Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has indicated that he does not plan to repeat the keywords used in the 1995 statement by then Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama to mark the 50th year since the end of World War II when he issues a new statement this summer to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the war's end. "Now that I have said that I inherit the basic way of thinking (contained in the past statements by prime ministers on war anniversaries), I do not need to write them again," Abe said in a TV program aired Monday. He also said he would not need to issue a new statement if he was merely going to repeat the words of his predecessors — that he might as well just copy those texts and add his name.
But if Abe says that he does indeed honor the thinking behind the past statements, why is he reluctant to repeat the keywords — in particular the core elements of the earlier statements that relate to the government's perception of Japan's prewar and wartime actions? Contrary to what he says, his remarks only seem to fuel skepticism that he in fact questions the thinking behind the past prime ministers' statements.
Twenty years ago, Murayama expressed his "heartfelt apology" to people in Asian countries over Japan's "colonial rule and aggression" before and during WWII. Such words were essentially repeated a decade later when Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi issued a statement to mark the 60th anniversary of the war's ending. What Abe will say in his upcoming statement has been a subject of political speculation since he said earlier this year that he wants to avoid "nitpicking" about what words were omitted or newly inserted compared with the past war-anniversary statements.