Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's recent visit to war-linked Yasukuni Shrine has damaged Japan's already strained ties with China and South Korea, who say his action shows that Tokyo remains unrepentant about its militarist past.
In an interview, Gerald Curtis, a veteran Japan scholar at Columbia University, described Japan's ties with China and South Korea as "worrisome," with the "history issue" an underlying factor.
He advised Japan to "take pride in admitting what you're not proud of," just like other countries that have re-evaluated their pasts, including the United States, where schools address uncomfortable truths about issues such as the treatment of Native Americans, the segregation era and the Vietnam War.