Abe should also seek reconciliation for 'trail of unspeakable cruelty'

On Dec 26, Shinzo Abe will be the first Japanese prime minister to visit Pearl Harbor, on which Japan launched a sneak attack on Dec 7, 1941, dragging the United States into the war. He will not apologize for the attack during his visit, as it is intended to "console" its victims.

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants closure for his country's war past, and he is seeking reconciliation with the US. But by uttering no apology, Abe hopes to continue to keep the focus of attention away from Japan's wartime responsibility.

In a signed article published in Japan Times on Friday, Kuni Miyake, former Japanese diplomat stationed in Washington, Beijing, Cairo and Baghdad, called China, rather than his own country, to heed Pearl Harbor's lessons.