The yen and the yuan
At lunch with three of this university's best students on Monday, we were talking about places in the world we'd like to visit. We were having lunch because I'm helping them with speeches they will give, in English, to a crowd of dignitaries. Their speeches were the three chosen, out of this university's 10,000 students, so these students definitely are the intellectual elite of this school. And they, as with all the students here, have a great zeal for life and an innocence that is refreshing.
Each student -- two girls and a boy -- talked of a strong desire to go to America, especially New York City (yahoo!), Australia, New Zealand, Western Europe. Strangely missing was any mention of other Asian countries, so I asked, "what about Japan?"
"I hate Japan," came the immediate response from one of the girls, an English major. Her friend modified a bit: "We don't hate individual Japanese people, we just hate the government." Then the boy spoke passionately about how savagely Japanese soldiers treated Chinese people in the invasion during the 1930s and about how Japanese soldiers competed for Chinese skulls the way kids collect baseball cards. It should be noted that one of the girls, who actually held the most moderate view, is from Nanjing, the city near Shanghai that was the sight of the infamous "Nanjing Massacre" in 1937.
But, I said, Japan has changed significantly since then, with its philosophy of non-aggression and its re-birth since World War II. But the boy dismissed the changes. He said that the Japanese government, while outwardly more friendly and dedicated to peace, has made no apologies, not even an acknowledgement, of Japanes atrocities against China. "Look at the Germans," he said. "Their prime minister prayed at the Holocaust Memorial, crying, begging forgiveness for the actions of his country. And they paid Jewish people lots of money in reparations." The Japanese government, he said, has responded by wiping the historical stain from their memory, erasing it from textbooks and not paying any money in reparations. "I hate them and can never forgive them," he said.
Zonks! The next day, a group of my students was in my apartment, planning a Halloween party for this Friday night. When they were ready to leave, one girl, the class "monitor," or president, asked me where my Japanese friend lives. I told her he lives downstairs, and she made a motion like that of a boxer, gesturing toward his room. "Do you know what they did to us in history?" she asked. "I hate them."
And so, in both cases, I tried to point out that each country has its historical stains -- mine does, theirs does, everybody's does -- and that those stains will never be left where they belong, as history, unless we forgive and forget.
It was quite strange to be defending a country other than my own, for once. And it was somehow more disturbing because it involved my friend Manabu. When people criticize my country, it doesn't affect me as deeply. For one thing, I am well used to it by now, and my skin is miles thick. For another, it's expected -- the most powerful country will always have at least half the world against it. For another, I can deal with such conversations without a problem. In fact, I sort of thrive on being diplomat-boy.
But for very intelligent, considerate people to spout vitriol about my best friend's country, that bummed me out. It also made me a bit fearful for Manabu's safety. If people feel such deep animosity for Japan, it's only natural that someone may take out frustrations on a Japanese person.
Manabu, as usual, was cool about it. "It's okay," he said, his response to every problem. "What we did in China was very bad, but it's just something to read about in a history book." And I think his presence here will allow more Chinese people to understand that Japan's people are as gentle as is its post-World War II military strategy.
