Veterans urge Abe to admit mistakes

For those Japanese who experienced Japan's aggressive war against China and other Asian countries seven decades ago, time is ticking away, pressing them harder than ever to tell the young about the bitter past.

"The memory of war is very superficial in the Japanese society as those who experienced the war are fading away. Much depends on the society and the country to have a correct education on history to make the younger generation maintain a proper historical perception," said Nobuo Iwamoto, 85.

Iwamoto was forced by the Japanese Imperial Army to work at an industrial school in the puppet state of Manchu in 1945.

"The war Japan waged was an aggressive war, which is why we were in China. But the term 'aggression' is deleted from our textbooks because of the government's policies," Iwamoto said. "We have to convey the truth to the next generation. Textbooks should have the expression that 'Japan waged aggressive war in the past.'"

Takeshi Hashimura, 83, went to China in 1943 and was a student in the so-called Manchu State. He stayed in China until 1953 and helped China complete the railway linking Tianshui and Lanzhou in Gansu province.

His wartime experiences make him feel disgusted with Abe's right-wing politics and historical revisionism.

"Japan should learn from Germany. Germany conducted a thorough reflection of its history and then reconciled with France and other neighbors," he said. "What Japan is doing right now is regrettable."

Hisao Shintaku, who was born in 1935 in Changchun, the then-"capital" of the Manchu State, left China at the age of 17 and sees China as his second home.

"Abe was born in the postwar time and has never tasted the bitterness of war. He, however, inherits his grandfather Nobusuke Kishi's wrong historical perception that denies aggression and the ruling of the Tokyo Tribunal," Shintaku said.

"Such a wrong perception influences some young people."

The three men hoped that Abe could uphold the Murayama Statement, released by then-prime minister Tomiichi Murayama on Aug 15, 1995, in which he apologized for the damage and suffering caused by Japan to its Asian neighbors, in his new war anniversary statement scheduled this summer.