NEW YORK -- Will the nearly 60-year-old debate on the Showa Emperor's role in World War II ever end?

A friend of mine in Tokyo informed me that the monthly Bungei Shunju, in its July and August issues, did a special on a "newly discovered" Imperial document: a statement composed by the Showa Emperor's top aide on his behalf of which the Emperor spoke of the "untold sufferings" brought on as a result of the "lack of my virtue" and expressed "profound remorse before the world." It is thought to have been prepared in the fall of 1948, around the time those found guilty at the Tokyo Trial were executed.

Then, another friend apprised me of another magazine special -- this one on Japan's "war responsibility." Its overall subject is the need to find some way for Japan to get around the impasse, both international and domestic, at which it has been placed because of the war waged more than half a century ago. As the editor who conceived the special plaintively asked, is war "Japan's original sin"? The collection of discussions and essays appeared in the February issue of Chuo Koron.