home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- <text id=91TT2771>
- <title>
- Dec. 16, 1991: World Notes:Japan
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1991
- Dec. 16, 1991 The Smile of Freedom
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- WORLD, Page 53
- World Notes
- JAPAN
- No Apology Necessary
- </hdr><body>
- <p> The immense wave of attention the U.S. has been devoting to
- the 50th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor has made Japan
- nervous. Using language more specific than usual, Foreign
- Minister Michio Watanabe told the Washington Post, "We feel a
- deep remorse about the unbearable suffering and sorrow Japan
- inflicted on the American people and the peoples of Asia."
- </p>
- <p> The surprise attack and the war in the Pacific, he added,
- resulted from "the reckless decision of our military." It was
- a particularly direct statement that went beyond the usual bland
- formula used by Japanese officials.
- </p>
- <p> Watanabe said his country is not seeking "any kind of
- apology" from the U.S. for dropping atom bombs on Hiroshima and
- Nagasaki. But his views were not shared by conservatives in his
- own ruling party. They blocked a resolution in the Diet that
- would have apologized for the war because they were offended by
- President Bush's statement that the U.S. has no reason to
- apologize for using the bombs.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-