ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE...
In a post titled "History is recorded by the victors", dated April 12th, on the currently visible friction between China and Japan, I noted that leaders who do the right thing for the long-term despite political consequences, are the ones that history should really record.
Well, history has to judge, but Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi conveyed a formal apology to China at the 80-nation Asia-Africa summit in Indonesia. The whole piece is worth taking in...from a BBC news report,
Fifty years ago, Japan stood before the Asian and African nations assembled at Bandung to declare its determination to develop itself as a peaceful nation. That spirit of 50 years ago remains steadfast to this day.
In the past, Japan, through its colonial rule and aggression, caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries, particularly to those of Asian nations.
Japan squarely faces these facts of history in a spirit of humility.
And with feelings of deep remorse and heartfelt apology always engraved in mind, Japan has resolutely maintained, consistently since the end of World War II, never turning into a military power but an economic power, its principle of resolving all matters by peaceful means, without recourse to the use of force.
Japan once again states its resolve to contribute to the peace and prosperity of the world in the future as well, prizing the relationship of trust it enjoys with the nations of the world.
Such statements abroad are rare. It was the first time a Japanese prime minister made a war apology outside of Japan since 1991, when Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu expressed remorse in Singapore.
So it's done, and we'll wait and see what the official and unofficial reaction is in China over the coming days, and in Japan. Near-term, the cynical will say this is about Japan's desire to secure a permanent seat on the security council and better trade relations, undermined by other concurrent actions by Japanese politicans.
While seemingly simple on the surface, the motivations between these sorts of "fight dances" between nations are far more complex and deeper than it appears on the 6 o'clock news sound bites.
A good piece that provides some insight into this drama comes from Ross Terrill, author of The New Chinese Empire, in an op-ed piece in the Australian. The title, "China's hardly in a position to lecture Japan", tells us where he's coming from on this issue, and he casts China as the bad actor in this drama. He provides a deeper historical context than I was aware of:
Coiled Japan and theatrical China have seldom got on well. War between them in 1894-95, starting over Korea, undermined China's last dynasty and gave Taiwan to Japan. Widespread war again occurred from 1937 to 1945, as Japan's armies sought to put China under Japanese tutelage. Japan's attack doomed Chiang Kai-shek's rule and fuelled Mao Zedong's victory - and Tokyo lost control of Korea as well as Taiwan. Since 1945 only US power has prevented a resurgence of China-Japan rivalry, with all that would mean for Australia and other countries in the region.
He had me at "coiled Japan and theatrical China". He goes on to say:
Although the issues seem genteel, the China-Japan crisis is not really a surprise. China, buoyed by the world's gushing endorsement of its "rise"', believes it can lecture Japan with impunity. Just at this time Tokyo, thanks to North Korea's craziness, generational change in Japan, China's economic clout, and the flourishing Koizumi-Bush relationship, has forsaken bowing and scraping and become hard-nosed in its foreign policy.
Beijing's gripes with Tokyo are mostly spiritual. Younger Japanese are not willing to kowtow in unending shame for World War II. Japan has an economy three times the size of China's (with 10per cent of China's population), which rankles a Middle Kingdom used, until the 19th century, to being No.1. It judges Japan morally unfit for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council.
Japan says it is graduation time for China. No longer poor and a victim, Beijing is seen to be shamelessly milking the World War II issue for concessionary loans and self-esteem. Many Japanese also see China's anti-Japan rhetoric as calculated political mythology -- and this indeed is the heart of the matter.
China's diplomatic awkwardness in the world is inseparable from its tight political control at home. Apologies, textbooks, uninhabited islands, war memories -- all become painted faces and props in the Beijing opera of the paternalistic Chinese state's cultural and foreign policies. Marxism has mostly lost its hold over Chinese minds. But truth and power emanate from one fount: historically the emperor's court, today the Communist Party. The hold of the Chinese Communist regime over its people depends on belief in the cries and groans of the Beijing opera.
The full piece is worth a read.
Shakespeare said it well:
"All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players.
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages."--From As You Like It (II, vii, 139-143)
Now, where are my opera glasses?
p.s. if you're interested in more "person on the street" discussions and reactions to the apologies, coming from both sides of the issue, check out this discussion group in Japan.
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