Japan needs unjaundiced view

The former Japanese ambassador to China Uichiro Niwa has always been a firm advocator of dialogue between the two countries. But mutual respect is an indispensable prerequisite to any dialogue, and the Japanese government's attitude toward history makes dialogue impossible.

Especially, as 2014 marks the 120th anniversary of the start of the 1894-95 Sino-Japanese War, two full rounds on the Chinese lunar calendar. That war profoundly changed the power structure in East Asia and influenced the fate of China and Japan. While the old China fell deeper in the tragedy of a semi-colony, the victorious Japan stepped on a path of military expansion that brought a nightmare to the whole Asia-Pacific region until Japan's defeat in 1945.

With their GDP and comprehensive capabilities almost the same, China and Japan are now in balance again. China's stronger military capabilities are no threat to Japan; neither will Japan's lifting of the ban on collective defense rights necessarily turn it into a military empire again.

History may repeat itself, but the days of solving disputes through a war are long gone and neither side is suggesting war as an option. However, the two nations could possibly "build" each other into an enemy without strategic mutual trust.

Just as Manfred Henningsen, emeritus professor of political science at Hawaii University, wrote in an article, "(there is) no respect for a society whose leaders lack the courage to apologize for the crimes of its imperial regime". If Japan does not realize its past crimes, how can the victims of such crimes believe it has no intention of committing them again?

Japan's aggression had its roots in the society of militant Japan. When deciding to invade China, wage the Pacific War, attack Southeast Asia, Japanese rulers said they were "fighting for survival" and many Japanese believed such nonsense. The similar hysteria in Japanese society today must be rooted out in order to win the trust of China and other Asian countries, and that requires the Japanese leadership to hold the correct attitude to history.

In his speech, President Xi said that "history is the best textbook, as well as the best dose of sobriety", adding that Chinese people who remember the torment of war have always been in pursuit of peace. We hope the Japanese leadership can learn this lesson, which is necessary in improving relationship with China.

The author is director of the Institute of Japanese Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. This is an excerpt from her speech at a press salon hosted by the All-China Journalists Association.