More than 1,100,000 Jews, Poles and POWs of the former Soviet Union were massacred there.

The service attended by the presidents of Poland and Germany reflected the requirements of the times that such crime should not be allowed to repeat itself as it was not just a memorial service for the dead but part of the campaign for redressing past crimes.

Fascist Germany committed too monstrous crimes against history and humankind in the past to be redeemed.

After the Second World War Germany worked hard in various aspects to redeem the past crimes and turn over a new leaf. Germany made a thorough survey of damage done not only to those countries which suffered from it but also to individual organizations and persons. On this basis it took a state measure for reparation while taking criminal actions according to the relevant legal procedures by ferreting out former Nazi war criminals. In this way Germany showed internally and externally its will to break with its past.

However, the attitude of Japan, the same war criminal state, was quite different from Germany's behavior. Though more than half a century has passed since its defeat, Japan has not yet admitted of its past crimes. It is so brazen-faced as to distort and justify its past crimes, letting loose sheer sophism that it did not invade Asian countries but "protected" them from aggression by European and U.S. powers and helped Asian countries in the development of civilization.

It is shameful for Japan to run the whole gamut of cunning methods to embellish its past crimes and keep them buried into oblivion.

The monstrous crimes committed by the Japanese imperialists can neither be played down nor written off no matter how much water may flow under the bridge and how frequently an old generation is replaced by a new one.

Japan would be well advised to pay heed to the warning of the international community that it can never expect better future unless its past crimes are redressed.