[Article] Japan tired of China playing the 'history card'


17 November, 2005

Japan tired of China playing the 'history card'

TOKYO - WHEN then prime minister Yasuhiro Nakasone prayed at the
Yasukuni shrine on April 22, 1985 in a private capacity, Beijing
raised no objection.

The very same day, visiting Chinese dignitary Peng Zhen not only had
lunch with Mr Nakasone but later that evening also praised Japan-China
ties at a goodwill gathering in Tokyo.

In fact, after Class A war criminals were added to Yasukuni's list in
1978, three prime ministers continued to go to the shrine, sometimes
several times a year, with no protests from Beijing.

It was only after Mr Nakasone went to Yasukuni in his official
capacity on Aug 15 of the same year that Beijing started to complain.

Noted Mr Akira Chiba, the Foreign Ministry's assistant press
secretary: 'We just want to bring the situation back to the pre-Aug
15, 1985 status when Japanese premiers were able to go to Yasukuni
without upsetting China.'

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi insists that it is his right to pray
for the souls of those who died for his country.

His government insists this is a personal decision, not a matter of
national policy.

Mr Chiba said: 'It is a purely personal matter, not a national policy,
nor should one seek any political background to it.

'Japan is a free country. Mr Koizumi can do as he pleases.'

But China and others in the region see the matter differently.

To pay homage at a shrine that honours Class A war criminals alongside
some 2.5 million war dead, is against the spirit of the repeated war
apologies expressed by Mr Koizumi and his predecessors, they insist.

China - and many other nations - also find it difficult to accept the
Japanese tradition in which every person becomes a 'kami' (god) upon
death with their sins forgotten.

Yasukuni has also divided the Japanese nation itself.

Many Japanese are against the enshrinement of Class A war criminals by
Yasukuni in 1978, which subsequently obliged the Emperor to stay away
from the shrine because of apparent imperial opposition to the move.

But one thing the Japanese seem to agree on is that Mr Koizumi's
Yasukuni visits are carried out completely on his own accord.

Experts believe that Mr Koizumi is acting without any deep motives.

They argue that he has kept up his visits to Yasukuni merely to uphold
a campaign pledge.

The support from relatives of war bereaved families is said to be
worth several million votes for Mr Koizumi's party at election time
and, therefore, not to be lightly ignored.

Others, however, believe that his hard-headedness over the issue is a
way of making clear that Japan will make its own decisions, not be
dictated to by its neighbours.

This view was put forcefully by Mr Hitoshi Tanaka, a former Japanese
deputy foreign minister, in a recent lecture in Singapore.

Japan, he said, felt a sense of frustration.

Even though the country has become the world's second-largest economy
after the United States, it has had to take rather low-key policies
and that has prevented Japan from becoming more of a 'normal' state,
especially in its security arrangements.

Japan, he added, did not like to see China playing the 'history card'
time and time again.

'Why should we be chased around by China and Korea in relation to the
question of history?' he argued.

Japanese diplomat Chiba also agrees that one positive, even if
unintended, outcome of Yasukuni visits is in helping Japan regain its
national identity.

'How can China tell us we cannot do so? That is too arrogant,' he
said.

Despite the bilateral tension, the Japanese laugh off any suggestions
that both countries might come to blows.

'China doesn't want war, besides the fact that its military is still
very weak compared to Japan's,' said Professor Koichi Sato, a China
scholar at Obirin University.

'The Hu administration is also basically not anti-Japan. It wants good
relations with Japan.

'But the Chinese Communist Party will want to maintain a basically
anti-Japan posture so as to give itself continued legitimacy,' he
added.

Despite Mr Koizumi's coldness towards Beijing, he is said to be eager
to promote ties with China.

For his new trade minister, he picked Mr Toshihiro Nikai, a political
stalwart regarded as pro-China. Mr Nikai immediately expressed
readiness to go to Beijing to discuss pending issues such as the
dispute over the exploration of marine gas deposits.

The Japanese also dismiss perceptions that Mr Koizumi is deliberately
trying to use Yasukuni to provoke the Chinese.

'We have noticed that this is a common perception in China and other
countries where there are large ethnic Chinese populations,' said Mr
Chiba, whose staff monitors overseas media reports about Japan-China
relations.

'Japan is no longer the country that it was before.

'Yet Chinese communities still superimpose past images of Imperial
Japan upon the Japan that they see today,' he said.

With bilateral trade at an all-time high and Japanese investments in
China still booming, economic ties are likely to play a big role in
preventing Japan-China relations from deteriorating further.

There are signs that Beijing, having given up hopes for Mr Koizumi to
play ball, now wants to strengthen ties with Japanese business leaders
instead.

President Hu Jintao recently held a secret meeting in Beijing with Mr
Hiroshi Okuda, head of Nippon Keidanren, Japan's most influential
business interest group.

'Since Beijing cannot communicate with Koizumi directly, it is trying
to use Japanese business leaders to talk to the Japanese leadership,'
said Prof Sato.
.

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