“Our Statement on the Occasion of the 70th Anniversary of theWar’s End”
This year, 2015 is the 70th anniversary of the Asia-Pacific War’s end. We were bornin 1998, about half a century after the war. Today, we would like to express ourthoughts about the war as Japanese who haven’t experienced the war at all.
When we hear the word “Asia-Pacific War”, a picture taken after the large-scale air
raids as known as “the Bombing of Tokyo” comes into our mind. In the picture,
Tokyo is totally devastated. It is completely different from Tokyo that we know oftoday. It is hard to imagine that there were massive bombings during the war inTokyo. Prosperity of modern Japan is overshadowing the bitterness of the war,perhaps to the extent that we may have forgotten it ever occurred. And we are suremost Japanese also feel that way.
However, we, Japanese, should never forget the historical fact that Japan had
invaded Asian countries such as China, Korea. It is true that Japan is not only thecountry who sought for colonies at that time. Indeed, Western imperialist countries
ruled many countries and regions as their colonies. Nonetheless, that does notjustify Japan’s invasion.

Invading one's territory, taking one's precious lives, areacts that should not be done.
Unfortunately, Japan has not fully reconciled on the past colonization, or has
established good relationships with neighboring countries, particularly with Chinaand South Korea. We think one of the major reasons is that the Japanese tend to
think that Japan’s invasion to such countries is something that happened a longtime ago, thus don’t try to reflect upon the past mistakes. As a fact, some Japaneseare acting in such a manner that lacks empathy and consideration to ourneighboring countries and people.
What can the Japanese, as individuals, do to accelerate progression toward
reconciliation? We believe there are two specific actions to take.

First is to establish personal relationships with Chinese and Korean people. I have
Chinese friends whom I met in school exchange program. We talk frankly aboutcartoons, love, studies and our future. If the citizens of both countries could
establish friendship with each other, we could even change the relationships
between the countries.
Second is to use our imagination. Maybe it is difficult to have opportunity todirectly have a relationship with Chinese and Korean people. However, we canimagine who they are as real people and individuals who live every day, haveemotions. As long as we use our imagination and be considerate of others, it will bedifficult to make big mistakes, even though languages and cultures may bedifferent.
The hard feelings over Asia-Pacific War are still casting a pall over Japan andother neighboring countries. However, it is true that Asia-Pacific War ended 70years ago. We have the advantage of not having hard feelings over the war thatcannot be overcome. Of course, we must clearly and proudly say “NO” to extreme
behaviors which prevent us from reconciling. We believe it is Japanese youth’s
mission to inherit reflection on the past invasion, generate relationships withfriendship, cooperation, and peace between neighboring and Asian countries.
Azabu Senior High School,Ken Abiko, Hisashi Kinjo, Koki Ryu