A United Nations Security Council open debate on the lessons to be learned from war turned into an airing of complaints against Japan for allegedly forgetting what it should have learned from its attempt to control East Asia and the Pacific during the previous century.

It comes alongside some startlingly tone deaf and insensitive events in Japan.  A few weeks ago, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe paid a visit to the notorious Yasukuni Shrine, where the souls of class-A war criminals are honored with Japan's war dead. 

And this week, Abe’s choice to head the national broadcaster Katsuto Momii NHK had to backtrack from his claims that Japan’s war crime of forcing women from conquered lands into brothels was commonplace among warring armies.  It wasn’t.  Not only can’t Momii’s comments be backed by evidence, but also they drew sharp rebukes from the US and South Korea.

At the Security Council, South Kore said that tensions are rising in East Asia.

“And this mainly stems from the fact that the Japanese leadership has a distorted view of what happened during the time of imperialism,” said Ambassador Oh Joon, whose country suffered particularly badly during the Imperial Japanese occupation.  “Japan should refrain from provoking its neighbors with its denial of history.”

North Korea's envoy Ri Tong Il said Japanese officials “are driving their knives into the wounded hearts of the victims” and “instigating the Japanese people into retrieving their militaristic ambitions.”

Chinese Ambassador Liu Jieyi said Abe’s visit to Yasukuni had “closed the door to dialogue with China”.

Japan's deputy UN envoy Kazuyoshi Umemoto insisted his country had “expressed its feelings of remorse and heartfelt apology” over World War II.