【华盛顿邮报20130427】安倍晋三不能正视历史

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【中文标题】安倍晋三不能正视历史
【原文标题】Shinzo Abe’s inability to face history
【登载媒体】华盛顿邮报
【原文作者】华盛顿邮报编辑部
【原文链接】http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/shinzo-abes-inability-to-face-history/2013/04/26/90f5549c-ae87-11e2-a986-eec837b1888b_story.html
【相应消息之中媒报道】新华网：美媒社论批安倍：德国可以面对历史 为什么日本不能
【中文链接】http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2013-04/28/c_124643093.htm

Shinzo Abe’s inability to face history
By Editorial Board, Published: April 27

FROM THE MOMENT last fall when Shinzo Abe reclaimed the office of Japanese prime minister that he had bungled away five years earlier, one question has stood out: Would he restrain his nationalist impulses — and especially his historical revisionism — to make progress for Japan?

Until this week, the answer to that question was looking positive. Mr. Abe has taken brave steps toward reforming Japan’s moribund economy. He defied powerful interest groups within his party, such as rice farmers, to join free-trade talks with the United States and other Pacific nations that have the potential to spur growth in Japan. He spoke in measured terms of his justifiable desire to increase defense spending.

This week he seemed willing to put all the progress at risk. Asked in parliament whether he would reconsider an official apology that Japan issued in 1995 for its colonization of Korea in the past century, Mr. Abe replied: “The definition of what constitutes aggression has yet to be established in academia or in the international community. Things that happened between nations will look differently depending on which side you view them from.”

Officials in South Korea and China responded with fury, and understandably so. Yes, history is always being reinterpreted. But there are such things as facts. Japan occupied Korea. It occupied Manchuria and then the rest of China. It invaded Malaya. It committed aggression. Why, decades after Germany solidified its place in Europe by facing history honestly, are facts so difficult for some in Japan to acknowledge?

We understand that South Korea and, to an even greater extent, China at times stoke anti-Japan sentiment for domestic political purposes. China distorts its own history and, unlike Japan, in many cases does not allow conflicting interpretations to be debated or studied. But none of that excuses the kind of self-destructive revisionism into which Mr. Abe lapsed this week.

An inability to face history will prejudice the more reasonable goals to which South Korea and China also object. Mr. Abe has valid reasons, given the defense spending and assertive behavior of China and North Korea, to favor modernization of Japan’s defense forces. He has good reason to question whether Japan’s “self-defense” constitution, imposed by U.S. occupiers after World War II, allows the nation to come to the aid of its allies in sufficient strength. But his ability to promote reform at home, where many voters remain skeptical, and to reassure suspicious neighbors plummets when he appears to entertain nostalgia for prewar empire.

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美媒社论批安倍：德国可以面对历史 为什么日本不能

    新华网消息，美国《华盛顿邮报》发表社论，批评日本首相安倍晋三早前说国际上对侵略的定义没有定论是无视历史。

    安倍晋三23号在日本参议院答辩时表示，侵略的定义在学术界以至国际上都没有定论，取决于从哪一方看待问题。这番言论引起亚洲邻国的关注。

    美国《华盛顿邮报》发表社论指出，日本侵略韩国和中国的历史事实不容怀疑，否认事实引起中韩官员的愤怒回应，是可以理解的。

    社论质疑，为什么德国可以诚实面对历史，与欧洲团结起来，而日本一些人却不能承认侵略史实？

    社论说，日本如果继续怀念战前的帝国主义，想推进国内改革，增加防卫经费，很难获得周边国家的赞同。

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