When History Humiliates Former Enemies (CNN)

In an opinion piece on CNN, Dartmouth’s Jennifer Lind writes that the Japanese prime minister’s recent visit to the Yasukuni shrine has stirred tensions in the region. She says Shinzo Abe’s visit “will curdle Japan’s already sour relations with South Korea or China, and indeed has already provoked the predictable outcry.”

While many countries, such as Poland and Germany, have looked for inclusive ways to commemorate the past, Lind writes, Japan has not followed that path.

“Commemoration is not the root cause of poor relations in Northeast Asia; it is a window to just how distant relations are there,” writes Lind, an associate professor of government and the author of Sorry States: Apologies in International Politics.

Read the full opinion piece, published 1/3/14 by CNN.