On Aug. 15, the 72nd anniversary of the Japanese surrender, there was a symposium in Tokyo about changing the Constitution. One of the panelists, documentarian Tatsuya Mori, pointed out that earlier that day Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had given remarks at an annual memorial event, and at no point did he mention or "apologize to" the Asian victims of World War II. All prime ministers have referred in one way or another to the victims of Japanese aggression when they made the memorial speech, even Abe in his first term. But Abe has not done so in his second term. Mori thinks this omission is indicative of something larger.
"My students asked if war wasn't inextricable from human existence," he elaborated, adding that he didn't think so himself.
It's a sentiment that was supported by interviews NHK conducted on the streets of Tokyo and broadcast on a May installment of its in-depth news show, "Closeup Gendai." The question was whether Okinawa was taking on a disproportionate amount of the burden for Japan's security by hosting about 70 percent of the U.S. military bases in Japan. The general opinion was represented by a woman who said, "If you think about Japan's safety, we have to ask (Okinawa) to host the bases."