Japan needs thorough examination of its wartime aggression

Japan cannot solve its territorial disputes with China over the Diaoyu Islands without thorough and critical examination of its aggression during World War II, German broadcaster Deutschlandradio said in a commentary over the weekend.

"Without thorough and critical examination of the past, Japan cannot solve the open territorial disputes," said Peter Kujath, author of the article.

Japan still has not confessed its militaristic past as it glosses over its wartime atrocities in China, he noted in the commentary.

"The recent anti-Japan demonstrations in China peaked on the anniversary of the Mukden incident (the Sept. 18th Incident in 1931), which was staged by the Japanese army and led to the invasion of Manchuria (China's northeast) and later to a series of atrocities in China," the article said.

"These facts are denied in part today by some in Japan and barely mentioned in the textbooks," it said.

Japan's claim that there is absolutely no territorial dispute with China over the Diaoyu Islands is also a testament to Japan's lack of pragmatic political approach, Kujath said.

He also pointed to the failure of the Japanese government's foreign policy as it failed to recognize its own vulnerability.

"After all, China is the largest trading partner of Japan, (and) the two countries are closely intertwined in economy," he said.

He also compared the row with Japan's escalating territorial dispute with South Korea over the Dokdo Islands, known as Takeshima in Japan.

Looking at both of these events more closely, one would see that Japan's disputes with China and South Korea show that the lack of analysis of the history on the side of Japan plays an important role, the author said.

"Japan, like Germany, was the aggressor in the Second World War," Kujath wrote at the end of the article, adding that Japan still has to reflect over its wartime history.