“The Diplomacy of Apologies” in the Foreign Policy of Postwar Japan

Abstract

The article attempts to analyze “the diplomacy of apologies” in the foreign policy of postwar Japan from international political and domestic political dimensions. The emphasis is placed on the role and place of “the diplomacy of apologies” in Japan’s relations with the PRC and the Republic of Korea, in which it continues to be the most important tool for regulating the degree of tension in the conditions of high conflict potential. The article shows that “the diplomacy of apologies” played an important role in Tokyo’s postwar policy of reconciliation with East Asian countries. However, this policy was not completely successful, largely due to the partners’ dissatisfaction with the excessively soft forms of apologetic language on the part of Japanese officials as well as, in their opinion, a lack of remorse in their words. Many of them continue to believe that a full-fledged reconciliation with Japan is impossible, since there is no unambiguously negative assessment of the militaristic past at the official level, and the postwar settlement of relations with Japan was carried out without proper material compensation for the victims of Japanese militaristic policies. In Japan, on the contrary, it is believed that the official apologies made in the postwar period are already more than enough, that the postwar generation has nothing to apologize for, since the militaristic leaders were convicted by the Tokyo Tribunal and have already redeemed the fault of the nation, and that constant introduction of the issue of apologies to the diplomatic agenda is based on cynical political calculations and has nothing to do with the search for historical justice. Against this background, the restoration of truly friendly and good-neighborly relations between Japan and its neighboring countries seems unlikely in the historical perspective.