TOKYO—Japan’s ageing Emperor Akihito travels to the Philippines this week to visit World War II memorials, his latest pacifist pilgrimage which appears increasingly at odds with the government’s rightward drift.
Akihito, 82, has made honoring Japanese and non-Japanese who died in the conflict a touchstone of his near three-decade reign—known as Heisei, or “achieving peace”—and now in its twilight.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, meanwhile, wants to revise Japan’s war-renouncing “peace constitution,” seeing it as an embarrassing remnant of its WWII defeat and occupation by the United States.
In the Philippines, which saw some of the war’s fiercest fighting, Akihito and Empress Michiko will visit the Libingan ng mga Bayani and a memorial for Japanese war dead during a five-day visit starting Tuesday.
“The emperor has been very consistent with the fact that Japan is apologetic about their aggression,” said Richard Javad Heydarian, a political science professor at De La Salle University in Manila.
Such contrition, decades of Japanese economic aid and the Philippines’ search for allies in a maritime dispute with increasingly powerful China have made Abe’s nationalist lurch – which includes strengthening his military—palatable in Manila.
“We in the Philippines are OK with Japan becoming a normal power,” Heydarian said.
Akihito is strictly limited to “symbol of the state” under Japan’s constitution imposed by Washington, which aimed to prevent any return to the militarism in the early reign of his father, Hirohito.
Despite constitutional restraints, the soft-spoken Akihito, 11 years old when the war ended in the nuclear obliteration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, is still seen as getting his point across about the importance of cherishing Japan’s postwar peace.
President Benigno Aquino III will lead the Filipino government and people in welcoming Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko as they commence their visit to the Philippines.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and the Philippines.
President Aquino has acknowledged that in Japan and its people “we have found steadfast partners and friends in the truest sense of the word” as manifested by its being the largest contributor of official development assistance to the Philippines, said Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr.
Japan is also one of the leading international advocates of the peace process in Mindanao.
“On a personal note, the President recalls that when he accompanied his mother, then President Aquino, during her visit to Japan in 1986, Emperor Akihito’s father, the late Emperor ShÅwa, even conversed with him and advised him to take care of his parents,” said Coloma.
Meanwhile, as the country prepares for the visit, the group Lila Pilipina expressed hope that President Aquino will bring up the issue of Filipino “comfort women” who were made sex slaves by Japanese soldiers.
Lila Filipina has asked from the Japanese government for just compensation, recognition that sex slavery occurred during World War II and a public apology.
Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, a senatorial candidate, appealed to President Benigno Aquino III to raise the issue of justice and compensation for the surviving Filipino comfort women, after Japan apologized and compensated South Korean comfort women with $8.3 million.
He said the President must bring up the concerns of Lila Pilipina and ask that Japan apologize and provide them with just compensation.
“It is the duty of the government to address the long-standing issue of the Filipino comfort women. If Japan was able to reach an agreement with the South Korean government, why can’t we? The government of Japan should take the same measures for our Filipino comfort women,” said Romualdez, head of the House independent bloc and president of the Philippine Constitution Association.
According to Romualdez, only 32 Filipino comfort women survive out of the original 90 that were recorded.
“The President should realize the importance of this meeting because it would be the first and only chance that he could have as the leader. He could directly bring the cause of our comfort women before Emperor Akihito,” he added.
