South Korea And China Want Japan To Show Greater Contrition Over Their Conduct During The Second World War

Japanese nationalists march to pay tribute to the country's war dead near the Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo. Photograph: Issei Kato/Reuters

South Korea And China Urge Japan To Show Greater Contrition Over War -- The Guardian

On 67th anniversary of the second world war, comments by the South Korean president prompt official protest from Japan.

Tension between Japan and its Asian neighbours escalated on Wednesday, the 67th anniversary of the end of the second world war, as South Korea and China both told Tokyo to do more to resolve lingering bitterness over its past military aggression.

Memories of Japan's wartime occupation of much of China and colonisation of South Korea remain powerful, despite close economic ties.

Comments by the South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak, prompted an official protest from Japan, where he was accused of insulting the Japanese emperor, Akihito.

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My Comment: The war ended 67 years ago .... time to move on. Unfortunately .... both sides cannot.

Japan's Airspace Was Nearly "Invaded" 425 Times In 2011

Japan Was Nearly Invaded 425 Times Last Year -- Business Insider

Data quietly released this week by the Japanese Defense Ministry reveals China and Russia are to blame for a record number of emergency operations by Japan's Air Self-Defense Force.

Kyodo news agency reports:

Japan scrambled fighter planes 156 times in response to Chinese aircraft approaching Japanese airspace in fiscal 2011, a record high number for China since the Defense Ministry started releasing such data by country in 2001, the ministry said Wednesday.

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My Comment: The Russians will continue testing Japanese airspace .... but it is with the Chinese that I expect tensions to increase as they continue with their military buildup in the region. So ....

.... Japan scrambled fighter planes 156 times in response to Chinese aircraft approaching Japanese airspace in fiscal 2011

Expect this number to rapidly increase in the next year or two.

Japan And China Making Historic Amends, One Humdrum Trip At A Time

China's President Hu Jintao (R) shakes hands with Japan's Prime Minister Taro Aso during a meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing April 30, 2009. REUTERS/Jason Lee

Japan And China Making Historic Amends, One Humdrum Trip At A Time -- Christian Science Monitor

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso ended a two-day trip to Beijing Thursday. Both countries affirmed their desire to cooperate but avoided troublesome topics.

BEIJING – I attended Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso’s press conference at the end of his 24-hour trip to China out of a sense of curiosity.

For this short visit, the two countries had stuck to relatively uncontroversial areas of cooperation – the economy, swine flu, global warming, youth exchanges. They did not dwell long on tenser topics like North Korea’s nuclear threat.

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My Comment: This story has been under reported in the West, but what is happening between China and Japan will have significant and long lasting impacts on economic, political, and military/security issues. Make no mistake about it, the number 2 and number 3 economies in the world with a quarter of the population are now laying the groundwork to develop a long lasting spirit of cooperation .... a cooperation that will immediately impact Asia, and with time the rest of the world.

I have no delusions that this will be easy to do. Both countries have a terrible history, as well as a culture that is racist, hateful, and condescending towards each other. I know ... because I have been traveling there for the past 20 years, and I have seen the animosity that both groups have towards each other up cloae.

But fortunately, time has the capacity to erase and wipe the worse that a people or nation may have against another .... and it is this long term view and philosophy that both Japan and China are adopting.

Will it work? It probably will because for both Japan and China .... it is in their mutual long term interest to make it work.