Germany offers Japan lessons in history Eric Teo Chu CheowChina Daily Updated: 2005-12-01 06:14
Germany and Japan have come to the fore recently in their differing
approaches and successes in integrating themselves into their respective
regions.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's recent visit to Tokyo to meet Japanese
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi not only failed to produce concrete results on
the issue of the four disputed islands, but more importantly, underscored the
fundamental differences which still divide the former World War II enemies,
despite calls for greater trade between them.
However, Japan's greatest challenge will come from deteriorating
Sino-Japanese relations.
Nowhere will this be more obvious than at the upcoming East Asia Summit in
mid-December in Kuala Lumpur, when 16 Asian leaders historically gather to try
to launch a new community of sorts. But, Koizumi will not be meeting face to
face with his Chinese counterpart, Premier Wen Jiabao, in Kuala Lumpur, just as
Chinese President Hu Jintao had earlier refused to accede to a bilateral meeting
with Koizumi, after his most recent (and fifth since coming to power) visit to
the Yasukuni Shrine in mid-October; Beijing (as well as Seoul and Pyongyang)
believes no high-level Japanese officials should officially visit or worship
there.
At a time when Asia seeks to organize itself, the leaders of the two most
powerful Asian giants, China and Japan, cannot even sit down together to talk.
The Germans have accepted history and their atrocious role, and France has
accepted and put this history in the past, whereas Japan is still grappling with
its own World War II past, with China and its other immediate neighbours not
accepting post-war Japan, thanks to its clumsy inability to atone for its war
atrocities.
But fundamental differences between Japan and Germany abound in their
approaches and successes in regional integration. Three factors demonstrate
this.
First, although both were defeated nations after the war, Germany was divided
and had to live with this geo-political "shame" for more than 40 years till
1991, whereas Japan, after direct US administration, was returned to full
sovereignty and has since functioned as a nation, albeit with a "pacifist
constitution."
Japan seeks to break out of this "pacifist" past, via an important
constitutional amendment of revising Article 9, and with Tokyo's Self-Defence
Forces being "rehabilitated" to perform overseas military missions as well.
Japan's priority today thus seems to be to a "return to normalcy," just as
Germany's over-riding priority has always been the reunification of the
motherland, two different perspectives on socio-political importance and
priorities.
Second, Japan has in history never been fully integrated with its Asian
hinterland, being an island, whereas Germany has always been at the heart of
European history, economics and social development. In fact, it is very telling
that Japan had never been effectively occupied before 1945, which has convinced
many Japanese of the "divine isles" concept, and contributed to the rise of
nationalism and the belief in Tokyo's splendid isolation and invincibility.
On the other hand, Germany has been embroiled in numerous conflicts on the
European Continent since ancient times, such as Charlemagne and the Roman
Empire. However, being at the heart of Europe, Germans have had to form
alliances and partnerships to deal with varying threats and opportunities in
European history, right through two world wars and the Cold War.
Third, the approaches taken by German and Japanese leaders contrast as well.
Germany has been "involved" directly in the European construction process in
parallel with the bilateral entente (as contained in the 1963 Elysees Accords)
after Germany apologized for its Nazi past and atrocities. In 1991, French
President Francois Mitterrand was faced with a tough decision to accept and
embrace a much stronger Germany, which could have altered the fundamentals of
the Franco-German axis; but Mitterrand realistically did so, based on German
atonement, as well as Germany's unambiguous integration into Europe.
Japan's approach has been historically different, as it had always focused
its development on the West, first on Europe with the Meiji Restoration and then
on the post-war United States, right through today. Japanese leaders have always
premised the modernization of its society on the Western model and seen Asia as
backward and unpromising; the "US first, Asia second" maiden speech of Foreign
Minister Taro Aso was clearly in this same perspective. Tokyo's economic
linkages with Asia have grown tremendously, but Japan's mindset and fascination
is still resolutely fixed on the West.
The author is a council member of the Singapore
Institute for International Affairs
(China Daily 12/01/2005 page4)
|