Japan has a lot to learn from Germany

Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba was in Germany on Friday, mainly to persuade German leaders to accept Japan's "purchase" of China's Diaoyu Islands.

Gemba was on a weeklong three-country visit to Europe, and it was obvious that the Germans would give him the cold shoulder on the issue just as the British and French had done earlier this week. The European media, too, have been indifferent to Gemba's visit.

European politicians and media have a clear stance on the Diaoyu Islands issue, which is praiseworthy. Europeans saw through the designs of Gemba because of something his colleagues did back home while he was visiting Europe. Two Japanese cabinet ministers and former prime minister Shinzo Abe visited Yasukuni Shrine, which honors class-A World War II criminals, on Wednesday and Thursday.

Unlike the Germans, the Japanese don't have the courage to admit, let alone atone for, their atrocities during World War II. Germany denounced fascism after 1945, and has enacted laws to punish anyone publicly denying or trying to rewrite history. Moreover, Germany, along with France, has become the driving force of lasting peace and economic integration in the European Union.

Given Germany's clear-cut stance, Gemba should not have expected to succeed in persuading the German leaders to accept Japan's position on the Diaoyu Islands, called "Senkaku Islands" in Japan.

Germans know that the Japanese government allows rightists to glorify their wartime crimes and deny the atrocities its military committed on people across many Asian countries. Right-wingers have rewritten history in textbooks and have never stopped honoring the war criminals.

Asians are waiting for the day when Japan would apologize for its war crimes.

It is true that Japan and Germany both surrendered in World War II, performed economic miracles and contributed to the world economy. But the Germans are respected because they have the honesty and courage to own up to their war crimes.

No wonder, Europeans who see the contrast between Germany and Japan want Tokyo to atone for its war crimes. One of them is Pierre Defraigne, executive director of Brussels-based Madariaga-College of Europe Foundation.

In an interview with China Daily, Defraigne said a key cause of the Diaoyu Islands dispute is the horror the Japanese unleashed on the Chinese people before and during World War II, and urged Japan to follow Germany's example and apologize for its war crimes. He asked Japan to understand China and work with it at regional and global levels to realize its economic advancement and human development.

These make it clear that Gemba should not have approached his German counterpart Guido Westerwelle claiming "ownership" of the Diaoyu Islands, complaining about China's reaction and seeking Germany's support for Japan's wrongdoing.

Gemba should learn from Germany's diplomacy for peace, which is reflected not only in its laws, but also in its actions. If Gemba disseminates the lessons he ought to have learned in Europe, especially Germany, among his countrymen, he will sincerely apologize to Asians and help defuse the tension between Beijing and Tokyo.

But Gemba is not expected to do so, because he tried to use the media to spread his misguided message in Europe. To make up for the French media's scant coverage of his visit to Paris, he contributed an article to Le Figaro, claiming that the Diaoyu Islands were "clearly an integral part of Japanese territory".

The fact is the Diaoyu Islands and their affiliated islands have been a part of Chinese territory since ancient times, and China has ample historical and legal evidence to prove that.

Japan occupied the Diaoyu Islands 117 years ago, when Japanese rulers unleashed their war of expansion. And after the end of World War II, the Cairo Declaration and Potsdam Proclamation made it clear that Japan should return the islands to China.

The Western media and leaders are aware of all these truths. In Brussels, a journalist from French newspaper Le Monde expressed concern over Sino-Japanese tensions but said France was not likely to support Japan.

He hopes Japan would see reason in reverting to the status quo before the dispute broke out, because that will facilitate Sino-Japanese negotiations to settle the issue peacefully.

If the European media, leaders and intellectuals reflect the wider feelings of Europeans, then Gemba's visit to Germany has had the opposite effect for Japan.

The author is a China Daily chief correspondent in Brussels. E-mail: fujing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 10/20/2012 page5)