Letter written in response to the article "Why the Austrians are the Japanese of Europe" in the Financial Times on 3 July 2000

By Mr. Koji Watanabe
Senior fellow, Japan Center for International Exchange (JCIE)

As one of many readers of the Financial Times in Japan, I was shocked and aggrieved by the headline appearing on July 3, "Why the Austrians are the Japanese of Europe" on an essay written by Dominique Moisi.

Dominique Moisi wrote in the middle of his article - in fact, that is the only reference to Japan in his essay, which may or may not have warranted the sensational headline - "Austria is the Japan of Europe, a nation unable to apologize publicly for the mistake of the past."

　My shock and sense of grievance is due to the fact that the statement is not only a very sweeping generation but also grossly misleading statement by ignoring facts.

　On August 15th of 1995, the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Pacific War, Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama made an official statement, "During a certain period in the not too distant past, Japan through its colonial rule and aggression caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries, particularly to those of Asian nations. In the hope that no such mistake be made in the future, I express here once again my feelings of deep remorse and state my heartfelt apology."

　On the occasion of President Kim Dae Jung's visit to Japan in October 1998, a visit that has proven to be a truly historic journey for reconciliation between Japan and Korea, the late Prime Minister Obuchi reaffirmed such an expression of remorse and apology for the damage and suffering to Korean people through Japan's colonial rule.

　It should perhaps also be pointed out that President Jiang Zemin of China made a state visit to Japan in November of the same year, and in his farewell message to the Emperor of Japan he stated, "China and Japan have reached a common recognition in reflecting and summing up historical experiences of both positive and negative sides of China - Japan relations and in building up a partnership of friendship and cooperation for peace and development looking towards the 21st century."

　These are important facts for us Japanese who believe we should seriously reflect and learn the negative lessons of its own history of the 1930s and 1940s. In fact that determination on our part never to repeat the tragic history has manifested itself in the very fact that Japan has been abiding by the famous Article 9 of the Constitution of 1947, which renounces the use of force to settle international disputes. To say Japan is not repentant of its mistakes in history is not only untrue but also missing the very basic tenet of Japanese foreign policy since the end of the Pacific War.

This article was written in response to "Article" by Mr. Dominique Moïsi