Commentary: Abe's misplaced efforts at reconciliation

A reconciliation gesture from an old foe, especially from a certain country once bringing a nightmare for nearly all of its neighbors, is always welcomed.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is making a visit to Pearl Harbor, which is dubbed by Tokyo a "tour of reconciliation."

Japan launched a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, in which 2,400 American nationals lost their lives. The raid drew Washington into the Second World War and its eventual nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki forced Japan's unconditional surrender.

But in the case the "reconciliation tour" tag is no more than a ruse that is easily to be seen through.

Japan-U.S. alliance has lasted for several decades in the postwar era. Tokyo is a key ally of Washington for most of the Obama years as the U.S. president pushes his "pivot to Asia" strategy aimed at interfering in Asian affairs and countering a rising China. So why the need for reconciliation at Pearl Harbor?

Japan's efforts at reconciliation are misplaced. If Abe wishes to make amends, he should begin closer to home, to show his sincerity to the Chinese, the Koreans, or other Asians his country once afflicted.

It is true that the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor resulted in loss of thousands of American lives. But a horrifying event had taken place in China a few years earlier and little known to the outside world.

If Abe truly wants reconciliation, he should begin with a tour to Nanking, where more than 300,000 civilians and war prisoners lost their lives at the hands of the Japanese military in this single Chinese city in 1937.

The Nanking Massacre has been called a mere "incident" in Japanese textbooks, and Japan has never seriously apologized for writing one of the most appalling chapters of 20th century history.

According to statistics, Chinese military and civilian casualties totaled approximately 35 million, accounting for one-third of the total casualties suffered by all countries during WWII.

In addition, let's also not forget the Chinese and Korean "comfort women" who were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military and Japan's ravage of the region during World War II.

Diplomatic show will never gain trust and reconciliation, factors so important and in urgent need for co-existence and co-development in the region.

Just as Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying has warned that "Japan can never turn the page without reconciliation with the victim countries in Asia, including China."

"Sincere reflection is the only key to the reconciliation." Endit