Abe has chance either to accelerate rapprochement with neighbors or to halt it: analyst

On the planned war anniversary statement by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a British analyst said in an editorial Tuesday that the prime minister "has a chance either to accelerate rapprochement with neighbors" using this occasion or "to bring it to a halt."

Bill Emmott, a former editor-in-chief of the Economist, said in an essay titled "Shinzo Abe's pivot to Asia" that "given his (Abe) rightist pedigree and revisionist views about Japan's wartime history, the region is bracing itself for a new bout of diplomatic turbulence surrounding his address," noting ties between Japan and its close neighbors of China and South Korea have improved slowly.

Emmott suggested the hawkish leader that he can bring different outcomes within his power by delivering the statement aimed at marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II and noted that Japan developed smooth relations with the neighbors in the 1960s and 1970s.

"During the 1960s and 1970s, after Japan's economy had recovered, the country dealt with its wartime history in large part by becoming a generous donor of overseas aid throughout Asia, including China. Abe should place this type of generosity of spirit and action at the center of his speech," the analyst said in the article carried on the Japan Times.

He went on to say that "the power of generosity can be disarming. In 2007, I visited the 'Museum of the War of Chinese People's Resistance against Japanese Aggression,' an institution whose name reflects the sentiment expressed by the bulk of its exhibits. So it was a pleasant surprise to see that the last exhibit on display was a wall of items acknowledging Japan's aid and investment in China in recent decades."

Currently, Japan announced to invest about 110 billion U.S. dollars to help infrastructure development in Asia, but Emmott questioned the timing as Japan and the United States refused to join a China-proposed multilateral developmental bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

"That stance has left both countries isolated and looking somewhat churlish. For Japan, it has had the additional effect of making its investment announcement look like a tit-for-tat response to the AIIB, even to the extent of topping the bank's initial capitalization of $100 billion," he criticized.

On history issues which are a major obstacle for Japan to mend ties with its neighbors, Emmott also suggested Abe should express his deep repentance to the Asian victim countries of Japan's wartime brutal aggression, rather than only offering "eternal condolences" to the United States.

"In August, Abe should reiterate -- and go beyond -- his predecessors' statements. Words similar to those he used to address the subject of America's war dead would demonstrate that Japan does not intend to rewrite history, and that Abe feels repentant toward not only its U.S. ally, but also its neighbors in Asia," said Emmott.

Abe reiterated that he will not use the key wordings of " heartfelt apology" and "aggression and colonial rule" expressed in the previous statements issued in 1995 by then Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama and in 2005 by the Koizumi administration. Endi