Apology

TOKYO -- Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu expressed "sincere contrition" yesterday for the "unbearable suffering and sorrow" Japan inflicted on "a great many" fellow Asians in World War II.Offering other Asians words they have waited nearly 50 years to hear, Mr. Kaifu made Japan's equivalent of gestures German leaders made to fellow Europeans more than a decade ago.He took the occasion of a major foreign policy speech in Singapore to utter the first unequivocal apology...

Hi, everyone, and welcome to another edition of Who Wants to Apologize? the show where we take public apologies from politics, sports and entertainment, and vote on which is the most insincere and done solely to stop an avalanche of career-threatening publicity! As usual, we've got a great lineup of contestants -- get a load of how sheepish these folks look! So let's get right to it, shall we?! (Applause.) Our first contestant is disgraced Idaho Sen. Larry Craig, who announced over weekend that he'd resign at the end of the month after news accounts revealed he was busted for disorderly conduct for an incident in an airport men's room.

ASHBURN, Va. -- This is the kind of season it has become for the Washington Redskins:Even after a 41-3 victory over the Phoenix Cardinals, coach Joe Gibbs was apologizing profusely. Gibbs said yesterday he felt he had violated one of his cardinal rules: never rile your opponents.That's why Gibbs apologized for allowing backup quarterback Cary Conklin to throw a 10-yard touchdown pass to Art Monk with 2:44 left against the Cardinals on Sunday at RFK Stadium.The call enraged Cardinals coach Joe Bugel, a former Gibbs assistant, and Gibbs never likes to give his foes any ammunition.

Rep. Kweisi Mfume has issued an apology for inadvertently voting in favor of an appropriations bill amendment that would fund 61 "pork barrel programs that I vehemently oppose."The apology, contained in a news release from his office, said Mfume, D-7th, had been attending a meeting to salvage the 1990 Civil Rights Act Oct. 20 and rushed to the floor of the House, where he quickly voted on the amendment.The measure supports a Senate amendment that would transfer $54 million from housing programs to an account that would fund "special purpose projects."

PRESIDENT CLINTON made the right step when he considered an apology for slavery. To apologize shows acknowledgment of wrongdoing. To offer no apology is to disregard history and its victims.How can blacks and whites deal with issues of today when the issues of yesterday remain unfinished business? This apology is a start in the right direction.Mere words are not enough. Reparations must accompany an apology. Yes, reparations -- which ought to include: fixing the inner-city school systems, reworking the criminal-justice system, ending discrimination in all facets of American life and enhancing affirmative action to ensure equality both in the labor market and in educational institutions.

NEW YORK -- Steve Carlton, who spent most of his baseball career not speaking to the media, is in hot water for recently published remarks.In the April issue of Philadelphia magazine, Carlton is quoted as making anti-Semitic references while talking about world revolution. Carlton's remarks angered the American Jewish Congress, which is demanding the Hall of Fame electee apologize for his "blatant and unconscionable bigotry."David Kahn, president of the Jewish organization, wrote letters to the baseball establishment urging "that any further Hall of Fame induction plans for Mr. Carlton [July 31]

WASHINGTON -- The Marine Corps' top general said yesterday that a senior Army officer was wrong to apologize to the families of the 19 Afghan civilians killed and the 50 injured by Marines in March because investigators have yet to determine whether any wrongdoing occurred. Gen. James T. Conway, commandant of the Marine Corps, said Army Col. John Nicholson should not have issued the apology last week, particularly because he is a brigade commander in Afghanistan, which puts him in the chain of command that might be asked to decide whether charges should be brought against the Marines.

DALLAS -- A Jewish group demanded and got an apology Tuesday after the Dallas Cowboys' fan newspaper compared a rival team's owner to Hitler.The Zionist Organization of America accused the Official Dallas Cowboys Weekly of "trivializing" the Holocaust by invoking the Nazi leader in depicting Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder as a "dictator."Russ Russell, longtime publisher of the weekly, which has a circulation of about 50,000 worldwide, said he didn't read the column ahead of time and would not have approved it if he had."

He wore a colorful tie, but Gov. William Donald Schaefer was in a decidedly subdued mood as he offered an apology to Maryland voters who supported him in the general election."

WASHINGTON - "The past is never dead," William Faulkner once wrote. "It's not even past." Senate leaders found that out the hard way when they decided to take up a piece of long-unfinished business, a Senate apology for failing to outlaw lynching. Even in this enlightened era of Oprah and Obama, the dawn of America's most tolerant, egalitarian multiracial and multicultural century, even the august Senate has no easy time coming to grips with its troubled racial past. The resolution, sponsored by Democrat Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana and Republican George Allen of Virginia, apologizes to "the victims of lynching and the descendants of those victims for the failure of the Senate to enact anti-lynching legislation."