Kishida vows to push rules-based order as Japan’s defense chief visits Yasukuni 79 years after WWII

Japanese PM Kishida vows to defend international order, omits apology for wartime atrocities, sparking criticism from Asian neighbors.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida vowed to step up his country’s effort to defend a rules-based international order in a peace pledge made Thursday (August 15, 2024) on the 79th anniversary of Japan's defeat in World War II.

“We will never again repeat the tragedy of war” and will stick to the country’s postwar pacifist resolve, he said at a solemn ceremony at the Budokan hall.

“In the world where tragic battles have persisted, Japan will continue its effort to maintain and strengthen the rules-based, free and open international order” and endeavor to resolve difficult global issues,” Mr. Kishida said.

Mr. Kishida noted the more than 3 million Japanese killed, the destruction and the lives lost from bloody ground battles on Japan's southern island of Okinawa, fire-bombings across Japan, and the atomic attacks on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. He did not mention or apologize for Japanese aggression across Asia or millions of lives lost there.

The omission follows a precedent set by then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in his speech in 2013, a move critics call a whitewashing of Japan’s wartime atrocities.

Earlier Thursday (August 15, 2024), three of Kishida's ministers, including Defense Minister Minoru Kihara, prayed at the Yasukuni Shrine — seen by Asian neighbors as a symbol of militarism.

The controversial shrine honours convicted war criminals among about 2.5 million war dead. Victims of Japanese aggression, especially China and the Koreas, see visits to the shrine as a lack of remorse, and visits by defence officials are considered especially controversial.