It8217;s hard to say sorry

8220;This lack of remorse comes from the fact that Japan, despite 50 years having passed since the end of the war, has long neglected to examine what the Japanese Army did to the Chinese people,8221; said Yoshimi.

Japan has insisted that a full apology be excluded from a joint declaration to be issued by Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and President Jiang Zemin after a landmark summit in Tokyo on Thursday.

Obuchi, instead, reportedly hoped to make an oral apology during the summit in aN effort to appease China8217;s demands for a clear-cut statement over the sufferinginflicted on Chinese people during Japan8217;s invasion.

8220;If Japan wanted to apologise sincerely to China, it could and should simply do it,8221; said Shinji Kojima, history professor at Tokyo University.

8220;Japan8217;s persistence in making it vague shows that a nationalistic idea still exists in Japan even after more than 50 years since the end of the war,8221; said Kojima.

8220;The dispute surrounding the Japanese apology will continue haunting Japan in the 21st century,8221; he said.

China says 20 million citizens died as a result of the 1937-45 war with Japan8217;s Imperial Army. The notorious 1937 Nanjing massacre alone killed 140,000 people, according to Allied trials of Japanese war criminals.

Obuchi8217;s reluctance to apologize also reflects last week8217;s decision by his ruling Liberal Democratic Party to form a coalition with the Liberal Party, a conservative opposition party seeking a halt to further apologies, analysts said.

8220;Politically, Obuchi faces difficulties in making a clear apology after the LDP decidedto form a conservative coalition with the Liberal Party,8221; said Ryousei Kokubun, professor of East Asia relations at Keio University.

8220;Obuchi became more reluctant after he was strongly criticised by his party8217;s hardliners for his written apology to South Korea last month,8221; Kokubun said.

Obuchi expressed both 8220;deep remorse8221; and a 8220;heartfelt apology8221; in the first written government apology for Japan8217;s colonial past in South Korea, which President Kim Dae-Jung said should settle the two countries8217; troubled past.

The Obuchi-Kim declaration triggered fierce protests by right-wing groups across the nation which claimed Tokyo had already assumed its war-time responsibilities.

8220;Another reason for Japan8217;s reluctance is the fear that once it makes an apology8230; it will open the door to floods of people demanding individual compensation,8221; said Yoshimi.

Japanese officials say the apology to South Korea was different. They say Tokyo, which ruled the Korean peninsula before the war, was obliged toexpress deeper remorse to Seoul than Beijing.

But history professors say the officials8217; excuse is flimsy. 8220;What Japan did was to hurt Asian countries,8221; said Kojima. 8220;In that sense, it is wrong to rank the degree of apology.8221; Some professors blame this lack of historical recognition on Japan8217;s educational system.

8220;The Japanese education system bears part of blame for causing the lack of historical understanding of the war,8221; said Yoshimi.

8220;Although I am not saying all the Japanese are like this, I think overall the majority of people in Japan feel that way simply because they do not know, or do not want to know what Japan did to China during the war.8221;

Some analysts say the United States bears some responsibility because it failed to force Japan to face up to its wartime actions during the US occupation between 1945 and 1952.

Then premier Morihiro Hosokawa officially admitted Japan8217;s wartime aggression for the first time in 1993, two years before socialist premier Tomiichi Murayama offered his8220;heartfelt apology8221; to Asian people.