In a historic move, Australian prime Minister Paul Rudd formally apologized to British migrant child laborers and their parents. "In an emotional address in Canberra," Mark McDonald of The New York Times writes, "with many in the audience weeping." A year ago Rudd apologized for Australia's treatment of aborigines. What makes this such interesting news is that apologies by heads of state are often considered a bad idea because they are signs of weakness. Is it?

Quite the contrary. It takes a secure, mature nation to apologize for their past political sins. No country is immune from doing ill in what appeared at the time to be in the national interest. As times change, civilizations grow. In 1998, then-President Bill Clinton just stopped short of an apology for slavery in Uganda. He was roundly criticized for what was called his "apology tour." But Clinton proved to be ahead of his time. Just this year the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a resolution apologizing for that peculiar institution.

As the above video outlines, thousands of children across the declining British empire were sent to cash-starved Australian orphanages during World War II, many even being told that their parents had died. Though no one can go back in time and erase the horrors these people experienced, an apology is at least a step in the right direction.