Unfortunately, this is exactly how Japanese society (and others) tend to "deal with" unpleasant history.

Here's an apropos anecdote: I have a Japanese friend who came to Australia to study. One day, her and her friends were in the city on Anzac day - a national holiday to commemorate war dead, basically. They were standing at a bus stop, talking, when some youths in a car threw some eggs at them. They were, of course, horrified, and had no idea why anyone would do that.

It was only some time later it was explained to her - while the egg-throwing was just stupid, it was probably because she was loudly speaking Japanese in the city, near the war memorial, on Anzac day, and Japan had attacked Australia numerous times, causing many of the dead the day is supposed to commemorate. Imagine my amazement when I realised she had absolutely no idea Japan had attacked Australia in WWII. Just never been mentioned. There were over 100 attacks, in (from memory) 5 places. These are, of course, famous in our culture - it's the only time the country has ever actually been attacked. She had no idea.

Un-fucking-believable. And btw, please don't take this as racist or anything else - I'm just stating facts, and I fear us whiteys do not hold much higher a moral ground - I doubt your average American college graduate, for example, is as well-informed as she perhaps ought to be about her Government's reprehensible actions in Latin America in the second half of the 20th century either.