The 50th anniversary of VJ-Day, the victory over Japan in the Pacific, raises questions unresolved since 1945 that may well determine the next decade of Asian history. Since the United States is allied to several countries in the region, that history is likely to be ours, too. Ironically, although most of the ties that brought this country into World War II were far weaker than current ones, Japan remains a focus of any conflict.
Unlike Germany, Japan never really had to acknowledge war guilt, either in the sense of having initiated the war for aggressive ends, or in the sense of having committed horrific war crimes. The difference was in the way the Cold War played out. In Europe, the Germans had to join an alliance—NATO—along with several of the countries they had overrun. They could be accepted into a united Western Europe only by coming to terms with their history. Despite some problems, it seems fair to say that most Germans are uncomfortably aware of just what their country did to the rest of the world.