Japanese Emperor Akihito and his wife, Empress Michiko, received an official welcome from Singapore's president yesterday on the second day of their visit to the city-state.
President S. R. Nathan greeted the royal couple on the wide porch of the presidential palace after a heavy downpour forced them from the lawn where the welcome ceremony was to have been held.
A military honor guard, in white uniforms with red hats, stood at attention nearby while a band played the Japanese and Singapore national anthems. Many government officials and ambassadors were in attendance.
A state banquet was planned in honor of the emperor and empress yesterday evening.
The Japanese couple are on a Southeast Asian tour meant to improve ties with Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.
Their visit to Singapore marks the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the countries. Though Singapore and Tokyo now have strong economic and diplomatic ties, the country was among Asian lands overrun by Japan in the first half of the 20th century. Japanese troops killed as many as 100,000 ethnic Chinese in Singapore.
The emperor and empress had previously visited Singapore in 1970 and 1981, when they were crown prince and princess.
Today they will visit Malaysia for a day before going to Thailand at the invitation of King Bhumipol Adulyadej to attend celebrations for the 60th anniversary of his coronation.
On Tuesday, Akihito called on Japan to remember the damage and pain its militarist past caused to its own people and Asian neighbors. He expressed concerns about fading knowledge of the past among Japanese born after the war, and said he hoped experts would come up with education guidelines to help the young respect other nations as well as their own.
Japanese troops used Thai territory to invade Myanmar -- then called Burma -- and Malaysia.
RSS