MR C A Bakewell (Letters, May 1) asks whether I am suggesting that the Japanese set up companies in their country with altruism as the top of its motive list.

No, I am not. No company - Japanese, American or British - does that. My point about Emperor Akihito's visit is that the sins of the father shouldn't be visited after such a long time on a son who is blameless of what his father and his War Cabinet ordered.

We paid the Japanese back two-fold for their infamy by dropping atomic bombs on two of their major cities producing armaments for the war effort.

To answer Mr Bakewell's other question, I think remembrance Day should be kept but shouldn't be used to create a long-lasting bitterness when what it really is about is the futility of war and the productiveness of peace.

DUNCAN McVEE, Robin Bank Road, Darwen.

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