Leader's views on history, war and repentance

Citing Germany as an example, visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel, speaking at Tsinghua University in Beijing, emphasized the importance of having a correct understanding of history.

Asked to comment on Japan's recent decision to revise its constitution so as to lift the ban on the right to collective self-defense, Merkel said she is not in a position to comment on the Japanese government, but from Germany's point of view, "it is important not to let the tragic history repeat".

Merkel told students that after World War II the German people reconsidered what they had done during the conflict. Although such a process was "miserable" it was the right way to "have a correct understanding of historical issues", she said.

Germany's attitude toward its war history has won it respect among Chinese and others around the world. In the most well-known and poignant case of German self-reflection regarding World War II, in 1970 the West German chancellor Willy Brandt fell to his knees in a gesture of humility and penance at a monument to victims of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

(China Daily European Weekly 07/11/2014 page3)