Japanese Official Expresses Pearl Harbor ‘Remorse’
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TOKYO — Japan’s foreign minister Tuesday expressed “deep remorse over the unbearable suffering and sorrow Japan inflicted” by its “reckless” decision 50 years ago this week to start a war with the United States.
In an interview, Foreign Minister Michio Watanabe said: “We feel a deep remorse about the unbearable suffering and sorrow Japan inflicted on the American people and the peoples of Asia and the Pacific during the Pacific War, a war that Japan started by the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.
“Japan waged war against the U.S. because of the reckless decision of our military,” he went on. “This is also a fact we have to reckon with.
“We can’t get over our deep sorrow,” Watanabe added.
Watanabe also said that American help and friendship since the war is “the foundation for Japan’s current prosperity.”
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