Professor Mohammed S. Dajani took 27 Palestinian college students to visit the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland a few weeks ago as part of a project designed to teach empathy and tolerance.

Having generated considerable turbulence in East Asia with his nationalistic policies, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe appears to be walking back his reactionary stance on modern history—at least in public.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited a controversial shrine to World War II dead, including 14 convicted war criminals, ignoring U.S. advice against gestures bound to strain already tense relations with neighbors China and South Korea. Abe told Japanese news media the visit was intended "to report the progress of the first year of my administration and convey my resolve to build an era in which the people will never again suffer the ravages of war."

Emperor Akihito, on the occasion of his 80th birthday on Monday, repeated his intention to do his best amid expectations that he will hand over some of his official duties to the younger generation in the year after next. “While accepting the limits arising from age, I hope to continue to fulfill my role as best I can,” the Emperor said at a customary press conference Wednesday ahead of his birthday.