A Japan that can't win trust

With Shinzo Abe at the forefront, Japanese politicians are trotting the globe on sympathy-seeking trips, peddling the image of Japan as a peace-loving country stuck in a hostile neighborhood.

As if Japan had done nothing wrong, now or in the past.

As if Japan were unfairly blamed for what was not of its making.

As if it were not Japan's lack of repentance for past sins that has caused the current impasse.

The culture of shamelessness Japanese politicians embody is a warning sign of a dangerous orientation in Japanese politics. If they were once shy of revealing their true selves in public, things are strikingly different under the current prime minister.

Naoki Hyakuta, handpicked by Abe to be governor of the Japanese public broadcaster NHK, was only the latest to showcase that peculiar shamelessness.

While campaigning for a right-wing candidate in the Tokyo gubernatorial election on Monday, Hyakuta claimed the Nanjing Massacre "never happened", even though there is solid historical evidence - including eyewitness accounts by Japanese soldiers and third-country citizens - that reveals the nature and scale of the atrocities committed.

Yet, Hyakuta said there is no need to teach such things to Japanese children since all sides committed atrocities during the war.

Even inside NHK, Hyakuta is not alone in voicing such denials and whitewashing. During a Saturday news conference, Katsuto Momii, the new head of NHK, defended the Japanese military's use of sex slaves during World War II as a practice common in any country at war, describing international indignation as "puzzling".

As always, such brazennesss has the support of the Abe administration. Hyakuta's remarks were personal views that "do not violate the Broadcasting Law" and Momii, "made the comment as an individual", said Yoshihide Suga, chief cabinet spokesman for Japan.

Outside the NHK, Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto said on Monday the "comfort women" system was "necessary" for giving Japanese soldiers a chance "to rest".

In France, Japanese ambassador Yoichi Suzuki said he "deeply regrets" that South Korean comics featuring "comfort women" were displayed at an international comic book festival, which he said promoted "a mistaken point of view". However, the festival organizers shut down a Japanese booth displaying revisionist WWII content and swastika images.

On Tuesday, the Japanese city of Minamikyushu submitted an application to UNESCO for 333 items left behind by Kamikaze pilots, including letters and suicide notes, to be enshrined as part of the Memory of the World.

To even think of putting such items alongside the "Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen" and The Diary of Anne Frank is an outright insult to human conscience.

Japan under Shinzo Abe is undergoing a profound transition to the right. Abe's personal attempts to rewrite history and rebuild Japan's military potential are just the tip of a dangerous nostalgia for the country's imperialist past.

A Japan with a morbid view of history is anything but a normal country to be trusted or respected.

(China Daily 02/07/2014 page8)