In a sign of just how much Japan wants to short-circuit an increasingly nasty crisis with China, Japan’s Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is repeating an apology for his country’s World War II behavior that other Japanese Prime Ministers have given — only this time the timing is critical.
At issue: bitter and increasingly violent anti-Japanese demonstrations in China that many believe were encouraged or enabled by the Chinese government. One of the two countries had to take the step to cool increasingly heated tensions so Tokyo decided it would be the first. The New York Times reports this:
Echoing remarks of previous Japanese prime ministers, Mr. Koizumi expressed “deep remorse” over the pain inflicted on Japan’s neighbors in Asia during a speech to a gathering of Asian and African leaders here.
The repetition of the longstanding apology over Japan’s war record was significant for its timing: Mr. Koizumi and Mr. Hu are expected to meet Saturday in an effort to calm a dispute that has set off bitter anti-Japanese protests in China.
It also comes as Japan tries to use a two-day meeting of more than 100 Asian and African heads of state, government leaders and ministers to bolster its campaign for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council – a move some of its neighbors oppose.
Amid intense speculation over whether Mr. Hu would take up an offer from Mr. Koizumi to meet on the sidelines of the Asian-African summit meeting, Mr. Koizumi fended off reporters’ questions today about the possibility of a meeting with one word: “Tomorrow.”
Both leaders have struck a conciliatory tone ahead of the expected meeting. China has tried to rein protests in which Japanese diplomatic missions and businesses have been vandalized. In speeches to the Asian-African summit meeting, the two leaders also emphasized the importance of resolving conflict through consultation and many national delegates have waited to see if they would be true to their word.
Relations between China and Japan have been severely tested in recent weeks by the issues of how Japanese school history books treat aspects of Japan’s wartime conduct and overlapping claims to a group of islands surrounded by oil and gas fields. The tensions have been given focus by Japan’s push to gain the Security Council seat.
What does this crisis swirling over an apology from Japan mean? Greg Sheridan, Foreign Editor of The Australian, writes:
THE apology by Japan’s Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, is a sign of the success of Beijing’s campaign of diplomatic intimidation against Tokyo.
Japan certainly has plenty to apologise for in relation to World War II. But it has apologised at least 18 times. It has apologised over and over again at prime ministerial level, including previously to the Chinese leadership.
The events being apologised for are 60 years in the past. Many other governments, including the Chinese, have committed atrocities in the meantime without the necessity of apologising to anyone.
These repeated and seemingly endless demands for yet further Japanese apologies are no more than a sick and cynical attempt to blackmail Japan, emotionally and politically.
The Chinese Foreign ministry welcomed Japan’s apology, according to the Turkish website Zaman Online:”
“For Koizumi to have made the comments that he made in such a forum, to express such an apology, we welcome that,” said Kong Chuen, spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “Any recognition of a historical fact is welcome.”
You can read a chronology of China-Japan relations by clicking HERE.
The Hong Kong blog Simon World also has an exhaustive collection of links on the crisis here, here and here.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.