Animosity Remains as Asia Marks War's End

Sixty years after Emperor Hirohito spoke in public for the first time to announce Japan's surrender, his son Emperor Akihito and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi both called for a future Japan that would live in peace.

"In the past, Japan, through its colonial rule and aggression, caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries, particularly to those of Asian nations," Koizumi told some 7,000 war bereaved and officials at a Tokyo ceremony. "Japan squarely faces these facts of history in a spirit of humility. I express here once again my feelings of deep remorse and heartfelt apology, and my feelings of profound mourning for all victims, both at home and abroad, of that war," he said.

But tens of thousands of people also paid their respects at the revered but controversial Yasukuni shrine, where top war criminals are honored among the war dead and which many other Asians see as a symbol of Japan's militarism.

Failing to face up to the past

Many in China and South Korea feel Japan has not faced up to its past. "Actions speak louder than words ... His words appeared faint and his sincerity is also in doubt," said an editorial in the China Daily, referring to Koizumi's past apologies.

But some Japanese also think the time to apologize is over and believe Tokyo should not cave in to Chinese criticism. The public is divided in its views of Yasukuni as well as on how to assess the war. 43 percent of respondents to a weekend survey by Mainichi newspaper said Japan's war against China and the United States was wrong, while 29 percent said it was unavoidable.

Fighting fascism

In its resistance to Japan, China became one of the four leading powers fighting fascism. Although its role in World War II is often underestimated in the West, the war in the Pacific broke out first and lasted the longest in China, according to several historians.

For the Chinese, World War II started on July 7, 1937, when Japanese troops seized control of the Marco Polo Bridge near Beijing after a heavy exchange of fire with the Chinese. This battle, in which Chinese soldiers for the first time resisted with military force the Japanese who had been long advancing through China, marks the beginning of World War II to the Chinese. They see World War II in the Pacific -- which the West defines as having been fought between Japan and the United States -- as a logical extension of the war between Japan and China.

In the West, too, historians occasionally cite the war as having started and ended in China, after eight -- instead of six -- years. But their opponents contend that this view risks minimizing Germany's guilt for having unleashed World War II.
China's pay-off

China, as Mao Zedong once said, was one of the largest countries among the anti-fascist alliance fighting the war through to its very end. Its involvement significantly strengthened China's position within the international community as indicated by its status as a founding member of the United Nations and a member of the UN Security Council with veto powers.

Had Hitler's Germany not surrendered on May 8, 1945, the war in the Pacific would have continued for months, according to a thesis posited in the West. It allowed the US to concentrate its energies on fighting Japan. Had Berlin not fallen to the Soviets, they might have been unable to declare war on the Japanese in August.

20 million dead

For some time, Chinese experts have complained that western history books underestimate or even fail to mention the important role that China played in World War II. The head of China's World War II research institute, Hu Dekun, reiterated this view on one of the biggest Chinese Internet portals, "Sohu," in July 2004.

Professor Hu reiterated that that the war broke out first and lasted the longest in China. He said it was "unfair" that Western historians didn't recognize China as one of the main battlefields of the war.