Japan's Emperor Akihito bowed deeply atop a cliff where his countrymen plunged to their deaths to avoid capture by US troops and -- for the first time -- paid his respects yesterday to the Koreans who died while fighting for the Japanese in World War II.
On the first trip by a Japanese monarch to a World War II battlesite overseas, Akihito and Empress Michiko visited several memorials on this tiny Pacific island honoring Japanese, Americans, local islanders, and for the first time, Koreans forced to serve in the name of his father, the late Emperor Hirohito.
The two-day royal visit comes amid growing anger in China and the Koreas over what many there see as Japan's failure to make amends for its brutal past.
PHOTO: AFP
Akihito's visit to the Korean war dead memorial could be seen as an attempt to ease those tensions, coming as it did after Koreans living in Saipan threatened to stage protests during his trip. The imperial couple was not initially scheduled to stop at the memorial, which some Koreans had considered a snub.
A senior palace official said the memorial visit had been approved days before the emperor left Japan but was kept secret from the media until the last minute because of concerns it might be "compromised."
Korea was made a Japanese colony in 1910, and 1,000 or so Koreans were brought to this island before the war as laborers.
Families of those South Koreans killed in the war welcomed Akihito's visit to the memorial, but said it should be backed up by serious reflection from officials in the Japanese government.
"Because he is a symbolic figure, if he apologized with a sincere heart, I think we can accept it," Kim Jay-gun, vice president of the Association for the Pacific War Victims, said of Akihito. "Following the emperor's action, the prime minister and other officials should also repent."
Not all Koreans on Saipan felt Akihito's decision to go to the memorial was enough, however.
"Japan has never really apologized," said Ryan Kim, a local tour guide. "There is more for Japan's emperor to do than go on tours like this."
The fall of Saipan was a turning point in the war in the Pacific. Its fall allowed US B-29 bombers to pound Japan's cities, and the neighboring island of Tinian was used as the launch point for the planes carrying the atomic weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in early August 1945.
As many as 55,000 Japanese troops and civilians died in the three-week "Operation Forager," which began on June 15, 1944.
Early yesterday, Akihito offered prayers at "Banzai Cliff," which owes its name to the shouts of banzai -- a cheer wishing long life to the emperor -- by Japanese who plunged to their deaths rather than face capture by US troops.
Before leaving yesterday evening, the royal couple also visited monuments to more than 5,000 Americans, about half of them Marines, and 1,000 or so islanders who were killed on Saipan or nearby islands.
Akihito has been to China and has expressed remorse for the past during visits to Japan by South Korean leaders.
But he has never made a trip to offer condolences at a battlefield overseas.
‘CROSSING THE LINE’: China’s embassy in Seoul criticized US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson, asking if his ‘hostile’ remarks were authorized by Washington South Korea and the US are in talks over recent public remarks by the commander of US Forces Korea, Seoul’s presidential office said yesterday, after the comments drew sharp criticism from China. In a recent podcast interview, US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson described South Korea as “the dagger in the heart of Asia” from China’s east coast, prompting the Chinese embassy in Seoul to say that he had “truly crossed the line.” The interview came amid growing speculation that Washington might seek to expand the role of US Forces Korea in countering the growing regional influence of China, a key
SEEKING ORDER: Rodrigo Paz said that ‘anyone who wants to destroy the nation will have to deal with this president and the full force of the constitution’ Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz on Wednesday said that the nation was at a “breaking point” after nearly a month of protests that have caused shortages of food, fuel and medicine. Paz, who took office six months ago amid the worst economic crisis there in four decades, is battling a groundswell of fury over his policies. The political capital, La Paz, has been besieged by low-income workers and members of the indigenous majority calling for his resignation. “The country needs order and is reaching breaking point,” the 58-year-old said at a public event in La Paz, renewing his appeal for dialogue. On Tuesday, the Bolivian
Through the noise of rushing papers and whirring belts at a print factory in Kyoto, two creators watch their photo essay come to life in broadsheet form — part of an effort to win new audiences in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the decline of the publishing industry, self-publication and handmade “zine” magazines are growing in popularity in Japan, reflecting the nation’s enduring love of paper in the digital era. While speaking to Agence France-Presse at the plant, his hands black with ink, one of the creators, Kazuma Obara, said: “I think [paper] is a medium that engages all five
Australian researchers have trained lab-grown brain cells on a silicon computer chip to play the 1990s shooter game Doom and said they are just scratching the surface of what the neurons could be capable of doing. It is the science-fiction work of biotech boffins at Cortical Labs, who researched and developed the technology that harnesses the workings of the brain’s networking system. Each so-called “biological computer” contains about 200,000 living human brain cells, grown from stem cells that were harvested from blood donations. Having mastered the simple computer game Pong, where a paddle is moved up and down to send a ball
RSS