Photo/Illutration Former Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda responds in an interview with The Asahi Shimbun. (Koichi Ueda)

Despite indoctrination in militaristic education during World War II, Yasuo Fukuda would go on to value the importance of diplomacy when he served as chief Cabinet secretary and then prime minister.

In an interview with The Asahi Shimbun, Fukuda, 89, said, “The role of a politician is to make every effort to not create a situation in which a nation is forced to go to war.”

Born in Tokyo in 1936, Fukuda is the oldest son of, Takeo, a wartime Finance Ministry official, who would later become prime minister.

Ministry work took the Fukuda family to Nanjing, China, which was then under Japanese control. But the worsening war situation forced the family to return to Tokyo and later move to Gunma Prefecture, the elder Fukuda’s ancestral home, because of the intense bombing of the capital.

Because of the heavily militaristic nature of the education at the Gunma elementary school Fukuda attended, he recalled becoming very angry when adults told him Japan had lost the war.

But other memories of the war have returned to haunt Fukuda.

“One thing I cannot forget is sending off local men to the warfront,” Fukuda said. “One of my relatives went to war and what I remember about the send-off is how they all seemed to gaze off into the distance.”

Fukuda added that as he grew older he began to recall those expressions of those going off to war and think about whether they left while knowing in their hearts that they would never return alive.

“I still recall those moments and am left with an incredibly helpless feeling,” Fukuda said.

His father retired from the Finance Ministry after the war and entered politics.

Takeo Fukuda as prime minister in 1977 announced what came to be known as the “Fukuda Doctrine,” which pledged that Japan would not become a military power.

Fukuda himself became prime minister in 2007 and along with Chinese President Hu Jintao released a joint statement that called for establishing a strategic and mutually beneficial relationship between their nations.

“Diplomacy is important for not entering into war,” Fukuda said, “The foundation for diplomacy is a relationship of trust.”

But he noted that various moves by China have made it difficult to hold meaningful summits over the past decade.

While Fukuda said the confrontation with China over the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea was the catalyst for the lack of meetings, he added, “If we only view China as the enemy, it will be very difficult to make any move at all. Japan and China must not forget their special relationship based on a common culture and history.”

Eighty years since the end of World War II, only about 1 percent of Diet members were born before Aug. 15, 1945.

Fukuda said, “It is easy to say we must not go to war. But what is important is using one’s imagination to make that past history a core part of oneself and think about what it meant for the nation.”

After serving as an aide to his father when he was prime minister between 1976 and 1978, Fukuda won his first term in the Lower House in 1990. He served as chief Cabinet secretary for about three and a half years under former Prime Ministers Junichiro Koizumi and Yoshiro Mori.

Fukuda became prime minister in September 2007, marking the first time a father and son had served in that position. He would serve in that post for a year before resigning in September 2008. 

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