War Commemoration Speech of Kishida

The day after announcing his standing down as the president of Liberal Democratic Party, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida attended a ceremony for commemorating victims of the Second World War and gave a speech to maintain Japan as a peaceful state. In his speech, Kishida did not refer to controversial issues such as responsibility of Japan for neighbor countries in the time of war. A lame duck prime minister began to spend days without ambitious agenda.

Kishida was the sponsor of 79th National Memorial Ceremony for the War Dead, held with attendance of the Emperor Naruhito at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo on August 15. It is was the day Emperor Hirohito of Showa announced surrender to the United Nations in 1945, which is remembered by most Japanese citizens as the day of ending the war.

 

“Here, before the souls of all who lost their lives, I offer my heartfelt prayers for their repose,” said Kishida in his speech, remembering many people victimized to atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and ground battles in Okinawa.

 

“We will not forget, even for a moment, that the peace and prosperity that Japan enjoys today was built atop the precious lives and the history of suffering of the war dead. I express my deepest respect and gratitude once more,” said Kishida. Admiring the war dead has been a routine of the prime ministers, including conservative ones such as Shinzo Abe, in the speech of August 15.

 

Since Morihiro Hosokawa referred to in 1993, former prime ministers expressed their regret on Japan’s responsibility for damages in neighbor countries. They used words such as “deep regret” or “condolences” to express Japan’s apology toward Asian nations.  Abe ended that in 2013 and Abe’s successors including Kishida followed.

 

“Japan has consistently walked the path of a peace-loving nation. Taking the lessons of history deeply into our hearts, we have made all possible efforts for world peace and prosperity,” said Kishida. Kishida’s attitude of following conservative agenda of Abe is regarded as his political tendency to keep support from the conservative lawmakers in the LDP.

 

Kishida has been emphasizing his stance for peace as a lawmaker elected from Hiroshima. But he often gave in conservative claims which require revision of peaceful principles such as exclusively defensive security policy, as seen in introducing striking capability for striking enemy’s base. Kishida explained the contradiction between pacifism and conservatism as “political realism.”

 

It is recognized that pacifism in Japan is more represented by the Emperor than by the prime minister. “Memorizing long and peaceful years in post-war period, I sincerely hope the devastation of war never to be repeated, based on remembrance of the past and deep regret,” said Naruhito. Kishida’s realism brought strange difference between the political leader and the symbol of state of Japan.

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