HONOLULU -- Last week was rough for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. The last thing he wants to do now is revisit the Yasukuni Shrine question, but there is unfinished business that he must attend to.

The prime minister was in a corner; no matter what he decided to do, someone was going to be angry Aug. 15. The eventual compromise only ensured that everyone was displeased. The right complained that visiting the shrine two days early was equivalent to appeasing foreign governments and tolerating "interference in Japan's domestic affairs." Those governments and members of the Japanese left complained that Koizumi went to the shrine at all. (Surely, one of his advisers knew that Aug. 13 was the day Japan commenced bombing Shanghai in 1937.)

Koizumi deserves credit for his forthright statements after the visit and on the 15th at the ceremony marking Japan's surrender. No one can say that he doesn't understand what happened during the war years and why. "Japan caused tremendous sufferings to many people of the world, including its own. . . . Japan imposed, through its colonial rule and aggression, immeasurable ravages and suffering particularly to the people of neighboring countries in Asia." But he, like his predecessors, came up short when completing the thought. "Representing the people of Japan, I once again express deep remorse and offer sincere condolences to the victims." He should have connected the two thoughts -- the pain that occurred and Japan's responsibility for it -- and said, "we are sorry and we apologize."