"The idea is that, through confronting our past honestly, we can begin to move forward."

It ain't my past, babe, it's someone else's you're lookin' for. 

And they all died many years ago.

Let them do the confronting, if you can somehow catch their ghosts. 

Only politically-correct folks believe that today's descendants of the miscreants of the past can make amends. What happened happened before we were born. We of today did not do it, any more than today's German 70 -year-olds were responsible for National Socialism and should now grovel guiltily because of it. We are innocent, and would appreciate it if you just laid off and did a mental re-set.

While you are at it Tabby, why not get the Egyptians to apologize for what has become known as Passover? Or the Jews for the Crucifixion?

Your kind of thinking is ... strange.