As Japan searches, still confusedly, for a new identity within Asia, it may come to appreciate, as Jeff Kingston, a close observer of contemporary Japan, writes, “the potential benefits of reassuring past enemies.” But how will the effort at reconciliation with victims of Japanese aggression shape official memories of Japan’s war in Asia?
In most Asian eyes, Japan has remained for the past two decades a U.S. client state — unable or unwilling to alienate its former occupiers by charting an independent path. Remarkably at the same time, another formerly occupied country and close U.S. ally, Germany, has moved to the center of Europe, and is shaping the continent’s future.
looking beyond borders 