Europe has achieved Franco-German reconciliation and European integration, but in Asia, Japan and China are struggling with their bilateral history issue some 67 years after the end of World War II.
China criticizes Japan for its lack of soul-searching about the war — unlike Germany. I think the international environments and the obtuseness of the Japanese about history are responsible.
Germany and France were able to achieve reconciliation within the Western bloc during the Cold War, while Japan and China were divided, with Japan in the American bloc and China in the Soviet bloc. It was only at the time of the negotiations for normalizing their bilateral relations in 1972 that the leaders of Japan and China met for the first time.