With the Japanese Prime Minister’s Dec 27 visit to Pearl Harbor, plus President Obama’s historic trip to Hiroshima last May, we see a remarkable change in the US-Japan alliance in recent years. For decades, the highly successful US-Japan partnership evaded, rather than confronted, the World War II past. But under Abe and Obama’s leadership — and with the growing threat of China in the region — the two governments are finally starting to examine the past together. See my essay at Quartz.