CHINA'S LEADERSHIP FANS SMOLDERING ANTIPATHY TOWARD JAPAN
By DIDI TANG , Associated Press
Aug. 30, 2015 1:21 AM ET
via mozu
"We are reminded of the war against Japan so constantly that I have developed an inherent antipathy toward Japan," said Cong Yuting, a 26-year-old teacher from the northeastern city of Dalian.
Anti-Japanese sentiments in China are never far from the surface and have broken out in the open when tensions between Beijing and Tokyo fly high, even as Chinese visit Japan in droves, buy Japanese products and embrace Japanese anime and fashion.
Why so much anger, after so much time? It's complicated.
Japan's apologies — perceived to be less than wholehearted — and its leaders' ambiguous stances are often blamed. Recent moves by Japanese leaders to change the country's constitution to allow Japan's military a greater role have added to China's perception of Japan as militaristic and unrepentant.
But Beijing's propaganda machine also has been a factor, overshadowing in many Chinese minds the fact that for more than a half-century after the war, Japan has been one of the world's more pacifist countries, not to mention generous to China with aid, especially infrastructure loans in past decades.
"Constant brainwashing since day one in the education and mass media systems has played a key role in building and keeping alive these strong anti-Japanese sentiments," said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, professor of government and international studies at Hong Kong Baptist University. "Larger segments of the Chinese society seem to really believe that the Japanese are still very militarist and nationalistic."
Patriotic education is mandated in Chinese schools, and students often go on field trips to sites highlighting atrocities of the Japanese invaders.
The propaganda is intended to strengthen one-party rule, enlist solidarity against a common external boogeyman and distract the public from thorny domestic issues, Cabestan said.
"The party unites the Chinese society under its banner and uses nationalism and anti-Japanese sentiments as glue around it and a diversion from other problems," he said. "The deepening economic difficulties have contributed and will contribute to intensifying the magnitude and decibels of the current anti-Japanese propaganda."
The focus by China's Communist Party leadership on the resistance against the Japanese generally glosses over the fact that for much of the 20th century, the Communists were fighting against the country's Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek, and that Chiang was the Chinese leader recognized by the Allies fighting the Japanese as the military commander in China during World War II.
In daily conversations and in pop culture, the Chinese are used to dismissing Japanese as "devils" and calling the country — condescendingly — "Little Japan."
中国の歴史を利用した共産党謳歌、反日教育、反日政策についてーーー日本人にはよく知られたことだから、なんてことないが、英語で書かれているところが意義深い。
反日教育、反日政策のおかげで
Larger segments of the Chinese society seem to really believe that the Japanese are still very militarist and nationalistic.
中国社会では、日本人はいまだに、かなり軍国主義的であり、また、民族主義的である、と信じている人がかなり多い
というのだが、これ、外国特派員も同じというところが悲しい。
ハヤシ記者らが、日本の右傾化記事を拡散させてきた成果でもある。
