The legacy of Japan's atrocities in the World War II has again been evident in the past week as Asian nations voiced their outrage at the visit of Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, where the nation's war criminals are buried. The harshest response came from China where the People's Daily accused Mr Hashimoto of hurting the feelings of all Asian people and encouraging a resurgence of Japanese militarism. On issues as emotional as this, Beijing tends to respond in an especially strong fashion.
Only last month, a Japanese firm in Tianjin was shut down for devising a video game that extolled the exploits of the Japanese army. On the repeated occasions when Liberal Democratic Party Cabinet Ministers have tried to minimise the scale of the nation's war-time atrocities, China has always been quick to set the record straight. Like all Chinese, the Beijing leadership rightly takes offence at any attempt to play down the 35 million casualties the nation suffered during the World War II. Some, like President Jiang Zemin, lived in areas under Japanese occupation and so had first-hand experience of such atrocities. Such strong feelings are common to Chinese communities throughout the world.
In Hong Kong, there were demonstrations last year outside a Causeway Bay karaoke bar that was offering songs glorifying the Japanese army on its play-list. In Singapore, Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew recently warned of the danger of a revival of Japanese militarism. From Beijing's perspective, such protests serve an additional purpose. Playing on Tokyo's guilt for its war-time actions may help to ensure that Japan remains China's biggest foreign aid donor.
But the Sino-Japanese relationship is far more complex than such sporadic protests would suggest. If there have been many occasions, such as last week, when Beijing did not mince words in its condemnations, there have also been numerous others when China took a much milder stance.
While protesters in Hong Kong took to the streets to denounce Japan's claim to the disputed Diaoyu Islands, the Foreign Ministry in Beijing adopted a more restrained attitude, saying it preferred to resolve the issue through diplomatic channels. Campaigners for compensation for the 100,000 mainland women forced to work as sex slaves for the Japanese have been repeatedly harassed by Chinese authorities, who renounced all claim to reparations when ties with Tokyo were normalised in 1972.
This campaign enjoys strong public support - organiser Tong Zeng's petition attracted 800,000 signatures. But, as Beijing police admitted when they briefly detained him last summer, mainland authorities fear such activities could lead to social unrest, given the huge number of victims of Tokyo's aggression who might become involved. Such concerns have also led China to crack down on several student protests against Japanese militarism.
