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The feeling is ….. mildly mutual … but why?
posted Sunday, 19 December 2004
Warning, if the author has upset you in the past, they are about to do it again.
In a sign of the strained relationships between China and Japan, recent opinion polls conducted on both sides of the divide have shown that the level of mutual distrust between China and Japan has markedly increased over the last few years, though it is likely for different reasons.
The Numbers
While approximately 38 percent of Japanese citizens said that they feel friendship towards China, a 10 percent decrease over one year, only 6.3 percent of Chinese reciprocated by saying that they felt friendship towards Japan.
More than 50 percent Mainland Chinese said that they felt strong resentment towards Japan, a ten percent increase over two years.
The Dynamics
While a constant factor in the relationship between Japan and China is the issue of wartime atrocities, it is not a new issue, but instead of following trends in other regions and decreasing with time, the level of animosity over wartime atrocities has heightened in China.
While the last decade has seen Korea and Chinese Taiwan forging a stronger friendship with Japan and the deepening of the already strong relationship develop between former rivals Germany and France, and Germany and Britain, the issue of the war and war crimes has become more noticeable in China, despite little or no provocation on the issue from Japan. Showing that is only a surface vocalization of wider feelings.
Many analysts and China watchers have noted that war atrocities have been the standard face of anti-Japanese sentiment in China, regardless of the issue. Suggesting that it is an outlet rather than a root cause, or put simply, whenever China is upset with Japan, it brings up the war, and as China becomes more upset, so it brings up the war more often.
“Remembrance of the past” has been raised by Beijing over many unrelated issues, including issues internal to Japan and Japan’s external diplomatic relations. It has been raised during most major disputes between the two countries, and during many minor disputes, regardless of the nature of the dispute.
Had Japanese fan rioted during the Asian cup, China would have compared it to a continuation of Japan’s war atrocities.
China has even raised “Remembrance of the past” during criticisms of a Japanese defense review that saw substantial military cuts on the part of Japan, and was largely aimed at preventing missile attacks originating from North Korea.
Why
There are many reasons, and not all of them covered here. The author is not unaware of Sino-Japanese history and has study it both in China, from Chinese historians, and in Europe in addition to the conventional Japanese and American histories. The author has also lived in China and knows what they are talking about.
For Japan the reasons are simple, China is bigger than it and has been brow beating it for a very long time over atrocities that Japan considers to be the most shameful period of its history and would rather be allowed to exorcise the ghost of the past and move on, but isn’t being allowed to. Throw into this mix, Chinese submarines, tacit support for North Korea, oceanographically survey conducted in Japanese waters, and frequent demands over internal affairs, not to mention the potential for China to bludgeon Japan with its military over disputed gas fields.
Japan is worried that its larger neighbor is becoming increasingly hostile towards it and doesn’t like being called names. Who would?
For China, the reasons are more complicated.
While it is easy to blame Japan for its war time atrocities, which number among the worst in recorded history, this does not account for the rise in feeling over the war. No new atrocities have been committed or uncovered in recent years and the level of “false history” (inaccurate, bias, or incomplete accounts) being taught in Japan has decreased substantially, along with the level of provocative statements from Japanese ministers and extremists. So why have things reached this stage.
The simple reason is that Chinese people are becoming angrier, and for a lot of very different reasons, with the war actually being among the least of these reasons. Something that was show clearly when the Asian cup match between China and Japan descended into a riot.
The Asian cup was about soccer, no member of the Japanese team had made a political statement, mo member was a war criminal, and no defense of Japanese atrocities was made. Yet during vocalizations over the match, China’s defeat came below Japan’s war atrocities in the reasons for the violence.
Throughout its history, China has seen Japan as being a weak neighbor, a small island chain that looked up to it for cultural influences, while seeing its self as the major, and for much of its history, the only power in the world.
Despite the decimation of its industries during the war, and ten years of recession, Japan is an established world player with a large and developed economy, while China is still largely rural. Despite China’s rise to power, its wealth is concentrated in a few regions and among a small percentage of its total population, and is based almost exclusively on manufacturing facilities that provide a very low income to the average citizen, while Japan’s wealth has spread all the way down through the population, making the average Japanese manager wealthier than the average Chinese manager, and allowing the average Japanese worker to enjoy a lifestyle similar to Chinese lower middle management.
This does not tie with the image of Japan in China’s group psyche, and it enables Japan to be the major partner in many ventures, despite being smaller and having a shorter ‘period of civilization’ than China. Something that is an anathema to Chinese pride.
China has found its self being faced down or given ‘handouts’ by a country that it sees as being less prestigious and less powerful than it. Some people wonder why, but most people get angry, and the war is very easy to get angry about and so has formed the main outlet.
Whenever Japan has a success or it faces China down over an issue, it hurts China’s national pride or losses it ‘face’. Psychologically speaking, you cannot become angry about the prowess of a less prestigious country, but you can allow yourself to become angry at a butcher and a murderer.
This outlet has been successfully used by the Chinese media as a rallying cry, a way of uniting disparate people with disparate ideas under a single issue that can give them greater emotional strength and a sense of unity. China has been feeding its people a concentrated form of hatred to keep them speaking in the same voice, because, if China had many voices, it would fall apart.
Most Chinese citizens do not have an in depth knowledge of Japanese atrocities beyond the most horrific, and because there is no discussion of history in China, they have a low understanding of the motivations and politics behind the invasion of China. In fact many students in Japan have been taught considerably more about Japanese war atrocities than their Chinese counterparts.
The war is title of the speech, not the agenda carried by it.
In a sign of the strained relationships between China and Japan, recent opinion polls conducted on both sides of the divide have shown that the level of mutual distrust between China and Japan has markedly increased over the last few years, though it is likely for different reasons.
The Numbers
While approximately 38 percent of Japanese citizens said that they feel friendship towards China, a 10 percent decrease over one year, only 6.3 percent of Chinese reciprocated by saying that they felt friendship towards Japan.
More than 50 percent Mainland Chinese said that they felt strong resentment towards Japan, a ten percent increase over two years.
The Dynamics
While a constant factor in the relationship between Japan and China is the issue of wartime atrocities, it is not a new issue, but instead of following trends in other regions and decreasing with time, the level of animosity over wartime atrocities has heightened in China.
While the last decade has seen Korea and Chinese Taiwan forging a stronger friendship with Japan and the deepening of the already strong relationship develop between former rivals Germany and France, and Germany and Britain, the issue of the war and war crimes has become more noticeable in China, despite little or no provocation on the issue from Japan. Showing that is only a surface vocalization of wider feelings.
Many analysts and China watchers have noted that war atrocities have been the standard face of anti-Japanese sentiment in China, regardless of the issue. Suggesting that it is an outlet rather than a root cause, or put simply, whenever China is upset with Japan, it brings up the war, and as China becomes more upset, so it brings up the war more often.
“Remembrance of the past” has been raised by Beijing over many unrelated issues, including issues internal to Japan and Japan’s external diplomatic relations. It has been raised during most major disputes between the two countries, and during many minor disputes, regardless of the nature of the dispute.
Had Japanese fan rioted during the Asian cup, China would have compared it to a continuation of Japan’s war atrocities.
China has even raised “Remembrance of the past” during criticisms of a Japanese defense review that saw substantial military cuts on the part of Japan, and was largely aimed at preventing missile attacks originating from North Korea.
Why
There are many reasons, and not all of them covered here. The author is not unaware of Sino-Japanese history and has study it both in China, from Chinese historians, and in Europe in addition to the conventional Japanese and American histories. The author has also lived in China and knows what they are talking about.
For Japan the reasons are simple, China is bigger than it and has been brow beating it for a very long time over atrocities that Japan considers to be the most shameful period of its history and would rather be allowed to exorcise the ghost of the past and move on, but isn’t being allowed to. Throw into this mix, Chinese submarines, tacit support for North Korea, oceanographically survey conducted in Japanese waters, and frequent demands over internal affairs, not to mention the potential for China to bludgeon Japan with its military over disputed gas fields.
Japan is worried that its larger neighbor is becoming increasingly hostile towards it and doesn’t like being called names. Who would?
For China, the reasons are more complicated.
While it is easy to blame Japan for its war time atrocities, which number among the worst in recorded history, this does not account for the rise in feeling over the war. No new atrocities have been committed or uncovered in recent years and the level of “false history” (inaccurate, bias, or incomplete accounts) being taught in Japan has decreased substantially, along with the level of provocative statements from Japanese ministers and extremists. So why have things reached this stage.
The simple reason is that Chinese people are becoming angrier, and for a lot of very different reasons, with the war actually being among the least of these reasons. Something that was show clearly when the Asian cup match between China and Japan descended into a riot.
The Asian cup was about soccer, no member of the Japanese team had made a political statement, mo member was a war criminal, and no defense of Japanese atrocities was made. Yet during vocalizations over the match, China’s defeat came below Japan’s war atrocities in the reasons for the violence.
Throughout its history, China has seen Japan as being a weak neighbor, a small island chain that looked up to it for cultural influences, while seeing its self as the major, and for much of its history, the only power in the world.
Despite the decimation of its industries during the war, and ten years of recession, Japan is an established world player with a large and developed economy, while China is still largely rural. Despite China’s rise to power, its wealth is concentrated in a few regions and among a small percentage of its total population, and is based almost exclusively on manufacturing facilities that provide a very low income to the average citizen, while Japan’s wealth has spread all the way down through the population, making the average Japanese manager wealthier than the average Chinese manager, and allowing the average Japanese worker to enjoy a lifestyle similar to Chinese lower middle management.
This does not tie with the image of Japan in China’s group psyche, and it enables Japan to be the major partner in many ventures, despite being smaller and having a shorter ‘period of civilization’ than China. Something that is an anathema to Chinese pride.
China has found its self being faced down or given ‘handouts’ by a country that it sees as being less prestigious and less powerful than it. Some people wonder why, but most people get angry, and the war is very easy to get angry about and so has formed the main outlet.
Whenever Japan has a success or it faces China down over an issue, it hurts China’s national pride or losses it ‘face’. Psychologically speaking, you cannot become angry about the prowess of a less prestigious country, but you can allow yourself to become angry at a butcher and a murderer.
This outlet has been successfully used by the Chinese media as a rallying cry, a way of uniting disparate people with disparate ideas under a single issue that can give them greater emotional strength and a sense of unity. China has been feeding its people a concentrated form of hatred to keep them speaking in the same voice, because, if China had many voices, it would fall apart.
Most Chinese citizens do not have an in depth knowledge of Japanese atrocities beyond the most horrific, and because there is no discussion of history in China, they have a low understanding of the motivations and politics behind the invasion of China. In fact many students in Japan have been taught considerably more about Japanese war atrocities than their Chinese counterparts.
The war is title of the speech, not the agenda carried by it.
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