Timely reminder of the ills of nationalism

A group of Japanese, led by Nobel Prize-winning author Kenzaburo Oe, has issued a statement criticising their government's handling of territorial disputes and urging it to stop its battles with Taiwan and China over the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands and with South Korea over the Dokdo/Takeshima Islands.

Issued late last month, the statement said Japan annexed Dokdo and the Diaoyus when South Korea and China were too weak to assert diplomatic claims. While the annexation of Dokdo marked the beginning of Japan's colonisation of Korea, the attempted nationalisation of the Diaoyus led to the latest flare-up between Japan and China. The group asked Tokyo to acknowledge the historical issues at play, have a peaceful dialogue with China, and resolve the matter in a friendly and co-operative manner.

Award-winning author Haruki Murakami has also weighed in, comparing the peril of nationalism to politicians and polemicists offering a "cheap liquor" to their people, making them act hysterically but leaving them with nothing but a hangover the next morning. Fearing that the dispute could threaten the bonds of humanity the two countries have forged, he warned against retaliation.

Murakami may have made the remarks out of self-interest, after learning that some Chinese stores had taken his books off their shelves in retaliation against Japan. But, in fact, bonds of humanity and cultural understanding, as well as the Sino-Japanese conflicts, are recurring motifs in his works.

In one interview, he mentioned the extensive research on 1930s China that he conducted as a visiting scholar at Princeton. He also recalled his father's horrific experiences as a soldier fighting in China during the second world war. In doing so, he criticised the Japanese for playing the role of "victim" by blaming other nations for their own mistake.

His novel The Wind-up Bird Chronicle unveils his hope for his countrymen to learn about Japan's aggression towards China. In a more recent novel, After Dark, he even uses the character of a Chinese prostitute to touch upon the taboo subject of "comfort women".