Japan’s emperor expresses ‘deep remorse’ over WWII

Some believe he opposes prime minister’s policies.

— Emperor Akihito, TOKYO whose father announced his exhausted country’s surrender inWorldWar II, expressed “deep remorse” for the conflict Saturday at a memorial service on the 70th anniversary of the war’s end.

The words were not new for the emperor: He has often spoken of remorse over the war, and he has done so increasingly in recent years, in meetings with foreign leaders.

But they were an unfamiliar addition to the short and highly ritualized statement he delivers each year at the memorial ceremony on Aug. 15. In a year of controversies in Japan over memories of the war and the role of the country’s modern military, they could reinforce a belief among some observers that Akihito is taking a quiet stand against the policies of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The emperor’s statement came a day after Abe, a conservative nationalist, made his own keenly awaited remarks about the war, in which he endorsed past expressions of contrition by Japanese leaders — including the same “deep remorse” — but chose not to make a new apology of his own.

Akihito, 81, is a figurehead with no role in government, though he is personally popular. His words on Saturday suggested that he was expressing a general, national sense of regret asmuch as expressing his own.

“Reflecting on our past and bearing in mind the feelings of deep remorse over the last war, I earnestly hope that the ravages of war will never be repeated,” he said at the ceremony.

The addition of the word “remorse” nonetheless attracted notice, as did another new turn of phrase, in which he spoke of the Japanese people’s “earnest desire for the continuation of peace.”

“Since the start of the Abe administration, there has been a more noticeable political message in the words and actions of the emperor and empress,” said Takashi Hara, an expert on the imperial family atMeiji Gakuin University. “I think the emperor is critical of Abe.”