Making Opinion for 70th Anniversary

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe got started considering what kind of message would he deliver at the seventieth anniversary of ending the World War II on August 15^th this year. It will be Abe Statement, following Murayama Statement in the fiftieth commemoration and Koizumi Statement in the sixtieth. The world, namely South Korea and China, is focusing on what he will say. Abe does not show any idea to deal with those concerns, but is looking at internal response on his comment. It is natural that Abe Statement will be highly controversial.

News organizations reported that Abe began to select experts for personal consultative committee to discuss what kind of statement should he release in August. It is a typical method of bureaucrats to gather experts who will firmly endorse policy of the government. Those experts have a lot of meetings, conclude something supporting government and the government announces that its policy accepted broad and objective consent. In the decision of exercising collective self-defense right, Abe administration took the same process. It is obvious that new conference, which will be established in March, will endorse Abe’s controversial view on history.

As long as taking advantage of bureaucratic method of hearing “public opinion,” Abe’s effort will be limited in the realm of domestic politics. Firstly, he will choose preferable historians or political scientists for the committee. And secondly, he will only take positive conclusion of the committee and ignore negative opinion. There is no move to hear from foreign nations.

So, what will he say in the statement? The key word will be “future looking.” In a radio program in December, Abe said he wanted to say about reflection on past war, our progress in pre-war era and what kind of course Japan would proceed. He has been reiterating that Japan should see its history in future-looking way. But, the meaning of “future looking” for him is to ignore the past.

Murayama Statement in 1995 was based on serious reflection on what Japan did in the war. “During a certain period in the not too distant past, Japan, following a mistaken national policy, advanced along the road to war, only to ensnare the Japanese people in a fateful crisis, and, through its colonial rule and aggression, caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries, particularly to those of Asian nations,” it says. It also hopes that “no such mistake be made in the future.” This is how Murayama Statement looks to the future. Koizumi Statement followed that idea.

If Abe change the way how his predecessors looked to the history, there will be further resentment from neighbor nations. If he wanted to maintain moderate relationship with them, he needs to appeal to the world, not to his domestic supporters.