Peru apologises for WWII persecution of Japanese

LIMA- PRESIDENT Alan Garcia on Tuesday, June 14 2011, apologized for the arbitrary arrest of thousands of Japanese immigrants and their deportation to US internment camps during World War II.

The Japanese immigrants were rounded up by the pro-US government of the time soon after Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.

'Today, as president of Peru, we ask for forgiveness for this grave attack on human rights and the dignity of the Peruvian-Japanese and the Japanese in 1941,'Mr Garcia said. 'Thousands of Japanese citizens or children of Japanese were arbitrarily and illegally detained....mobs of bandits raided your homes, your businesses, and occupied your property.'

He noted that 'the Peruvian government has never asked for forgiveness or apologized'.'Today I say, as president of Peru, that we ask for forgiveness,'he said. Most of the Latin Americans of Japanese origin in US internment camps came from Peru, according to journalist Alejandro Sakuda, who has written extensively on the subject.

Many of the survivors today are seeking a compensation equivalent to the indemnity Japanese-Americans received in 1988, when the United States officially apologized for internment camps. The first Japanese immigrants sailed to Peru in 1899 aboard the Sakura-Maru. Most came to work on cotton or sugar plantations. Some 100.000 descendants of Japanese immigrants today live in Peru, according to government figures.

The most famous Peruvian of Japanese descent is Alberto Fujimori, president 1990-2000, who is serving a prison sentence on rights abuse and corruption charges. Fujimori traveled to Japan in the final days of his presidency in the midst of a corruption scandal, then resigned via fax from a Tokyo hotel. Japan subsequently granted him citizenship, and Lima spent years trying to convince Tokyo to extradite Fujimori to face criminal charges.


This article I read in the STRAITS TIMES breaking world news.

I hope Japan will follow next. It is never too late to apologize for all the wrong doings Japan has inflicted on human beings in world war II.
WHEN IS THIS DAY COMING? DO YOU UNDERSTAND THE WORD "APOLOGIZE"
DOES "MOSHIWAKE GOZAIMASEN" AND A 90 DEGREE BOW DO IT?OR DOES THE SITUATION CALL FOR FURTHER ELABORATION AND ACTS OF CONTRITION?