WASHINGTON — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe offered condolences Wednesday for Americans killed in World War II in the first address by a Japanese leader to a joint meeting of Congress, but he stopped short of apologizing for wartime atrocities.
Abe went to Capitol Hill after a morning visit to a Washington memorial to more than 400,000 American service members who died in the conflict. His remarks to a packed chamber a day after meeting President Barack Obama were warmly received by lawmakers.
“My dear friends, on behalf of Japan and the Japanese people, I offer with profound respect my eternal condolences to the souls of all American people that were lost during World War II,” he said, prompting his audience to rise in applause.
He skirted another issue that some U.S. lawmakers had been urging him to address — the sexual slavery of tens of thousands of Asian women by Japan’s military, which remains a sore point with another staunch U.S. ally, South Korea.
Instead, the Japanese prime minister expressed “feelings of deep remorse over the war.” He acknowledged that “our actions brought suffering to the peoples in Asian countries — we must not avert our eyes from that.”
That won’t satisfy his critics, who want Abe to do more than “uphold” the apologies for wartime abuses made by his predecessors.
Since winning election in December 2012, Abe has been strong advocate of closer ties with the U.S., a message he hammered home Wednesday.
