Commentary: Germany serves as role model for Japan on pondering history lessons

A reconciliation is only possible if Japan faces its past squarely, said German Chancellor Angela Merkel on her first visit to Tokyo in seven years on Monday, while asking Japan to be more honest in dealing with its history.

When it comes to reflection on history, Germany and Japan, former war allies, are no longer on the same page.

Despite shameful episodes in its past, Germany has been accepted by its European neighbors and the international community again after the end of World War II.

"The image that most Greeks have of Germany today has nothing to do with Nazism," said Greek MEP Marietta Giannakou in a recent interview.

"I think it was possible first because Germany did face its past squarely," explained Merkel during her Japan visit.

As Germany's reflection on history has become an international role model, the path Germany went down has been far from straight in nearly 70 years after the war.

The period between 1945 and 1965, when a lot of Germans were still affected by Nazi ideology and had sympathy for the Nazis, was called the "silent era" by some German historians.

In 1963, the murder of European Jews firstly came to the attention of the wider public through the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials, a series of trials charging defendants for their roles in the Holocaust as mid to lower-level officials.

In 1969, Willy Brandt's historic gesture of kneeling in Warsaw signaled to the world that there was also a different understanding of how to deal with the Nazi past in Germany.

On May 8, 1985, Weizsaecker's speech set a milestone in the history of German politics, as he said: "Those who close their eyes to the past are blind to the present. Those who do not want to remember the inhumanity, are vulnerable to new risks of infection."

In present-day Germany, the confrontation with the Nazi past is not just an issue for the teaching of history at schools, colleges and universities, but also an integral part of media, especially television, discussions. It is also figures in the field of politics.

In short, it has become ubiquitous in German society.

Germany was lucky to be reintroduced to and accepted by the international community after the horrible days during the Nazi rule and the holocaust, Merkel said.

However, as the process of Germany's reflection on history showed, the trust that Germany has now from the international community was not gained by luck but years of voluntary efforts.

Merkel noted: "One of the greatest achievements was the reconciliation between Germany and France. Today it can be safely called Franco-German relationship."

If Japan awakens to the good intentions of the German leader's advice one day, the country will realize that reconciliation is going to be a win-win situation. Endit