If a war breaks out in Asia, Abe's choice on Dec 26, 2013, to pay respects at Yasukuni Shrine will stand out as a landmark date. On the face of it, Japan has apologized in the past for the atrocities its imperial troops committed against Chinese and Koreans, notably the profound apology expressed by former Japanese prime minister Tomiichi Murayama in 1995. The problem with that apology lies partly in the fact that it was not endorsed by the Japanese parliament, the Diet. What matters much more is that, over the last decade, many Japanese political leaders have reneged on that apology.

As a result, acid is repeatedly being poured on the wounds of Japan's neighbors, preventing them from healing. While Germany has made definite peace with all its neighbors and the countries that suffered under Nazism, Japan is on very bad terms with its neighbors. The Asia-Pacific climate is hardly propitious to peace.

Tokyo's relations with Seoul and Beijing have entered a spiral of escalation that seems to be generating its apparently unstoppable momentum. While US Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy has expressed “disappointment” at Abe's visit to Yasukuni, there have been suggestions that Washington should play a more prominent role as the Asia-Pacific region's honest broker. That, however, is unlikely to work. The US is an ally of Japan.

Moreover, whether justifiably or not, China sees it as being committed to thwarting its rise. This is not to say that there is no role for an independent “broker”, someone to douse the flames and seek some form of peaceful modus vivendi (even if reconciliation seems difficult at the moment). The arbiter would ideally come from a neutral country: for example, Sweden's foreign minister Carl Bildt, who has gathered significant experience in conflict management in the Balkans. In any case, it is urgent that some right choices be made before it's too late.

The author is an emeritus professor of international political economy in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The Globalist