The big news here recently has been the riots in China over "Japanse textbooks". I put that in quotes because I've kind of come to the opinion that all Asians hate each other, and the textbooks are just an excuse for the Chinese to lash out at the Japanese. (The racism by Asians against other Asians is mindboggling - I'm not singling out the Chinese)
Anyway Prime Minister Koizumi apologized to China - using words remarkably similar to an apology that was made 10 years ago. I'm a bit divided over the whole issue. I do think Japan needs to take more responsibility, and well, ownership, for their actions during WWII. On the other hand, as soon as they do that, they will get Koreans and Chinese coming out of the woodwork suing them. I understand why they haven't said antyhing.
Hopefully things will all settle down and there won't be more riots this weekend. All of the violence was rather disconcerting. Bottom line, I think this is more of a power struggle between China and Japan for dominance in the region, and if Japan gets a UN seat, then China will lose one of their trump cards so to speak.
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Those anti-Japanese riots in China won't change anything. It's just like all the anti-Muslim sentiment in America these days -- it is like a phoney war. The bottom line is, Japan and China have to work with each other, even if they hate each other. Some Chinese people might feel good about hating Japan, but at the end of the day, they need Japan. And for all that some Japanese people look down on China, they know deep down that they need China. The two countries are interwined by the forces of globalisation, and nothing can change that.
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