LONDON -- Those of us who were involved in the Pacific War look with suspicion and a tinge of fear at manifestations of Japanese nationalism, especially if it has ethnic or militarist overtones.
We know that history does not repeat itself and that conditions today are so different from what they were 60 years ago that it is unlikely that Japan could pose a military threat in Asia for the foreseeable future. But Japanese nationalism, as demonstrated by the recent rightwing attacks on those who protested against the new Japanese history textbooks, seems to many foreigners of my generation as an unacceptable manifestation of Japanese chauvinism.
My sympathies in this case are with the Koreans and the Chinese as well as with liberal forces in Japan who object to the apparent attempt in the new textbook not merely to rewrite history but to misrepresent the facts to try to justify Japanese actions of 1941.