Hatoyama, ex-prime minister of Japan, at a recent news conference deplored the fact that Japan, highly responsible for the division of Korea, serves as a marplot instead of playing its role in the thawing season of the DPRK-U.S. and inter-Korean relations that started with much effort, adding that Japan should do what it has to do.

In February, the "2019 statement of Japanese citizens and intellectuals" urging the Abe government to make an apology for and reflection on the Japanese imperialists' colonial rule over Korea was made public in downtown Tokyo. And Japanese religionists repeatedly made open apologies for the past atrocities on the occasion of the centenary of the March First Popular Uprising in Korea.

This is the conscience of Japan.

However, the Japanese reactionaries still deny the blood-stained crimes against the Korean nation and other Asian peoples and are desperately keen on distorting Japan's history though 70-odd years have passed since the end of World War II, turning a deaf ear to the calls of social justice and conscience.

Denial of the past crimes means a willingness to repeat them.

It is proved by the deplorable reality in Japan that is run through with reckless arms buildup, radical revision of the Constitution and political climate of ultra-nationalism, all of which spark off serious concern and vigilance of the international community.

It is by no means fortuitous that Japan is regarded as "political dwarf" and "animal of economy" no matter how vociferously Japan advocates "proactive pacifism" and "contributions to the international community".

The persistent evasion of liquidating the past proves to be Japan's nemeses such as exclusion from the issue of the Korean Peninsula, political and diplomatic conflicts with regional countries and failure in the attempt for becoming a UNSC permanent member.

Japan can neither make even a step forward as long as it is weighed down by the past nor be a normal state unless it clears crime-woven history.

At the end of January, Japanese Prime Minister Abe said in his policy speech that it is the time for totally summing up postwar Japan's diplomacy, expressing the strong will to "put an end to the tasks remaining for 70-odd years after the war".

Japan is well advised to keep in mind that the core of postwar Japan's diplomacy and its unavoidable historical task are to admit the heinous inhuman crimes committed by the Japanese imperialists against Asian peoples in the last century and make an apology and reparation for them.

Japan should not talk about "summing up" while glossing over a pile of hideous crimes it should compensate for before history and mankind.

Japan's future depends on its understanding that the settlement of its past is the only way to shake off the ill-fame of an enemy state and live in harmony with the international community.