Coded rebuke as Japan’s crown prince says: Remember war ‘correctly’

At a news conference on February 23rd, Naruhito stated, “I myself did not experience the war… but I think that it is important today, when memories of the war are fading, to look back humbly on the past and correctly pass on the tragic experiences and history Japan pursued from the generation which experienced the war to those without direct knowledge.”

His remarks might seem unobjectionable, but in the oblique and abstract lexicon of the Imperial Household Agency, he has fired shots across the bow of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his fellow revisionists.

Diplomatic silence broken

The Imperial Household almost never strays into political affairs due to constitutional constraints, but Emperor Akihito has on occasion stretched his tether to its limits, and when he has done so it has always been to repudiate right-wingers who prefer to think they are acting in his name.

It appears that his son is letting it be known that the Imperial Household remains steadfast on the issue of war responsibility, following up his father’s similar rebuke at the beginning of January.

Since the 1995 Murayama Statement commemorating the 50th anniversary of WWII’s end, all Japanese leaders have dutifully repeated then-Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama’s heartfelt apology and expression of remorse. This statement has thus become a benchmark against which the Abe Statement will be judged.

Murayama, 89, recently reassured South Korean leaders that Abe would uphold his statement, but doubts linger because Abe has been evasive and waffling about what he plans to say. He has said he will generally uphold the statement, but this provides room for caveats and ellipses.

It is precisely his disputing of the historical details that lands Abe in hot water as he questions what the term aggression means, quibbles about the level of coercion used in recruiting comfort women and in January expressed outrage about what he deems inaccurate accounts of the comfort women in a U.S. history textbook.

The Imperial Household understands that Abe risks undermining Japan’s dignity and isolating it from neighbors and allies. By expressing their concerns about war memory, both royals seek to steer Japan back onto the course of reconciliation and a brighter future.

In doing so they provide political cover for Abe to disappoint his jingoistic supporters and make the right call on the past.

CNN