However, in 2015, on the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe caused controversy when his statement expressed regret for the atrocity but did not contain an apology.
The untried universe might prove a dismal hole, but it could hardly be more flat and sordid than the corner which he was leaving behind him. There was nothing to regret; nothing to look back upon.
The boy had no friends to care for, or to care for him. The regret of no recent separation was fresh in his mind; the absence of no loved and well-remembered face sank heavily into his heart.