The statement of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the 70th anniversary of the conclusion of the Second World War was the focus of profound anticipation throughout Asia. The prime minister was in an extremely delicate position, seeking to balance the need to express contrition to Imperial Japan’s aggrieved neighbors against the robust demands to yield no ground from his nationalist domestic political base. These contradictory forces, not surprisingly, created a statement more memorable for its equivocation than for its eloquence. This was not a Willy Brandt kneeling at the Warsaw Ghetto Memorial moment that would forever transform the narrative.
Read Full Article »
