Japan’s Royal Couple Visits Gallery in Washington, Avoids Politics

Unfailingly polite and low-key, Emperor Akihito of Japan concentrated on matters artistic Sunday and studiously ignored attempts to draw him into controversies over his country’s military history.

While Akihito and Empress Michiko viewed works at a gallery that houses one of the world’s finest collections of Asian art, a few hundred demonstrators gathered across from the White House to demand that Japan apologize for its actions during World War II.

The demonstrators, most of them Chinese Americans, chanted, sang and waved signs that read “Protest Against Whitewash of History,” “Japan Must Compensate War Victims” and “Japan Apologize for Pearl Harbor.”

One of the organizers, Betty Lu of Norfolk, Va., said she was concerned by President Clinton’s approval of giving Japan a vote on the U.N. Security Council.

“They did not admit their crimes from World War II,” she said. “They might do it again.”

Akihito has expressed “regret” over the war between the United States and Japan but has never apologized.

U.S. Park Service police kept an eye on the noisy but peaceful protest as traffic in front of the White House slowed to a crawl.

A mix of Japanese and U.S. museum officials greeted the royal couple as they arrived at the Freer Gallery of Art, where a group of tourists applauded them. Inside, their principal stop was a conservation studio where work is being done to restore centuries-old Japanese paintings.

Under a program begun three years ago with funding from a Japanese foundation, 13 Japanese paintings dating from the 12th to the 19th centuries were sent to Japan for restoration. Twenty-one others will also be sent.

Akihito will be welcomed at the White House today with full military honors.