On Tuesday, Japanese Education Minister Hakubun Shimomura announced plans to revise official teaching materials for the country’s middle and high schools. The guidelines refer to the disputed islands of Takeshima, claimed by South Korea as the Dokdo islands, and the Senkaku islands, which China claims as Diaoyu, as “integral territories of Japan.”

The announcement has further exacerbated Japan’s already strained relations with its neighbors. Both South Korea and China responded with angry statements, decrying the provocative moves as attempts to falsify history.

The latest standoff comes on the heels of a Dec. 26 visit by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, which caused great uproar across the region, especially in Korea. The memorial to Japan’s war dead includes the enshrinement of convicted war criminals and has been accused of promoting revisionist views of imperial Japan’s history in the region. Condemnation of Abe’s visit came quickly from across East Asia. Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou likened the visit to “rubbing salt into others’ wounds.”

At the root of the troubling and deep-seated problems between South Korea and Japan — two of Washington’s strongest allies in Asia — is history. The stability of East Asia and the success of President Barack Obama’s much-heralded “pivot” toward Asia now hinges on the potential outcomes of these disputes, sometimes referred as the “history wars.” The enormity of the challenge warrants a swift plan of action from the United States....