those issues going forth to lead off the discussion today, we are pleased and honored to welcome dennis blair to our stage. formere blair is the corrector of the national intelligence. -- formerrman of the director of national intelligence. tokyo. a big speech in we have copies of it out front if you would like to take a look at it. those of you watching online, you can go to our website and find a copy of that speech. us in washington for a deep grief on that trip. trip.rief on that some of hise thoughts with us today. thank you. >> thanks very much. it is a pleasure to be here to talk about a serious subject. the spanish philosopher once famously remarked that the those that can't remember the past are condemned to repeat it. this ringing phrase has been taken out of context and used to justify false historical analogies for current actions. a bitter quote has been attributed to the french diplomat. they have learned nothing, they have forgotten nothing. of bothements observations in the use and misuse of history by governments in northeast asia. it seems to me that these three powerful cou

next, remarks from retired admiral dennis blair. he is followed by south korean ambassador to the u.s. ahn ho-young. this is an hour. [applause] ?alter [applause] >>thank you. to begood to hear her -- here amongst the many friends. we're here to talk about a pretty serious issue and that is a matter of history. of course when we say history what we're talking about really is japanese occupation of korea, world war ii and the lead up to world war ii. it it's funny you never reference the post world war two history and you're talking about history, the many decades now of toanese contribution international relations and the economy, but nevertheless, we know what we're talking about when we say history. even listing the events can be a matter of controversy so for now we will let the word history speaks for itself and let our guests unpack the word for us a little bit. we call it american optimism if we can getut i hope through conversation about how we isolate the disputes that japan and korea have over matters of the past and talk t

speakers include retired admiral dennis blair and the south korean ambassador to the u.s. this is a little less than two and a half hours. ?alter [applause] >>thank you. to begood to hear her -- here amongst the many friends. we're here to talk about a pretty serious issue and that is a matter of history. of course when we say history what we're talking about really is japanese occupation of korea, world war ii and the lead up to world war ii. it it's funny you never reference the post world war two history and you're talking about history, the many decades now of toanese contribution international relations and the economy, but nevertheless, we know what we're talking about when we say history. even listing the events can be a matter of controversy so for now we will let the word history speaks for itself and let our guests unpack the word for us a little bit. we call it american optimism if we can getut i hope through conversation about how we isolate the disputes that japan and korea have over matters of the past and talk thet ways he can manage issues going forward so

speakers include retired admiral dennis blair, the former director of national intelligence and an ambassador to the u.s.. this is a little more than an hour. [applause] todays good to be here among so many good friends. korean, japanese, and many others. we're here to talk about a pretty serious issue as interest in southeast asia go. history we are talking about japanese occupation of korea leading up to world war ii. it's funny you never talk about -- you never reference post-world war ii history when you're talking about history. many decades now of japanese contributions to international relations and the economy, but nevertheless we know what were talking about when we say history. for now we will just let the word history speaks for itself and let our guest help unpack it for us. call it american optimism if you like, but i hope we can actually get to some conversation here about how we isolate the disputes that japan and korea have over matters of the past and talk about some ways that we can manage those issues going forward and focus on some of the real priorities in the japan caree