One of the results of this "coming to grips" is that the public education system does little to expose the atrocities committed by Japanese troops during WWII. Not unlike some of the stupid things that come out of the mouths of 17 year olds in this country, the student quoted in this article is a product of his education.
I was stationed in Japan for three years, traveled the country quite a bit, had many Japanese friends, both civilian and in the JSDF. In a majority of the people there is a conflicted sense of guilt over WWII. They tend to know Japan was in the wrong, even if their worst atrocities are suppressed in the public conscience.
My impression was that the grinning Japanese at the Arizona memorial and those visiting the shrine to the war criminals in Tokyo were in the minority. I only had one face to face encounter with one of these people and he was immediately confronted by complete strangers who happened to be walking by.
One exception to this is the "why us" mentality that still prevails in Hiroshima. If you were to have no knowledge of WWII (public education) and visited the "Peace" Museum you would come away with the following impression. Japan and the U.S. had conflicting interests in Asia, and somehow a war broke out, and then America nuked us, now look at the pictures of the victims and devastation. Even after a serious revamping of the exhibits, this mentality still prevails. It turns out that the army garrison from Hiroshima was responsible for Nanking. When referring to Nanking the exhibits say that some historians have asserted that some atrocities may have been committed by the Japanese troops.
Overall, I wouldn't make too much of this article. One statement by a 17 year old does not reflect the feelings of a whole society. Japan is one of our strongest allies and its issues with the truth of WWII won't hurt its relationship with the U.S. as much as it continues to hurt its relationships with its Asian neighbors.
" If you were to have no knowledge of WWII (public education) and visited the "Peace" Museum you would come away with the following impression. Japan and the U.S. had conflicting interests in Asia, and somehow a war broke out, and then America nuked us, now look at the pictures of the victims and devastation. "
You should go to the Nagasaki Peace Museum . I walked away with the impression that the peaceful Japanese were just sitting around minding their own business when out of nowhere a nuclear bomb was dropped on their city .
I read that when Spielberg's 'Empire of the Sun' came out in 1987 he got an angry call from legendary Japnese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa who thought he 'overdid' the depiction of Japaneses atrocities in China.