The Magazine

A Japan That Can Say Yes

We should welcome the nationalism of Prime Minister Abe.

Oct 9, 2006, Vol. 12, No. 04 • By DAN BLUMENTHAL and GARY SCHMITT
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For Beijing, Japan's past is a diplomatic weapon that can be used to isolate Japan from its neighbors and make other countries wary of its attempt to play a different international role. It has very little to do with moral culpability and everything to do with a contest of wills in which China is bound and determined to keep Japan from exercising that new role.

Washington should see China's stratagem for what it is and, instead, support Japan's effort to become a "normal" democratic power.

Dan Blumenthal is a resident fellow and Gary Schmitt is the director of advanced strategic studies at the American Enterprise Institute.

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