Remember what I said about Japan apologizing?

I said it back here.  This is what I mean.  Key statement in the story:

The prime minister, when asked during the press conference whether he would make a reciprocal trip to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, said he had no current plans for a visit.

I know it could come off as being petty, to say we will apologize if they apologize.  But there is a method here.  Again, there is a tendency in non-Western, non-American nations to not blame themselves.  Sure Japan has apologized to other countries over the years.  But usually the apology is somewhere along the lines of  ‘we humbly apologize for this war we were forced into and otherwise desperately wanted to end because we hear some of our soldiers got out of hand.’  That’s not an apology.  Nor is it true.

In fact, it does a grave disservice to those who suffered under the cruel hand of Japan during its reign. As long as Japan uses two giant mushroom cloud shaped shields to mask its own atrocious track record, as long as it uses anything anyone else did to avoid accountability to its own people and the millions it killed and terrorized for 14 years under its self-proclaimed Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, then America groveling in the dirt and begging forgiveness could well cause more damage and allow for less accountability than anything it might help.