TOKYO -- Prime Minister Shinzo Abe acknowledged Friday that Japan inflicted "immeasurable damage and suffering" on innocent people in World War II, but stopped short of offering his own apology and said future generations of Japanese should not have to make one, either.
In a statement marking the 70th anniversary of his country's surrender, he said instead that Japan's repeated past "heartfelt apologies" would remain unshakable in the future.
"On the 70th anniversary of the end of the war, I bow my head deeply before the souls of all those who perished both at home and abroad," Abe said in a 25-minute address delivered live on national television. "I express my feelings of profound grief and my eternal, sincere condolences."
South Korea's president said the statement "left a lot to be desired," and China called it evasive.
"Japan should have made an explicit statement on the nature of the war of militarism and aggression and its responsibility on the wars, made [a] sincere apology to the people of victim countries, and made a clean break with the past of militarist aggression, rather than being evasive on this major issue of principle," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying said in a statement.
South Korean President Park Geun-hye said Abe's statement came up short compared with past Japanese apologies, but she also sounded a positive note, crediting Abe for making it clear that the views of previous Japanese governments will be firmly maintained.
"Although a lot of difficulties remain, it's time for us to march together into the future based on the right historical perspectives about the past," she said in Seoul this morning.
Resentment over invasion, occupation and atrocities by the Japanese Imperial Army before and during the war still bedevils relations between Japan and the East Asian countries seven decades after Japan's surrender on Aug. 15, 1945.
The statement also got a cool reaction from United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is South Korean.
"The secretary-general has taken note of the message ... and is studying it," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. "As the secretary-general has said previously, he hopes that based on reflection and understanding of history, the countries concerned can achieve a genuine reconciliation and build peace and prosperity collectively in the region."
Abe noted that more than 80 percent of the country's population was born after the war, and echoed growing though not universal sentiment in Japan that the country has apologized enough.
"We must not let our children, grandchildren and even further generations to come, who have nothing to do with that war, be predestined to apologize," he said.
But he said Japan took the wrong course in going to war and that, across generations, Japanese must squarely face their country's past.
"We have engraved in our hearts the histories of suffering of the people in Asia as our neighbors: those in Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines, and Taiwan, the Republic of Korea and China, among others," he said.
While pledging that Japan would remain peaceful, he used the speech to make veiled criticism of China's activities in disputed waters in the region.
China has been reclaiming land and erecting structures on South China Sea atolls that are claimed by the Philippines and other countries. In the East China Sea, Japan objects to Chinese aerial and marine patrols around islands that both countries claim.
Noting Japan's constitutional pledge not to resort to force to settle international disputes, Abe said any disputes must be settled diplomatically based on the rule of law.
In the statement, Abe also made an apparent reference to foreign wartime prostitutes for the Japanese army, though he avoided the question of whether the so-called comfort women were forced into the work, a hotly disputed issue with South Korea.
"We must never forget that there were women behind the battlefields whose honor and dignity were severely injured," he said.
The comment failed to satisfy an activist in Taiwan speaking at an event marking an international memorial day for comfort women. "He still refused to recognize that the comfort women system was the persecution of women's human rights," said Huang Shu-ling, president of the Taiwan Women's Rescue Foundation.
The United States responded positively to Abe's statement despite the uncertainties over whether it would quell the acrimony over historical issues between Japan and South Korea -- the United States' key allies in Asia.
"We welcome Prime Minister Abe's expression of deep remorse for the suffering caused by Japan during the World War II era, as well as his commitment to uphold past Japanese government statements on history," National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.
Information for this article was contributed by Matthew Pennington and Johnson Lai of The Associated Press.
A Section on 08/15/2015