Former Japanese PM says genuine apologies should be said to victims

DURING A JULY INTERVIEW, broadcast at a forum in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province on Sunday, former Japanese prime minister Yukio Hatoyama said, "as descendants we must apologize to the victims of the war, for so many innocent people were deprived of their lives by the Japanese troops, and we should directly express our genuine apologies". Comments:

As of now, three major questions in regard to Japan's development remain unanswered: Are the country's efforts to get rid of the "postwar system" based on denying its postwar pacifist development? How is it going to become a "normal state" while seeking military development? Will the government continue with its conservatism, historical revisionism and nationalism? It is foreseeable that the international community will have a lot to deal with given that Japan is yet to adopt the right historical perspective.

Li Wei, director of the Institute of Japan Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Aug 11