Nakasone, at U.N., Offers Apology for World War II

In a radical departure from the 40th-anniversary rhetoric at the United Nations, Japan’s prime minister today offered delegates an apology for World War II and evoked apocalyptic visions.

The 67-year-old Yasuhiro Nakasone, a wartime naval officer, noted at the beginning of his commemorative address to the General Assembly that, when the U.N. Charter was signed at San Francisco in June, 1945, Japan was “waging a desperate and lonely war against over 40-odd Allied countries.”

“Since the end of that war,” he told the 159-member world body, “Japan has profoundly regretted the ultranationalism and militarism it unleashed, and the untold suffering the war inflicted upon peoples around the world and, indeed, upon its own people.”

He hastened to add that “having suffered the scourge of war and the atomic bomb, the Japanese people will never again permit the revival of militarism on their soil.”

Apology Unusual

Nakasone’s apology was unusual in a hall where many other commemorative speakers have used the occasion to attack their country’s foes and to defend their own policies.

Speakers from Germany, Japan’s wartime ally, made passing references to World War II but avoided expressions of guilt. Gerald Goetting, deputy chairman of the East German Council of State, in a speech Tuesday identified his Communist government as an heir to the “anti-Hitler coalition . . . which liberated the peoples from the Nazi rule of force and terror.”

Nakasone warned in his speech against man-made “monsters” confronting the world’s flora and fauna.

“We believe that all living things--humans, animals, trees, grasses--are essentially brothers and sisters,” said the Japanese leader, who sometimes retreats to a small temple in Tokyo to practice zazen, a form of Buddhist meditation.

‘Most Barbaric Attacks’

“Our generation is recklessly destroying the natural environment which has evolved over the course of millions of years and is essential for our survival,” he said. “Our soil, water, air, flora and fauna are being subjected to the most barbaric attacks since the earth was created. This folly can only be called suicidal.”

In the name of scientific progress, he said, “man has created a terrible monster, the hydrogen bomb, and we have reached a point where, with genetic engineering, the dignity of human life itself is threatened.”