Author: Đỗ Thị Thủy*
Introduction
China and Japan have undergone a long history of bilateral relations fraught with traumas and bitterness. The memory of Japanese aggression in China during the World War II is still haunting many hearts and minds in both countries. The unresolved history issue thus ranks very high in their bilateral agenda. Taking a retrospective look at the evolution of the history issue, it seems that the management of this issue represents the patterns of cooperation and struggle between the two East Asian powers. While many former enemies have become true friends in international relations today, this is not the case of China and Japan. The Cold War period elapsed without Sino-Japanese reconciliation as the way France and Germany did although there had been time China and Japan were ‘de facto allies’ against Soviet hegemony in East Asia. The post-Cold War period witnesses the rapid rise of China, Japan’s strive to become a “normal country”, and a tensed dispute between the two countries over the history issue. It is against this context that this study aims to examine what stays behind the history issue in China-Japan relations. Continue reading ““New thinking” about the history issue: Japan’s lost chance in China?”
