. >> don simmons is my name. for several decades after the war, both germany and japan did all they could to reintroduce themselves with the rest of the world with subdude military policies and trying to create and contribute as much to the common good as they could. in the case with germany, within 25 years or so the relations with the neighbors and including occupied countries are cordial to warm. that didn't happen with japan and still hasn't. why the difference? >> you have written a book about that so maybe you are better. you have whole books on that. >> there is a long answer and a shortish one. they were different neighbors. germany was in the middle of europe and its neighbors were western democracy and tied to unifying europe. that was a very different proposition to japan's immediate neighbors when were communist china and al llies. that is one reason. and one not overstate the warmth of the relations between germany and its immediate neighbors. i remember in 1988, which my own country, the netherlands

. >> don simmons is my name. a different topic. for several decades after the second world war both germany and japan did all they could to sort of reintroduce themselves or ingratiate themselves with the rest of the world to subdue military policy particularly in the case of japan. and generally trying to be -- to contribute as much of the common good as they could. germany within 20 or 25 years their relations with their neighbors including very much occupy countries were range somewhere from cordial to warm. that didn't happen in japan and it still hasn't happened and there is quite a difference. if you could say something about that. >> you have written a book about that so maybe -- [laughter] >> well there is a very long answer to that and a short one. one is that they worked very different neighbors. germany was in the middle of europe and its neighbors to the west were western democracies who were tied to west german military alliances in unifying europe. that was a very different proposition to being -- japan's immediate ne