Japan and China failed yesterday to close the book on their bitter second World War past. That failure, coupled with differences over their views on Taiwan, weakened a joint declaration meant to celebrate the first visit to Japan by a Chinese head of state.
The declaration, which the Chinese President, Mr Jiang Zemin, and the Japanese Prime Minister, Mr Keizo Obuchi, did not even sign, was issued six hours later than scheduled because of intense wrangling about wording on the two key issues.
In the end, Japan expressed only "deep remorse", rather than the written war apology sought by China and it stood firm against Beijing's demand for a clearer statement that Japan would not support Taiwan independence.
"Painfully feeling its responsibility for inflicting grave suffering and damage on the people of China by invading China at one period of history, the Japanese side expressed deep remorse for this," the declaration said.
On Taiwan, it said: "Japan will continue to adhere to its position stated in the (1972) Japan-China joint statement on Taiwan and its recognition again that there is one China."
Before Mr Jiang's arrival, China demanded an unequivocal apology for the war and a "no compromise" statement about Taiwan. The two issues were seen as central to the success of the five-day visit.
"Both sides were not ready to resolve the history issue . . . to leave it behind and to see only the future," a senior Japanese Foreign Ministry official said.
China did get an apology but only verbally during the summit talks when Mr Obuchi simply recalled the 1995 ground-breaking statement on the issue by then Japanese Prime Minister, Mr Tomiichi Murayama.
The first hint the summit was in trouble came earlier yesterday when authorities revealed that it had been decided the two leaders would not sign their joint declaration.
Officials said there was "no clear-cut criterion on whether to sign a political document such as a Japan-China joint declaration" even though Mr Jiang's official itinerary mentioned a ceremony.
On a less contentious note, Mr Zemin yesterday promised to give Japan's Emperor Akihito a pair of crested ibises, a species of bird on the verge of extinction in Japan, government officials said.
Mr Jiang handed a framed photograph of the ibises to the emperor, the officials said.
After a legal rejection of claims by second World War service personnel for compensation, Japanese judges were branded "as low as you can possibly get".
Briton, Mr Arthur Titherington, who gave evidence twice before the court in Tokyo about his experiences as a slave labourer in a copper mine, said he was "outraged" at the way the case was dismissed.
The court ruled just after 1 a.m. yesterday on a claim brought by Mr Titherington and six other former PoWs and civilian detainees, who were held by Japanese forces occupying south-east Asia. Each claimed £13,500 sterling compensation and an apology from the Japanese government. The seven plaintiffs - from Britain, the US, Australia and New Zealand - were representing about 20,000 former PoWs and civilian detainees or their widows. In a longer ruling released later by the court, the judges said not only did they reject the legal basis for the compensation, they did not even accept that the testimony from Mr Titherington and other plaintiffs was necessarily true.