Abe should give sincere apology to all

The Japanese government has approved the Tokyo-based publisher Suken Shuppan deleting references to "comfort women" and to foreign workers forcibly brought to Japan in its high school social studies books, to be used in April.

Its previous political science and economics textbooks said discussions have been held on offering compensation for "forcibly moving" foreigners to work in Japan and for "military comfort women" during the war. The revised version plays down the issue, saying some South Korean "individuals victimized by Japan during the war" have filed lawsuits in Japanese courts seeking an apology and damages.

Right wingers in Japan say neither the state nor the military was involved in any coercion.

The Abe administration also questions the number of victims of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, claiming that it is "difficult to determine the concrete number". China says 300,000 people were killed when Japanese troops swept through Nanjing in a six week orgy of rape and slaughter.

Japan's revisionists claim that the massacre was fabricated by the Tokyo Trial and the Chinese government and has been facilitated by "unJapanese" Japanese progressives.

Abe will soon travel across the Pacific to show Japan's repentance to its ally, but he still chooses to whitewash the atrocities his country committed on its Asian neighbors.

If he really cares about his country, Abe should make an apology to all for its past actions, make it sincere and show that sincerity through his words and deeds.

The author is China Daily's Tokyo bureau chief. caihong@chinadaily.com.cn