Japan’s emperor, prime minister express remorse over country’s wartime past

TOKYO: Japanese Emperor Naruhito expressed “deep remorse” over the country’s wartime past while Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged never to repeat the devastation of war as the nation observed the 75th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II.
“I earnestly hope that the ravages of war will never again be repeated,” Naruhito, 60, said at a ceremony for war dead. Naruhito, the grandson of Emperor Hirohito in whose name Imperial troops fought the war, is Japan’s first monarch born after the war. He ascended the throne last year after his father, Akihito, abdicated.