@Moth I'm very aware that Japan did terrible things, I'm not going to deny that, I had this conversation with my girlfriend recently, she loves Korea, like, she adores Korea, she even learned the language and got involved with the Korean embassy in my country (BTW, I'm from Latin America, so our history has a fair share of colonization and shit, just a tangent). In this particular recent conversation she was talking about the Korean comfort women of WWII, and how, to put an example, you can see the difference between Japan and Germany's attitudes post war, with Germany putting more of an effort to make things right and stuff, this is more or less what I told her.
"It's a very valid point [referring to Japan's lack of apology as something to frown upon] , and the comparison with Germany is plain to see, but the way I see it, the current international issues are felt stronger because of exactly that, they're the most current and have survivors living today, but dig back far enough into the history of any people, and they've all done the same, history is written by the victors, so I'm sure that most of everything is lost to the sands of time, it's only because of the facility of modern day information sharing that this is even being brought up in the first place, my conclusion, I believe all nations are equally wicked in actions or potential, maybe not in current year, but at some point, I honestly don't expect anything, for better or for worse, from the human race as a whole. While the apology would be considered the minimum standard of human decency, who would do the apologizing? Would it be possible to round up the soldiers/politicians/rulers responsible? Would it even be possible to name those responsible after so much time has passed, probably anyone you could name for sure is dead and gone, swallowed by their own wicked greed and ambition. Asking for an apology from anyone who didn't participate would be like [Name omitted, a mutual acquaintance who was groped by her uncle as a kid and now tries to make the world revolve around her victim status because of it] expecting me to apologize for her assault experience, it's sad, but it's the reality, [(Adding this for clarity, as it's another convo we had) I'm sorry it happened to her but I won't apologize as if I had been the one to rape her and the fact that she got groped does not give her the right to label all men rapist]. The updating of history books, however, should definitely be done, it would probably have to be for high school/college level, as it's a delicate matter, but it should be done, what makes it difficult is the confirmability of facts, since it's such an old event, but at a bare minimum an effort should be put forth. Facts should be regarded above all else in all cases. And allow me correct you on something, I don't particularly love nor defend Japan, nor any other country for that matter, they're all evaluated as having pros and cons to my person and that's it, I'm very interested and enjoy many aspects of their culture, but that's just that. I enjoy mostly their fantasy with bits of their reality sprinkled on top ( with most of that reality being food)."
So yes, the Japanese were jerks (to say the least), point me to a country that is innocent throughout history, I'll hand you a mirror and show you a liar. Eye for an eye we'll all end up blind. They apologized (however insincerely as you may say it is), from what I can see they've improved and won't do it again (same goes for the author). Do you have siblings? Have you ever been forced to apologize for what they or your parents did? Sucks right, this is similar.
As to the author's tweets, explain how someone was casually reviewing his tweets from 2012 in current year if they had any intent besides trying to dig up dirt on him to ruin his career. I'm not going to repeat all that I've already said in previous comments, you can scroll back and read them, but yes, he made a mistake, but he apologized, hopefully learned that you can't judge people from other countries like that and that the right think to do is meet and determine them individually, you said so yourself, their history books are skewed to make them feel like the victims, when you feel like a victim you lash out unreasonably, I'm not trying to justify his actions, I'm trying to make you see that there are infinite other possible reasons for his actions (infinitely more likely might I add), but people go for the easy "he's an inhumane monster, let's shun him and his creation from society", and so, we miss out on what could of been a very entertaining anime because being an offended victim is what's cool and hip these days.
Semi-related note, my girlfriend made me watch a Korean drama called Mr.Sunshine, which is quite a feat cause she knows I don't particularly care for anything live action, at all, it was pretty good, and it portrays Japan as they were during WWII, as the villains, and I know that that show is just fantasy and that the reality was much worse, but now I'm just arguing myself in circles and I'll just end with give that show a watch, it was really good.