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Waiting for a 'normal'
Japan
By Shiping Tang
The
saddest thing about the ongoing debate inside China
regarding whether China needs "revolutionary" thinking
for its policy toward Japan is not only that the "new
thinking" has no chance of getting broad domestic
support in China, but also that Japan seems to have
taken the debate as a vindication that it can simply sit
it through and that there is no need to get out of its
strategic inertia toward China and East Asia as a whole.
While many Chinese commentators (including this
author) have consistently argued that East Asia has no
future if Japan and China cannot reach a meaningful
reconciliation and build a more constructive
relationship, there seems to be no similar debate inside
Japan. These days, the call for a more constructive
relationship with China has an increasingly dwindling
audience and market in Japan.
This is so sad,
not only because China desires a more constructive
relationship with Japan, but also because East Asia, now
at a critical juncture, is waiting for a "normal" Japan.
Yet a "normal" Japan desired by China and the region at
large may not come any time soon, for the critical
element that East Asian states (including China) desire
from a "normal" Japan is ostensibly missing. Japan's
domestic politics has yet to offer the critical
assurance to China and other East Asian states: a
political system that can cleanse its worst, even though
it may not offer the best.
In Germany, it is
unimaginable that a politician claiming that Adolf
Hitler was not so bad or his invasions of other
countries were just or were pure fabrications could have
a political life. In stark contrast, a xenophobic
politician such as Shintaro Ishihara can be the governor
of Japan's largest and most cosmopolitan city. It is in
this regard that Japan is still viewed suspiciously in
the region.
Therefore, it is high time for a
Japan that desires to be a "normal" nation to face the
dark side of its past with courage. A Japan that has
decided that its future lies in East Asian integration
has to understand that a nation that cannot cleanse its
devil inside cannot become a "normal nation", because a
state's self-image is not a product of its own
imagination alone: it has to be confirmed by its
interactions with other states. A Japan that desires a
leadership role in regional and global affairs cannot
allow its top politicians to visit the Yasukuni Shrine
time and again (Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi just
did it again on the first day of the new year), because
that gesture is deeply offensive not only to Asians, but
also to its American protector.
Therefore, a
"normal" Japan, by definition, will need to initiate an
official policy of "reconciliation" with its past war
victims. Only then could Japan be accepted as a natural
leader for East Asian affairs and have a more
constructive relationship with China.
For
decades after Germany's unification, a "German Problem"
had haunted Europe. Located at the heartland of Europe,
a unified and powerful Germany had sought to achieve
peace by imposing its will around its perimeters and led
Europe (and the world) to two bloody wars.
The
"German Problem" was resolved in two phases. The first
phase was that the Allies after World War II carried a
largely thorough cleansing of Nazi leftovers in Germany,
thus rooting out the source of Germany's past evil. More
important, postwar German leaders, reciprocated by their
French and European counterparts, have consistently
taken the policy of reconciliation as a cornerstone of
Germany's foreign policy.
The second phase
started when a reunified Germany immediately decided to
embed itself in the European community. Explicitly
linking its own future to an integrated Europe's future,
Germany has finally been able to assure its fellow
European states that there is no longer, and will not be
again, a "German Problem".
Five decades ago, US
General Douglas MacArthur squandered the opportunity of
forcefully eradicating Japan's inner evil for the sake
of containing the Soviet Union and China. Today, East
Asian integration and the policy debate in China are
offering Japan another opportunity. This time, though,
Japanese people have to do it themselves, and it is to
be hoped that they will not squander the chance again.
It took two tragic world wars for Germany to
realize that the most "normal" way for it to live with
its neighbors was to live peacefully with decency and
honor, thus heralding the birth of a new Europe. Can
Japan and East Asian states do it better?
Shiping Tang is deputy director of the
Center for Regional Security Studies, Chinese Academy of
Social Sciences. He is also co-director of the
Sino-America Security Dialogue and the author of
Construct China's Ideal Security Environment
(China Social Sciences Press, 2003).
(Copyright 2004 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd. All
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