EDITORIAL
Prime Minister Tony Abbott: "Australia welcomes Japan's recent decision to be a more capable strategic partner in our region."
Prime Minister Tony Abbott: "Australia welcomes Japan's recent decision to be a more capable strategic partner in our region."
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop believes, in relation to China, that ''it's better to be clear and direct about where we stand on issues than allow confusion or misunderstanding to occur''.
But Beijing is struggling to reconcile her direct approach towards China with how the federal government treats another important trade and strategic partner, Japan.
In particular Australia has embraced Japan's plans to increase its military power in the region, while at the same time downplaying Japan's dark war history.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott told his Japanese counterpart, Shinzo Abe, in Parliament this week: ''Our partnership began from the ashes of the most destructive war in history, because our peoples and our leaders have consistently refused to let the past blight the future.''
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Mr Abbott wants to focus not on what was but what can be – such as the free trade deal with Japan and a closer military relationship in conjunction with the US.
His rationale is that Japan has been ''an exemplary international citizen'' for decades, so ''Australia welcomes Japan's recent decision to be a more capable strategic partner in our region''.
The Japanese leader's speech to Parliament even invoked long-time Australian prime minister Robert Menzies: ''Hostility to Japan must go. It is better to hope than always to remember.''
True. International relations can require certain things be left unsaid. But they should not be forgotten. If they are, a nation risks misreading the motives and potential reactions of friends and enemies.
Sensibly, Mr Abbott in his speech introducing Mr Abe avoided Japan's record in World War II. But he took the risk of highlighting an alternative aspect of Japanese war history.
Mr Abbott suggested Australians admired Japanese soldiers for ''the skill and the sense of honour that they brought to their task, although we disagreed with what they did''.
The angry response from one report on the state-owned Chinese Xinhua news agency was that Mr Abbott ''probably wasn't aware that the Japanese troops possessed other 'skills' to loot, to rape, to torture and to kill''.
The national president of the RSL, Rear Admiral Ken Doolan, said such behaviours by the Japanese were indeed ''matters of historical record'' and that some RSL members believed the Japanese performed in ''dishonourable ways''.
Granted, the reaction downplayed the context of Mr Abbott's remarks. He was referring directly to Japanese submariners killed in the attack on Sydney and even cited Admiral Gerard Muirhead-Gould, who said of them: ''Theirs was a courage which is not the property or the tradition or the heritage of any one nation ... it was patriotism of a very high order''.
Nonetheless, Mr Abbott was so keen to laud Japan that he presented an unbalanced view – talking about honour while not mentioning the dishonour – with little regard to any likely effect on other key regional relationships.
To his credit, Mr Abe was as humble and contrite as any hawkish Japanese leader has been about his nation's wrongs during war, offering ''my most sincere condolences towards the many souls who lost their lives''.
Like Mr Abbott and Mr Abe, the Herald believes Australia must not dwell on the past when aiming to secure a better future for the region. Reconciliation with former enemies is always preferable to holding grudges.
But we have heard no such heartfelt Japanese thoughts for the many thousands of  Chinese – on some counts up to 300,000 – killed by Japanese forces in Nanking in 1937. Nor have we heard apologies and seen restitution to many prisoners of war or women abducted and abused by Japanese soldiers.
Many Japanese are also reluctant for their nation to regain military power. Support for Mr Abe has fallen 9 percentage points to 48 per cent since he announced plans to re-interpret the nation's pacificist constitution. Only 36 per cent of respondents support the change.
We have not heard China admit the atrocities it has committed over decades, either.
Australia must be sensitive to Asian history as it is viewed from all sides. If we are not,  we risk creating an atmosphere in which our would-be economic and strategic partners think twice.
And when straight talking is required in response to modern-day events, it must be applied equally to all our partners.
Ms Bishop has been forthright in criticising the Chinese for what she calls ''unilateral or coercive action'' around the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islands in the South China Sea. She says China ''doesn’t respect weakness''. That may be true. But neither will China respect a partner that ignores deeply entrenched animosities linked to fault on both sides.