South Africa, as said before, has experienced some success in certain areas; Germany has certainly made some progress; and in recent years, Chile also. Reconciliation [in Chile] has not gone very far, but the post-Pinochet society has confronted such issues, and we should not neglect the importance [of such actions]. This is what I mean when I say we should not overlook the smaller steps. In the case of Japan, the comparison with Germany has been reiterated over and over again, that Japan has been doing so terribly and Germany has been doing so well. Germany is not doing as well as it is made out to be, and Japan is not doing as badly as it is made out to be, especially in recent years. What we need is to develop specific measures with which we can look at societies carefully over long periods of time, and track changes over time. And if we look at Japan in this light, there is a gradual movement towards [rapprochement], despite the fact that the [political] right is very vocal.

[When measuring success in reconciliation] we also need to consider the generational issue. We see in the United States, all of a sudden, [testimonies such as] Ken Burn’s film on WWII. He remarked that he couldn’t have made such a documentary ten years ago because most of the WWII veterans were not talking about their experiences. But now most of the veterans are dying out at a very fast pace, and some are finally willing to speak. This applies to other societies as well. In Japan, the generations of bureaucrats are getting younger and younger, and they are more willing to confront such issues, and I think this is a necessary ingredient. This again, is different for each society, as sometimes victims might feel that their suffering is neglected during [that time of silence].

As a final note, I would caution against generalizing about the solutions to genocide and mass atrocities. We should be more attuned to the complexities of violence and suffering. This would be the greatest mistake we as bystanders can make—simplifying the experience.