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On March 10, DPJ President Katsuya Okada met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, currently on a visit to Japan, at a Tokyo venue. The meeting was also attended by Acting President Akira Nagatsuma, and Director-General of the Executive Office Yosuke Kondo for the DPJ.
Following the meeting, Okada gave reporters an outline of the discussion. In the meeting, Okada had referred to the issue of reconciliation, saying, “Seventy years have passed since the end of WWII, but unfortunately we cannot say that Japan has succeeded in achieving reconciliation with our neighbouring countries of China and the Republic of Korea.” He went on, “There have been various initiatives in the past, such as Prime Minister Obuchi’s signing of a Declaration of a New Japan-Republic of Korea Partnership toward the 21st Century, but powerful politicians have voiced opposition to these, and we have ultimately been unable to achieve reconciliation…The root cause of this is that we have not properly faced up to our past history, or succeeded in coming to terms with it.” During her meeting with Prime Minister Abe on the previous day, Merkel had stated that “Germany has faced its past squarely and thus has been able to achieve reconciliation.” Okada and the German leader went on to discuss Germany’s post-war efforts, with reference to this comment.
During the discussion, Merkel said, “It is impossible to totally put an end to dealing with past history. Each succeeding generation must be ready to deal with the past anew. Since the war, Germany has had no alternative but to face up to her history. We have come through the time of Chancellor Adenauer, which was an extremely difficult period for us, but there was a movement by the younger generations to question history and we have been able to face up to our past squarely. Germany is a unique example of reconciliation, but we also have other examples of reconciliation in Spain and East Germany.”
The Chancellor also referred to the comfort woman issue, stating, “Taking into consideration the situation in East Asia, the relationship between the neighbouring countries of Japan and the Republic of Korea with their shared democratic values is vital, and so it would be better if the comfort woman issue was properly resolved.” In response to this comment, Okada said that Japan had made a great deal of effort in the past, but unfortunately the issue still remained unresolved, and he believed that something had to be done about that. He added, “Those who have caused pain want to forget about it as soon as possible, but those who have suffered the pain cannot easily forget. We must engage with the issue of reconciliation based on this perception.”
With regard to the issue of national security legislation, Okada said, “What we are concerned about is that Japan has for many years avoided dispatched the SDF abroad to engage in the use of force. However, this [legislation] would permit them to engage in the use of force, even if only in a limited way, or if not actually engaging in the use of force itself, would permit them to provide logistic support on a much wider scale.” The two went on to discuss the situation in Germany. Merkel stated, “Germany only sends its national army overseas within a collective security framework, and so does not dispatch troops unilaterally. There is also a lot of debate in Germany. For example, some people complain, ‘France is sending troops to Africa, so why does Germany stand by and do nothing?’ However, some are of the opinion that we made mistakes in the past, and the path taken by Germany after WWII, of not sending the national army overseas, is the correct one. Although some people think that this kind of stance is necessary so that we do not repeat past mistakes, I myself believe that it is necessary for us to send our army overseas within the collective security framework.” Okada replied, “The situation for Germany, which acts within the framework of NATO, and for Japan, which must decide whether to act either independently or under the U.S.-Japan Alliance, is a little different.” Okada told reporters, “I felt that Chancellor Merkel could understood that difference.”
Okada told Merkel, “The relationship between Japan and Germany is extremely important. Japan, as an Asian democracy, and Germany, which holds a central position in the EU, should hold leadership summits in one nation or the other on an annual basis.”
Asked by reporters what he felt was the message that Chancellor Merkel wanted to convey to the Abe administration and to Japan on this landmark 70th anniversary of the end of WWII, Okada responded, “I think that one message from the Chancellor was that reconciliation is a never-ending process.” He continued, “I received the impression that Germany had also wrestled with this problem, and thought about it, responding afresh with each generation. What left an impression on me was that it was the young people who finally decided to take a fresh look at the past. That was a really useful observation. I was struck by the fact that young Germans had thought for themselves about the acts committed in Germany by the Nazis during the war and had faced up to them.”
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