August 31
1994 Japan's Prime Minister MURAYAMA Tomiichi 村山富市 expressed "profound remorse" for Japan's acts of aggression in World War II. The statement was issued on August 31, 1994 and can be found on the Japanese Foreign Ministry website. Murayama had been in office only a couple months and was the first Socialist prime minister of Japan since just after World War II. He resigned in early 1996.
Murayama's comments included the following:
"Japan's actions in a certain period of the past not only claimed numerous victims here in Japan but also left the peoples of neighboring Asia and elsewhere with scars that are painful even today. I am thus taking this opportunity to state my belief, based on my profound remorse for these acts of aggression, colonial rule, and the like caused such unbearable suffering and sorrow for so many people, that Japan's future path should be one of making every effort to build world peace in line with my no-war commitment.
"It is imperative for us Japanese to look squarely to our history with the peoples of neighboring Asia and elsewhere. Only with solid basis of mutual understanding and confidence that can be build through overcoming the pain on both sides, can we and the peoples of neighboring countries together clear up the future of Asia-Pacific."
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