TOKYO, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- The Japanese air force chief of staff was fired for writing an essay in which he said Japan's wartime aggression was positive, officials said.

Gen. Toshio Tamogami was fired last week after a hotel company announced he won its $30,000 "true modern history" essay contest, The Washington Post reported Monday.


Government officials apologized for Tamogami's essay, saying Japan deeply regrets its wartime aggression.

China and South Korea, the main victims of Japan's wartime Asian attacks, expressed shock and anger.

In his essay, Tamogami argued Japan attacked Pearl Harbor because of a "trap" set by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and that "that many Asian countries take a positive view" of Japan's role in the war.

Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada said Tamogami was fired because a senior military leader "should not make public an opinion opposed to the government's position."

In 1995, then-Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama officially apologized for Japan's wartime aggression. However, a minority in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party periodically retreats from the apology, the Post said.

Before becoming prime minister in September, Taro Aso upset the governments of North and South Korea when he praised Japan's 35-year colonial occupation of their peninsula.