Japanese show way to healing: Kenneth Noble attended a session of the Caux conference which was part of an on-going `agenda for reconciliation'.

People from many of the world's troubled areas met in Caux from 14-20 August on the theme, `Healing the past, forging the future--dialogues towards justice and reconciliation'. The hope was that, rather than burden each other with their problems, the participants might share experiences of progress towards healing.

Over 400 came from 60 countries. They witnessed moving encounters between people from nations with a history of enmity between them; and workshops gave opportunities to study such diverse initiatives as peace-building in Somalia and Papua New Guinea, the Clean Election Campaign in Kenya, the Jubilee 2000 campaign for debt remission of the world's poorest countries, and the Kohanga Reo movement to foster Maori culture in New Zealand.

Among those taking part were the Emirs of Kano and Daura in northern Nigeria; the Maori Queeh and the wife of the New Zealand Prime Minister; a member of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission; the Governors General of Jamaica and Belize; a contingent from Tanzania; and five Members of the Japanese Diet.

Yukio Hatoyama, founder of the Democratic Party of Japan, called for Japan to build `more trusting, cooperative relations' with other countries as a basis for mutual security. Japan had `a long way to go' with countries such as Korea and China. He went on, `Unfortunately, Japan has not been able to apologize frankly to these countries for decades because Japan has lost its sense of self-worth.' Because of this, he had been to China in November and Korea in January to apologize personally.

Hatoyama said that he had founded the Democratic Party of Japan in September 1996 to end `the politics of collusion between bureaucrats, businessmen and politicians'. He aimed to start `a new way of politics based on the spirit of yuai or fraternity'. The party won 52 seats in last year's general elections.

Japan had lost the ability to respond to emerging global problems such as the environmentand human rights, Hatoyama went on. `Since Japan cannot live by bread alone, the Japanese people must steer the ship of state with the spirit of fraternity,' he declared. They would then achieve independence of action and kyosei (living and working together for the common good).

Tsutomu Hata, a Member of the House of Representatives and former Prime Minister of Japan, spoke of the importance of mending relations between his country and China. `Every individual and nation has made mistakes and done wrong,' he said. `We should be humble enough to apologize.' But it was also important to `continue to tell history to our children. If we forget we will repeat the wrongdoings.' He therefore regretted the Japanese government's reluctance to support the writing of a history of Asia in cooperation with other countries.

Then the Liberal Democratic Diet Member for Hiroshima, former Defence Minister and Justice Minister Kazuo Tanikawa, spoke movingly of his own family's suffering due to the bombings at the end of World War II. He referred to the memorial to the bomb victims which Mayor Hamai had built in Hiroshima after visiting the MRA centre in Caux in 1950. As well as documenting the `terrible suffering' the memorial had a plaque which read, `Sleep in peace as we shall never make the same mistake again'. Tanikawa said that there was a great deal of hatred in his city. But some years ago the city had started exhibiting documents and pictures to show that the Japanese were aggressors as well as victims. `We must not continue saying, "I'm right and you are wrong,"' he concluded.

Richard Ruffin, an American who worked for two years in the Defence Department, responded, `I'm ashamed that we in the United States have not found a public way of acknowledging, in detail, what went wrong and of saying, "We shall not make the same mistake again."' An exhibition on. the bombings planned by the Smithsonian Museum in Washington had been withdrawn because of `political correctness and political pressures'. But Ruffin took pride in the reparations and official apology which had been made to the Japanese Americans who had wrongly been interned during World War II.

Helmut Wegner, who had been a German diplomat in Japan and Ambassador to Norway, said that Hata's words had `left a deep impression' on him. `We Germans have to come to terms with what happened during the war.'

The ending of the Cold War had marked a turning point in relations between Germany and Russia, Wegner went on. `We express our regret and are very sad at the sufferings of the Russians during World War II.' There was no point asking who was responsible for the various acts that had taken place, what was much more important was to walk out of the shadows of war. `I'm very happy that Russians and Germans are now talking.'

In response, Prof Andrei Zubov of St John the Evangelist College, Moscow, suggested that Germany, even though she had invaded Russia, was not wholly to blame for starting Russian involvement in World War II. If there had been no Bolshevik Revolution and if Stalin had not discussed the carve-up of Europe with Hitler, perhaps there would have been no war. `We are not only victims who have to forgive, we are also a cause of what happened to us,' he said.

The Maori Queen, Dame Te Atairangikaahu, spoke of the new hope `for the unity in peace of Maori, Pakeha and all people of our beloved country, Aotearoa', which the Waitangi Tribunal was giving to New Zealand. `The key point is that some restitution had been made and our people are moving forward again,' she said.

The Waitangi Tribunal was set up to adjudicate on Maori claims for breaches of the original 1840 Treaty of Waitangi whereby the Maori chiefs ceded sovereignty of New Zealand to the British Crown in exchange for guaranteed land rights. The first claim was settled in 1995 on Turangawaewae Marae, the home of the Maori Queen's own iwi (tribe), the people of Tainui.

`We must put the sadness of the past behind us,' continued Dame Te Ata. `We must move into development mode from grievance mode so that we no longer pass the grievance on to another generation. There is much virtue in patience in adversity.'

Joan Bolger, wife of New Zealand Prime Minister Jim Bolger, said that attending the signing of the 1995 settlement was `one of the most unforgettable days of my life'. Signing such an agreement `not only for here and now but for coming generations' took enormous courage and `the people of Tainui exhibited much courage that day'.

Those who came from such troubled areas as the Middle East or former Yugoslavia took away first-hand evidence of the new element that can come in with the `forgiveness factor'.