Courage to face history<\/p>\n
When Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Chinese
\nPresident Hu Jintao attend the Asian-African Summit on Saturday
\nand Sunday in Jakarta and Bandung, the legacy of the pre-World
\nWar II era of Japanese colonialism of China will continue to
\nhaunt their relationship.<\/p>\n
It can only be hoped, therefore, that the two leaders will
\nfind the time to sit down together to look at ways of cooling
\ndown the escalating violence in the two countries. The ongoing
\nanti-Japanese demonstrations in Chinese cities, and similar
\nactions in Japan, have reached an alarming level, and their
\nfailure to resolve the crisis will be very costly indeed, not
\nonly for China and Japan, but for the entire East Asian region.
\nWorse, the crisis could quite easily erupt again in the future as
\nlong as the roots of the problems are not removed or resolved.<\/p>\n
As things stand at present, Foreign Minister Nobutaka
\nMachimura returned empty handed from Beijing after his Chinese
\ncounterpart, Li Zhaoxing, bluntly rejected Machimura's demand for
\nan apology for the violence against Japanese targets in China,
\nincluding the Japanese Embassy in Beijing.<\/p>\n
Emboldened by their rising economic clout, China and the
\nChinese have become much more confident over the years, while
\nJapan's economy continues to sag after a decade-long recession. A
\nweakened Japan now faces a rising China, a country in which
\nJapanese business has invested heavily. The Chinese nationalist
\nspirit is growing and the Chinese now feel stronger than their
\nwartime enemy, while many Japanese feel they can no longer
\ntolerate China's bullying.<\/p>\n
Following the Japanese government's recent decision to approve
\na new retelling of the country's wartime history, bilateral
\nrelations between the two nations have now reached their lowest
\nlevel since diplomatic ties were re-established in 1972. The
\nJapanese decision sparked anger and violent protests in many
\ncities in China and also in South Korea, where people see the
\nrevised text as a gross manipulation of historical facts.<\/p>\n
Both sides in the dispute, however, would do well to consider
\nthe fact that an escalation of tension could very easily get out
\nof control.<\/p>\n
It is not difficult to understand the anger of people in China
\nand South Korea. Likewise, many Indonesians may well raise their
\neyebrows at claims within the new history textbooks that in
\nregard to its occupation of Indonesia in 1942, that Indonesians
\nwarmly welcomed the arrival of Japanese troops.<\/p>\n
People in Southeast Asia also experienced Japanese occupation
\nin the 1940s, but it was a little less brutal than that
\nexperienced by the peoples of China and Korea. Southeast Asians
\nhave in the main forgiven the past, however this does not mean
\nthey no longer remember what happened. Since the war, the nations
\nof this region have greatly benefited from impact of Japanese
\neconomic growth in terms of official development assistance and
\n(ODA) and private direct investment. In the words of Philippines
\nPresident Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the Japanese Yen is
\n'almighty'. However, Japan's economic domination of this region
\nhas gone into a slow decline, in contrast to China's rising star.<\/p>\n
As outsiders in this dispute, we can say that Japan is still
\nnot being fully honest with the facts of history. This is a
\ncountry that has risen from utter defeat in World War II to
\nbecome an economic superpower in a matter of decades. But in
\nfacing the bitter truth of its own history, it seems that Japan
\nis still incapable of facing up to itself.<\/p>\n
We do not claim that Japan does not regret its past mistakes,
\nor that it has not done nothing to attempt redress. But it is
\ndifficult to convince other nations, especially those who
\ndirectly experienced the brutality of Japanese occupation, that
\nJapan is really sincere in its apologies for its past wrongdoings
\nwhen its youth are asked to learn a history that is not fully
\nhonest, and in fact, manipulated.
\nIn a corner of the Peace Memorial Museum -- at least until
\nJanuary 2001 -- there was a display of history textbooks from
\nseveral Asian countries on how they dealt with subject of World
\nWar II.<\/p>\n
\"School textbooks in those countries describe the pain in
\ndetail, along with perceptions of Japan. Internationalization
\nmust begin with speaking the truth about the role each country
\nplayed in the war. We must find a way to make our mutual pain a
\npositive gift for the future.\"<\/p>\n
We should not, however, back the Japanese into a corner,
\nbecause this can backfire. We need to encourage Japanese to make
\npeace with the past, not only according to their own standards
\nbut also to more universal standards. Why be trapped in the past?<\/p>\n
In the meantime, continuing anti-Japanese demonstrations in
\nChina may well backfire against the Chinese government itself.
\nPolitical demonstrations are now turning into labor disputes,
\nwith some Chinese workers demanding higher wages from Japanese
\ncompanies. Demonstrations like this can head into directions the
\nChinese government may not have anticipated and start making
\ndemands that go beyond the issue of Japanese textbooks.<\/p>",
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