Big Trouble in Big Asia

Following up on this post, there's more news from the recent flare-up of Sino-Japanese tensions.

BEIJING, China (AP) -- China on Sunday rebuffed Japanese demands for an apology after stone-throwing protesters damaged the Japanese Embassy and a consulate in demonstrations over Tokyo's wartime history and campaign for a permanent U.N. Security Council seat.

"The Chinese government has never done anything that wronged the Japanese people," Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing told his visiting Japanese counterpart as China allowed new demonstrations in at least six cities.

Li said Japan, instead, was to blame for "a series of things that have hurt the feelings of the Chinese people" over issues such as relations with rival Taiwan and "the subject of history" -- a reference to Japanese school textbooks that critics say minimize World War II atrocities.

Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura appealed to Li to protect Tokyo's diplomats and citizens as his government denounced violence on Saturday in Shanghai, where police allowed 20,000 rioters to break windows and damage restaurants and cars.

I don't continue to blame the Japanese for their attack on Pearl Harbor, just like I don't continue to blame Germans for the Holocaust. Why? The answer is simple: all of those responsible are long since dead. Japan is now one of the