China vs Japan - it's not just a soccer
game By Kosuke Takahashi
TOKYO - The
often tense relations between Japan and China appear to
be worsening, even as they head toward a supposedly
amicable and entertaining world
event aimed at promoting people-to-people friendship
between the two powerful neighbors - and rising above
politics.
This time, however, relations are
inflamed not over Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi's visits to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine
memorializing the war dead (including Class A war
criminals), nor a sovereignty dispute over the Senkaku
Islands (known in China as the Diaoyu Islands), nor the
competing development of offshore gas fields in the East
China Sea. This time the uproar is over sports -
football, or soccer - fueled by and inseparably
connected by all of these issues. Sports was supposed to
be above politics, right?
Ironically, economic
relations between Japan and China are excellent -
China's demand for exports has fueled Japan's economic
recovery - and bureaucrats on both sides would like to
put economic development and partnership first.
Political relations, however, are much cooler. And the
Asian Cup final in Beijing on Saturday night could be a
political tinderbox for the two powerful nations,
animosity going back to Japan's occupation of China in
World War II. China's memories are vivid and bitter,
passed on for generations, and still resonating today.
Concerned, and alarmed by Chinese soccer
hooligans' earlier hostile actions toward Japan's team -
the Asia Cup defending champions - and fans, Japanese
leaders already have called on China to ensure the
safety of the Japanese team and fans during the final
match at the 65,000-seat Beijing stadium.
Tokyo
earlier had formally protested Chinese jeering, hurling
garbage and storming a bus carrying Japanese in
Chongqing in the semi-finals. Similar hooliganism
occurred at other matches also in Jinan, Shandong
province. Fans too were abused and insulted. Japan
requested three times that China control its fans and
ensure the security of Japanese players and fans.
Chinese officials blame the violence on the
extreme behavior of a relatively few soccer fans, but
the Foreign Ministry has urged restraint upon Chinese
players and fans on Saturday night. Fans of the two
sides are to be kept separated in the stands. More than
6,000 police officers in full riot gear and army troops
will be deployed around the stadium. Chinese newspapers
published photos of riot police rehearsing with dogs for
violent contingencies - a warning to unruly Chinese.
"Look into history and apologize to the Asian
people," said one banner in Chongqing during the
quarter-finals between Japan and Jordan. It added,
"Return Angling (Diaoyu) Island to us!", a reference to
Japan's invasion of China and the ongoing sovereignty
dispute over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands.
Certainly China's reputation and prestige are at
stake in effectively protecting the Japanese team.
Otherwise, Beijing's worthiness to host the Summer
Olympic Games in 2008 might be questioned, as well as
its ability to provide security for all participants at
what could well be a terrorist target. Still, anything
could happen on Saturday night. Some Chinese fans may
get carried away when it comes to sports, just as they
do in Europe and Latin America.
Even aside from
the trouble in Chongqing this week, Japan's security
concerns might be justified. In May 1985, some radical
Chinese fans rioted inside and outside the same Beijing
stadium. That was just after the Chinese team was
defeated by the Hong Kong team at one of the regional
elimination matches for the World Cup soccer finals.
Should China lose this time - and Japan win on Chinese
soil - what effect would this have on Chinese hooligans
and super-nationalists?
Bitter wartime history
overshadows tournament So far the Japanese team -
defending champions of the Asia Cup and ranked 20th in
the world by the Federation Internationale de Football
Association (FIFA), soccer's governing body - as well as
Japanese fans have faced hostile crowds in all its
matches. The heckling and jeering were intense in
Chongqing in China's midwest where Japan defeated teams
from Oman, Thailand and Jordan late last month. Violence
almost broke out at the tournament in Chongqing after
Japan defeated Thailand on July 24, the Reuters news
agency reported. Some Chinese fans surrounded the bus
carrying Japan's players and hurled abuse after the game
with Jordan.
The liberal Japanese newspaper
Asahi Shimbun reported that roughly 50,000 spectators
cheered loudly for Jordan and stood up when Jordan's
national anthem was played. When the Japanese national
anthem "Kimigayo", literally meaning "The Emperor's
World", was played prior to the match, about half the
crowd remained seated and many booed, Asahi Shimbun
reported.
"I don't care about booing" by Chinese
fans against the Japanese team, said Japan's Brazilian
coach Zico. "But any soccer fan in the world should pay
due respect when a national anthem is played."
Still, for residents of Chongqing, the scars of
World War II remain and they have their reasons for
hostility. As the temporary capital of Chiang Kai-shek's
nationalist Kuomintang government, the city was heavily
bombarded by Japanese air raids during the Sino-Japanese
War, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths between
1938 and 1943. The exact number is not known. Thus, the
Japanese aggression before and during World War II is
ever-present for aging residents who have passed history
down to their offspring, today's soccer fans.
Sport has become a diplomatic
embarrassment Faced with Chinese soccer hooligans
- some call them unbridled supra-nationalists - Tokyo
has made three separate requests to Beijing to improve
the environment for the soccer team and fans so far.
"With fans going to China to watch the matches,
we do not want any trouble or acts of violence breaking
out," Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda
told a press conference on Wednesday. "I hope the
Chinese government will take adequate measures on that
point."
Prime Minister Koizumi said sports and
politics should not be mixed. "Since it is a sports
event I hope that both sides are able to enjoy the event
with a warm feeling," Koizumi told reporters on
Wednesday. But many Japanese, especially business
people, blame his frequent visits to the Yasukuni Shrine
in Tokyo and his refusal to abandon his homage to the
war dead as having triggered Beijing's wrath and brought
Japan frosty political relations with Beijing. This
despite tightening economic ties, important to both
countries.
Meanwhile, late Wednesday China's
official Xinhua news agency quoted Foreign Ministry
spokesman Kong Quan as saying that the four matches
involving Japan in general had been held in an orderly
fashion. He said large-scale international soccer
matches often witness extreme behavior by a handful of
fans, but said this does not correspond with the spirit
of most. China does not agree with or support such
behavior, he said.
He also said China regrets
that some Japanese media have "focused too much and
played up on those behaviors and even connected them
with politics".
In addition, Kong said that
sports and a variety of other exchanges between China
and Japan will help promote mutual understanding among
their people. Although his remarks in the Japanese media
appeared to have prompted a moderate anti-Chinese public
backlash in Japan, Japanese people seem happy to accept
the fact both Tokyo and Beijing agreed to seek actions
to end anti-Japanese chanting and abuse.
Need
to overcome the past The current state of
Japan-China relations seems similar to that of
Japan-South Korea ties in early 1990s when Tokyo and
Seoul had their most trying time in the postwar period.
That truculent mood was triggered largely by the issue
of comfort women, or sex slaves for soldiers during
Japan's occupation before and during World War II,
combined with the issue of Japan's Self-Defense Force
(SDF) participation in peacekeeping operations of the
United Nations.
At that time, many Japanese
believed the South Korean government and media had
amplified the antagonism of the Korean people toward
Japan to maintain the legitimacy of its administration
and its ability to unify Koreans by capitalizing on
anti-Japanese feelings. Meanwhile, South Koreans viewed
the Japanese people as monolithically drifting to the
right and reviving its militarism by just forgetting
about past wrongs.
Since then, however, the two
countries have bridged their perception gaps by
promoting people-to-people and cultural exchanges such
as sports. In fact, Japan's most fervent soccer rivalry
has long been with South Korea. Ironically, compared
with this time in China, another soccer event - the 2002
Soccer World Cup co-hosted by Japan and South Korea -
added momentum to improve their relationship.
This time, many Japanese view a majority of the
unruly Chinese soccer fans as young people who were
taught super-patriotism and anti-Japanese thinking in
school, based on China's patriotic education policy
under former president Jiang Zemin. And many Japanese
people also believe that Tokyo tends to be used as a
target for the venting of political and economical
frustration by Chinese youths who are not allowed to
speak up about their own government.
China,
meanwhile, considers that Japan has arrogantly refused
to face up to the historical issues and its wartime
crimes. Some Chinese appear to think the same booing and
unruly behavior could occur if the matches were held in
Japan - but the animus would be directed against China.
China and others might want to know why Japan
cannot overcome the historical issues. Japan's
"forgetting" - or not squarely addressing - the past
perhaps has a deeper reason, one found in the pathology
of amnesia, some observers say. The only real but
implicit taboo remaining in Japan today is to touch upon
the real causes of the Sino-Japanese War and World War
II. This, after all, boiled down to the last Showa
Emperor's war responsibility and the United States'
occupation policy, which decriminalized him to control
then-turbulent Japanese lands and people. Many Japanese
intellectuals think it's not a good idea to look into
this matter closely because it could eventually lead to
criticism of the policies of the US, the strongest ally
of Japan, and hurt the legitimacy of the imperial family
as well.
If bitter wartime memories continue to
linger, and even fester, among Japan's Asian neighbors,
Tokyo might want to face up to that taboo sometime in
the near future.
Many nations view victory in
soccer games as national glory. Whether more could be at
play than victory or defeat at this coming final will
surely count on China's ability as the host and
organizer.
Kosuke Takahashi is a
former staff writer at the Asahi Shimbun and is
currently a freelance correspondent based in Tokyo. He
can be contacted atkosuke_everonward@ybb.ne.jp.
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amicable and entertaining world
event aimed at promoting people-to-people friendship
between the two powerful neighbors - and rising above
politics. 
