Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba released a long-awaited personal statement on the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II Friday, offering his own perspective on the outbreak of the conflict — in a bid to establish a legacy weeks before his leadership comes to an end. “I have been wondering why Japan was not able to stop the war, and what role politics played and did not play,” Ishiba told a news conference Friday evening, saying that statements by past prime ministers had not elaborated on