Matthias Pfeifer comments

It is always difficult to compare a nations history to others. You cannot compare the Holocaust to Japanese atrocities in Asia. You cannot compare Hiroshima/Nagasaki to what happened in Nanjing.

Fact is: 20 Million Chinese died because of the Japanese invasion. Another fact is that the relations between Japan and China/Korea are as bad as it can get. What the present government is doing or saying, reflects on their attitude towards history. It does not matter if a Japanese prime minister had apologized in the past, as long as this apology is not the permanent basis of diplomatic relations. Germany managed to maintain relations to former enemies that make a war unthinkable. Japan obviously failed in this respect, and war between Japan and China is still a possibility. The onus is on Japan, the historical perpetrator, to change that.