Making peace with the past

For Japan to move on, it needs to fully address its role in the Second World War

Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe. Kazuhiro Nogi / AFP

The Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has made the bold and wise decision to visit Pearl Harbor, site of the surprise attack on December 7, 1941 that brought the United States into the Second World War. His visit follows a trip in May by US president Barack Obama to Hiroshima, where the war in the Pacific effectively ended. But Mr Abe’s gesture will not go far enough.

The Japanese surrender, declared by Emperor Hirohito on August 15, 1945, was signed on the USS Missouri on September 2. While it formalised the end of hostilities, it did not heal all the wounds, some of which remain raw seven decades on. Specifically, it is felt in China, along with the South-East Asian countries that were occupied by Japanese forces and whose people suffered extreme deprivation, that Tokyo has failed to atone for its cruel past.

Japanese schools still do not thoroughly address this dark chapter of history. For example, one history book issued to a generation of pupils who are now adults mentions the infamous Nanjing Massacre – where thousands of Chinese people were systematically raped and murdered – in just one line in a footnote. While belated reparations have been made, many Koreans still feel the terrible pain of the "comfort women" who were used by Japanese soldiers as sexual slaves. In the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore, people look to Japan, now the world's third-largest economy and an influential player on the world stage, for an explanation and apology, and for a sense of closure.

Mr Abe has said that the atrocities of war must never happen again, but he will not offer an apology for Pearl Harbor or other past acts of aggression. Moreover, it should be noted that in April, Mr Abe visited a controversial shrine that honours Japan’s war dead, including some convicted war criminals.

Nobody is suggesting that the Japanese people of today are responsible for the sins of their fathers and grandfathers. However, beginning with Mr Abe, they can and should acknowledge the awful mistakes of the past. Only then will Japan, and the region, be able to move on.