(Recast) Feature: Japanese appeal for future peace on 70th anniversary of WWII surrender amid ultra-right "freak show"

Seventy years have passed since Japan's unconditional surrender at the end of World War II and as in previous years, the Japanese government held an annual memorial service Saturday at the Nippon Budokan Hall in central Tokyo to honor the war dead and pray for peace.

The royal couple, both in their 80s, attended the ceremony, where Emperor Akihito expressed his "deep remorse" over the past war for the first time.

"Reflecting on our past and bearing in mind the feelings of deep remorse for last war, I earnestly hope that the ravages of war will never be repeated," 81-year-old Akihito told some 5,300 people at the ceremony, and millions of TV viewers around the nation.

As the clock struck noon, all of those attendees offered silent prayers to the war dead for the repose of their souls. A sense of somberness shrouded the hall, which was replete with yellow and white flowers.

However, in the adjacent Yasukuni Shrine, the atmosphere was completely weird. The notorious symbol of Japan's past militarism, which enshrined 14 Class-A convicted war criminals from WWII, turned into a freak show of Japan's unrepentant right-wing extremists.

In the morning, three female ministers of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet paid homage to the controversial shrine, as Abe himself sent a ritual offering as leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

Outside the shrine, Japanese right-wing nationalist groups' vans paraded and broadcast old military songs of the Imperial Japanese Army. Some far right-wingers even wore old military uniforms and waved sharp katana swords while shouting nationalist slogans.

The public cannot see any reflection from those people on Japan 's defeat and the "immeasurable damage and suffering" it brought to its neighbors. On the contrary, it seemed like that those right- wingers were trying to stir up nationalist sentiments and revive the country's militarism, which risks dragging Japan into war again.

The rightists might have been emboldened by Abe's statement released on Friday. In the closely-watched statement, the revisionist premier, also a hawkish nationalist, reiterated previous governments' apologies over Japan's past wartime actions, but refrained from offering a fresh apology himself.

He also argued that Japan's future generations must not "be predestined to apologize."

Abe's rhetoric twists might have pleased his right-wing base, but failed to win trust from the peace-loving people. Both Japan's neighboring countries and the Japanese public found the content of his statement "deceptive" and "lacking sincerity."

At Saturday's memorial service, Abe also shied away from expressing remorse for the suffering Japan had inflicted on the people of many countries before and during WWII, contrary to what Japanese premiers had done at the annual event since 1994. He did not pledge that Japan would never go to war again as he did in the two previous ceremonies.

Many veterans or families of the war dead who participated in this year's memorial service objected to Abe's ambiguous attitude toward Japan's wartime past. A 78-year-old female from Nagasaki who brought her grandson to the ceremony, told reporters: "It's regrettable. We have expected he (Abe) could make a clear commitment to never wage a war again."

She mentioned the security bills which are under deliberation in the Diet, saying they could make the country being entangled in war again. "Japanese people desire lasting peace but the government is confusing us," she said.

Referring to Abe's 70th anniversary statement, Shigenori Nishikawa, 87, who heads the peaceful War-Bereaved Families Association, stressed: "If the prime minister is sincere, he should retract the controversial security bills."

"We should be vigilant to the risks of war. Once war breaks out again, it's already too late. You will never expect the country to be involved in war again once you have known the taste of death," said 72-year old Matsumoto, who lost his father in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in August 1945. Endi