The following is from a unique feature in the February issue of WiLL, titled "Xi Jinping's Dream is to Bring Japan to its Knees," in which Masayuki Takayama, the one and only journalist in the postwar world, and Junko Miyawaki, one of the world's leading scholars of Oriental history, discuss the dangers of a looming China (China Risk).
It is a must-read not only for the Japanese people but for people worldwide.
Redemption tactics in China and South Korea
Miyawaki
It is a well-known fact that Jiang Zemin's father, Jiang Shijun, worked for the spy agency of the Nanjing government led by Wang Zhaoming, a Japanese puppet regime.
In other words, he was pro-Japanese.
Takayama
That is the reason why Jiang Zemin was able to become president of the country.
With China having lost international credibility due to the Tiananmen Square incident, the only country that could seduce was Japan.
Jiang Zemin, who used Japanese and was taking Japanese language classes at the Central University of Nanjing, was to be selected.
It is said that Jiang Zemin often sang and danced "Tankobushi" when he was drunk.
Miyawaki
Even Wang Yi, who served as Chinese Ambassador to Japan for three years and has now risen to become Director of the Foreign Affairs Department, was initially expected by the Japanese to be a Japanese expert or pro-Japanese. Still, he tried to use his connections to control Japan, didn't he?
Takayama
In 1990, Jiang Zemin dispatched Vice Premier Wu Xueqian to Japan.
Before that, the Asahi Shimbun had spread a fake news story about having "invasion" rewritten as "advancement" in the textbook examination. Wu Xueqian was the man who took advantage of that and came to threaten Japan.
He knew how to maneuver the Japanese.
He first enlisted Sakutaro Tanino of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was told that the Asahi Shimbun was in charge of the pacification operation.
Tanino was a typical China School diplomat with Chinese language training, and his internal maneuvering led to the decision to have the Emperor and Empress visit China.
It was all an undercover operation.
Miyawaki.
Once Jiang Zemin used Japan to regain international credibility, his next move was to promote anti-Japanese education.
Takayama
I think he studied the methods of Sun Myung Moon, the former founder of the Unification Church.
He demonstrated that he could withdraw as much money as possible if Japan had to bear the burden of atonement.
In 1991, Sun Myung Moon teamed up with Kim Il Sung and turned against Japan.
He accused Japan of 36 years of Japanese imperial rule, called Japan "the devil," and said that Japan should pay for its crimes.
The Japanese were easily deceived, and some women, informed of the tragedy of the comfort women in the Asahi Shimbun, went to a joint wedding to become Korean sex slaves themselves.
The Asahi Shimbun had Takashi Uemura write an article about Kim Hak-sun, a former prostitute, at the right time as if he had arranged with Sun Myung Moon somewhere, and the issue of comfort women boiled over.
The story was a spin-off of Seoul's abduction of comfort women, which Seiji Yoshida had fabricated on the island of Jeju.
As if to follow up, the front-page story "Military involvement in military comfort women" by Yoshiaki Yoshimi of Chuo University made the front page.
Later, the story "200,000 Korean women were made into sex slaves" was published, and the Japanese government's apology diplomacy with South Korea began.
A considerable amount of money is flowing into South Korea.
Miyawaki
In the subsequent Kono and Murayama statements, the government seems to have acknowledged the comfort women issue.
Takayama
Sakutaro Tanino was the author of those two statements.
He is really a great sinner for Japan.
Jiang Zemin would have thought that how the Japanese government and media treated the comfort women issue would be helpful.
He started begging for money from Japan by bringing up the Nanjing issue and the Yasukuni Shrine visit.
From there, as stated in "Jiang Zemin's Anthology," "The Japanese army was brutal and killed 35 million people on the Chinese mainland since the Manchurian Incident. We must always keep telling the history to Japan so that it will not forget it." The government has been using a strategy of atonement and has had Japan contribute approximately 3.66 trillion yen in the form of Official Development Assistance (ODA).
In 1997, when Jiang Zemin met with President Clinton, he made a deliberate stopover in Hawaii.
He also offered flowers at Pearl Harbor and declared that "Japan is the common enemy of the U.S. and China.
Miyawaki
The Japanese people have shown no resistance to Jiang Zemin's anti-Japanese strategy.
Instead, they decided that working with Jiang Zemin would be more beneficial.
Weaknesses of Japanese Diplomacy
Takayama.
Among the Japanese people, there is one who has contributed to Japan's sense of redemption.
It all started with Kaheita Okazaki, a Bank of Japan man who continually chanted, "Japan has caused trouble for China."
Okazaki was appointed president of All Nippon Airways (ANA) by Masuichi Midoro, president of Asahi. In return for his services, Okazaki claimed that "Japan did to mainland China what the Nazis did to Europe.
For the rest of his life, Okazaki sought redemption from Japan and continued to speak of friendship with China.
Two days before Kakuei Tanaka visited China during the normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and China, Zhou Enlai called Okazaki and told him that in China, there is a saying: "When we drink water, we never forget the person who dug the well," and "Soon Prime Minister Tanaka will come to China, and diplomatic relations will be normalized. But it was you, Mr. Okazaki, who dug that well," he said.
Zhou Enlai has another Han Chinese trait of being able to say what is not in his mind without hesitation.
That is how he coaxed diplomats into mass production of Sinophiles like Sakutaro Tanino.
So the weakness of Japanese diplomacy is that there are only pro-China diplomats.
Miyawaki.
If such Japanese are still around today, Japan must change.
Takayama.
However, there are still many such people.
It is not only the foreign affairs bureaucrats.
A report by the Spanish NGO Safeguard Defenders recently revealed that an office of the Chinese secret police is located in Akihabara, Japan.
In the January issue of this magazine, Yui Sakaki pointed out the connection between that organization and Shinpei Matsushita, a member of the House of Councilors. Still, the media hardly picked up the story.
The only major newspaper to do so is Sankei.
It would be a good story for opposition party members, who are busy looking for dirt on LDP members.
Shinpei Matsushita became acquainted with a Chinese woman who was believed to be a Chinese intelligence officer and even gave her a pass to the House of Councilors Office.
In addition, he has even accepted a position as an advisor to the Chinese police.
Even if there is a tendency to believe that friendship between Japan and China is a good thing, this is a major national security issue.
No one can be sure that there will not be a second or third Matsushita.
Nevertheless, when China is involved, all opposition party members shush.
It is as if they confess they are badgers in the same hole since they receive money from China.
Miyawaki
Since the "normalization" of diplomatic relations between Japan and China in 1972, Japan has been entangled with China.
Hidehiro Okada, a scholar of Oriental history and Professor Emeritus at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, has been writing essays such as "Japan-China friendship is useless." Still, no one responded because of the loud calls for "Japan-China friendship.
Takayama.
That's true.
The Japan-China Press Exchange Agreement was concluded as part of the LT trade agreement at the start of what should have been a free press.
Since it was positioned as a part of economic activities, it was taken for granted that there would be a variety of regulations, so "badmouthing or criticizing the other party is prohibited."
Such an agreement is only detrimental to the national interest.
Some can be used.
Miyawaki.
As I mention in my book "The True History of China [1840-1949]" (PHP Bunko), there are many surprising facts when looking at the developments at the end of the Qing Dynasty.
Following the defeat of the Opium War, some Chinese intellectuals feared that they would be overwhelmed by the Western powers and translated and researched foreign literature.
The translation of international law was also faster than that of Japan.
However, Qing's attitude toward the Western powers only changed slowly.
As evidence, even after the Nanjing Treaty (a peace treaty concluded in 1842 between the Qing and the British to end the Opium War), the Rihan Yuan (an institution in charge of the four clan divisions of Mongolia, Qinghai, Tibet, and Xinjiang) was responsible for negotiations between Britain and France.
Takayama
So they saw the West as a barbaric region.
Miyawaki
The reform movement that sought to strengthen itself by introducing Western science and technology was initially called "barbarian affairs.
However, after losing the Second Opium War (the Arrow War) and signing a treaty with Great Britain, the use of the Chinese character for "barbarian" was forbidden.
Since then, the name has been changed to "Self-Strengthening Movement."
As expected, the Qing dynasty felt this was a bad idea and was forced to understand Western politics and culture, translating more and more international laws.
However, Yikuang, the first prime minister of the Qing Dynasty, said, "it can use some[of the international laws].
They never believe that they are bound by international law.
I was astonished.
Takayama
They think China is the center of the world, and that's why they come up with such ideas.
Miyawaki
Japan was amazed by Western civilization.
Through the end of the Edo period and the Meiji Restoration, Japan worked very hard to modernize its institutions to become a world member.
China, however, has yet to gain such awareness.
Moreover, this mindset has been passed down to the present day.
China believes that power is everything, and as long as it is a significant power, it does not need to pay any attention to international law.
On the other hand, when they think they are a small country, they practice "self-effacement" (hiding their abilities and accumulating power within).
They do not accept the global rules with conviction.
Because they are a small country, they just shut up and pretend to follow those rules.
Takayama
They change their attitude according to the situation at any given time, but deep in their gut, they are different.
Miyawaki
The teachings of Confucius' "Analects" express the characteristics of the Chinese people.
As Professor Emeritus Hiroshi Furuta of Tsukuba University has pointed out, Japanese people have interpreted and accepted the moral passages in "The Analects" in the Japanese way.
Moreover, this is only about 40% of the total.
Takayama.
That's about the extent of it (laughs).
Miyawaki
The other 60% are stories that are totally unacceptable to the Japanese.
One of them is a story about how one can be filial if one's father is a thief.
Confucius says it is filial piety to defend one's father and that offering him up to the public is outrageous disloyalty.
That is the principle of the behavior of the Chinese people.
This article continues.
