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Mending Japan and China’s broken relationship

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This 2009 photo shows Chinese and Japanese flags flying over Tiananmen Square at the time that then Japanese leader Taro Aso visited Beijing (Photo: Getty Images).

In Brief

Can Japan and China find a way to reduce the risk of conflict, and prevent continuing hostilities that could last decades? Can they peacefully coexist in the new era when they are both great powers?

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The current tensions, greatly heightened by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to Yasukuni Shrine on 26 December, cannot be eliminated without confronting the passions stemming from unresolved historical issues that arose beginning late in the 19th century. Many Chinese retain a deep sense of humiliation at being surpassed by a small island nation and a deep sense of anger at their widespread suffering caused by Japan. Japanese are still working to combine pride in their history with expressions of remorse over the suffering they caused to neighbouring countries.

The difficulties between China and Japan also focus on the conflicting territorial claims over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands. The dangers of accident and conflict are real, and have the potential to setback reconciliation for decades.

Some 90 per cent of the public in each country have a negative opinion of the other. In China, World War II movies with brutal Japanese soldiers appear frequently on TV, the internet is filled with hostile expressions toward Japanese, and some Chinese military officers openly express confidence that in the event of conflict they would win. In Japan, repeated pictures of menacing Chinese ships and planes threatening the Senkakus (Diaoyu), and of the Chinese public attacking Japanese people and Japanese goods provoke fear and hostility among viewers. Japanese Self-Defense Force officers privately express confidence that in the event of conflict they would prevail and, if necessary, the Americans would come to their aid.

Chinese leaders warn Japan about the rise of militarism, and yet paradoxically it is China’s own military build-up and pressure on Japan that is beginning to strengthen Japanese convictions that they should relax the restraints on the Japan Self-Defense Forces.

In the 1980s, thanks to initiatives China took under Deng Xiaoping’s leadership, it appeared that Japan and China could build a harmonious relationship for the 21st century. When he visited Japan in 1978, Deng said that in the 2500-year history of relations between China and Japan, there was only a period of 50 years when relations were bad and he vowed to revive the good relations that existed before. Deng met the Japanese Emperor, Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda and Japanese business leaders, and reported that the Emperor apologised for Japan’s actions in World War II and vowed that such things would never occur again. To strengthen the relationship, Deng brought to China Japanese novels, movies and TV programs, and under Deng’s leadership exchange programs between Chinese and Japanese youth began. Japan provided far more aid to China than any other country during the 1980s, and Japanese companies helped set up modern factories in China. Several hundred local Japanese communities, from all over Japan, formed sister relationships with Chinese counterparts. Japanese groups visiting China expressed apologies for the damage that Japan caused China in World War II.

However, in the 1990s, Chinese leaders launched education programs to teach patriotism and in China nothing stirred patriotism more than a discussion of Japanese cruelties in World War II. Criticisms of Japanese failures to detail the history of their aggression in China were widespread, not only in China but also in the West. Many Chinese fear that if young Japanese do not learn about the suffering Japan caused in its invasions of other countries, Japan may resume its path of militarism. Chinese and Westerners wonder why Japanese could not be more like Germans and continue to express sorrow.

Japanese are upset that few Chinese people today are aware of Japanese apologies given by their leaders and their citizens who met Chinese, and also unaware of the extent of Japanese aid and contributions to China in the 1980s. Some Japanese historians who read Chinese accounts of cruelties are convinced that many are exaggerated while the Chinese ignore the cruelties of Chinese to each other in their civil war and during the Cultural Revolution.

And yet the fact is that not only Chinese, but Westerners, believe that the apologies of certain leaders on Japan’s part are not enough to show continuing remorse. To maintain the goodwill of other countries, it is advisable for Japanese to show continuing remorse for the problems caused by their earlier generations.

Under the current climate, it is difficult for Chinese President Xi Jinping or Prime Minister Abe to take initiatives that will gain the cooperation of the other. Japanese leaders, convinced that showing weakness to China would only lead to escalating demands and further military advances, are determined to make it clear that they cannot be intimidated. But as difficult as it is to improve Sino-Japanese relations, there may be no better time than the present for beginning that process. Xi Jinping has consolidated his power and is expected to lead his country for eight more years. Abe is the first Japanese prime minister in years to be assured of continuing in office for at least three more years. Xi and Abe are known as committed patriots who have a strong base for taking difficult steps to improve relations.

In the immediate term, Japan should avoid actions China considers provocative. Japan’s top leaders should not again visit Yasukuni Shrine and should reaffirm Japan’s apologies for tragedies caused by their invasions. China should not use armed pressure in an effort to determine the sovereignty of territories claimed by Japan and should reaffirm its determination to prevent domestic demonstrations against Japanese.

Chinese and Japanese representatives should seek a formula so both sides can, with honour, back down from confrontations over territorial disputes such as the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands, and affirm their determination to resolve these issues peacefully at a later time. Both sides should select a small number of high-level leaders likely to play an important role in their government for many years ahead. These leaders, representing their respective countries, should meet frequently for comprehensive discussions on a broad range of issues to strengthen mutual understanding and cooperation. Japan should select leaders representing major political parties so that whichever party is in power contacts could continue without interruption.

Exchange programs, not just for leaders but between Chinese and Japanese people across a broad range of professions, should also be greatly expanded.

Over the next several years, Japanese leaders should prepare a statement (several tens of pages) stressing their many contributions to peace since World War II, such as Japan’s renunciation of military action; contributions to developing countries, to the United Nations and other international organisations; limitation of defence spending to 1 per cent of GNP; restraint in producing nuclear weapons; and refusal to send troops abroad to undertake military actions.

Japan should also prepare a statement of similar length summarising its role in other Asian countries since the Meiji era, including an objective account of the suffering its military aggression caused in Taiwan, Korea, mainland China and Southeast Asia in World War II. It should lengthen the time for required study of Japanese modern history since Meiji and prepare guidance for textbooks in required courses so all Japanese students acquire a comprehensive understanding of Asian criticisms, as well as Japan’s successes in modernisation and contributions to other Asian countries before and after World War II.

China should reduce the cultural presentations that inspire hostility to Japan in its movies, books and TV, increase the public recognition of Japan’s contribution to China’s development since 1978, and publicise the Japanese commitment to peace since 1945. China should return to the policies of the 1980s under Deng Xiaoping, introducing Japanese literature, movies, TV and other products of Japanese culture on a wide scale.

With such a formula there is hope these two great countries can work together peacefully.

Ezra F Vogel is Henry Ford II Emeritus Professor of Social Sciences at Harvard University.

A longer version of this article first appeared here in The Japan Times.

4 responses to “Mending Japan and China’s broken relationship”

  1. A good article. As a side note, I’d suggest that apologies require two sides: of course, a genuinely remorseful and humble party to provide the apology, but also a party who is prepared to take the higher ground and accept that apology.

    • I agree with what you say, Ez. I think in order to have good relations each side has to give up some things to make a mutual agreement that will make most people happy from both sides. I also think concerning Japan’s apologies, I think its best they don’t visit the shrine or else it will look more like they are going back on their words and as the saying goes “Actions speaks louder than words” and Japan was certainty demonstrating that when they visited the Shrine. All I want is for the two Asian superpowers to wake up, stop looking at the past, accept each other for the nation they are, and just start working together on issues that they have problems with each other and maybe just maybe from their the two nations will start to understand each other and become closer. That is my only wish for these two nations.

  2. To Professor Ezra Vogel,

    You certainly have liberal views and a very sanguine outlook when it comes to Sino-Japanese relations. We all want peace in our own way but, surely, as an academic ought you not analyse the situation without having to say one should do this or one should not do this. It’s as though you are preaching.
    Peter Vertannes

  3. I think Professor Vogel might show a little more humility himself rather than telling two powerful foreign nations what they should do.
    The USA’s own economic and military involvement in East Asia, in many learned Asian opinions, has not been of sufficient moral rectitude as to confer preaching rights on these questions.
    Would the USA engage in a “limited” war with China to support Japan? I think not.
    As to a mediating role, I would prefer the USA to stay at home. Asia is rich in clever people who are experienced in regional diplomatic histories measured in millennia. And most, if not all of them, are deeply dedicated to peace and diplomacy as the means of settling international disputes. It has been demonstrated time after time that the USA is still not fully appreciative of the highly nuanced ways of oriental diplomacy.
    Both China and Japan would already have considered professor Vogel’s suggestions which are full of common sense, as would most observers interested in the region.
    Solutions to problems of potential hostilities in East Asia will never be as simple as the Westerners. It may have slipped my notice, but I have not encountered any news media essays wherein China lectures the USA on how it should engage with a new Cuba.

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