By Shunsuke Hirose
Last year’s leadership changes in China, Japan, and South Korea mark the point at which diplomatic relations between the three countries headed toward sub-zero temperatures. Despite a trilateral deputy foreign ministers’ summit held on November 7, prospects for an escape from the current deep-freeze in relations look dim between Chinese accusations of Japanese remilitarization, South Korean anxiety over the “Japanese threat,” and Japanese allegations of Chinese aggression. But this insistence on interpreting Japanese policy through the past highlights the unhealthy dominance history has gained over the diplomatic agenda, capturing Northeast Asian relations in a pervasive negative spiral.
Much has been written about the influence of history in Northeast Asian diplomacy, either lambasting Japan’s reluctance to “come clean” on its actions during the Second World War or commenting on the domestic incentives in both Chinese and South Korean politics to demonize Japan. Both assertions are true; the Chinese government and South Korean politicians frequently invoke the legacy of Japanese imperialism for domestic political purposes. And Japan’s selective memory of said history provokes genuine anger in China and South Korea – anger that makes anti-Japan policies such an effective political device in these countries in the first place.
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