A Pale View of Hills, a movie released last year, follows the story of a Japanese woman from Nagasaki who moved to Britain in the 1950s with her British husband and daughter from a previous marriage. The daughter was born at a time when memories of the US atomic bombing of Nagasaki during World War II and anxiety over the effects of nuclear radiation still haunted the community. It is a reflection on the legacy of the local and national trauma of the bombing that ended the period of Japanese militarism.
A central theme of the movie is the need, at times, to misrepresent a painful past to reshape the present to a more desirable narrative.
The mountains of Taiwan’s east coast are visible from Japan’s Yonaguni Island, the end of the archipelago stretching from Japan proper to about 110km from Taipei. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s decision to install missiles on Yonaguni is not considered a threat to Taiwan; the weapons are defensive and a reassuring presence.
Taiwan has its own complex history with Japan. Historical scars and suspicions remain, but so does the positive legacy of social transformation, architecture and infrastructure. Taiwanese have moved on: Relations between the two countries are friendly, supportive and cooperative.
On May 2, Takaichi gave an address in Hanoi, announcing an updated “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” (FOIP) strategy. One part of the updated strategy is “enhancing cooperation in the field of security to ensure regional peace and stability.” National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) on Thursday said that Taiwan is considering joint actions with Japan on key security issues concerning China as part of Takaichi’s updated FOIP.
The NSB is already sharing intelligence with Japan on the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “gray zone” tactics, to counter the threat of Chinese maritime hegemonic expansion, Tsai said.
Takaichi has continued her recent predecessors’ policy of increasing military spending and has been explicit about her desire to amend Japan’s pacifist constitution to allow a more active role for its Self-Defense Forces.
That is not without opposition from within Japan, but it is increasingly being considered necessary to protect Japan from the CCP’s expansionist ambitions.
Japan joined the annual Balikatan military exercises hosted by the Philippines from April 20 to Friday, deploying about 1,400 combat troops and marking the first time Japan has sent combat troops to the Philippines since the war. In February, the Philippines, the US and Japan conducted joint drills near the Bashi Channel, the waterway separating Taiwan and the Philippines.
The exercises are part of Japan’s increased engagement in military preparedness in the region, meant as deterrence, and to maintain peace and stability. Formerly enemies, Manila and Tokyo, too, have moved on from the painful legacy of the war.
However, Sino-Japanese relations are strained after remarks Takaichi made in the Diet on Nov. 7 last year, saying that Chinese military action in the Taiwan Strait could necessitate military action by the Japan Self-Defense Forces.
Since then, the CCP has embarked on a campaign of persuasion targeting regional partners, trying to convince them of the threat of renewed Japanese militarism. Its tactics show that the CCP has failed to move on, while it deliberately misrepresents the geopolitical situation by leveraging historical trauma.
The CCP is using the implicit threat of Chinese military action against Taiwan to intimidate Taiwanese into accepting annexation on the CCP’s terms.
The campaign against Japan originates from the CCP’s frustration that the potential of Japanese intervention dilutes its threats. Beijing’s “renewed Japanese militarism” narrative is an attempt to turn regional partners and ASEAN members against Japan. Unfortunately for the CCP, nobody is buying it.
The most recent State of Southeast Asia survey conducted by the Singapore-based ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute showed that Japan is the most trusted power in Southeast Asia, despite its recent military build-up. The findings show that 65.6 percent of Southeast Asian respondents expressed confidence in Japan, compared with 39.8 percent expressing confidence in China.
This is attributable to Japan’s reputation for upholding international law and for being a force for good, compared with concerns over Beijing’s increasingly assertive behavior in regional disputes, particularly in the South China Sea.
Deterrence and resilience are reinforced by an honest representation of the past and the present, and a genuine desire for peace, which is possible through reconciliation and cooperation to move beyond the shadow of historical trauma.
KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) recent visit to Beijing and her upcoming visit to Washington will serve as a high-level test of her diplomatic mettle. In Beijing, Cheng was received with symbolic gestures, a warm reception, and high-level access. In Washington, she will receive far less pomp and far sharper questions about the KMT’s vision for the future of Taiwan. Her challenge will be to persuade Washington that the KMT’s engagement with China can coexist with strong deterrence. Cheng’s April 7-12 visit to mainland China coincided with an intense period of conflict in Iran. Despite the strategic significance of Cheng’s trip,
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has sent the vast Asian chemicals industry into a tailspin. Deprived of the likes of Qatari natural gas and Saudi Arabian oil, the region’s fertilizer and plastics plants are slowing production or even shutting down. Everywhere except China, that is. In petrochemicals, China is unique. As well as a traditional industry that uses oil and gas as feedstock, it has parallel output that relies on its abundant domestic coal. Unsurprisingly, India and other regional powers want to copy and paste the Chinese method. This would not be easy — or climate friendly. The
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto says he knows how to fix the problems facing Indonesia. Yet his economic mismanagement and authoritarian tendencies are steering the nation toward a familiar mix of currency instability and political chaos. The world’s fourth-most populous nation risks reversing the hard-won democratic and business reforms that came after the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997. At that time, the rupiah collapsed and the political upheaval that followed forced former president Haji Mohamed Suharto from power. Prabowo’s administration is ignoring similar warning signs. That disconnect was apparent in a national address on Wednesday, when Prabowo projected the swagger that has
“Of course you can choose not to be Taiwanese, just do not stay here,” chairwoman of Taipei 101 operator Taipei Financial Center Corp Janet Chia (賈永婕) said in an online interview with local entertainer Tai Chih-yuan (邰智源), triggering intense discussion on social media, with politicians across party lines weighing in. In the interview, which was aired on May 14, Chia and Tai’s discussion over a meal in Taipei 101 covered Chia’s career change from entertainer to chairwoman and US climber Alex Honnold’s free solo climb up the Taipei 101 building. During the interview, Chia said, “Being on this land, we
RSS