Japan's leader offers apology as Asia marks World War II surrender

TOKYO — People across Asia paused Sunday to remember Japan's surrender to the Allied forces, which ended World War II 65 years ago, as the Japanese prime minister apologized for the suffering his country inflicted on the region.

From Nanjing, the site of a 1937 massacre by Japanese troops, to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, which has drawn outrage from Japan's neighbors for honoring war criminals, people prayed for the millions who died in war and expressed hopes for peace.

The reckoning with history has taken on special meaning this year because it comes amid a global effort to rid the world of nuclear weapons, a resolve backed by President Barack Obama. But there were reminders of lingering tensions.

In Seoul, South Korea, President Lee Myung-bak, dressed in traditional robes, led a ceremony celebrating the liberation of the Korean peninsula from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule with the Aug. 15 surrender.

In Tokyo, at a ceremony for the war dead, Prime Minister Naoto Kan reiterated his apology to South Korea for wartime atrocities and this time offered his regret to all of Asia. Last week, Kan offered "deep remorse" in an apology issued ahead of the 100th anniversary of the Japanese annexation of the Korean peninsula on Aug. 29, 1910.

"We caused great damage and suffering to many nations during the war, especially to the people of Asia," Kan said Sunday before a crowd of about 6,000, including Emperor Akihito, at Budokan hall. "We feel a deep regret, and we offer our sincere feelings of condolence to those who suffered and their families."

Lee said that history should not be forgotten but that Kan's apology last week was progress.

"I have taken note of Japan's effort, which represents one step forward," Lee said.

Hundreds of thousands of Koreans were forced to fight as frontline soldiers, work in slave labor conditions or serve as "comfort women" sexually exploited by the Japanese military.

Later Sunday, about 50 women rallied in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul, chanting slogans and demanding compensation for former comfort women and other Korean victims of colonial rule.

Such hard feelings were also evident in China, where about 300 people gathered in the eastern city of Nanjing to remember the victims of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, known in the West as the Rape of Nanking, a rampage by Japanese troops that many historians generally agree ended with the slaughter of at least 150,000 civilians and disarmed soldiers and the rape of tens of thousands of women.

In Australia, World War II veterans and representatives from New Zealand, the U.S. and Asian countries were among more than 300 people gathered in downtown Sydney to mark the anniversary.

The group placed wreaths at the foot of the Cenotaph war memorial to mark Japan's surrender and observed a minute of silence.

Kan and his Cabinet broke from the past by staying away from Yasukuni Shrine, though members of the opposition continued with their visits, including Liberal Democratic leader Sadakazu Tanigaki and former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.