|
|
|
|
SPEAKING
FREELY
Japan the spoiler in Northeast
Asia
By Zhiqun
Zhu
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times
Online feature that allows guest writers to have
their say. Please click here if you are
interested in contributing.
Since
North Korea's high-profile announcement on
February 10 that it had nuclear weapons and that
it had decided to withdraw indefinitely from the
six-party talks, the North Korean nuclear issue
has been stuck in a stalemate. Perhaps one should
never have had high expectations for these talks
in the first place, since each member entered the
past rounds of meetings with its own
considerations, though all agreed in principle
that the Korean Peninsula should be nuclear-free.
To some extent, the six-party talks were a union
of convenience, not minds.
As the host,
China has been praised by many for its efforts to
convene these meetings. But China also is
vulnerable to accusations of not being firm enough
and even "too soft" toward North Korea for its
unwillingness to impose economic sanctions - or to
join the United States and other nations in
possible United Nations-sponsored sanctions - to
force Pyongyang to the negotiation table again.
While it is generally believed that China
is the indispensable player in solving the North
Korean nuclear problem, little attention has been
paid to the unhelpful role Japan has been playing
recently while the US and China have been working
together to jump-start the stalled six-party
talks. North Korea announced that it was
suspending participation in the talks until
certain conditions were met - it said the US must
stop meddling in its affairs and stop insulting
the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
(DPRK).
Simply put, recent Japanese moves
have soured its relations with China, South Korea
and Russia, unnecessarily creating obstacles for
friendly cooperation among these countries aimed
at forming an effective united front to address
the North Korean nuclear issue.
First, Japan has angered China since
late last year. In December, the Japanese
government issued a 10-year defense program that
openly identified China as a potential threat. In
February, for the first time, Japan and the United
States explicitly agreed that the Taiwan Strait
was a "common strategic concern". By involving
itself directly in the cross-Taiwan Strait
dispute, Japan is perceived by many in China as a
country intending to interfere in China’s
"internal affairs". The Sino-Japanese rift was
made wider by Japan's sudden but premeditated
announcement on February 9, the first day of the
Chinese Spring Festival, that the Japanese Coast
Guard would officially take control of the
disputed Senkaku Islands (Diaoyu in Chinese). In
addition, Japan has become the only major country
in the world that has joined the United States in
opposing the European Union's plan to end arms
embargoes against China that were imposed 16 years
ago after the Tiananmen massacre of unarmed
pro-democracy protesters. Japan's quick, critical
comments on China's Anti-Secession Law immediately
after its adoption on March 14 also have irked
leaders in Beijing.
Second, Japan has infuriated South
Korea over the past few weeks. With the remarks by
its ambassador to Seoul, Takano Toshiyuki, that
Japan has sovereignty over the Takeshima islets
(Dokdo or Tokdo in Korean) to the Shimane
Prefectural Council’s designation of February 22
as "Takeshima Day", Japan stirred up anti-Japanese
sentiment again in Korea.
Worse yet, a
revised textbook, edited by the Japanese Society
for History Textbook Reform, distorted Japan's
colonial past, such as its colonial rule of the
Korean Peninsula from 1910-45. The book, first
published in 2001 by the Fuso Publishing Co, had
already sparked anger in various Asian countries,
including China and South Korea. The new edition
of the textbook continues to whitewash Japan’s
wartime crimes in Asia. The year 2005 is supposed
to be the Japan-Korea Friendship Year. Because of
recent developments, however, the political and
diplomatic atmosphere conducive to such
festivities has evaporated. Most noticeably, South
Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon's planned trip
to Tokyo this month to coordinate policies on
North Korea has been canceled.
Third, Japan-Russia relations remain
lukewarm. The deadlock over the future and
sovereignty of the Northern Territories or Kurils
- the chain of four contested islands occupied by
the Soviet Union at the end of World War II - has
delayed President Vladimir Putin's visit to Japan
planned for early this year. The visit and a
proposed peace treaty are up in the air as a
result of Japan's inflexibility on the territorial
dispute.
History haunts relations in
Northeast Asia. Japan's recent unwise and
unnecessary moves have severely damaged its
relations with three major neighbors and partners
in the six-party disarmament talks, making a
concerted effort to end the North Korean nuclear
crisis increasingly difficult. North Korea's
nuclear announcement in February should have tied
all five of the other participants in the talks
together. Instead, Japan's recent distractive
behaviors have stoked the flames of nationalism
and deepened the long-standing disagreements among
Northeast Asian powers. That Japan has complicated
the political atmosphere for multilateral talks on
North Korea's nuclear issue is unfortunate for
Japan, the United States and the region. The
international efforts to build regional consensus
to compel North Korea to dismantle its nuclear
programs will be severely and adversely affected.
To ease the tensions Tokyo has created
with its neighbors, Japan needs to take several
steps immediately.
First, Japan must undertake some damage
control to prevent relations with its three most
important neighbors from continuing to
deteriorate. The Japanese government is to decide
next month whether the above-mentioned textbook
should be used in the next academic year from
April 2006. For the purpose of improving relations
with South Korea and China, the Japanese
government should resolutely disapprove the
adoption of this textbook.
Second, Japan, through its close ties
with the US, can play a unique role of bridging
the gap between the hawkish United States and more
moderate South Korea, China and Russia in dealing
with North Korea. If all other parties prefer a
restrained approach, the US is more likely to
modify its high-handed and inflexible policy
toward North Korea. By standing too closely with
the United States, Japan might be unintentionally
encouraging hardliners in the administration of US
President George W Bush and running the risk of
splitting members of the six-party talks into
opposing camps.
Third, in a longer term, Japan must
address its historical disputes with its neighbors
seriously. It may be convenient for Japan to blame
China and South Korea for playing the nationalism
card, but Japan must reflect upon its policies and
ask itself why Germany's neighbors can largely
forgive Germany’s wartime atrocities and move
forward. Despite strong opposition from Japan's
neighbors, Japanese leaders continue to pay visits
to the Yasukuni Shrine, where 14 Class A World War
II war criminals are honored along with millions
of war dead.
Nobody is telling the
Japanese government and the Japanese people that
they cannot pay tribute to those who died in war;
but to revere universally acknowledged war
criminals in the shrine is a totally different
act. A compromise will have to be made, for
example, to remove those war criminals from the
memorial so that Japanese leaders may continue to
visit the Yasukuni Shrine if they wish, while
those in the Japanese public who refuse to admit
Japan's wartime wrongdoings may worship their
"heroes" elsewhere.
Japan’s territorial
and historical disputes with Korea, China and
Russia reflect the enormous difficulties Japan
faces today as it struggles to find its place in
international politics of the 21st century. The
rise of twin powers in Asia - China and India -
has made Japan deeply uncomfortable. Japan is
caught between two sets of great-power relations
in Asia: the United States and China, and China
and India. The challenge for Japan is to help
these powers steer their relations smoothly. By
clearly taking sides, Japan is doomed to a
political abyss in Asian politics.
Since
the end of World War II, the Japanese people have
expressed strong hope for Japan to become a
"normal country" that is less dependent on the
United States. This "normal country" should have
its own foreign policy and cultivate friendly
relations with its neighbors. Japan must make
concrete efforts and express sincere willingness
to improve relations with countries in Asia,
especially its neighbors, before its ambitious
objectives such as obtaining a permanent seat at
the United Nations Security Council and playing a
significant and constructive role on the world
stage can be realized, and supported by its
neighbors. The Chinese have a saying, "Close
neighbors are dearer than distant relatives."
With sour diplomatic relations between
Japan and three major countries in Northeast Asia,
and with only a discomfited Japan still firmly
behind the United States, perhaps it is time for
an increasingly impatient and frustrated Bush
administration to explore other ways of dealing
with North Korea. As the future of the once-touted
six-party talks is far from certain, and the
multilateral framework may even be falling apart
due to recent negative developments in Northeast
Asia, a face-to-fact talk between the United
States and Kim Jong-Il's regime to address the
nuclear issue directly will become a necessity.
While not giving up the current
six-party-talks mechanism, the United States must,
as South Korea and China have urged, be more
flexible and should not simply rule out direct
negotiations with North Korea as an option and an
additional channel to break the impasse.
Zhiqun Zhu, PhD, is assistant
professor of international political economy and
diplomacy at the International College of the
University of Bridgeport, Connecticut. He has
researched and written extensively on US-Asian
relations and East Asian politics.
(Copyright 2005 Zhiqun Zhu.)
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times
Online feature that allows guest writers to have
their say. Please click here if you are
interested in contributing.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
All material on this
website is copyright and may not be republished in any form without written
permission.
© Copyright 1999 - 2005 Asia Times
Online Ltd.
|
|
Head
Office: Rm 202, Hau Fook Mansion, No. 8 Hau Fook St., Kowloon, Hong
Kong
Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
|
Asian Sex Gazette Japanese Sex News
|
|
|
