This article traces the historical views and apology diplomacy of former prime ministers Kiichi Miyazawa, Morihiro Hosokawa, and Tomiichi Murayama, examining the subsequent demands for compensation from Britain, China, South Korea, and other countries, as well as the admonitions directed at Japan’s repeated apologies by leaders of other Asian nations.

August 30, 2020.
The following is a continuation of the preceding chapter.
■ Apologies by Those in Power
It was former Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa who branded Japan an aggressor nation and initiated its diplomacy of apology.
Next came former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa in 1993, the fifth year of the Heisei era, who declared at a press conference, “I myself recognize that the Greater East Asia War was a mistaken war of aggression.”
The very next month, British Prime Minister John Major visited Japan and promptly requested, “If that is the case, I would like the Japanese government to compensate the British citizens who were taken prisoner.”
China and South Korea followed, as did the Netherlands, local legislatures in the United States, Australia, and others.
The author is not criticizing these countries.
This merely illustrates how brazenly every country conducts itself in international relations.
Japan paid consolation money to these countries in accordance with their demands.
Naturally, the money came from taxpayers.
Tomiichi Murayama, who next assumed the office of prime minister, dispatched a mission of apology to Asian countries headed by Speaker of the House of Representatives Takako Doi.
However, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and Philippine President Fidel Ramos instead admonished the delegation, saying, “Why apologize for a war that took place fifty years ago?
The United States, Britain, the Netherlands, and others have committed acts of aggression, but they have never apologized.”
Undeterred even by this, Prime Minister Murayama sent a letter of apology to the president of South Korea, thereby completing Japan’s diplomacy of prostration.
As a result of having been indoctrinated through the WGIP, he had come to believe that doing so was a noble act.