Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- December 27, 2016



Howard Lafranchi, CSM: At center of Obama-Abe Pearl Harbor meeting: the power of reconciliation

Though Japan and the US have been solid allies for decades, they remained divided about the tragedies of the beginning and the end of World War II.

When Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that he would become the first Japanese leader to visit Pearl Harbor, meeting President Obama in Hawaii Tuesday, it was noteworthy that both leaders characterized the visit as an opportunity for reconciliation.

The United States and Japan, after all, would seem to have reconciled long ago. The two nations have made peace and become close allies since the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor 75 years ago and the US dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima four years later.

But the two leaders' message is clear. What the Obama-Abe visit will demonstrate is that reconciliation is not a one-and-done, but is a perpetual work in progress between onetime adversaries – even after decades of close relations. Coming seven months after Mr. Obama’s groundbreaking visit to Hiroshima, Mr. Abe’s Pearl Harbor trip is yet another step beyond a declaration made decades ago.

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Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- December 27, 2016

Is Abe the wrong messenger for Pearl Harbor? -- Jeff Kingston, Special To The Japan Times

Is Abe the first sitting Japanese leader to visit Pearl Harbor? Well, actually, he may be the fourth. -- Adam Taylor, Washington Post

After Aleppo, Syria's Tehran-Moscow axis starts to fray -- Ed Blanche, UPI/The Arab

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