Japan to Commit $1 Billion to Assuage ‘Pain’ of WW II : Asia: Funds will be allocated over next 10 years, prime minister says. But specifics are lacking.

Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama formally announced Wednesday that Japan--to “face squarely” its “acts of aggression” and colonialism--will commit $1 billion over the next 10 years to a “peace, friendship and exchange initiative.”

The program will be launched in 1995, the 50th anniversary of Japan’s defeat in World War II. It will seek to overcome the “pain” of the past and “clear up the future of the Asia-Pacific,” he said in a statement read to reporters by Chief Cabinet Secretary Kozo Igarashi.

But the effort, at present, amounts to more of a compendium of hopes than a program of action.

Apart from the $1-billion commitment, the announcement said only that historical research by Japanese and foreign scholars, exchanges and support of international pushes for the advancement of women--including vocational training centers--would be carried out. No specifics were offered.

Igarashi repeated the government’s position that all claims against Japan from its former enemies have been settled by peace treaties. He also said no official payments would be made to individuals.

But he held out the possibility that the government might help establish a private fund of as much as $100 million from which such compensation could be made. Whether to set up such a fund, however, is still being debated, he said.

Groups ranging from former British and Dutch prisoners of war to Korean and Filipino women forced to act as sex slaves for Japanese troops have condemned Tokyo’s refusal to compensate individuals.

Murayama confronted the issue many times recently on a tour of several Asian nations, where he offered numerous apologies for Japan’s wartime conduct. The formal announcement of the plan for Japan to make amends was expected and officials said they were only awaiting the Socialist prime minister’s return home.

“Although there may be criticism of our plan, I hope people will give us a little more time to demonstrate our sincerity,” Igarashi said.

A Foreign Ministry official said the government still has not committed itself to decisions on atonement plans, even though Aug. 15 next year will mark the 50th anniversary of Japan’s surrender. The diplomat told foreign correspondents that Murayama’s announcement was timed to ensure that money for the program could be committed in the 1995 budget, which is now being compiled, even though details have yet to be worked out.

Conspicuously missing was any word on what Japan intends to do for Asian women--as many as 200,000 by unofficial estimates--recruited as “comfort women” for Japanese troops during the war.

Although more than two years have passed since Japan officially acknowledged its responsibility for the sex slaves, Murayama offered only another apology and a declaration of hope to find “an appropriate way” for the Japanese people to express their regrets.

Officials said other actions designed to make 1995 a year of reflection on the war will be taken later. These include some form of Japanese government consolation to victims of atomic bombs dropped by the United States on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.