On the rare occasions when Japanese discuss World War II, they usually speak of their own victimization by the militarists who led the country into battle and by the Americans who bombed their cities. Japan's brutal aggression is ignored. But last week, at a ceremony marking the 46th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, the city's mayor, Takashi Hiraoka, for the first time apologized for the pain Japan caused. Noting that the "horror" began with its 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, he said, "Japan inflicted great suffering on the peoples of Asia and the Pacific during its reign of colonial domination...
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