“Come my friends ‘tis not too late to seek a newer world” (continued).

We recently began this series with this quote by Alfred Lord Tennyson. Our theme is that the world is beginning to heal the horrors of the 20^th century, although the tragedy Russia experienced from WWI through 1998 may take generations to mend.

We have noted the rise in tensions between Japan and China, which is largely based on the “rape of Nanking” and other atrocities committed by the Japanese in China before and during WWII.

We consider Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s former Prime Minister, one of the wisest and best thinkers in Asia. He recently said as follows: “If it is badly handled, and the Japanese and the Chinese do not sit down and talk about the past, and how to put the past at rest, we will have more eruptions of this, which will be bad for business, bad for the region.”

It is anyone’s guess as to how this will turn out. Will business pragmatism force Japan and China to deal with the past? Or, will Japan’s pride prevent the necessary healing? If we had to bet, we would take the side of pragmatism.