Japanese politician: rape was necessary during WW2

[Anomalocaris]

So, why do the Japanese get to simply wash their hands?

Because during immediate post-war years, it would take a lot of work on the part of the US to root out the pre-war establishment that took Japan to war in the first place would be take a lot of work. The vacumn this would leave would also destablize Japanese society, and potentially give Soviet Union an opening to eatablish political blocks in Japan sympathetic to the Soviets. So the US elected instead to avoid the power vacume by largely keeping the pre-war establish in place, and make that establishment beholden to the US by allowing it to retain its sway over Japanese politics, finance and industry, and to protect members of that establishment by allowing the establishement to hide its dirty wartime laundry.

Once that establishment is entrenched again in the post war Japan, it naturally has no interest whatsoever in ever airing its own dirty laundry. The longer the time that has past, the more vested are all levels of Japanese society in keeping this hidden.

The chance to make Japan repent its WWII crimes to the same degree as German has long passed.