The evaluation of various episodes of the war in the Asia-Pacific region, which began in 1937 (or, as some argue, even earlier in 1931) and soon transformed in a part of the Second World War, does not leave the playing field of the big political game in the Asia-Pacific region. We repeatedly see such topics as the “Nanjing Massacre,” “comfort women” being mentioned in various discussions and publications.
One should note that such topics didn’t appear out of nowhere since they reflect the tragic events of the war in the Pacific Rim, which, just like the rest of World War II, was one of the biggest tragedies in the history of mankind.
But why now this salt is being rubbed against relatively fresh wounds? It’s obvious that the new regional disputes and conflicts have nothing in common with the events of the past. The fact that in establishing one’s relations with a different state there’s no need to bring uncomfortable topics up is being exemplified by the strategic alliance that is now being enjoyed by two former enemies – the United States and Japan.
Today, those states enjoy a deep bond, which was confirmed by Donald Trump during his phone conversation with Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Through this conversation alone Donald Trump has managed to sharply reduce the level of Japan’s frustration over the rhetoric that was voiced by the 45th US President during his election campaign.
Both Washington and Tokyo rarely touch upon historical topics, only bringing them up when they can be used to strengthen the ties between the two countries. For instance, the anniversary of commodore Perry’s “black ships” visiting Japan in the middle of the XIX century.
And rightly so, because those responsible for the destiny of whole countries should adhere in their assessment of historic events to the universal principle of natural sciences: do not assist the growth of entropy, since it somehow expanding on its own. In the most obvious way it has been shown in the sequence of events in the Asia-Pacific region in recent years.
Let’s leave the craft of deriving lessons from history to professional historians. It is possible that with their help we will be able to disprove the ultimate paradox: history teaches us nothing.
However, in many countries the conditions for this thankless job are quite harsh. The professor at Seoul University Park Yu-ha, who had the misfortune to publish the results of years of her studies on the problem of comfort women, learned it the hard way.
In its most general form the main conclusion of her work can be reduced to the thesis that the problem of survival of local women in the rough male world wasn’t aggravated by the Japanese occupation of the Korean Peninsula all that much. However, the scientific integrity of Professor Park led to unfortunate consequences, since a number of political speculators exploited her work to seek both political and financial gains. According to the court’s ruling the original version of her book was withdrawn from sale and then re-published after the removal of 34 paragraphs that were censored by the same court. In addition, she was sentenced to pay about 75 thousand dollars in compensation for the moral damage caused to the former sex slaves.
This Korean professor could even face jail, but was fortunate enough to see a dramatic change in the Japanese-South Korean political game. The exacerbation of the tensions between the states was connected with the “comfort women” dispute, together with other negative aspects, and has led to increased tension in the entire sub-region of North-East Asia.
Apparently, Seoul decided to “hit the brakes” after consulting with Washington on January 25. The local court decided not to put Park Yu-ha, to jail, which was met with a positive response in Japan, since it meant that Seoul was ready to restore the nearly broken ties.
It seems that we are about to witness the successful resolution of yet another historic dispute over the Nanjing Massacre. The scandal was triggered by one of the world’s largest operators of hotel services – the Japanese APA Group, which for some reason, was involved in political games. One of the company executives apparently assumed it would be a good idea to put in the pockets of the night pajamas for customers mini-books that would state that the Nanjing Massacre has been greatly exaggerated.
Apparently, he chose to neglect the fact that today the absolute majority of tourists traveling across the globe are Chinese citizens, and Japan is no exception. However, Beijing was quick to establish that the Japanese government had nothing to do with this scandal, so the retaliation steps were taken against APA Group alone.
Major tour operators in China urged Chinese tourists to boycott the hotels owned by the company. It’s curious that in Sapporo alone, where the winter Asian Olympic Games are going to be held, the company owns ten hotels. After calculating potential losses, APA Group’s management decided to throw the white the towel and declared its readiness to remove the ill-fated books from their hotels.
However, the theme of Nanjing Massacre is definitely going to be mentioned again at the international stage yet again, since we’re going to witness 80th anniversary of these events next autumn. The annual memorial events this time will be massive in China, so one can only hope that they will not harm the Sino-Japanese relations, which are in a sorry state already.
The only recipe for the improvement of bilateral ties is to find a large joint project which will help distract everybody’s attention from what is impossible to change. Such can be found, for example, in the rejection of both China and Japan the anti-globalization trend pursued by the new US administration, which has put an end to the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Japan still hopes that the “TTP without the United States” but with the involvement of China and South Korea and other players is still possible. In turn, China has made steps to facilitate the transition of a trans-Asian integration project involving the same Japan and the South Korea, and Russia.
It is noteworthy that there are no historic claims being made against Japan by the Philippines and Vietnam, that are enjoying close economic ties with the former aggressor. Although if they were determined to “dig into the past,” they would have pretty much the same amount of reasons for different kinds of actions against Japan, as South Korea and China have.
By the way, Vietnam has absolutely every right to present its “historical” claims to the US. For example, in connection with the disastrous consequences of using Agent Orange by the US Army during the Vietnam War. But Vietnam’s leadership avoided public exacerbation of the topic for obvious reasons that are associated with the current political problems.
Finally, it is useful to note again that the actualization of negative historic events is a sure sign of the troubled state of the bilateral relations enjoyed by certain states. And, of course, this actualization is carried out not for the sake of establishing some kind of “historical truth”.
Vladimir Terekhov, expert on the Asia-Pacific region, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”
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