Dear Prime Minister Shinzo Abe,
Let me begin by apologizing for interrupting your work as you put the finishing touches on your long-anticipated surrender anniversary statement. It is not my intention to ask for, or propose, changes to the text of what is clearly an internal Japanese matter.
Nevertheless, I would like to share my experience as a citizen of a country that has also lost a major war. This is done with the hope that it may be of some assistance to your current efforts. The country and war I speak of is America and its defeat in the Vietnam War, a conflict that cost the lives of some 58,000 young Americans and more than 3 million Vietnamese.