TOKYO: A bitter feud between Japan and China over history textbooks that sparked massive anti-Japanese protests over the weekend could grow angrier as domestic dynamics in both countries make finding solutions difficult. The protests in Beijing and two southern cities were the latest eruption of anger sparked by the Japanese Education Ministry’s approval of school textbooks that many Chinese view as whitewashing Japan’s wartime atrocities and its bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
The textbook approval and a territorial dispute over two tiny islands have also provoked outrage in South Korea, chilling relations which until recently had been improving.
Most Japanese accept that Japan caused pain and suffering to its Asian neighbours with its militarist aggression but many have been puzzled by the latest harsh reactions in South Korea and in China — the latter already on Japan’s radar as a rival for regional leadership. The outbursts risk provoking a backlash that could strengthen right-leaning ruling politicians, analysts said.
“The majority of Japanese understand very, very well that China and Korea have legitimate moral grievances,” said Andrew Horvat, Japan representative for the US-based Asia Foundation.
“But the politicization in China and Korea of their grievances gets Japanese backs up and makes them feel that they are being pilloried,” he said.
Relations with China soured after Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi took office in 2001 and began visits to a Tokyo shrine where war criminals are honoured along with Japanese war dead.
Many analysts said then that the move was aimed at winning votes from a powerful veterans’ group and that Koizumi had paid little heed to foreign policy fallout.
Beijing and Tokyo are also locked in territorial feuds including one over Chinese gas exploration in a disputed area of the East China Sea and are eyeing each other’s defence strategies with mutual mistrust.
While Tokyo seems anxious to soothe South Korea’s anger in a year when both countries have prepared to celebrate the 40th anniversary of normalizing diplomatic ties, underlying suspicion and rivalry make it harder to seek a way out with China.
“I think at the moment, both sides (Tokyo and Beijing) have got their backs up and think that sounding tough is the answer,” said Gerald Curtis, a political science professor at New York’s Columbia University.
The feuds come at a delicate time for regional security, as China and the United States and its Asian allies try to coax North Korea back to stalled talks on dismantling its nuclear arms programme.
Japan’s approval of the textbooks has also come under fire from domestic critics, reflecting a deep divide in public opinion over how history is presented in schools.
“The condition is not collective amnesia. It is domestic schizophrenia that is hurting Japan,” Horvat said.
Proponents of the most controversial textbook argue that references to military sex slaves, the Nanjing Massacre and forced labour by people from Korea and Taiwan constituted a “masochistic” view of history devoid of pride and patriotism.
An initial version of the textbook approved in 2001 was adopted by only a tiny number of schools, although a shift in public sentiment may mean it fares better this time.
Analysts said Japan’s willingness to anger its neighbours over depictions of history and territorial feuds also stemmed from a focus on domestic political interests at the expense of diplomacy.
“The (ruling) Liberal Democratic Party is a loose collection of disparate interests and finds it almost impossible to bargain away the interests of a domestic constituency in foreign policy,” Horvat said, adding this means a small group can effectively hold policy hostage even if its interests are not shared widely.
Resentment of Japan’s militaristic past runs deep in China and South Korea despite growing economic ties, but both Beijing and Seoul have reasons for encouraging a fuss over history now.
South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun’s ruling Uri Party, which recently lost its majority in parliament, has been looking to bolster its support in local and by-elections later this month.
Roh has seen his popularity soar by more than 10 percentage points in some polls after taking a hard stance against Japan.
Chinese authorities, for their part, have for years stressed a “patriotic education” that fosters anti-Japanese sentiment as a way to redirect public frustration over wrenching social change.
That strategy may be getting out of control, with long-held anti-Japanese sentiment running high, among youth especially.
“The Chinese government has thoroughly taught its youth with a ‘patriotic education’ but there are aspects that the government cannot control,” said Yasunori Sone, a professor at Tokyo’s Keio University.
For now, neither Chinese nor Japanese leaders appear able to find policies to resolve the worsening situation.
“You’ve got this extremely loaded script on both sides and none of the actors can escape from this script and nobody seems to be able to write a new script. I think that’s the possible tragedy of the situation,” said David Kelly, a senior research fellow at Singapore’s East Asia Institute.
“Does it push us into an international crisis? No, I don’t believe so. It’s just unfortunate and it slows down a lot of other agendas.”—Reuters
