News Analysis: If children can learn to apologize, why can't Abe?

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is preparing to deliver a war statement on the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, said Wednesday that he will take advise from a special panel that he has handpicked on the contents of his globally-watched statement.

But while members from his own ruling Liberal Democratic Party, namely Yuichiro Koga, on Wednesday urged Abe to follow in the footsteps of Japan's 81st prime minister Tomiichi Murayama, who, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the war's end, offered what has become an internationally-accepted benchmark for Japan's apology for its wartime atrocities, and have implored the Japanese leader to heed the fact that Japan has"not yet fully verified its past,"Abe is still mulling his options.

This is worrying simply because when it comes to historical certainty; incontrovertible facts proven by the greatest minds in the world and accepted by the international-community after rigorous, unerring and scrupulous inquiry,"options" regarding how to interpret such events do not exist to any right-minded individual, let alone the leader of a nation.

Abe said Wednesday, with regards to this year's war statement, that he wants Japan's history to be judged from a global perspective and not have the focus solely put on Japan during a specific time period and was questioning whether there were"other choices"that could be considered and if his"experts"could examine" how various situations developed over time."

The point the prime minister seems to be deliberately ignoring is that the wartime statement is not concerned with any other point in history except for the duration during WWII when Japan utterly brutalized its neighbors. The rest of the world knows the details of this, the wheres, the whens and the whos, but it appears that Abe is intent on refuting this and revising Japan's official view to fit its delicate sensibilities and fragility when it comes to standing up, apologizing and saying you were wrong.

Even children are taught by their parents that admitting you are wrong and apologizing sincerely is character building. Children learn that there is far more strength in saying"sorry" than feigning innocence and hiding behind lies. They learn to own up to their mistakes and in doing so also learn that this is progress; a way of moving forward beyond mistakes and leaving them in the past having faced them squarely. Equally, children who have been wronged are taught that following an honest apology, it is the right thing to do to forgive and forget.

For Abe and his revisionist clique of likeminded ministers, lawmakers and bureaucrats, it's high time the severity of the situation is realized and all childish gamesmanship ceased, for the future good of the nation, stability in the region and reputation as a developed and self-described principled country. "Is it hardheadedness? Gamesmanship? Or, something far darker and more sinister that has Abe flip-flopping over Japan's wartime history? Personally, I think it's a mix of all three. Let's not forget that Abe's politics, particularly foreign diplomacy, is all about smoke and mirrors, or deception, for want of a better phrase, "Asian Affairs analyst Kaoru Imori told Xinhua. "And while the global media has been jumping on the bandwagon recently about Abe's nationalism and revisionist tendencies, let' s not pretend this is a new thing. Abe has been a staunch nationalist since he was a junior politician,"Imori said.

Imori went on to explain that in 1997 Abe served as the bureau chief of the "Institute of Junior Assembly Members Who Think About the Outlook of Japan and History Education," and was in charge of leading the "Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform," and said that, as such, it was no surprise that the ruling party has set about changing both historical and geographical facts in school textbooks in Japan and has recently tried to take their campaign overseas and try to rewrite U.S. textbooks too.

He added that persistent call from the international community for Japan to properly deal with its history, most recently from German leader Angela Merkel who said that Abe should take a leaf out of Germany's history in how to deal with its tainted wartime past, and to truly make amends with those victimized at its hands and work hard towards being reaccepted by the international community, may well fall on deaf ears.

Merkel said that Japan needed to settle the outstanding issue of its forcible conscription and coercion of sex slaves (or comfort women as they are euphemistically known) who were forced to work in military brothels and service the Japanese Imperial Army during the war.

German government spokesman Steffen Seibert was also unequivocal when he was asked his opinion on Abe's visit to Yasukuni Shrine and his seeming indifference to admitting Japan's culpability in the millions killed in WWII, which itself has been likened to an"Asian Holocaust"by scholars. "All nations must honestly live up to their role in the horrible events of the 20th century. Only on the basis of this honest accounting is it possible to build a future with former foes. This is a conviction Germany takes to heart and which in my opinion applies to all states,"Seibert, the head of Germany's press-and information-agency, said to Abe, following his ill-advised visit in 2013 to the shrine which honors war criminals. "Abe's driven by his legacy. There have been so many forgettable prime ministers in Japan in recent history and Abe, ironically, is making certain that his time as the nation's leader isn't whitewashed over in future history books and advise from Merkel and reprimands from Washington for visiting Yasukuni will not faze Abe, as for him, his mind on a number of pertinent issues is already made up,"Imori said.

Imori was referring to Abe's first stint as prime minister between 2006-2007, when Abe himself said there was"no proof"of coercion regarding the forced conscription of comfort women during the war and his deputy chief cabinet secretary at the time, Hakubun Shimomura, also said is was possible the Japanese Army was "not involved."

Abe has since tried to dabble with the landmark Kono Statement which admits Japan's culpability and forcible conscription of comfort women and while the statement was not eventually altered as the prime minister intended, he let it be known that he disagreed with some of the findings that led to the statement's original compilation. The same negation by Abe is currently being seen with the Murayama Statement.

As for the wording of the statement itself and the future direction of Japan, David McLellan, a professor emeritus of postgraduate Asian Studies, told Xinhua that the words themselves would bear no meaning and Abe's course for the country has already been set, stating that the reasons why had been completely missed, or otherwise underreported by the international media. "To use another analogy, if a child lies and says"sorry"but doesn't mean it, then the apology carries no weight, it's useless. Words are just words, so in that regard what Abe says or doesn't say in his war statement is, to an extent, irrelevant," McLellan proffered. "Let's not forget the backdrop to Abe and everything that has been going on,"he continued."As I've mentioned before, Abe wants to see Japan returned to an ultra-conservatist society that rejects individual liberties, such as women's rights, and is led, once again, by Shintoism. Abe and the majority of his Cabinet belong to Nippon Kaigi, an organization which is an ultranationalistic nonparty entity with around 300,000 members who all believe in praising the Imperial family (The Emperor), changing the pacifist Constitution, promoting nationalistic education in schools and supporting parliamentarians'visits to Yasukuni Shrine,"he said. "Nippon Kaigi is the biggest right-wing organization in Japan and Abe has cherry picked his Cabinet members from this group to run the country. These Shinto conservatives believe that Japan should not apologize for its wartime acts of brutality despite the legitimacy of proven historical events, such as the travesty inflicted on Nanjing in China during WWII and the Imperial Forces' forcible use of comfort women," McLellan reiterated. "With this in mind, what makes anyone think that Abe is suddenly going to pull a U-turn, say sorry and make everything better with his neighbors? He is a hardcore nationalist, with a hardcore revisionist agenda. There's no mystery here. These are the facts," McLellan concluded. Endi