Courage to face history

When Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Chinese President Hu Jintao attend the Asian-African Summit on Saturday and Sunday in Jakarta and Bandung, the legacy of the pre-World War II era of Japanese colonialism of China will continue to haunt their relationship.

It can only be hoped, therefore, that the two leaders will find the time to sit down together to look at ways of cooling down the escalating violence in the two countries. The ongoing anti-Japanese demonstrations in Chinese cities, and similar actions in Japan, have reached an alarming level, and their failure to resolve the crisis will be very costly indeed, not only for China and Japan, but for the entire East Asian region. Worse, the crisis could quite easily erupt again in the future as long as the roots of the problems are not removed or resolved.

As things stand at present, Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura returned empty handed from Beijing after his Chinese counterpart, Li Zhaoxing, bluntly rejected Machimura's demand for an apology for the violence against Japanese targets in China, including the Japanese Embassy in Beijing.

Emboldened by their rising economic clout, China and the Chinese have become much more confident over the years, while Japan's economy continues to sag after a decade-long recession. A weakened Japan now faces a rising China, a country in which Japanese business has invested heavily. The Chinese nationalist spirit is growing and the Chinese now feel stronger than their wartime enemy, while many Japanese feel they can no longer tolerate China's bullying.

Following the Japanese government's recent decision to approve a new retelling of the country's wartime history, bilateral relations between the two nations have now reached their lowest level since diplomatic ties were re-established in 1972. The Japanese decision sparked anger and violent protests in many cities in China and also in South Korea, where people see the revised text as a gross manipulation of historical facts.

Both sides in the dispute, however, would do well to consider the fact that an escalation of tension could very easily get out of control.

It is not difficult to understand the anger of people in China and South Korea. Likewise, many Indonesians may well raise their eyebrows at claims within the new history textbooks that in regard to its occupation of Indonesia in 1942, that Indonesians warmly welcomed the arrival of Japanese troops.

People in Southeast Asia also experienced Japanese occupation in the 1940s, but it was a little less brutal than that experienced by the peoples of China and Korea. Southeast Asians have in the main forgiven the past, however this does not mean they no longer remember what happened. Since the war, the nations of this region have greatly benefited from impact of Japanese economic growth in terms of official development assistance and (ODA) and private direct investment. In the words of Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the Japanese Yen is 'almighty'. However, Japan's economic domination of this region has gone into a slow decline, in contrast to China's rising star.

As outsiders in this dispute, we can say that Japan is still not being fully honest with the facts of history. This is a country that has risen from utter defeat in World War II to become an economic superpower in a matter of decades. But in facing the bitter truth of its own history, it seems that Japan is still incapable of facing up to itself.

We do not claim that Japan does not regret its past mistakes, or that it has not done nothing to attempt redress. But it is difficult to convince other nations, especially those who directly experienced the brutality of Japanese occupation, that Japan is really sincere in its apologies for its past wrongdoings when its youth are asked to learn a history that is not fully honest, and in fact, manipulated. In a corner of the Peace Memorial Museum -- at least until January 2001 -- there was a display of history textbooks from several Asian countries on how they dealt with subject of World War II.

"School textbooks in those countries describe the pain in detail, along with perceptions of Japan. Internationalization must begin with speaking the truth about the role each country played in the war. We must find a way to make our mutual pain a positive gift for the future."

We should not, however, back the Japanese into a corner, because this can backfire. We need to encourage Japanese to make peace with the past, not only according to their own standards but also to more universal standards. Why be trapped in the past?

In the meantime, continuing anti-Japanese demonstrations in China may well backfire against the Chinese government itself. Political demonstrations are now turning into labor disputes, with some Chinese workers demanding higher wages from Japanese companies. Demonstrations like this can head into directions the Chinese government may not have anticipated and start making demands that go beyond the issue of Japanese textbooks.