ABSTRACT
An opinion survey in 2009 by China Daily, the leading English newspaper in China, and Genron NPO, 1 a Japanese polling organization, found 65.2 per cent of Chinese respondents held a negative image of Japan. 2 Of these, 73.2 per cent cited the last war between the countries and 56.8 per cent referred to the ‘unresolved historical issue’— the common Chinese belief that Japan has not shown proper contrition over its past aggression— as the source of their unfavorable perception. 3 The same survey found that more Chinese respondents associated Japan with the Nanjing massacre (1937) than with Mount Fuji or cherry blossoms, which the Japanese themselves prefer as national icons. 4 Will the Chinese ever change their attitude toward Japan over the war? After all, fighting ended more than 60 years ago. A Japanese professor I once met was confident that time would dissipate this deep-seated Chinese animosity toward Japan. He pointed out that China has never apologized for invading Japan in the thirteenth century (the Mongol invasions), but the Japanese nowadays do not feel aggrieved in the least because of it. Give the Chinese another century, or maybe two, and things will somehow work out, this argument seems to imply. 5
