Japan marks 80th anniversary of World War II defeat

A memorial ceremony will be held at Tokyo's Nippon Budokan arena to mourn the war dead, attended by Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako. About 3,400 bereaved family members are expected to take part.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba will also deliver an address to mark Aug. 15, the day when, 80 years ago, Emperor Hirohito announced Japan's surrender in a radio broadcast.

At the ceremony, Ishiba, marking his first war anniversary since becoming prime minister last year, is expected to pledge that Japan will never again go to war.

In recent years, his predecessors have avoided addressing Japan's wartime aggression in their Aug. 15 speeches.

Ishiba chose not to issue a memorial statement for the 80th anniversary on Friday, unlike past leaders who released such statements on the 50th, 60th, and 70th anniversaries. These statements have been closely scrutinized by other Asian nations that suffered under Japan's wartime aggression.

Japan has spent the decades since the war committed to being a peace-loving nation under its war-renouncing Constitution, which permits the use of force only for self-defense.

Still, wartime history has long strained Japan's relations with China and South Korea. China fought what it calls the 1937-1945 War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, while the Korean Peninsula was under Japanese colonial rule from 1910 to 1945.

The United States, which fought fierce battles with Japan after its 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor and later dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, has become Japan's closest security ally since the war.

At ceremonies last week marking 80 years since the atomic bombings, Ishiba stressed the need for Japan to work toward a world free of nuclear war and nuclear weapons.

Earlier it was reported that U.S. President Donald Trump declared May 8 as U.S. Victory Day in World War II.