Attitude toward history

THERE IS NO NEED AND REASON FOR JAPAN TO feel annoyed at China's application to UNESCO for the inclusion of 1937 Nanjing Massacre and "comfort women" of the World War II era in the Memory of the World Program. It is even more absurd for Japan to ask China to with draw the application.

It seems as if such a move at this time will aggravate the already tense situation in East Asia, especially the stalemate between Japan and China.

But it is not the Japanese aggression toward China perse and the atrocities its invading troops committed during the war that stand in the way of bilateral relations between the two countries. It is the Japanese government's attitude and that of Japan's major politicians toward them that has become an obstacle to the healthy development of bilateral ties.