Letter: War crimes: neither forgiven nor forgotten

Sir: It seems to me that Terry McCarthy ('War and the self-pity of war', 9 August) is implying that Japan is wrong to mourn its war dead because of Japan's wartime aggression against other Asian countries.

I agree with Mr McCarthy that Japan must, and has a responsibility to, apologise for the unspeakable war atrocities committed during the attempted conquest of Asia. However, it is wrong to think that Japan should not mourn the hundreds of thousands killed in the two atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Although Mr McCarthy states that Japan should 'shed its concocted victim mentality', do the innocent sufferers of a country defeated in war not register as victims?

Perhaps victors of wars should shed their concocted 'innocent' mentality.

Yours sincerely,

KENJI USAMI

London, WC1

9 August