Ex-Japanese PM Murayama, Known for War Remorse Statement, Dies

Tokyo, Oct. 17 (Jiji Press)–Former Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, one of the few Socialists ever to lead Japan and renowned for a landmark 1995 statement expressing remorse and apology for the nation’s wartime actions, died on Friday. He was 101. He passed way from natural causes at a hospital in the southwestern city of Oita. Murayama, then chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Japan, became Japan’s first Socialist prime minister in over 40 years in June 1994, taking office amid political upheaval after the Liberal Democratic Party lost power the previous year. He led an unusual three-party governing coalition of his SDPJ, the LDP and the Sakigake, an LDP splinter party, until January 1996. As prime minister, Murayama reversed several long-held positions of his party, declaring the Self-Defense Forces constitutional and pledging to uphold the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty. On Aug. 15, 1995, the 50th anniversary of Japan’s announcement of surrender in World War II, he issued what became known as the Murayama statement, expressing “deep remorse” and offering a “heartfelt apology” for the “tremendous damage and suffering” Japan caused, particularly in Asia, through its “colonial rule and aggression” before and during the war. Murayama also addressed lingering wartime legacies, including advancing legislation to support hibakusha–survivors of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 in the closing days of the war. Born in Oita in 1924, Murayama served as a member of the Oita prefectural assembly before winning a seat in the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of Japan’s parliament, in 1972. He served eight terms until he retired from politics in 2000. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]