Denials of the past deny the future

The other day I had a conversation with a Japanese journalist who had worked in Beijing for several years. He grew impatient when we talked about which key words Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should use for his statement to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the World War II in August.

"Why can't we look to the future rather than look back," he said, blaming China and South Korea for using the issue of Japan's war past as a political card.

No one in Japan gives this label to Western countries, where there are also many critics of Abe and his like-minded revisionists.