Ex-Japanese PM opposes change to pacifist course

In the latter stages of World War II, the city of Usa in Japan's Oita prefecture was a base for kamikaze pilots.

A young man who would become the country's prime minister lived near the base and saw the pilots' anxiety as they awaited orders that would send them to their deaths.

"These were boys of my age, and I could see how nervous they were," Tomiichi Murayama, now 90, recalled in an exclusive interview with China Daily at his home in Oita, a city near Usa.