There are many in the West, and indeed in Japan, who do not understand why the past cannot be buried and why Japan's wartime aggression is held against it.

Why shouldn't Japan be a normal state? Why shouldn't it have a military like other countries? Why should it not change its Constitution, after all, they say, wasn't it written and imposed by the United States after the war? Such questions have come to the fore with the growing estrangement between Japan and its neighbors.

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has set himself the mission of restoring to Japan the status of being a normal state. In this noble task, he has cast himself as the hero battling the forces of evil (with a little help from of a now-friendly giant). It's a nice story; but in fact his tale has already been told.