I wish to say to the people of Taiwan, "Please have some sympathy for the Japanese."
Recently former president Lee Teng-hui's (李登輝) assertion that sovereignty over the Tiaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) belongs to Japan gave rise to a great deal of controversy. People disagree about which country actually owns the islands. Speaking objectively, it would seem most appropriate that they be classified as "disputed territory."
Although I am Japanese, I don't resemble those Japanese nationalists who uniformly claim that the Tiaoyutai Islands are Japanese territory; because I recognize that the claims of both the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China are also reasonable.
This problem has become increasingly messy and intractable. In any case, Lee's statement was naturally most welcome by those Japanese who don't know the facts. But the problem isn't so simple. Many Japanese have a very hard time understanding this point.
Debate about this problem within Taiwan is framed by differences between China and Taiwan. In other words, the debate over independence versus unification is at the heart of the matter. From a theoretical point of view, former president Lee and others who oppose China and seek sovereign status for Taiwan consider territories such as Kinmen, Matsu, and the Tiaoyutai Islands, which are intimately connected with China, to be a major burden. For such people, the best course is to sever all connections between these territories and Taiwan as soon as possible.
The enmity towards China of ethnic Taiwanese of Lee's generation, be it subjective or objective, can easily be equated with "pro-Japanese sentiment." In fact, however, Lee's point of departure is opposition to China and not pro-Japanese sentiment. Japan is merely an explosive issue that arose in the debate.
In fact, this problem originally had no connection whatsoever with Japan, but since Lee made pro-Japanese statements that were welcomed in Japan, it caused Taiwanese people's unfavorable impressions of the Japanese to deteriorate even further. As a result, the only people who are really pleased with Lee's statements are the elderly ethnic Taiwanese of Lee's generation. Those Taiwanese who advocate unification with China now despise the Japanese even more than they did before.
When the opposition between Taiwanese advocates of unification and Taiwanese advocates of independence becomes an issue in Japan, it serves to highlight and deepen Taiwanese antipathy toward Japan. In this way, Japan often comes under fire.
From a historical perspective, it is on the one hand natural for ethnic Taiwanese of Lee's generation to harbor anti-Chinese, pro-Japanese feelings; while, on the other hand, it is natural for mainlanders in Taiwan to harbor anti-Japanese feelings. But let's please stop dragging Japan into the unification-versus-independence dispute.
To be sure, an underlying reason for the whole dispute is that Japan once governed Taiwan, causing Taiwan to temporarily break away from China. Moreover, becoming a target for criticism may be heaven's punishment for Japan's failure to reflect sincerely upon its colonial history in Taiwan.
But apart from this, an even more fundamental reason for the dispute is the political persecution of native Taiwanese and the division between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait that took place under KMT rule. If those virulently anti-Japanese mainlanders of the unificationist camp fail to recognize the root of this problem -- and deal with it head-on -- it will continue to be a headache for the rest of us.
Takefumi Hayata is publisher of the Taiwan Report Weekly.
Translated by Ethan Harkness
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