Emperor Voices ‘Deep Sorrow’ to Chinese

Emperor Akihito, arriving here Friday on a visit aimed at building stronger Sino-Japanese relations, expressed “deep sorrow” for the suffering that Japan inflicted on China in the past.

“In the long history of the relations of these two countries, there was an unfortunate period during which our country inflicted severe suffering upon the Chinese people,” Akihito said in a speech at a banquet hosted by Chinese President Yang Shangkun. “This is a deep sorrow to me. When the war ended, our people, in deep self-reproach that this kind of war should never occur again, firmly resolved to tread the road of peace.”

Yang apparently was pleased with Akihito’s statement. Hideo Kagami, the emperor’s spokesman, quoted Yang as having said to Akihito, when he returned to the table: “Thank you for the kind words.”

The Beijing government had good reason to be happy with the visit by Akihito, the first ever by a Japanese emperor, and his wife, Empress Michiko. They are the most prestigious visitors to Beijing since the 1989 crackdown on China’s pro-democracy movement. Their tour augurs well for an increase in Japanese investment and other economic cooperation with China.

Akihito’s banquet statement, which could be the most important event of his six-day visit, was the strongest expression of regret ever made to the Chinese by a Japanese emperor. It was not clear, however, whether most Chinese would feel satisfied.

Many believe that Japan has never truly apologized for the death and destruction wreaked upon China before and during World War II. At least 10 million Chinese are estimated to have died as a direct result of Japan’s invasion and occupation of large parts of China between 1931 and 1945.

Beijing made clear in advance that it did not expect an apology for the war from Akihito, who was still a child when it ended. But plans for the imperial visit had kindled growing grass-roots demands that Akihito formally apologize on behalf of his nation.

Just hours before the emperor departed for Beijing, arsonists thought to be radical leftists burned down a shrine that housed the remains of wartime Prime Minister Gen. Hideki Tojo and six others hanged as war criminals after World War II. The wooden Memorial Hall for the Seven Martyrs, located in Aichi prefecture in central Japan, was a place of pilgrimage for thousands of war veterans and rightists annually.

Conservatives in Japan, on the other hand, including powerful leaders within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, had insisted that the emperor not make an apology that could be seen as a humiliation.

Both imperial spokesman Kagami and Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wu Jianmin declined Friday evening to say whether they viewed the emperor’s remarks as an apology.

Analysts in Tokyo called the statement the strongest ever made by either Akihito, 58, or his father, the late Emperor Hirohito, who reigned during the war.

“The statement displayed a clear recognition of Japan as the aggressor,” Daizo Kurayanagi, a well-known commentator, said in an interview with the Japanese television network NHK. Previously, Akihito and his father had spoken to Chinese leaders only of the “unfortunate period . . . between our two countries,” Kurayanagi said.

A New China News Agency correspondent interviewed by NHK in Tokyo said he was “relieved”--from the standpoint of his desire for good relations with Japan--to hear the remarks. He noted that in previous statements to Chinese, emperors had restricted themselves to the word unfortunate , but Akihito had expressed “deep sorrow.”

Chinese students in Japan interviewed by NHK expressed a variety of opinions, some calling the remarks “insufficient” and others saying they represented “the best that could be expected from the emperor,” who is required to speak in accordance with government policy.

There was some controversy in Beijing on Friday evening over how the emperor’s key sentence should be translated into English. The official Japanese Foreign Ministry translation took words that literally mean, “This is a deep sorrow to me,” and rendered them in English as, “I deeply deplore this.”

Kagami defended this phrasing at a news briefing as a fully accurate translation of Akihito’s meaning. The Chinese translation was extremely close in literal meaning to the original Japanese. But some observers felt that both the English and Chinese translations were in nuance slightly more powerful than the Japanese original. If so, this could fit with a Japanese government goal of achieving maximum impact abroad with minimum political repercussions at home.

Kagami made a rare official acknowledgment that scars left by the war still block fully normal relations between the Chinese and Japanese people.

“It would be very difficult for the wounds of the war to heal, and we are very much aware of that because we know very well that what we did against China in this war, this occupation lasting 15 years, left very, very deep scars on the Chinese people,” Kagami said. “I think it will take years for the wounds to heal.”

Kagami, going well beyond how the 1972 joint communique establishing diplomatic relations between Tokyo and Beijing is usually perceived, characterized that Japanese statement as a clear apology.

“As for apologies, our government made a very clear, unequivocal apology when China and Japan made this joint communique in 1972,” Kagami said. “It is a very strong word, a very clear and unequivocal expression of the Japanese reproaching themselves. . . . So our government very clearly apologized to the Chinese government and the Chinese people. And still, we know that people are still demanding reparations, indemnification or apologies. We know that the wounds are so strong, so deep, it takes still some more time to heal.”

The wording of the key sentence in the 1972 communique was: “The Japanese side is keenly aware of Japan’s responsibility for causing enormous damage in the past to the Chinese people through war, and deeply reproaches itself.”

Yang, in his banquet speech, also made reference to “an unfortunate period, which meant untold sufferings for the Chinese people.”

He then declared: “Past experience, if not forgotten, can serve as a good guide for the future.”

Times staff writer Sam Jameson, in Tokyo, contributed to this article.