Recent comments from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that have angered its neighbors including South Korea have drawn strong criticism from two of the United States’ most influential newspapers.

The Washington Post said in an editorial column that Abe had pushed his recent groundbreaking policies regarding the economy and national defense into danger with his skewed historical understanding.

The Washington Post also said that although history is always subject to new interpretations, facts will always remain facts. The column pointed out that it was a historical fact that Japan had invaded South Korea, Manchuria, China and the Malay Peninsula.

The Wall Street Journal also said in an editorial that Abe’s revisions of history have thrown surviving victims of the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Nanking Rape into shock. It warned Japan that it could lose allies in the international society as a result of the prime minister’s comments.

The Journal stressed that the members of the international society had not forgotten Japan’s wrongdoings, although they forgave Japan for its wartime transgressions which took place a long time ago.

The editorials came just a few days after the Japanese prime minister said on April 23 that the definition of what constitutes an “invasion” has yet to be established in academia or in the international community.