Response to:

The occasion: a government sponsored ceremony at the Budokan in Tokyo to mark the 53rd anniversary of the endof the war, attended by the Emperor Heiwa and the Empress.

"The war brought tremendous agony and sorrow to our neighbors in Asia."
This type of mention has become a tradition since Hosokawa Morihiro. did so in 1993.

"It is our duty to convey the misery of the war and the sacrifices of precious lives to future generations and to establish eternal peace," Obuchi said.' speaking on a stage decorated with about 25,000 yellow and white chrysanthemums.

At noon a minutes silent "prayer".

What does this all mean.

The Prime Minister cannot go to Yasukuni Shrine, the shrib=ne to all the war dead of Japan where WW2 war criminals were clandestinely interned, to pray for the war dead, without pleasing the far, far right who see that as an embodiment of history. This ceremony is a way to remember without that. Some would blame the PM for not giving an actual apology and underlining that the war was in fact was But this would be akin to a President stating Vietnam was wrong: I mean not to argue the merits iof one against the other: nut would you say that to the Veterans at a memorial service! Another might in a free country be allowed this, but if the Prime Minister of Britain had been put in such a position he would have the feeling of his party behind him, to support the great and attack the weak. In this respect Japanese politicians are vultures not hawks, seeking to weaken and destroy.

They gave up their lives: and for what: who cannot but feel despair at the messages of those who would give their lives in the suicide attacks: who thus had time to write. One wrote that he wanted to take an American carrier with him so at least his life would not be wasted. In any country this would have been a cult. in a country reduced to grey it could have become the all pervading image, but the country turned away from that road, whilst never embracing fully the left or fully libertarian policies, and some of the present ills contain echoes of that time.

The Liberal Democrats, the party of government for so long now it is a joke, is a right wiing entity within which many groups form themselves around a figure. That leader must satisfy his support groups, and ultimately, the Prime Minister of an LDP government must balance these groups. If there is an over-riding message of the Japanese government it is: we can fix it. With this continuity of Government it is truly difficult for outsiders to see changes, and the situation is akin to no peroiod of British politics more than the 20s and early 30s, where scheming Tories maintained a grip on power except for 2 fragile coalitions, asnd had results that were basically nearly fatal for our nation. Somehow despite their government the Japanese have thrived and prospered. It is in some ways a travesty that they should be judged by their leaders, but ther you are/

We are indeed lucky they have never had a Thatcher as they sometimes wish for to spread despair and death in the guise of rejuvination and a cod nostalgia for a return to the times of ther worst crimes against our own people. At least postwar that is.