First James Hoagland, now George Will–more of the pundits overseas are starting to get it.

Will’s latest column deals with Yasukuni specifically and Japan’s relationships with its neighbors in general. And like Hoagland, he provides us with another dollop of common sense:

Such as:

But both of Japan’s most important East Asian neighbors, China and South Korea, now have national identities partly derived from their experience as victims of Japan’s 1910-45 militarism. To a significant extent, such national identities are political choices. Leftist ideology causes South Korea’s regime to cultivate victimhood and resentment of a Japan imagined to have expansionism in its national DNA.

And:

Shinzo Abe, a nationalist who is almost certain to replace Koizumi, who is retiring next month, seems inclined to continue something like Koizumi’s policy, and for at least one of Koizumi’s reasons: China should not dictate the actions of Japan’s prime ministers.

Will also includes a fascinating comment from an unidentified “senior Japanese official”:

…(S)peaking about the incessant incursions by Chinese submarines and military aircraft into Japanese sea and air spaces, a senior Japanese official casually made the startling suggestion that China’s regime, like Japan’s regime before the war, does not fully control its military.

The columnist also makes an observation about the real state of relations between Japan and China that is similar to ones I have made here about Japan and South Korea:

But relations other than diplomatic ones are flourishing. China is, after America, the second-most popular destination for Japanese tourists….and in 2004, for the first time since 1945, Japan’s trade with China was larger than with the United States.

Here’s the entire column.