On 10/21/2004 12:31 AM, cc wrote:
> "Scott Reynolds" <sar@gol.com> wrote in message
> 
>>But leaving aside the fact that some of the things your criticize seem
>>to contradict each other (threatening China vs. politically snobbing
>>Taiwan),
> 
> I have not said all that happened at the same time and had the same sort of
> impact. There have been a number of crisis since 1945.

Oh, I see.

>>do you really think that Japan's more-or-less unquestioning
>>support for US policy postwar is a significant factor in anti-Japanese
>>sentiment throughout Asia?
> 
> If there still is an anti-Japanese sentiment, it's the reason number 1. 

Remarkable.

> The
> second reason being the experience the different people have had in their
> relations with Japanese tourists, Japanese
> industry, and also their experience at studying/working/being refused in
> Japan, etc, over the last 50 yrs.

And where would the effects of anti-Japan government propaganda rate? 
Down around No. 13 or 14 perhaps?

> I don't think the Japanese particularly "supported" US postwar policy, but
> they was de facto on the US side, while other countries were in the
> communist block. 

I was speaking of the Japanese government, not the people. The Japanese 
government most certainly has supported US postwar policy, in every 
particular. This even includes things like switching recognition from 
Taiwan to the PRC, when the US government forgot to tell the Japanese 
government ahead of time.

> There was the Cold War. If Japanese people have not had the
> same friendly relations with China that West-
> Germans have had with us in France since the late 40's , it is mostly
> because that was "physically" impossible for so many years. USSR and the US
> of then
> wouldn't have let the Chinese and Japanese open their borders to trade,
> culture and tourism as they are doing now.

This is a matter of degree, surely? There was a lot of contact between 
China and Japan even before the end of the cold war. Also, I do not 
think it is correct to say that the Soviet Union was keeping China and 
Japan apart.

>>I'm not claiming it is not a factor at all, mind you. But a significant
>>factor? You think the Chinese soccer fans who booed the Japan team in
>>Nanjing recently were pissed off about Koizumi's support for Bush?
> 
> It's very likely they were. 

Do you really believe this, or are you just typing the first words that 
pop into your head?

> I don't know them but all my Chinese
> acquaintances were pissed off, just because China was against Bush.
> But I don't think it is the reason that makes nationalist extremists become
> hooligans, make their demos against Japanese tourists in Pekin, go to put
> flags on small islets and hack Japanese webpages. They are hooligans, then
> they look for targets and for pretexts. There also exist a group of
> intellectual nationalists to write serious books of nationalist fantasies,
> and it's sure the Sino-Japanese war is an easy source of inspiration.

So expressions of indignation about the Sino-Japanese war are just a 
pretext for blowing off steam about anger at Koizumi's support for Bush?

> I have been to China several times, and my impression is the people that
> think negatively about the Japanese are a tiny minority. All the Chinese
> I've met were ready to sit down to take a tea with Japanese people and
> discuss about Nankin just like the French and English can discuss about how
> they've poisoned Napoleon. From what I have seen, the Japanese visitors and
> expats are liking it there and many people I know travel to China very often
> as people are far from being hostile to them. And you can see well that the
> number of Japanese-Chinese joint venture businesses is increasing, and the
> cultural exchanges too.

Yes. This is all very encouraging.

-- 
_______________________________________________________________
Scott Reynolds                                      sar@gol.com