The Growing Rift Between China And Japan

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A Dangerous Rift Between China And Japan -- Ian Buruma, Wall Street Journal

As the U.S. urges restraint, Asia's two great powers play politics with the past and court a crisis.

When Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka visited Beijing in 1972 to restore Japan's relations with China, a country that had been devastated by Japanese military aggression in the 1930s and '40s, his host Mao Zedong allowed himself a moment of levity. Responding to Tanaka's apology for what Japan had done during the war, Mao answered that there was absolutely no need to apologize. After all, he said, without the Japanese invasion, the Communist revolution would never have succeeded.

Secure in his nationalist credentials, as the leader who unified China, Mao could afford this little joke, which also happened to be the truth. Such a remark would be unimaginable for any of the technocrats who rule China today. Maoism can no longer justify the Communist Party's monopoly on power, since few Chinese believe in any kind of Communism. Nationalism is now the dominant ideology, and the rulers have to prove their mettle, especially toward Japan. This need is particularly acute when a new leader takes power. The latest party boss, Xi Jinping, needs to show people, not least the military brass, that he is in charge.

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My Comment: Animosities between both countries on their borders goes back centuries. Their long history has been one of violence, war, exploitation, occupation, genocide, and immense suffering. It does not take much to stoke these tensions, and with a border dispute now in play .... stoking by both sides is now the rule for both governments.