Limited Apology

"The longer one lives, the more shame one has to experience." The old Japanese saying was quoted by a Tokyo reader, Goro Hara, in a letter to the English-language Japan Times. To a degree almost incomprehensible to Westerners, Japanese last week were still caught up in shock, shame and rage over the massacre at Israel's Lod Airport by three young Japanese radicals.

A stream of delegations, mostly of young people, called at the Israeli embassy in Tokyo to apologize. Kyoto University President Toshio Maeda, summoned to the Ministry of Education, bowed low to express regret and admit that he was "at a loss how to apologize to the nation for the fact that two of the three culprits have been students at our university." Education Minister Saburo Takami, in turn, apologized for shortcomings in the educational system, while Foreign Minister Takeo Fukuda spoke of the dishonor to the nation.

In each case, the appropriate official was following an ages-old tradition, of "taking responsibility" that has evolved from the Japanese family system. Even the nation is considered a family, headed by the Tenno or Emperor. If one member stains the family reputation, his relatives are expected to make a show of remorse and expiation. In Jerusalem, Japanese Ambassador Eiji Tokura appeared on television. "Dear citizens of Israel," he said in halting Hebrew, "it is my wish 40 express my sorrow and apologize for this terrible crime perpetrated by Japanese nationals." Then he burst into tears.

Special Emissary Kenji Fukunaga arrived from Tokyo bearing an offer of $ 1,500,000 compensation from his government, amounting to roughly $5,000 per injured survivor of the Lod massacre and $10,000 each for the families of the dead. Meanwhile, in a poignant letter to Israeli Premier Golda Meir, the former schoolteacher father of the surviving gunman, Kozo Okamoto, pleaded that "my son be executed as soon as possible after he is given relentless investigation."

The national pangs of guilt, however, apparently did not extend to more practical levels. Mrs. Meir chose the occasion to suggest that future relations between Japan and Israel might flourish --meaning that Tokyo could lean on some of its largest corporations, who have declined to trade with Israel for fear of an Arab boycott. Japan depends on Arab nations for 30% of its oil; trade with the Arab states totals $1.7 billion annually overall, while with Israel it is only about $48 million.

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