Courage to face history

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.