On December 27, Abe made history by visiting Pearl Harbor in an official visit with President Obama, in this 75th year of the attack. Lots to discuss on the topic:

• How are the US and Japan able to have conciliatory, relationship-strengthening visits like this, when Japan and South Korea, or Japan and China, cannot? On when and how countries “harmonize” their narratives about the past in service of reconciliation: my Foreign Affairs article on Korea-Japan relations.
• On Obama’s visit to Hiroshima last May: my Washington Post / Monkeycage article on three principles for successful shared remembrance. Based on statements from the Prime Minister’s Office, and on Abe’s previous visit to the World War II memorial in Washington, D.C. (April 2015), these principles will undergird Abe’s visit to Honolulu.
• On Abe’s visit specifically: check out my comments in the Financial Times, New York Times, Vox.com and PRI Radio (with Nicholas Szechenyi).