ABSTRACT
Members of the Japanese media had turned out in such numbers at Haneda on that October evening, at least in part simply because the arrival of any foreign dignitary in Japan was a newsworthy event. The impending arrival of Li Dequan, however, had been the subject of public debate in Japan for many weeks, and the conversation surrounding her visit was often highly contentious. Li’s formal position in the PRC government, as Minister of Public Health, was somewhat unique in that, while she was one of the highest-placed women in Beijing, she was not a member of the Chinese Communist Party. Li’s high public profi le was rooted instead in her own rich personal experiences as a social activist on issues related to women and family, the international recognition she had cultivated since the end of the war by campaigning for those matters overseas, and her humanitarian work as president of the Chinese Red Cross. While Japanese supporters had lauded Li’s visit to Tokyo as an epochal harbinger of peace and reconciliation between China and Japan during the weeks prior to her trip, her opponents had launched venomous rhetorical attacks in which Li was dismissed as nothing more than a communist wolf in humanitarian sheep’s clothing. These passionate reactions from the Japanese public to the prospect of Li Dequan’s arrival reveal signifi cant insights concerning the lingering legacies of Japan’s defeat in the Second World War as well as simmering tensions in East Asian international relations during the early 1950s.
