Rana Mitter is Deutsche Bank Director of the University China Centre at the University of Oxford, where he is Professor of History and Politics of Modern China at Oxford University. His most recent book is Forgotten Ally: China's World War II 1937-1945 (titled China’s War with Japan, 1937-45 outside North America), which won the 2014 RUSI/Duke of Westminster’s Medal for Military Literature, was named as a 2013 Book of the Year in the Financial Times and The Economist and was named a 2014 Choice Outstanding Academic Title. He is a regular presenter of the arts and ideas program "Free Thinking" on BBC Radio 3 in the U.K.
Around this time of year, speculation in Asia always runs high as to whether Japan’s prime minister or other prominent politicians will visit the Yasukuni Shrine to honor, among others, more than a thousand indicted war criminals.