china + japan = 1937

70 years and the wound has not healed.
A significant victory for those Chinese people who suffered under the aggression of Japanese invaders during WWII. The Japanese Supreme Court, rebuking Shinzo Abe’s recent denials of Japanese military involvement, acknowledged “the historical facts of sex slavery and forced labor.” In the NY Times article, however, it was also reported that the Japanese Supreme Court denied compensation to these war crime victims, claiming that a 1972 (Maoist era) agreement made between China and Japan renounced such war reparations.
Not as well known in America as the Jewish suffering during WWII is the Japanese invasion and occupation of China during that war. The Chinese city of Nanjing is home to the national Nanjing Massacre Memorial museum where mass grave excavations are on display. In Nanjing and other cities throughout China, the Japanese people committed horrific atrocities against the Chinese people. To this day, the Japanese–including the newly elected Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his predecessor–deny involvement in these crimes against humanity and have refused to make a formal apology to China. Japan’s previous PM Koizumi was also a frequent visitor to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, a shrine dedicated to the Japanese war dead but includes those executed for war crimes (such as then-Prime Minister Hideki Tojo).
There was a terrible crime committed against a people who are too modest to advertise that crime. I think the world has much to learn about what happened to so many Chinese people during Japanese occupation. For example, the 1937 invasion of Nanjing was given a name that you may have heard: The Rape of Nanking. The numbers are disputed but 300,000 civilians are believed to have been raped, tortured and murdered in Nanjing alone. We’re talking women and children. Reports claim that men were rounded up and used for bayonet practice and/or burned, executed, and buried alive en masse.
Recently, Chinese Hu Jintao visited Japan and the new PM Abe. Abe then returned the favor and visited China. Both men talked about focusing on opportunities that would bring mutual prosperity. In diplomatic spirit, both were looking to keep the peace. The WWII occupation of China by the Japanese is a terribly sensitive topic to discuss here because it evokes many unpleasant feelings. My Chinese friends and students are never explicit if they talk about this with me. Typically Chinese, they will instead make suggestive comments that conceal the true horror and violence of the events. Some of them have expressed admiration towards Germany’s apology for their actions during WWII.
The current situation between China and Japan is an equation that will forever equal that time in history, until Japan decides to fully admit to its war crimes and, with conviction, formally apologize to China. That’s probably not going to happen in my lifetime. However, this most recent Japanese Supreme Court decision is a small step towards changing that equation and venting those feelings of animosity and unrest held by the Chinese people since 1937.