"That was a turning point in the partnership between the countries of Europe. And the visit of the Emperor of Japan could be a similar occasion when relations between Korea and Japan can really look forward."
Successive elected Japanese leaders have failed to make what their neighbours in Asia consider to be a genuine and heartfelt apology for the atrocities committed in the name of Emperor Hirohito, the present emperor's father, in the early decades of the last century.
Hundreds of thousands of civilians died in Japan's brutal conquest of China and Korea, as well as the islands of the Pacific and south-east Asia. Many were worked to death as forced labourers, women were forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese military while others died in the massacres of Nanking and elsewhere.
In the 53 years since the end of the conflict, Japan has tried to use development aid to staunch the anger of the peoples that it colonised, while Germany took a bolder approach and gave forthright apologies and compensation to those that the Nazis had persecuted.
The result has been a Germany that is fully integrated in a modern Europe as opposed to a Japan that continues to be viewed warily by many of its fellow Asians.