History holds Asia hostage

History holds Asia hostage

The failure to come to terms with history weighs on all the important bilateral relationships in Asia. As the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II approaches, some nations in the region are resurrecting the ghosts of history.

China, for example, is planning a military parade in Beijing on Sept. 3 to commemorate what it calls Victory Over Japan Day. In announcing the parade, the Communist Party's mouthpiece, the People's Daily, said it will display China's military prowess and "make Japan tremble." An increasingly muscular China, however, is rattling not only Japan but also its other neighbours.

How diplomatic relationships are held hostage to history is best exemplified by the strained ties between America's closest regional allies -- South Korea and Japan. Following Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's re-election, these two countries were presented with a stark choice: find ways to stem the recrudescence of bitter disputes over history or stay frozen in a political relationship that plays into China's hands.

Playing the history card, China has made ultranationalism the legitimating credo of Communist rule. In recent years, China has sought to draw attention to the atrocities committed by the Japanese during the Second World War by expanding and renovating war museums memorializing the 1931-1945 invasion, as well as through other government projects and subsidies. As though to stir its people into a frenzy of patriotism, China has also declared two new national days to remember Japanese aggression.

But what if the victims of China's aggression followed its example and commemorated Chinese attacks on them? China, while seeking to obscure its own aggressions and occupations since the communist "revolution," including the 1951 annexation of the sprawling Tibetan plateau and invasions of India and Vietnam in 1962 and 1979, respectively, has long called on Japan to take history as a mirror and demonstrate greater remorse for its past aggressions.

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