissing off especially China and South Korea (never mind the whacko North) whether it be trying to minimize the numbers massacred during the Rape of Nanking (or his goons denying it ever happened), or insisting the euphemistic “Comfort Women” became sex slaves of their own volition, or denying atrocities committed against Allied prisoners of war, or arguing the Diaoyus have always belonged to the Japanese, or grand standing about reassessing the Murayama apology, or sending offerings to or visiting the Yasukuni Shrine, and the list goes on.
Indeed, everyone is waiting to hear what he intends to say on the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII.
My guess is he’ll utter the politically correct language, grudgingly acknowledge and uphold former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama’s 1995 apology, and swear on Japan’s unswerving commitment to peace and democracy. Then, he’ll go back home, lay low for a while, send expressions of respect to Yasukuni Jinja where the ashes of 14 convicted war criminals are buried, and in a couple years, amend the constitution to rid once and for all of Article 9, and when he needs to or the time is right (either due to pressure from the ultra-right or he wants to show the Chinese and Koreans that he can stand up to them) pay another visit with his cabinet colleagues to the shrine.
The Japanese right wing will NEVER truly atone for what the militarists did in WWII because they perceive themselves as victims who paid the ultimate price of suffering the atomic bomb. After all, Abe’s grandpop was intimately involved in the war-time policies. On a personal level, Abe is not going to offer any additional expression of apology that is tantamount to rejecting what his forefathers did during the war.
This Bloomberg article is right that Abe has to set the right tone in his speeches internationally. Otherwise, his diplomatic efforts in 2015 will backfire badly.