Abe Pledges “Deep Remorse” for World War II, Koreans Want Apology Again

Here we go again with arguing over remorse and apologies by Japan in the Korean media:

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has expressed Japan’s “deep remorse” over World War II, but did not issue a fresh apology to the people of Asia.

Abe delivered a speech on Wednesday on the first day of the two-day Asian-African summit in Indonesia marking the 60th anniversary of the Bandung Conference.

Referring to the principles of peace laid down at the original conference, Abe said in his speech that “With feelings of deep remorse over the past war, Japan made a pledge to remain a nation always adhering to those very principles.”

However, Abe did not offer an apology to the people of Asian countries who suffered under Japan’s colonial rule and aggression.  [KBS World]

Well at least KBS didn’t make a claim about Japanese never apologizing for their past World War II actions.  Instead they are upset their wasn’t a fresh apology.  This is actually progress.  I think Abe is just playing to the sentiment of the Japanese public now that is probably hit apology fatigue with all the demands for more apologies after their government has already made a number of apologies. Really the only thing that would make the critics in Korea happy is if a wrecking ball took out the Yasukuni Shrine, Japanese textbooks were burned (even if the information is accurate), and Abe commits seppuku on top of Namsan. Since that isn’t going to happen we will be hearing about this for years to come.