Japan admits war 'act of aggression'
By Li Xiaokun (China Daily)
Japan admitted in a long-awaited report from the joint history study with China on Sunday that the 1937-1945 Sino-Japanese war was an "act of aggression", but the two neighbors are still at odds on a number of issues, such as the death toll of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre.
In the report Japan used the word "aggression" to refer to the 1937-1945 war for the first time, breaking Tokyo's long-standing reluctance to use it.
Japan's Kyodo news agency said the move ruled out China's long-term concerns that some people in Japan are denying the nation's responsibility and even the fact that it conducted a war of aggression.
The war "left a deep scar on China that was the battleground, and we have to say that most of the causes were created by the Japanese side," said the report.
Books: My Father's Dying Wish Legacies of War Guilt in a Japanese Family By Ayako Kurahashi Translated into English by Philip Seaton
My Father's Apology: "I have served in the former military for twelve years and eight months. Among those years, I served tens years as a lower rank China-based army officer (ex-MP warrant officer) in the military police in Tianjin, Beijing, Shanxi Province, Lingfen, Liancheng, Old Manchuria, Dong Ning, and Donglin, etc. I participated in the war of aggression. I am very sorry for what I have done to the Chinese people. I want to apologize over and over."
