Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s brand of nationalism is a becoming an ever more serious threat to Japan’s relations with the United States. His use of revisionist history is a dangerous provocation for the region, which is already struggling with China’s aggressive stance in territorial disputes in the East and South China Seas.
Mr. Abe, however, seems oblivious to this
reality and to the interests of the United States, which is committed to defend
Japan by treaty obligation and does not want to be dragged into a conflict
between China and Japan.
Mr. Abe’s nationalism can be hard to
decipher, because it is not directed against any country. It is directed
instead against Japan’s own history since World War II, which he finds
shameful. He wants to shed what he calls the self-effacing postwar regime and
recreate a renewed patriotism.
But before he gets to Japan’s postwar
culture, he also whitewashes the history of the war. He and other nationalists
still claim that the Nanjing massacre by Japanese troops in 1937 never
happened. His government on Friday said that it would re-examine an apology to
Korean women who were forced into sexual servitude by Japanese troops. And he
insists that visiting the Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japan’s war dead
including convicted war criminals, merely shows respect for those who
sacrificed their lives for their country. Despite clear signals from Washington
to refrain from visiting the shrine, he went in December.
A confrontational relationship with China
at this time could help him convince a deeply pacifist people of the need for
heightened defense preparedness. It seems a peculiarity of Japan that those who
advocate a greater military posture tend to overlap with historical
revisionists. Mr. Abe’s nationalism aside, however, neither he nor other
mainstream Japanese leaders are about to enhance Japan’s military capabilities
without American consent because they are deeply committed to the U.S.-Japan
security alliance.
Correction: March 5, 2014
An earlier version of this editorial incorrectly stated that the Abe government would possibly rescind an apology to Korean women who were forced into sexual servitude by Japanese troops.
