Obama urges Japan to recognise past honestly

But Obama did not touch on the issue at the summit. He even allowed Abe to justify his shrine visit during the news conference. Abe said he would continue to explain why he visited the shrine so that people would understand him.

In Seoul, Obama did raise the history issue. At a news conference after a summit with President Park on Friday, he urged Japan to face up to history and address the grievances of the Korean women who had been forced into sexual slavery for Japanese soldiers during World War II.

“This was a terrible, egregious violation of human rights. Those women were violated in ways that even in the midst of war were shocking, and they deserve to be heard, they deserve to be respected,” he said.

Obama still did not comment on Abe’s visit to the Yasukuni Shrine. Instead, he said that he believed the Japanese prime minister “recognizes, and certainly the Japanese people recognize, that the past is something that has to be recognized, honestly and fairly.”

While Obama placed trust in Abe, Park sounded more skeptical when she stressed the need for the Japanese leader to make good on the promises he had made before the trilateral summit in The Hague.

Obama also urged the two neighboring countries to look forward and keep their eye on the future, while trying to find ways to resolve the pain of the past.

Korea is ready to reset its ties with Japan in a forward-looking manner and promote trilateral cooperation in security issues, only if Japan shows sincerity in resolving the thorny history and territorial issues.

Obama needs to ponder on why Abe is not trusted by countries in this region and beyond. Abe pursues his own vision of Japan. But the problem is that his vision is based on a flawed historical perspective. This is why his initiatives are greeted with suspicion. Unless Abe changes his revisionist perception of history, Japan will be further isolated in the international community. This is not an outcome beneficial to Washington.

Yu Kun-ha is chief editorial writer of The Korea Herald.