December will be a month of reconciliation for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, as he meets with leaders from two countries that fought Japan in World War II: the United States and Russia.
It might seem promising that Abe is hosting Russian President Vladimir Putin and then being hosted by U.S. President Barack Obama in such short order. But these events actually presage an uncomfortable, potentially destabilizing time for Japan — and East Asia.
On Dec. 26, Abe will shake hands with Obama at Pearl Harbor — weeks after the U.S. marked the 75th anniversary of the Japanese attack there — to reciprocate Obama's visit to Hiroshima's atomic bomb sites last May. The mutual demonstration of forgiveness is meant to emphasize the values that Japan and the U.S. now share.