Healing the wounds 63 years later

On Sunday, the third day of the Beijing Olympics, Japan's Hinomaru flag was hoisted on the central flagpole as the "Kimigayo" national anthem was played at the judo venue. Masato Uchishiba had just won gold for the men's 66-kilogram judo division and was standing on the podium's top spot to receive his medal.

Many Japanese who watched the ceremony on TV probably must have felt slight apprehension about how the Chinese spectators in the gymnasium would react to the Japanese flag and anthem. Fortunately, many of them stood up and applauded the medalists for their competitive spirit.

It was only four years ago that shocking scenes occurred during the Asian Cup soccer tournament held in China. During the Japanese team's games, most of the Chinese spectators rooted for the opponents and booed the Japanese players. After the final, in which Japan defeated China, the Japanese team's bus was surrounded by excited Chinese crowds.

Fresh wounds of the war

The wave of anti-Japanese demonstrations that flared across China three years ago is still a fresh memory among Japanese.

Certainly, we are finding the Beijing Olympics exciting and hugely enjoyable to watch. Still, we cannot completely dispel a lingering feeling that anti-Japanese sentiment among the Chinese people could erupt again in a virulent way.

It goes without saying that Chinese people's feelings toward Japan are rooted in the collective memories of the war between the two countries.

In Zhangjiakou, a Chinese city in the northern Hebei province close to the Great Wall, a Japanese nurse faced the scars of that war.

In winter three years ago, Kumiko Sanpe, now a 29-year-old nurse working in Tokyo, was dispatched to a hospital in Zhangjiakou as a Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteer. During the Sino-Japanese War of 1937-1945, the strategic city was occupied for eight years by the Imperial Japanese Army.

Immediately after she introduced herself to patients at the hospital, some elderly people lying on beds started shouting. "What are you Japanese here for?" one of them said. She still vividly recalls their angry outbursts.

"Do you know what Japanese soldiers did to me?" one elderly man said, showing sword wounds on his right arm and right leg.

"Japanese soldiers plunged swords into babies and assaulted women," the man went on.

In many hospital rooms, elderly patients fixed her with angry stares. Sanpe had gone to China believing she was sufficiently briefed on wartime events there to weather such a cold reception. But the psychological wounds that the war had left among Chinese people were far beyond her imagination.

Yet, she kept listening to their grim tales of the war days while going about her daily work at the hospital. Gradually, as the patients got to know her, their expressions became less hostile.

When she returned home after two years of working at the hospital, she felt the patients were truly sorry to see her go.

Memories of the war becoming abstract

The ranks of people who had firsthand experience of the war are dwindling rapidly. It is their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren who are now playing central roles in Chinese society.

How can we explain the anti-Japanese feelings of these younger generations?

Three years ago, students of the University of Tokyo and Peking University in Beijing launched a discussion group called Jing Forum. After witnessing the violent anti-Japanese demonstrations in China, students of both universities joined hands to create the forum for "candid discussions on the state of bilateral relations."

During the past two discussion meetings, Chinese students voiced sharp criticism of Japan.

"Japanese often come out with the excuse that the war was led by the military, which was out of control. But from the Chinese point of view, the military was an inseparable part of Japan," one Chinese participant said. "There seems to be continuity between Japan's prewar regime and the postwar system," said another.

"Japanese companies are exporting low-quality products to China," said yet another participant.

Hiroyuki Yamagata, a 25-year-old who took part in last year's forum discussion, found that there are many one-sided assumptions and misunderstandings concerning Japan among Chinese students. But he also realized the encouraging fact that young Chinese are not completely enslaved by simple anti-Japanese sentiment.

Chinese students who expressed deep resentment about Japan's past militarism also talked enviously about Japan's postwar economic development. Many Chinese students voiced strong critical views about Yasukuni Shrine, the Shinto facility in Tokyo that honors Japan's war dead, including Japanese war criminals. But some of them expressed sympathy for the feelings of family members of war victims who visit the shrine to mourn the deaths of their loved ones.

Postwar generations, especially young people, gain most of their knowledge about the war from the media and through their education. So their knowledge about the war tends to be abstract. At times, it may breed views that don't reflect the reality. Their opinions about the war also tend to be influenced by current political imperatives.

In a fiscal 2006 survey of students at five Chinese universities, 53 percent of the respondents said the leading political trend in today's Japan was militarism. Only 18 percent cited liberalism and 9 percent chose pacifism.

Efforts by young generations

There may be some similar elements in the anti-Chinese feelings harbored by some Japanese. It is undeniable that Japanese feelings toward China are based less on the reality of today's China than on various assumptions. And they tend to be influenced greatly by incidents like the food poisoning caused by tainted Chinese gyoza dumplings.

Japanese people's sentiment toward China may stem from the fact that China is growing into a great power in the world. It also may have to do with a sense of frustration about Japan's stagnation.

The anti-Japanese feelings in China and the anti-Chinese sentiment in Japan appear to echo each other, mirroring the current state of relations between the two Asian powers.

How can people of the two countries overcome their negative feelings toward each other? Zhang Yi, a 19-year-old student of Peking University, is now busy preparing for the third discussion meeting of the Jing Forum, to be held this autumn.

This is what he had to say: "I suggest that students of both universities disclose what they learned (about Japan or China) at school and the influences of their families (on their views toward the neighboring country). I think it is more important for us to understand why we cannot compromise than try to force ourselves to compromise."

Both sides should try harder to grasp the gaps in their perceptions and face the differences between them with a flexible mind-set. That may seem like a roundabout way to achieve better bilateral ties, but that is probably the best way for the two countries to build mutual trust and friendship.

That is all the more so because the differences between the two countries change with the times.

Relations between Japan and China will continue to be plagued by various manifestations of tension and friction. But a clash of mutual antagonism can never be constructive.

This summer, which marks the 63rd anniversary of the end of war, China's rise as a major power is being symbolically demonstrated by the ongoing Olympics in Beijing. And China's ascent is prompting a new thinking for the bilateral relationship.

Some encouraging signs of such new thinking are visible in the efforts by young people of both countries to try to understand each other better.

The Asahi Shimbun

(China Daily 08/19/2008 page11)