Sign of a dangerous obsession

Japan's new warship evokes the most aggressive period of the country's imperial past and displays its growing militarism

While Japanese people prayed for peace on Tuesday to commemorate the 68th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima during World War II, the Shinzo Abe administration was noisily reawakening some of the ghosts of Japan's militarist past.

It held a high-profile ceremony to unveil a new helicopter carrier called Izumo, which is named after a cruiser used as a flagship during Japan's war of aggression against China in the 1930s.