{"id":958685,"date":"2023-01-16T17:00:50","date_gmt":"2023-01-16T17:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dissidentvoice.org\/?p=136922"},"modified":"2023-01-16T17:00:50","modified_gmt":"2023-01-16T17:00:50","slug":"the-history-between-japan-and-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/01\/16\/the-history-between-japan-and-china\/","title":{"rendered":"The History between Japan and China"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nJapan’s actions in a certain period of the past not only claimed numerous victims here in Japan but also left the peoples of neighboring Asia and elsewhere with scars that are painful even today. I am thus taking this opportunity to state my belief, based on my profound remorse for these acts of aggression, colonial rule, and the like that caused such unbearable suffering and sorrow for so many people, that Japan’s future path should be one of making every effort to build world peace in line with my no-war commitment. It is imperative for us Japanese to look squarely to our history with the peoples of neighboring Asia and elsewhere…<\/em> [emphasis added]<\/p>\n
— Japanese prime minister Tomiichi Murayama, “Peace, Friendship, and Exchange Initiative<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
When considering the state of affairs between two nation states, understanding the history of the relationship is critical.<\/p>\n
Japan’s current prime minister Fumio Kishida ought to consider Murayama’s advice to look squarely at Japan’s history with neighboring countries. However, before addressing Kishida’s recent demands of China, there are some pertinent questions to consider in the relationship between the two countries?<\/p>\n
Has China ever invaded Japan?<\/strong> Sort of. It was back in the 13th century CE, and it was the Mongol Dynasty (aka the Yuan Dynasty) and its Mongolian Emperor, Kublai Khan — the grandson of Genghis Khan, that twice attempted to invade Japan, in 1274 and 1281. The weather gods, however, were aligned against the Mongol Empire as typhoons, known as the kamikaze<\/em> (divine winds), scuppered both invasion attempts. China was an ally of the US in World War II, a fact that seems to hold negligible currency with the US, as it prefers its defeated enemy, Japan.<\/p>\n
Has Japan ever invaded and occupied China? <\/strong>Yes, Japan has invaded and occupied China and committed unspeakable atrocities against the Chinese people. Among the atrocities are the Nanking Massacre<\/a> (unwrapped by Iris Chang in The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II<\/em>, 1997) and the cruel biological and chemical weapons experiments<\/a> carried out on Chinese by Unit 731 in Harbin, China.<\/p>\n
Has Japan ever apologized for its war crimes?<\/strong> Murayama’s prolix non-apology speaks to the evasions of several Japanese politicians whereby Japan as a nation has abjectly failed to take the necessary first step toward atonement for past national crimes. Individual prime ministers have often expressed remorse<\/em>, regret<\/em>, sorrow<\/em> — weasel words that evade saying sorry<\/em>, which has seldom been meaningfully spoken. What does this mean in a country where apologizing on an individual level is deeply entrenched in the culture? Japan is a society where people profusely apologize for the slightest indiscretion. But on a national level, it is another story. It seems an apology by the Japanese Diet, rather than cleansing the national consciousness, is considered to sully the national image. Thus, the Diet has never officially apologized to the people and nations it victimized during WWII and before. Instead the Japanese government evades any obligation to apologize.<\/p>\n
There is, in fact, no serious will among collective Japanese politicians to apologize. This is clear on many levels. Japanese leaders, to the consternation of aggrieved nations, still visit the Yasukuni Shrine which houses the kami<\/em> of Japanese war criminals. History is sanitized. Japanese students are taught a history that elides Japan’s crimes. Japan has even lobbied other governments to remove statues of a comfort woman erected in their jurisdiction \u2014 stark reminders of the crimes of the Japanese military.<\/p>\n