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History may be written by the winners, but there’s nothing to prevent the losers from writing vindictive autobiographies.

Japan, having lost the Second World War and some pride along with it, is penning a new past. Under the authorship of a government with political ties to an ultra-nationalistic organization and generational ties to war criminals, Japan’s angry new tell-all memoir would portray the country as a victim of malicious, half-century-old lies about Mass Atrocities That Totally Never Happened. This creative narrative is so powerful that even Angelina Jolie can’t counter it with her blockbuster Second-World-War movie. Not just because Unbroken is weak, but because Japanese theatres aren’t screening it.

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Japan’s government isn’t obsessed with history for history’s own sake. By denying the scale of its past aggressions, Japan can defend future militarization. So far, Japanese citizens have resisted all-out war on their country’s constitutionally guaranteed pacifism. But that may soon change, and geopolitical dynamics along with it. Already, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is exploiting the fact that last month two Japanese hostages were brutally murdered by ISIL.