Anti-Japanese sentiment in Asia
Chungjangsa Shrine sign
I always knew of the continuing tensions between Japan and other Asian people, but I never realized the extent of the seemingly never-ending animosity until I actually went to China and Korea. I quickly learned to stop telling people I met in China and Korea that I had lived in Japan for three years and could speak Japanese as I could tell it tainted me in their eyes.
Signs in English in Korea are few and far between, which is fine since it’s Korea. I shouldn’t expect things in English while in Korea. However, it seemed like when I did see a rare sign in English at a museum, shrine, or monument it was mostly anti-Japanese in nature. Words like enemies, invaders, and other harsh terms were the norm rather than the exception when it came to describing the Japanese. Now if these signs were put in place in the 1940s or 1950s I could understand, but they were all quite recent. I’m guessing the history textbooks written in Korean are just as bad if not worse. I’m not saying that they should whitewash history; however, history can be written honestly without instilling anti-Japanese propaganda.
Will the Chinese and Korean people reach a point where they can forgive and move on? I mean it’s been more than 60 years! The vast majority of currently living Japanese weren’t alive during the occupation.
For those of you living in the USA, imagine if everything in the U.S. describing any country who had done us wrong in the past was extremely negative. Imagine if when we talked about Britain, Germany, Japan, Italy, and every other country we’ve been at war with in our past we referred to them as the enemy or used similar terms?
January 27th, 2014 at 2:09 am
As a German I am really thankful for the way that Germany has been able to improve its connections to its neighbours and help form the European Community. That being sad, it saddens me that Japan was not able to rehabilitate itself in the eyes of its neighbours. Surely the situation was different in both parts of the world and mistakes have been made by Japan as well as its neighbours in the years after the war. Add the unsolved territory questions and it’s unlikely that the tension will get lower in the forseeable future.
January 28th, 2014 at 12:00 am
Being a Chinese have lived and grew up in Japan plus having a lot of Japanese friends make me struggle to define my way of thinking about this history. I wish this history did not happen. I try to avoid anything politic with my Japanese and Chinese friends. I don’t like people are still sensitive to this issue, which can make me hard to make international friends.