AN apology and compensation for Filipino comfort women are not part of the agenda of the five-day state visit of Japanese Emperor Akihito in the Philippines, his press secretary, Hatsuhisa Takashima, said Wednesday.
Takashima, however, said Japan may “respond positively” on the issue if it becomes a political one through legislation or a court order.
“There was no discussion on that between the Japanese government and the Emperor before he left Tokyo for the Philippines. I understand there are no ongoing negotiations [between the Philippine and Japanese governments], and this is a government issue and the Emperor is not involved,” he said.
“If the situation in the Philippines requires more that what has already been done, if it becomes a political issue through parliament or court, then Japan would respond positively,” Takashima said.
The few remaining comfort women, members of Lila Pilipina, trooped to Mendiola Wednesday to make a public appeal for Akihito to “right the historical wrong” committed by his father, who was chief of Japan’s military during World War II.
“Emperor Akihito inherited the throne and together with it the responsibility and accountability. His father, Hirohito did wrong during World War II, and now he must do his part to right the wrong,” said Rechilda Extremadura, executive director of Lila Pilipina.
Extremadura said that while Akihito’s visit to a Japanese memorial garden in Caliraya was noble, he can do more by pushing for proper compensation for Filipino comfort women.
“The comfort women are living proof of Japanese wartime abuse. While it is noble to visit and honor the dead, it is nobler to honor the living by giving them the justice which eluded them for more than 70 years,” she said.
“He can urge the Diet and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to enter into an agreement with the Philippine government just as he did with Korea on the plight of comfort women,” Extremadura added.
Takashima said the 82-year-old Akihito brings with him the message of “eternal peace—reminding young Japanese people to never forget the “suffering of the Filipino people” under the Imperial army during the war.
“The Japanese people must always remember what we have done, the heavy damage we have inflicted. The atrocities committed by the Japanese people during the war is a thing which should not be repeated again. He has a very strong feeling toward war,” Takashima said.
The leftist Bagong Alyansang Makabayan said Filipino comfort women must be given true and complete justice.
“Beyond the Aquino government’s adulation for the imperial couple is the sad reality that the Filipino comfort women are dying without realizing justice. This is an outstanding issue from the Japanese occupation that has yet to be satisfactorily addressed by the Japanese government,” Renato Reyes, Bayan secretary-general said.
“More than Emperor Akihito’s vague pronouncements of remorse, the victims of Japanese imperialism demand full recognition of and complete apology for the atrocities committed, just compensation for the victims, as well as the inclusion of this dark chapter of our history in school textbooks so that the people will never forget,” he added.
Up to 200,000 women in Asia, many of them South Koreans but also from China, the Philippines and what is now Indonesia, are estimated to have been forced to provide sex to Japanese soldiers during World War II.
Only 70 known Filipina victims are still alive, according to women’s group Lila Pilipina.
Japanese leaders and senior officials have over the decades offered apologies and compensation money to the Filipina victims, albeit deliberately sourced from the private sector rather than the government.
Akihito was scheduled to visit a cemetery for tens of thousands of Filipino World War II dead, as he uses a historic visit to the Philippines to promote his pacifist agenda.
The soft-smiling Akihito, 82, and his wife, Empress Michiko, are on a five-day trip to the Philippines to celebrate 60 years of diplomatic ties, but also to honor those who died during Japan’s brutal occupation of the Philippines.
“In the Philippines, many lives of Filipinos, Americans and Japanese were lost during the war,” Akihito said before arriving on Tuesday.
Akihito specifically noted the battle for the liberation of Manila in 1945, where an estimated 100,000 people were killed.
“We’d like to conduct our visit by always keeping this in mind,” said Akihito, who offered a slight bow as soon as he alighted from his plane at Manila airport.
Akihito’s visit is the first by a Japanese emperor to the Philippines and comes as the two countries fortify economic and defense ties, partly in an effort to counter China’s increasingly assertive actions in disputed regional waters.
He officially launched his visit on Wednesday morning with a red-carpet welcome ceremony at the presidential palace hosted by President Benigno Aquino III.
In the afternoon, he was due to visit the sprawling Libingan ng mga Bayani in Manila, which was built in 1947 to honor Filipino soldiers who died during World War II.
An estimated 100,000 people died during the month-long campaign to liberate Manila in 1945, which saw aerial bombings and gunfire flatten the city.
Tens of thousands also died in an excruciating 100-kilometer Death March from Bataan province to Japanese concentration camps.
The other key symbolic event on Akihito’s agenda will be a visit on Friday to a shrine for Japanese casualties of the war in Caliraya, a lake resort village about three hours’ drive south of Manila. With John Paolo Bencito, Sandy Araneta, and AFP
Akihito has previously journeyed to other Pacific battle sites where Japanese troops and civilians made desperate last stands in the name of his father, Hirohito.
Akihito’s remorse over the war helps to improve Japan’s international image, counter-balancing his government’s more nationalist bent, according to Manila-based political analyst Richard Javad Heydarian.
“The emperor will serve as the apologetic, sincere face of Japan… it will balance out his government’s controversial, pugnacious and seemingly revisionist statements,” he said.
Conservative Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe angered China and South Korea when he marked the 70th anniversary of Japan’s surrender last year by saying that future generations should not apologize for the war.
Abe is also looking to revise Japan’s war-renouncing “peace constitution”, which he sees as an embarrassing remnant of its WWII defeat and occupation by the United States.
But while his nationalistic push has caused friction with many of Japan’s neighbors, the Philippines has taken a softer stance with its biggest donor of development aid and top trading partner.
On the 70th anniversary of Japan’s surrender, Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario said Japan had “acted with compassion” since the war, which led to the two nations rebuilding a “strong friendship.” With John Paolo Bencito, Sandy Araneta, and AFP
