Because of both past history and the extreme potential danger posed by the weapons themselves, people have reason to demand that Japan show an honest and responsible attitude, and to take action to dispel concerns of the international community about its nuclear intentions.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met on Wednesday with visiting Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi, who came to Tokyo for the second China-Japan high-level political dialogue.

South Korea and China need to understand that the moral and military defeat of the Japanese military in World War II was so total, that it echoes to this day. Despite the historical revisionism and fear mongering of Shinzo Abe’s faction, the Japanese public appears unwilling to trust another “military clique” and engage in adulations of its military leadership and the military.

However unsavory the Victory Parade seems, the Chinese government is right to feel slighted by Prime Minister Abe of Japan. Using Mitsubishi Materials as an example, more Japanese companies should make conciliatory gestures for Japanese wartime conduct in exchange for continue economic benefits before the onset of a potential economic slowdown.

The Seventieth Anniversary of the victory of the Allies over Japan in the Second World War is now upon us. This War created tens of millions of victims, perhaps even as many as a couple of hundreds of millions, in Asia. I was one of the victims of the War, but a relatively lucky one. My parents lived in Hong Kong before the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbour.

Only when people with vision in Japan take positive actions, and the entire international community successfully urge Japan to adopt a correct reading of history, will Japan’s relations with its East Asian neighbors be able to move forward into an era of mutual trust and respect.

Seven decades after it surrendered to the Allied Forces, it is time for Japan to re-Asianize and come into its own as a fully sovereign nation.

Washington’s cozy-up with Japan’s military suggests the US has a short memory about its wartime experience, and Japan’s ultimate intentions should be re-examined.

Japan’s Abe government is appealing to the nationalistic Japan Restoration Party to revise the constitution to permit the assembly of an army. Lyle J. Goldstein’s book, Meeting China Halfway—How to Defuse the Emerging U.S.-China Rivalry has important suggestions for avoiding a Japan-China military conflict.

Interactions among China, Japan and the United States have gone far beyond the constraints of political stereotypes. The flow of capital, material, technology and people has brought the countries ever closer together. Embracing common interests, not “balancing power”, is the key to peace and prosperity for all three.