By denying wartime history, Abe will lose faith

Since taking office in 2012, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made consistent efforts to reinterpret the historic 1995 Murayama Statement: the then Japanese prime minister Tomiichi Murayama's apology for the damage and suffering caused by Japan to its neighbors before and during World War II.

Seeking to issue a statement on the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II in August that would "reflect his government's position", Abe recently hinted that he might change the wording of Murayama's apology. Abe's reported stance has raised concerns in China, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Jan 26.

Seen by many as Tokyo's most sincere official apology for the atrocities committed by Japan in neighboring countries, the Murayama Statement has been a thorn in the flesh of Japanese rightists for two decades. And it is at the insistence of Japanese rightist forces that Abe is threatening to whitewash Japan's militarist past.