President Muhammadu Buhari went to China the other week and made tantalising returns. He got over $6bn in investment agreements for Nigeria in six days. I’ll come to it one of these days to state which aspects of the trip catch my attention. For the moment, my focus would be what had ailed China when it hosted Nigeria’s leader. China’s attention was divided that time. Or, who can give full attention to guests when his stomach rumbles; I mean when he’s riled by what a neighbour is doing but can’t do a thing about it? Anyway, it was unimaginable that a certain John Kerry would be across the sea in Japan, engaged in anything reeking of the WW2, and China would be silent. Here, I’m fascinated by this one issue that continues to impact the complex relations among nations in Asia – Japan’s role in the WW2.
For more than a decade, I have paid attention to what appears like a seasonal battle which sees China sending word missiles the way of Japan over the WW2. It happened that Nigeria’s leader was in Beijing on one of those occasions when China mouth-whipped Japan on the matter. The same day Buhari arrived Beijing, April 11, 2016, foreign affairs ministers of G7 nations gathered in Japan. Well, China might not have noticed any other minister in the group, but it didn’t fail to notice America’s Secretary of State, Kerry. In the event, Beijing kept looking over its shoulders and across the sea as it shook hands with Abuja. How come China that appears so strong, compared to Japan, is so dedicated to pointing accusing fingers at Japan which land area and population aren’t up to 10 per cent of China’s, expressing its anger at every opportunity? It’s a long story; but the fact is that China hasn’t always been stronger than Japan. There was a period it was so weak outsiders invaded it at will, including Japan.
Kerry’s words and actions were parts of the reason China sent words to Japan as it talked to Nigeria. Look at it this way: It happened that the G7 meeting had as an aside, the commemoration of the throwing of atomic bombs by the US over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The Japanese had invited the G7 foreign ministers to the commemoration site to lay wreaths. It wasn’t in memory of anyone else, but Japanese that died after bombs were lobbed during the war. China had always been displeased with Japan over the WW2, but Kerry, rather than condemn Japan as China would, had expressed sympathy over what Japan suffered in the war. He laid his wreath and made emotional remarks as expected of one whose country was responsible for the death of some 140,000 Japanese. It was known however that all sides had a pre-event agreement that Japan wasn’t demanding an apology, so Kerry didn’t give any. That was the point China picked, insisting that Japan which it called an aggressor in the WW2, didn’t deserve an apology from anyone in the first place. Rather, Japan should offer apologies to nations such as China. No one should imagine China had climbed a podium that time to throw its missiles, abandoning Buhari who was visiting. It had simply employed its news agency, Xinhua, to mint words and lob.
In an editorial in Xinhua, China expressed contempt for the gathering in Japan. It didn’t only condemn Japan’s action during the WW2, but the role the US and Japan were playing in the region at the moment. For China, the horrors of the atomic bombing should serve as a reminder of the need to place emphasis on its root cause, instead of Japan’s claim that it was a victim. China went ahead to lambast Japan for its militaristic aggression and legacy of brutal violence during the WW2. Now, exactly what did Japan do during the war?
It’s on record that during the WW2 the Japanese perpetrated in Asia several acts comparable to those of the Nazis in Europe. For instance, there was the Laha Airfield Massacre of 1942 in Indonesia. The Japanese seized an Indonesian island, captured Australian and Dutch Prisoners of War, and as an act of reprisal after the Allies destroyed one of their minesweepers the Japanese selected prisoners and executed them by beheading and use of bayonet. The extent of this atrocity was such that an Australian military tribunal prosecuted more than 90 Japanese officers and soldiers after the war in one of the biggest war crime trials in history. There was the Alexandra Hospital Massacre also in 1942. Days before the British surrendered Singapore, Japanese soldiers arrived Alexandra Military Hospital and slaughtered its occupants, including the medical staff and patients. Even those undergoing surgery were not spared.
Akikaze Executions of 1943 had Japanese forces executing a boat of civilians suspected of spying for the Allies; a Japanese destroyer had picked up the German missionaries and the Chinese civilians living in the South Pacific islands of Kairuru and Manu. After securing the victims’ wrists to a pulley, the Japanese shot, whipped the bodies and then sent them overboard. In the Palawan Massacre that happened in 1944, the Japanese stationed in Palawan Island, Philippines, tried to kill all their American prisoners after wrongly assuming Allied forces had invaded. After driving the prisoners into makeshift air raid shelters, the Japanese burnt them alive. Those who fled the burning structures were bayoneted, shot, or bludgeoned to death. In the Indian Ocean Raid Massacre of 1944, Japanese warship sank a British merchant vessel and captured 108 survivors. The captain relayed his ship’s success to his superior, expecting praise. Instead, the superior condemned the captain for holding on to useless prisoners. He ordered their execution; his instruction was carried out.
Also, in 1944, a Japanese submarine sank a Dutch freighter off the coast of Colombo, Sri Lanka. The Japanese took 103 survivors onboard and massacred them with swords and sledgehammers. They then bound those still alive and left them on deck as the submarine go under water. The Japanese occupied Nauru in 1945 and a few of the string of atrocities stood out for their brutality. During the occupation, the Japanese packed the island’s lepers on a boat and led them out to sea. Thereafter, Japanese gun boats fired at the vessel, sinking it and killing all on board. The Massacre Of Manila, the Philippines, happened early in 1945. The Japanese general in charge had planned for his men to evacuate Manila and fight in the countryside. His subordinates ignored his order. When the Americans arrived, the Japanese forces realised they were trapped; they then vented their rage on the civilians trapped inside their lines. For weeks, the Japanese raped, pillaged, and murdered. Aside from the use of bayonets and the beheadings, they machine-gunned captives and set fire to buildings with people trapped inside. In the end, the Japanese defenders died, taking with them 100,000 civilians.
The Sook Ching Massacre back in 1942 was the aftermaths of the fall of Singapore. That time, the Japanese wanted to mop up all remaining resistance, especially among the Chinese living in the region. Singapore was the first to be purged. After interning and interrogating the city’s entire Chinese population, the Japanese packed those they deemed as dangerous into military vehicles. They then transported them to the city’s outskirts and shot them all. The casualty figure estimates range from 30,000–100,000, from China’s point of view. This is one out of the many reasons China wants Japan to compensate victims and apologise for its role, a thing Japan wouldn’t do. And it hasn’t helped China’s anger that Japan’s leader, Shinzo Abe, says so in action and in word.
For instance, Abe visits shrines where he honours Japan’s war heroes, and he says he means what he does. In a speech marking the 70th anniversary of the end of the WW2, he said he bowed his head before the souls of all Japanese who perished both at home and abroad. He expressed his feelings of profound grief and sincere condolences; but he let it be known that his generation mustn’t let Japanese children, grandchildren and generations to come who have nothing to do with that war be predestined to apologise. In that case, we shall continue to hear in Asia the rage in China’s voice for a long time to come
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