In Brief
This headline says it all: Japan military to provide China quake aid. . . as Observing Japan says, these are indeed strange days.
*update: unfortunately both sides saw too many obstacles (historical and emotional) and as of Friday had to scrap the plan. Instead the Japanese government is chartering commercial aircraft to do the job.
This is very surprising. For many years, China has been very sensitive about SDF’s overseas activities with its severe memory of Japan’s invasion to China during the WWII. When the Japanese Government decided the UN Peace Keeping Cooperation Bill in 1992, for example, Chinese leaders, like other Asian countries’ elites, worried if Japan would become a militaristic power in the near future. Most recently, Beijing warned that Japan should keep its Self-Defence doctrine when Tokyo decided to send SDF troops to Iraq in 2003. At the same time, however, the news reminds me how China has been pragmatic in its foreign policy. The news probably suggests that labelling China as a mere ‘anti-Japan (hannichi)’ country is simply misleading.
I agree with Tomo.
The Chinese worrying about SDF is not because its Japan’s minitary force. But more because what it is going to do. Like in Iraq, the war is treated as an invasion and thus any role of SDF would be seen as an invasion as well. The invasive intension of SDF is what Chinese people are worrying. However, if it only come to help rescue, it should be all right for many people.
Chinese people “anti-Japan ” because it never admit its crime in WWWII. Some time a truely sorry like Kevin Rudds will be greatly helpful. However, if Kevin is continues to honor the executioners, do you think the aboriginal people will still accept his appologize? In Chinese pespective, this is what Japan is doing: Saying sorry, deneying holocaust and honouring executioners. If Japan behavior like German, I gusess the history would have not been a problem.