Re: "In China a year ago, [Japanese] civilians and firms were assaulted." - the clarion call for international media
- From: "goodgutgut@xxxxxxxxx" <goodgutgut@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 8 Apr 2006 19:36:36 -0700
China-Japan friendship: A study in diplomacy
(Wall Street Journal)
Updated: 2006-03-21 14:14
Growing up in Japan, Asayo Iizuka was fascinated by China. So the
22-year-old jumped at the opportunity to study at Shanghai's Fudan
University, hoping to expand her knowledge and make Chinese friends.
There she met Chen Li, a 20-year-old economics student at Fudan, who
hated Japan. When she was growing up, Ms. Chen's family had told her
the Imperial Japanese Army had killed her great-grandfather.
Asayo Iizuka
So, at first, a friendship didn't seem possible. "I don't really like
the Japanese," she informed Ms. Iizuka early on.
Yet the two women have stayed in touch and each continues to try to
change the other's point of view. In the process, they confronted, on a
personal level, some of the major issues threatening relations between
Asia's two economic giants at a time when slow-growth Japan is finding
opportunities in fast-expanding China.
"For 4,000 years China was the top country in Asia, but in the past 150
years, Japan has been more powerful," Ms. Iizuka says. "Now they are
equal, but they don't know each other well enough to acknowledge each
other."
Even as old wounds linger, China, including Hong Kong, has become
Japan's biggest trading partner. About 99,000 Japanese live in China,
more than any other country besides the U.S. Both governments are
working to nurture better relations among the younger generation. Japan
plans this year to set up a fund of 10 billion yen ($86 million) to pay
for 1,100 Chinese high-school students to study in Japan annually for
about 10 days and an additional 150 for several months to a year. A
current government-affiliated study program enrolls 100 Chinese
students in Japanese high schools each year.
"The economic relationship is robust and growing," said Jeff Kingston,
director of Asian studies at Temple University Japan. "But I don't
think that can continue indefinitely while government relations are in
the deep freeze."
In China, memories are still strong of the Sino-Japanese war from 1937
to 1945, when the Imperial Army killed at least 10 million Chinese,
according to standard estimates. The Chinese complain that Japanese
school textbooks skim over the war and object to visits by Prime
Minister Junichiro Koizumi to the controversial Yasukuni war shrine in
central Tokyo that is dedicated to the 2.5 million people who died
fighting for Japan, most of them during Japan's war with China and
World War II.
In protest, Beijing has refused to schedule formal summit meetings with
Mr. Koizumi and is opposing Japan's bid for a permanent seat on the
United Nations Security Council. Thousands of Chinese participated in
anti-Japanese demonstrations last spring.
Ms. Iizuka's fascination with China began when she studied the Chinese
language in high school. She loved China's ethnic variety and thousands
of years of history, and knew the language would help her career. While
studying law and politics at a Tokyo university, she went in 2003 to
spend a year at Fudan -- the top university in Shanghai.
That winter, a South Korean friend introduced the two women. The
students exchanged phone numbers. But Ms. Chen talked little with Ms.
Iizuka.
Chen Li
Ms. Chen had disliked Japan since she was a child growing up mostly
near Shanghai. From age 7, schoolteachers took her class to see
patriotic films; some were about heroic Chinese children risking their
lives to resist evil Japanese soldiers during Japan's World War II
occupation of China.
In high school, Ms. Chen took part in day-long hunger strikes against
Japan. Now, she boycotts Japanese goods, and two years ago bought a
digital camera made by a South Korean manufacturer. Buying Japanese
products is "a bit like losing face," she said. "We were beaten by
them, but now we have to accept their products?"
Ms. Chen bumped into Ms. Iizuka on campus after a winter break. Ms.
Chen noticed that Ms. Iizuka seemed different from Japanese students
who stuck together and dressed fashionably. Ms. Iizuka dressed down and
wore floppy hats, a casual look Ms. Chen found approachable. "She was
nice," Ms. Chen recalled. "I thought maybe I should be more open."
The two women found they had plenty in common. They both liked the late
Hong Kong movie star Leslie Cheung. Ms. Iizuka treated Ms. Chen to her
first Japanese meal, laughing when Ms. Chen flinched at the taste of
miso -- bean paste -- soup.
Ms. Chen was beginning to have doubts about the accuracy of some of the
information she had about Japan. Ms. Iizuka, meanwhile, felt a special
mission to talk about China-Japan relations. In 2002, before her year
at Fudan, she had taken a crowded evening train in Manchuria, a former
Japanese colony in northeastern China. Fearing for her safety, she told
fellow passengers she was Korean.
She later regretted telling a lie and vowed to be more open with the
Chinese she met. She had heard about anti-Japanese feeling before she
visited China and felt she needed to make a stronger effort to
understand Japan's past wrongs. She also felt some Chinese anti-Japan
sentiment came from skewed information. For instance, Japan is China's
top foreign-aid donor, but China's press rarely reports about the
financial assistance.
Yet both women held on tightly to certain beliefs. Ms. Iizuka and Ms.
Chen had fiery discussions, both in person and over email, over Mr.
Koizumi's recent visits to the Yasukuni war shrine. Though the prime
minister has apologized for Japan's invasion of China and said his
visits are to pray for the souls of regular soldiers, these apologies
ring hollow in China because the shrine honors 14 Class A war criminals
-- those tried for "crimes against peace," because they led Japan's war
in Asia.
Ms. Chen said she was offended by Mr. Koizumi's annual visits. Ms.
Iizuka responded that visitors honor relatives killed in action.
"They're thinking of their own families," she recalled saying. Mr.
Koizumi prays for peace, not for war criminals, she added. Ms. Chen
argued that visits by a prime minister are different because "he stands
for the country's opinion."
Ms. Chen retained her core feelings about Japan. When anti-Japanese
sentiment bubbled up last spring, she joined one of the demonstrations
in China. Ms. Iizuka said she was disappointed that her friend had
participated, and she wished the Chinese wouldn't blame her generation
for past problems. "It's natural for them to criticize Japan's past,"
she said. "But I can't accept it when they throw this at the Japanese
of today. The Japanese of today have done nothing wrong."
Despite the differences in opinion, the two women have remained close.
Last fall, Ms. Iizuka visited Shanghai, and they chatted like old
friends over lunch in a rooftop restaurant, recalling their past
arguments. Ms. Iizuka, who will soon start a job as a wire-service
reporter, dreams of working in China one day. Ms. Chen said
conversations with Ms. Iizuka have made her less radical. "If I dislike
Japan," she said, "it doesn't mean I dislike all Japanese people."
.
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