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 away from natural causes at a hospital in the southwestern city of Oita. Born in Oita in 1924, Murayama served in the Oita city and prefectural assemblies 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. In September 1993, Murayama was elected chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Japan, after the party joined an eight-party ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa, which ended the Liberal Democratic Party’s nearly four-decade grip on power following the July Lower House election. Protesting what was viewed as the overbearing political style of Ichiro Ozawa, leader of the coalition partner Japan Renewal Party, the Murayama-led SDPJ left the non-LDP, noncommunist alliance after Hosokawa resigned as prime minister in April 1994. The subsequent minority government of Prime Minister Tsutomu Hata collapsed within about two months. Amid the political upheaval, Murayama unexpectedly became prime minister in June 1994, leading a once-unthinkable three-party coalition of his SDPJ, its longtime rival, the LDP, and the Sakigake, an LDP splinter party. He was Japan’s first Socialist prime minister since Tetsu Katayama, who was in office in 1947-1948. The abrupt ascent even made Murayama’s trademark bushy eyebrows a national talking point. 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 confronted other legacies of the war, advancing legislation to support hibakusha–survivors of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. He likewise championed relief for victims of Minamata disease, a severe neurological disorder caused by industrial wastewater contaminated with methylmercury. In early 1995, the Murayama government faced severe crises: a devastating earthquake in January that struck the western port city of Kobe and nearby areas, followed in March by the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult’s sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system. The administration drew widespread criticism for failing to respond quickly in the quake’s immediate aftermath. Murayama stepped down as prime minister in January 1996, handing over the reins of government to the then LDP president, the late Ryutaro Hashimoto. He subsequently became the first leader of the renamed Social Democratic Party. The party soon weakened, however, as many of its lawmakers defected to help launch the Democratic Party of Japan later in 1996. After retiring from politics, Murayama served as head of the Asian Women’s Fund, a privately funded initiative that offered consolation payments and support to former wartime “comfort women,” who served as prostitutes for Japanese troops before and during World War II. In January 2013, Murayama traveled to China as an honorary adviser to the Japan-China Friendship Association, accompanied by other officials, including the late Koichi Kato, a former LDP secretary-general. The delegation aimed to repair relations strained over the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture. The uninhabited islets in the East China Sea are under Japan’s effective administration but also claimed by China, which calls them Diaoyu. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]