Flight or Fight: Miyazaki vs Aso

Unresolved issues of history continue to haunt and distort the present, all the more so when hidden from view. Historical controversies need a good airing from time to time, not so much to salvage the past as to save the future from repetition of past mistakes. When factual distortions are part of the problem, silence is not an answer.

Japan's militarists pose a case in point. There's no shortage of foreign media report when ludicrous denials are made about issues like the Nanjing Massacre and comfort women, or when war-criminals are glorified at Yasukuni Shrine, but attention should also be paid to Japan's ongoing argument with itself.

The latest domestic flare-up is between Japanese defenders and detractors of Japan's "Peace Constitution", known as such for its war-renouncing clause. The 1947 Constitution was conceived under US guidance as an antidote to militarism, and it remains in force today, a remarkable testament to both its peaceful vision and practical durability.