"For the prime minister to apologize would be a distortion of history, because Japan's view of history is still strongly influenced by the outcome of the Tokyo war trials, that Japan was the aggressor and in the wrong." Hiromichi Moteki, acting chairman of the Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact, said Abe's comments had been "appropriate" and that he was "relieved" the prime minister had gone no further. There are some on the most conservative fragments of Japanese society who expressed relief at the contents of Abe's speech, saying they had been concerned that he might use the occasion to apologize. "Perhaps these two addresses have gone a long way to cauterizing the wounds, even if the scars remain."Ībe is the first Japanese prime minister to visit the USS Arizona Memorial "For some people, what happened will never be over, but it will not be too long before they are gone and nobody will have first-hand memories," said Okumura. The overwhelming sense is that the Japanese leader would very much like the two visits to mark the end of an era in which, in his opinion, too much time was spent looking back on history and too little time invested in building on a relationship that is critically important to the shared security and economic futures of the two nations. "But for people who are not interested in continuing the recriminations but are instead interested in the future of the Japan-US alliance, Abe gave them what they wanted." "And I am sure that there are some in the US who will be offended that he did not offer an outright apology for what happened in 1941, in just the same way that there were some in Japan who were angry that Obama did not apologize when he visited Hiroshima," he said. "And in that sense, Abe never said anything that he didn't believe it." (sic) "There are condolences and expressions of hopes for a better future and vows to cement the security relationship still further," he told DW. "Essentially, Abe has followed the lead from his address to the US Congress in May of last year and then President Obama's speech in Hiroshima in May this year," said Jun Okumura, a visiting scholar at the Meiji Institute for Global Affairs. Since the war, the two countries became close allies in a partnership that strengthened during Obama's leadership
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