一些普通日本人对中国反日运动的看法(Japan Today)

[Beleriand]

What do you think about the recent anti-Japanese demonstrations in China?


Mamoru Takahashi, 55

"Japan did something bad before and is still getting paid back. We invaded Manchuria, killed people and raped women. I wish these protests would end, but it's just an unfortunate situation. However, the Chinese police just watched and allowed Japanese people to get beaten up. Those Japanese people in China must have held hopes of having closer ties with Chinese people, but now they must be afraid of being there. However, I do not think it would be wise for Japan to antagonize China. We are too much under the control of the U.S. If Japan has to resist someone, it should be the U.S. first, before China."

 

[Beleriand]

Isamu Suzuki, 25

"It's a difficult problem that involves education and history. China may be still angry about our history, but it seems to me that all Japan's financial support and apologies haven't been recognized by the Chinese. I would like the two governments to reach a friendly solution somehow. Otherwise, we should split the world into North and South or East and West to separate aggressive and peaceful countries. I do not like such countries to be neighbors."

 

[Beleriand]

Oba, 33

"That demonstration makes Japanese people think a lot about our own place in the world. We realize how much we are not appreciated by other countries. We do not know anything about foreigners and so on. In order to promote international friendship, we should create a more welcoming environment in Japan for foreigners. As I work at the station, I often get sad about the staff's attitude toward foreigners. Some of the staff who can't speak English behave arrogantly toward foreigners because they think the foreigners should speak Japanese. That's no way to deal with people. We need to have a heart to understand others. That's all it takes.

 

[Beleriand]

Yosuke Murakami, 28

"It made me sad to see those protests. I did not know how much Chinese people hate us. In a way, their patriotic sentiment impressed me. I think in Japan, because of our experience with the A-bombs, we are more optimistic about our history and the future and do not have such a strong emotional attachment to our country. It does not mean we are not sorry for what the imperial army did in China, but we live in a different era. Who would possibly think about that wartime era now?"

 

[Beleriand]

Tadashi Takahashi, 56

"Japan is in a no-win situation because we are supporting China. Yeah, Japan promised them 4-5 billion yen in grants for building infrastructure such as bridges and highways. However, those contractors were from Japan and politicians got kickbacks from the building contractors. These anti-Japanese protests could have happened a long time ago. There is more to these protests than just what we read in the newspapers. Japanese newspapers and TV are all the same. They do not report the background and deeper meaning like the individualistic U.S. media do. Japan's media are merely a PR service for our government. That is why only one out of 100 people can truly distinguish the truth."

 

[Beleriand]

Kazuko Kanesaka, 50

"Those Chinese kids are not aware of how much Japan has been doing to compensate for the damage and emotional pain it caused in China during the war. Even though China has launched a space ship, killed many people and invaded Tibet, Japan has continued to meet their requests for aid. We are spending billions on China through our ODA. Not only that, many Japanese companies are in China, employing Chinese and paying taxes to the government. Much Chinese produce is imported by Japan. Those anti-Japanese demonstrators do not know how important the relationship between us is. I thought Japanese kids have no idea about politics, history and economics, but now I see that Chinese are also the same."

 

[Beleriand]

Takumi Fukumoto, 26

"The Chinese education system and their media are one-sided. Chinese people do not know the truth about Japan. Japanese newspapers reported that Chinese people do not know about Japan's ODA support and how many times the Japanese government has apologized for its wartime behavior. Of course, I'm not saying that all Chinese people have the wrong ideas. When I went to Beijing and Mongolia three years ago, people were nice to me. I met one young lady who had heard horror stories about the Japanese from her grandmother. She told me she had heard how the imperial army came to Manchuria, burned the land and killed people. Of course, she wasn't comfortable talking with me about things like that, but she was really nice to me. I wonder if those Chinese demonstrators know how many millions the Chinese Red Army killed when it invaded Tibet. The Chinese government does not teach their people about it at all. They do not have the slightest idea. It's just like the Japanese textbooks which do not teach about the details of the Nanking Massacre. However, there's one thing I want to say on that. Chinese people say Japan killed over 300,000 Chinese in the massacre, but the population of Nanking back then was less than 200,000. That's what I read in the Sankei newspaper. Anyway, both sides were guilty of atrocities, so we are even now."