Social commentator Zhang Lijia, author of “Socialism Is Great!”: A Worker’s Memoir of the New China, used a visit with her daughters to the Nanjing memorial hall to discuss the recent tensions between China and Japan in the South China Morning Post. “In a region where history is unresolved, even forward-looking security policy is dragged into the past. The ghosts of the 1930s still whisper. It is tempting to ask: why can’t Asia reconcile as Europe did,” she asks herself.
Zhang Lijia:
Nothing symbolises this better than the Yasukuni Shrine, where, among the war dead, lie 14 class A war criminals. When leaders such as Junichiro Koizumi, Shinzo Abe and Yasuhiro Nakasone visited, China and South Korea erupted in fury. Even silence is politicised: whether a leader sends ritual offerings or stays away, each gesture is decoded for hidden meaning.Japan’s new government has raised tensions further. Tokyo’s willingness to confront wartime responsibility – never very strong – appears to be diminishing.
Recently, this shift has moved beyond symbolism. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment suggesting that Tokyo might get involved in a conflict over Taiwan jolted Beijing, not only for its strategic implications but because any hint of renewed Japanese military assertiveness is interpreted as a weakening of post-war remorse.In a region where history is unresolved, even forward-looking security policy is dragged into the past. The ghosts of the 1930s still whisper. It is tempting to ask: why can’t Asia reconcile as Europe did?
More at the South China Speakers Bureau.
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