More than a half century later, World War II stills haunts Japan's summers, by Mari Yamaguchi, Associated Press, 8/5/2002 01:47 (EXCERPT) TOKYO (AP) For the Japanese, summer is traditionally a time when the spirits of ancestors are believed to return briefly to their hometowns, where they are welcomed with fireworks and festivals and sent back with paper lanterns floated out to sea. For a half century, though, another ghost has come back each summer to haunt Japan World War II. On Tuesday, it will descend on Hiroshima, for the solemn observance of the 57th anniversary of the city's destruction, By an American atomic bomb. VIPs gather from around the world, the prime minister offers a pledge for peace, a moment of silence follows the wailing of an air raid siren. Three days later, the ceremony is repeated in Nagasaki, the only other city to be attacked with a nuclear weapon. On Aug. 15, speeches will be made in Tokyo to mark the 1945 surrender that was supposed to bring an end to Japan's militarist nightmare. Yet, every year books come out examining some new aspect of the war and its impact on this nation. There are videos, movies, TV series. Editorials are published, and journalists closely monitor which lawmakers visit Tokyo's controversial war shrine to pay respects to Japan's fallen soldiers. And not a year goes by without one of the victims of Japan's past aggression accusing it of failing to make amends. Korea and China harshly criticize the way Japan's textbooks deal with the war, and they slam Japan's every attempt to bolster its military. ''Every summer, Japan mourns for its war victims, but shows little remorse for what it did,'' said Shinichi Arai, a historian at Surugadai University in Hanno. ''That's how Japan has viewed its past and that still is the government's attitude.'' Attention in Japan, he said, is focused on the horrors this nation suffered Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the firebombing of Tokyo. Largely forgotten are massacres in other countries, the government's procurement of sex slaves and Japan's use of germ warfare. Demands for compensation clog Japan's courts. Some 60 lawsuits have been filed by victims of forced labor, sexual slavery, germ weapons...         U.S. and friendly nation laws prohibit fully reproducing         copyrighted material. In abidance with our laws this report         cannot be provided in its entirety. However, you can read it         in full today, 05 Aug 2002, at the following URL. (COMBINE         the following lines into your web browser.) The         subject/content of this report is not necessarily the         viewpoint of the distributing Library. This report is provided         for your information and discussion. http://www.Boston.com/dailynews/217/world/More_than_a_half_century_la...