Tokyo (AsiaNews) – Sixty-three years since its defeat in the Second World War Japan is not only light years from its imperialist military past, but is on much friendlier terms with China and more decided than ever to rid the earth of nuclear weapons.

Last Friday in the Budokan, Tokyo’s Martial Arts Hall, and near the Yasukuni Shinto Shrine Japan symbolically met as one to commemorate the 63rd anniversary of the end of the war.

The first of the two buildings is the most important because it is where official commemorations have been held for several decades to commemorate the 2.5 million people who died in what Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda called a “wretched” war.

Sometimes 15 August 1945 is called “Japan’s longest day” because what happened then changed the face of the nation.

In fact it was the shortest day insofar as it began at noon when the Japanese heard the voice of Emperor Hirohito announce the country’s unconditional surrender and ask his subjects to endure “the unendurable.”

For that reason, the commemoration of the event this year also began at noon with a minute-long silent prayer. For a brief moment the Budokan too was a temple. Thousands of chrysanthemums laid out in the background represented the souls of the fallen. Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko sat in the front row with the country’s highest authorities; behind them about 6,000 people, mostly relatives of dead soldiers.

Statements made during the ceremony where short but to the point.

"Reflecting upon history, sincerely wishing there will be no replay of the misery of war, I [. . .] would like to pray for world peace and the progress of our nation,” said the emperor as he looked upon the chrysanthemums.

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda’s speech was instead addressed to a wider, international audience.

"Our country has inflicted great pain on many nations, especially those in Asia," he said at the memorial service. “On behalf of the Japanese people, I express my condolences and deep regret to all the victims.”

The prime minister also pledged to pass on the knowledge of the past to future generations so that lessons of this wretched war were not lost.

However the longest day was only half over. Similarly, the process of cleansing the memory is not over yet.

Indeed on the same morning hundreds of people, including three cabinet ministers and about 50 lawmakers, visited the Yasukuni Shrine.

Traditionally China and the Koreas have condemned such visits not only because the commemorative plates of war criminals were placed inside the shrine in 1974 but also because the place itself stands as the greatest symbol of Japanese militarism.

A friendlier China

For many Asian nations 15 August marks the liberation from Japanese rule. At this moment feelings of joy a re mixed with animosity towards Japan.

But in China attitudes this year were a bit more benign. It may be the Beijing Olympics effect but the warmer sentiments are due largely to Prime MinisterYasuo Fukuda’s diplomatic acumen, more open to Asia, especially China.

Beijing has reciprocated with concrete acts of friendship. For the first time this year a Chinese representative attended the ceremony that commemorated the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

On 12 August the two countries also celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Japan-China Peace and Friendship Treaty.

On that occasion China’s Ambassador to Tokyo, Cui Tiankai, gave a special reception in which he said: “In the last 30 years we have built ties and we shall continue to develop our relations.”

Yasuo Fukuda was among the guests of honour, not only because he is the current Japanese prime minister, but also because his father Takeo was the Japanese prime minister who 30 years ago masterminded the treaty, actively promoting friendship with Asia.

Ms Sonoda Tenkoko was also among the guests. Back in 1978 her husband Sunao was Japan’s foreign minister and signed the treaty with China on his country’s behalf.

"My late husband is probably sharing a toast with (the late) Deng Xiaoping somewhere,” said the 89-year-old Sonoda in a quick-witted remark reported in The Japan Times.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki or a world without nuclear weapons

Internationally the commemoration in the Budokan was even more broadly based if we consider it as the culmination of a ten-day reflection exemplified by the peace declarations made the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August, the days when the bombs wiped out their respective cities.

In their respective peace declarations Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba and Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue presented the two cities as a harbinger of total atomic disarmament, an issue traditionally addressed during commemorative speeches in previous years.

This year’s appeals were original insofar as they were not directed at humanity as such but at the great nuclear powers, based on arguments presented by political figures from such powers that include concrete suggestions as to what ought to be done.

Some years ago the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki spearheaded an organisation called Mayors for Peace that now includes 2,368 towns and cities.

In April of this year, Mayor Akiba said, the group proposed a Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol as an addendum to the Non-Proliferation Treaty. In it they call upon nuclear powers to immediately suspend all activities related to the acquisition of nuclear weapons or which incorporate them.

The Protocol’s ultimate goal is to reach a nuclear-free world by 2020.

In the past when the balance of power depended on nuclear deterrence, the desperate pleas from Hiroshima and Nagasaki went unheeded. For Nagasaki mayor such a doctrine was tragically wrong. This, according to Asahi Shimbun’s editorial page, was an unprecedented step to take.

For this reason Mayor Taue was inspired by past US leaders responsible for nuclear policy to make a strong appeal to the United States and reiterate what Nagasaki has sought for a long time, namely nuclear disarmament. The first convert Mayor Taue referred to was Henry Kissinger, who theorised and implemented the doctrine of mutual deterrence when he was secretary of state.

In an article entitled “Toward a nuclear-free World”, published last January by The Wall Street Journal, Kissinger said that the only way to obtain security against nuclear weapons is to completely eliminate them.

On 30 June George Robertson, a former NATO secretary general from the United Kingdom, talking about Kissinger’s proposal, said that “[d]uring the Cold War nuclear weapons had the perverse effect of making the world a relatively stable place. That is no longer the case.”

In this year’s strong appeal Nagasaki mayor more widely disseminated what such political “converts” wrote in specialised publications.

It is worth remembering that his year is also the centennial of the birth of Nagai Takashi, a Catholic physician. After losing his wife when the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, he dedicated all his remaining strength to alleviate the suffering of A-bomb’s victims. For him in fact “there is no winning or losing in war; there is only ruin.”