China is keen to use Germany's continued contrition for the Nazi regime to highlight Japan's less transparent stance on its own wartime past during President Xi Jinping's visit to Europe next month, diplomatic sources say. According to the SCMP, Berlin was "hurt and embarrassed" by China's efforts to use the country's less than glorious history as a ploy to shame Japan.
The news follows Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's controversial visit to Tokyo's Yasukini Shrine in December last year, worsening relations in the region.
Japan has apologised for its actions during the war in the past. "As I’ve said before, in the past many nations, especially those in Asia, suffered great damage and pain due to our nation," Abe said recently. "Our government recognises this, as have the governments that have gone before, and will continue this stance." However, this conciliatory position is undermined somewhat by far-right Japanese politicians, and Abe's failure to disown revisionists in his own party and government.
As recently as the 1990s, Japanese history textbooks were accused of 'whitewashing' the country's actions during WWII.
According to China, Germany has demonstrated model behaviour in dealing with its past:
“Any group of people can make a historical mistake, but the Germans have admitted to it and said that they wouldn’t allow such a thing to happen again,” said Zhu Chengshan, curator of the memorial hall for the victims of the [Nanjing] massacre. “This is an amazing historical perspective that the Germans have. The Japanese, on the other hand, are exactly the opposite.”
After it was suggested that Xi visit the Holocaust Memorial during his time in Berlin, Beijing was reportedly told that the war was not a topic Xi's hosts wanted to focus on.
"China wants a strong focus on world war two when Xi visits Germany and Germany is not happy,” said one diplomatic source who has been briefed on China’s plans for the trip.
Clearly keen to not let its wartime legacy dominate either its relationship with business partner China, nor its own place on the world stage, Germany has been left with a difficult balancing act: maintaining its longstanding commitment to atoning for WWII without being dragged into any dispute between China and Japan.
[Image: Xi Jinping and German chancellor Angela Merkel]
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