[Editorial] Abe needs to clear air about history

All eyes are currently fixed on which direction the new Japanese cabinet, led by Prime Minister Abe Shinzo, will take. But take a closer look, and you will realize that Abe, who is Japan’s first prime minister born after the second World War, is in danger of stoking the age-old dispute between Japan and its neighboring countries. Abe has chosen several right-wing politicians for his cabinet already, people who have denied the very existence of comfort women during Japan’s imperial rule of Asian countries. It is worrisome that the way the new cabinet sees history and the world is the same way that hard-line, right-wing politicians see it.

I do not take issue with Abe’s family background; but I offer as information the fact that his grandfather was the one who signed off on the attack on Pearl Harbor. Abe is now poised to complete the unfinished business of his grandfather, in scrapping the so-called Peace Constitution and enacting an "autonomous constitution." With strong anti-North Korea hard-liners occupying major cabinet posts, tensions on the Korean peninsula will also likely intensify.

What the Abe-led cabinet has to do, among other things, is to recover Japan’s strained relations with South Korea and China, which have chilled due to Abe’s predecessor Koizumi Junichiro’s repeated visit to the Yasukuni shrine. Fortunately, Abe’s aides are secretly seeking contacts with neighboring countries through diplomatic channels. Reports say that Abe is considering moves to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum to be held in November, where he would meet his counterparts in neighboring regions for the first time since he has taken office. Some Koreans are urging President Roh Moo-hyun to meet with the Japanese prime minister to touch on pending issues with an open heart.

However, things could get worse if the two do not set a broad framework before the dialogue. Abe has kept mum on the issue of visits to Yasukuni. If Abe really wants to mend fences with his neighbors, he should make his position on the shrine visits clear, as well as his stance on other historical disputes. His ambivalent attitude will only make it more difficult for him to build trust with neighboring nations.