The Politics of Apology

The collision between a Chinese PLA fighter and an American EP-3 intelligence aircraft is only one in a long list of incidents in which the politics of apology have produced such convulsions of emotion in the countries involved. The challenges in Asia over war-time memories and the assignment and acceptance of guilt for Japanese aggression in Korea and China are increasingly controversial as the Japanese debate versions of history in national textbooks. The sinking of the Ehime Maru by a U.S. submarine showing off its capabilities for a group of joy-riding civilians; the accidental bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade; the hot-dogging antics of a Marine Corps EA-6B Prowler in Italy that flew too low and sliced through a ski-lift cable killing 20 people have also been tragedies in which the "calculus of apology" have been controversial and sometimes difficult for the victims.

New America hosted a broad discussion on the politics of apology in the 21st Century -- and what the dynamics of this debate are going to look like in the future.

Participants

• Steve Mufson
  Foreign Affairs Correspondent and former Beijing Bureau Chief, Washington Post


• Toru Takanaritta
  Washington Bureau Chief, Asahi Shimbun


• Timothy Chorba
  Former U.S. Ambassador to Singapore and Partner, Patton Boggs


• Ayako Doi
  Editor, Japan Digest

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