Japan and the Politics of Guilt
Japan is again alienating its neighbors and driving its friends to despair over the issue of accepting responsibility for its past aggression and atrocities. The election of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has revived denial at the highest levels – a message that resonates with the public in ways that would be unthinkable in Germany.
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CANBERRA – Japan is again alienating its neighbors and driving its friends to despair over the issue of accepting responsibility for its wartime aggression and atrocities. With the election of the new government, the voices of denial are heard again at the highest levels, and are resonating with the public, including the young, in ways that would be unthinkable, by contrast, in modern Germany. All of this is fueling nationalist sentiment in China and South Korea, and making even more dangerous the already volatile territorial disputes in the East China Sea and the Sea of Japan.