Prime Minister Abe and His Government Disavow

Prime Minister Abe and his Government Disavow Notion of an “Apology” in Washington

An Asia Policy Point Brief June 1, 2007

Belief persists that Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo expressed an apology for the Japanese Imperial military’s Comfort Woman system before President George Bush during Mr. Abe’s April 26-27, 2007 visit to Washington. Many see the matter as having been put to rest because President Bush accepted this apology.

Prime Minister Abe did NOT apologize in either word or deed to the President or anyone else in Washington . In fact, immediately after the Bush-Abe Summit both he and Japan’s Foreign Ministry went on the record to disavow the belief that an apology had been expressed to the President or anyone in the United States.

Below are three public, Japanese government clarifications demonstrating that Prime Minister Abe did not apologize in Washington. Appended is also a brief discussion of the Japanese words he used, none of which can be translated as “apologize.”

1. Prime Minister Abe, May 1, 2007, Doha: Asked by reporters if he had apologized in his recent summit meeting with US President George W. Bush, Abe responded, “I said I feel there is no excuse (mōshiwake nai) for what happened to those who were comfort women. "I certainly did not apologize (shazai) to the United States. Because my feelings toward the comfort women had been conveyed inaccurately, I expressed my honest feelings." [Here Abe is using a Japanese linguistic slight of hand to appease both his Rightwing constituents and the Americans. In Japan, he says he did not “apologize” (shazai) in the United States, but in Washington he presents himself as “apologetic” (mōshiwake nai kimochi de ippai).

2. Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Press Secretary Taniguchi Tomohiko, April 27, 2007, Tokyo, given to members of the foreign press in English: “I do not think he apologized. He tried hard to explain what he has long been saying about the very issue of comfort women, and that is what actually happened. So, describing it as that Prime Minister Abe tried to apologize to the members of Congress I think is not an accurate description.”

3. Japan Now, Embassy of Japan Newsletter, 5/30/07, Washington: “In response to an explanation of the comfort women issue by Prime Minister Abe, President Bush stated that he appreciated the sincere and frank words by Prime Minister Abe on this issue.” [This is clearly not the reporting of an apology and is the only mention of the subject in the Embassy newsletter.]

4. In a word: In Washington, the phrase that Abe is reported as saying was “I heartily sympathize, as a person and as the Prime Minister, with the former comfort women who had to taste life’s bitterness; I am filled with a feeling of apology [mōshiwake nai kimochi] for [the fact] that they were put into an extremely severe situation.” The operative phrase in Japanese was “mōshiwake nai kimochi,” which literally means “ a feeling of ‘ there is no excuse for ’…” Prime Minister Abe took great pains to avoid using the Japanese words for “apology” (owabi, shazai).

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