How deep-felt was Prime Minister Abe's gesture of apologising the attack on the Pearl Harbor one is not sure - given the fact that almost coincidental to his move the Japanese Defence Minister Inada paid a visit to the Yasukuni war shrine which is dedicated to the souls of 2.5 million Japanese soldiers who died in wars since the second half of the 19th century. As expected, it provoked strong resentment and anger in China and South Korea, who believe that Japan has yet to atone for atrocities committed against their nationals. Obviously then there is an element of strategic understanding to the presidential visits at Hiroshima and the Pearl Harbor than a sincere attempt at making an atonement for the excesses committed against the noncombatants during the Second World War. Were such a sentiment the driving force behind these two visits then that kind of horrific past would not have allowed to revisit Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya and Afghanistan in 21st century. As if no lesson has been learnt from the Hiroshima and Pearl Harbor tragedies war remains the principal tool of international politics. Take the cases of Afghanistan and Iraq the United States had workable options to resolve differences, but it still opted for wars, which devastated lives of millions of people. However, in the case of Syria too, sincere and earnest negotiations with a tyrant ruler in Damascus could have helped avert the tragedy as it unfolds now in Aleppo and other cities. One would hope the bilateral apologies for the war crimes and belated atonement on the part of Washington and Tokyo help overcome misplaced nationalistic pride which sometimes tends to breed inhuman and atrocious mindset against the noncombatant civilians, as were the cases in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Pearl Harbor in the US during WWII and various other parts of the world during and after WWII.
How deep-felt was Prime Minister Abe's gesture of apologising the attack on the Pearl Harbor one is not sure - given the fact that almost coincidental to his move the Japanese Defence Minister Inada paid a visit to the Yasukuni war shrine which is dedicated to the souls of 2.5 million Japanese soldiers who died in wars since the second half of the 19th century. As expected, it provoked strong resentment and anger in China and South Korea, who believe that Japan has yet to atone for atrocities committed against their nationals. Obviously then there is an element of strategic understanding to the presidential visits at Hiroshima and the Pearl Harbor than a sincere attempt at making an atonement for the excesses committed against the noncombatants during the Second World War. Were such a sentiment the driving force behind these two visits then that kind of horrific past would not have allowed to revisit Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya and Afghanistan in 21st century. As if no lesson has been learnt from the Hiroshima and Pearl Harbor tragedies war remains the principal tool of international politics. Take the cases of Afghanistan and Iraq the United States had workable options to resolve differences, but it still opted for wars, which devastated lives of millions of people. However, in the case of Syria too, sincere and earnest negotiations with a tyrant ruler in Damascus could have helped avert the tragedy as it unfolds now in Aleppo and other cities. One would hope the bilateral apologies for the war crimes and belated atonement on the part of Washington and Tokyo help overcome misplaced nationalistic pride which sometimes tends to breed inhuman and atrocious mindset against the noncombatant civilians, as were the cases in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Pearl Harbor in the US during WWII and various other parts of the world during and after WWII.