TOKYO (AP) — Friday is the 80th anniversary of then-Emperor Hirohito's announcement of Japan's World War II surrender, but as living witnesses die and memories fade, questions remain in Japan about how the war should be taught to younger generations.
A national ceremony will begin at Tokyo’s Budokan hall at noon, the same time then-Emperor Hirohito’s 4½-minute prerecorded speech began on Aug. 15, 1945, on national radio.
Hirohito’s responsibility for the war remains controversial today, and Japan has struggled to come to terms with its wartime past, both at home and in the Asian countries it brutally invaded.
In 1995, then-Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama apologized over Japan’s aggression in Asia. It was welcomed abroad but there has since been continual pushback against it by revision