HK's return a history lesson for Japan

By Eugene Moosa

TOKYO (Reuter): Hong Kong's return to China at midnight on Monday has led to a fresh examination among Japanese historians about how the birth of the British colony was also the most important event to shape modern Japan.

From the opening of Japan to foreign influence with the arrival of the "Black Ships" 13 years after Hong Kong's 1841 birth to the atrocities of World War Two, events in the British colony have reverberated through Japan's own history.

But as Hong Kong reverts to China, some historians are questioning if there is also another lesson, or even warning, for Japan not to repeat the past in how it views the handover.

They recall that Japanese government slogans at the time spoke of "Rich Country, Strong Military" and "Quit Asia, Join Europe" -- ideologies that were to lead to World War II.

For generations, the Opium Wars between China and Britain that led to Hong Kong's birth was used by Japanese militarists as a reason for following the lead of powers at the time like Britain, Germany and France in grabbing colonies in Asia.

"Japan used the Opium Wars as an excuse for invading Asia," said Daikichi Irokawa, a historian at Tokyo Economic University.

The arrival of the U.S. Navy "Black Ships" under Commodore Matthew Perry first pushed Japan to grudgingly open its doors to the West in 1854, in the last years of the feudal Edo period, after more than two centuries of self-imposed isolation.

But it was the nightmare of the Opium Wars more than the "Black Ships" that spurred Japan to modernize after the 1868 Meiji Restoration, which swept away the Tokugawa Shogun and unified the country under the emperor.

Virtually alone among Asian countries at the time, Japan escaped direct colonization by a foreign power, allowing it to acquire its own colonies -- Taiwan, Korea, and Manchuria.

Even today, there are many "revisionist" politicians who maintain that Japan's ugly behavior before World War II was no worse than European powers over the centuries since they discovered trade routes to India and China.

What worries some historians is that Japan is looking at the handover of Hong Kong as the loss of a colony, not as the end of colonialism in Asia.

"Japan has forgotten all about the Opium Wars and now laments the 'loss' of Hong Kong's freedom and riches to China," Irokawa said.

"This shows a myopic understanding of history and current events," he added.

Japan's initial reaction to the Opium Wars was a chilling portend of its future behavior in Asia.

Nobuhiro Sato, a leading military author of the 1840s, wrote that China's defeat in the Opium Wars represented an "unthinkable crisis since the beginning of time".

Sato urged Japan to modernize its military, accumulate wealth and embark on its own aggression into Southeast Asia to create a Japanese sphere of interest.

The philosophy led to the "Great East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" of the Japanese militarists 100 years later -- and the excuse for Japan's entry into World War II.

Japan's distorted view of the Hong Kong handover is most represented by two types of people, says Yoshinori Tando, a member of the editorial board of the daily Yomiuri Shimbun.

"The first is the businessman who is worried about the future of Hong Kong's economy. The second is the tourist interested only in shopping and gourmet food," Tando said.

"What is lacking among Japan's understanding is the truth that Hong Kong is returning to the motherland after more than 150 years. In other words, the handover signifies the end of the age of imperialism in Asia," Tando told Reuters.

Tando said the catch-up-with-the-West ideology of 19th century Japan, captured in the famous slogan "quit Asia, join Europe" by ideologue Yukichi Fukuzawa, has cast a spell on Japanese who still look down on the rest of Asia.

Fukuzawa, founder of Tokyo's elite Keio University, is still a respected figure today and his portrait appears on the current 10,000 yen bill, Japan's biggest denomination note.

"This air of superiority towards the rest of Asia has not changed at all," Tando said.