How Imperial Japan Shaped Modern China
At the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting held in Bali, Indonesia earlier this month, it seems that Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and China’s President Xi Jinping patched up the most serious differences between their two countries, at least for the time being. We are now in one of the many cooling down periods in Sino-Japanese bilateral relations, which has been one part of their fluctuating relationship over the last few years. If we want to understand why relations between Japan and China are so complex and easy to inflame, then reading through the narrative history offered by British historian, Rana Mitter’s book on the Sino-Japanese War, China’s War With Japan: The Struggle for Survival , may help. According to the book, Japan had been an important inspiration for China in the early 20th century, with over 30,000 Chinese students visiting the archipelago to study. A whole generation of émigré Chinese intellectuals and politicians, ...