History loomed over the recent visit of Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji like a threatening storm cloud. But other than some scattered showers, this trip was unmarred by the type of cloudbursts unleashed by the demands of President Jiang Zemin during his 1998 visit, when he called for Japan to admit to and atone for its wartime aggression. Tokyo has been pouting ever since and there were clear signs of relief among the Japanese leadership that on the latest occasion the legacies of the past were kept at bay.
Pretending that history need not influence present and future bilateral relations has an obvious appeal in Japan, but people should not delude themselves that neighbors are willing to let Japan off the hook. In stating that addressing past misdeeds is Japan's responsibility, Zhu has put the onus on Tokyo to revise what Beijing clearly views as an inadequate rendering of the shared past.
Without the duress of hectoring and arm-twisting, expectations are building for a less evasive and self-exonerating history that rises above the nationalism that has prevented Japan's regional rehabilitation. Japan can ill afford to miss this opportunity to rebuild bridges it razed more than six decades ago.