In a meeting with atomic bomb survivors one day ahead of the anniversary of the attack on Hiroshima, Abe also promised to respect Japan’s own ban on nuclear arms.

The comments about the atomic bombings by Fumio Kyuma were part of a series of gaffes and scandals involving Cabinet ministers that outraged Japanese voters and contributed to a defeat for Abe’s ruling camp in a July 29 upper house election.

“I apologize for Mr. Kyuma’s remarks that resulted in hurting the feelings of atomic bomb victims very much,” Kyodo news agency quoted Abe as telling representatives of survivors of the bombing in Hiroshima.

Kyuma, who had said the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki “couldn’t be helped” because they brought World War Two to an end, stepped down over the remarks, becoming the third minister to exit Abe’s Cabinet by resignation or suicide after he took office in September. A fourth minister resigned last week.

The 52-year-old Abe, Japan’s first premier born after World War Two, also pledged to keep Tokyo’s ban on nuclear arms and work to abolish atomic weapons worldwide.

“I will maintain the three non-nuclear principles and will try to take leadership toward nuclear abolition,” Kyodo quoted him as saying, referring to Tokyo’s decades-old prohibition on having, making or allowing the introduction of nuclear weapons.

Abe promised to review the government’s tough standards for determining whether atomic bomb victims suffer from radiation disease, the subject of a series of law suits by victims.

“It has been 62 years since the atomic bombs were dropped and we must perfect an appropriate policy from the overall perspective of insurance, medical care and welfare,” Abe told the victims’ groups as cameras rolled at the start of the meeting.

Abe has vowed to stay on in his post despite the drubbing at the polls. The ruling camp has a huge majority in the lower house, which picks the prime minister.

But his support rate has slipped to just over 20 percent according to one media survey after the election, which gave control of the less powerful of parliament’s two chambers to the opposition Democratic Party of Japan and its allies.

Abe is scheduled to attend on Monday an annual ceremony commemorating the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima by the Enola Gay B-29 warplane.

A second bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki on Aug. 9.

More than 360,000 people ultimately died from the two nuclear attacks, which were quickly followed by Japan’s surrender, ending World War Two.

The atomic attacks hold a central role in the country’s collective memory and Japan has been criticized for stressing its status as victim while playing down its own war atrocities.

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