Word: japanization
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Conversely, many Japanese think that Japan has atoned enough for its past, and they resent China's using the historical oppression as leverage in today's political arena. After all, Japan contends, it had already acknowledged responsibility for hurting the Chinese people and "reproached" itself in the 1972 joint communique signed by top leaders...
Even though Japan said that it issued a formal apology to South Korea because it "colonized" Korea but never colonized China, it did invade Manchuria in 1931 and occupy it until 1945. Furthermore, the mass killing and rapes of 20,000 girls and women in Nanjing in 1937 continue to weigh heavy on the minds of Chinese people within national boundaries and abroad. This is a history of violence not easily forgotten...
Before the trip, Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan said that "Japan has never completely abandoned its militaristic past in the same way as Germany with the Nazis. If it were to do so, China and other Asian nations would not have to keep reminding Japan of history so often." Tang's statement, drawing a parallel between the terror of Nazi violence and the Japanese violence, effectively evokes the degree of resentment many Chinese feel. How can a people so humiliated be expected to forget about history when Japan has not been confronted head...
Though Beijing has not since made an official statement, Chinese writers in the diaspora have weighed in on the joint declaration. The Business Times of Singapore, for example, wrote a strong editorial that said, even though "China has, on occasions, appeared intent on capitalizing on Japan's 'war guilt,' the fact is that Japan is on weak moral ground so long as it refuses even to recognize some of its previous wrongs against China...
Even the Japanese themselves knew that the unsigned statement could have gone farther. After all, Obuchi consciously reiterated statements made in 1972, thinking that the issue had already been addressed. Kunihiko Makita, Japan's Consul-General in Hong Kong, knew there would be controversy. The South China Morning News reports that Makita tried to diffuse some of the tension by explaining that, although Japan does have extreme nationalists who "refuse to acknowledge history, if you ask a citizen on Tokyo's streets of his views of Japan's past, I believe he would express remorse and shame...