Postwar Japan-China Relationship: Contemplation from the Perspective of Reconciliation = Postwar Japan-China Relationship: Contemplation from the Perspective of Reconciliation

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This paper depicts the China-Japan relationship after WWII from the perspective of “reconciliation” and suggests comparative perspectives that could be applied to the post-war Japan-Korea relationship. The key phrase that connects the “Abe Statement” published on August 14, 2015 and the “Report of World Order in the 21st Century” is “post-war reconciliation.” The seventy years of Japan-China relations after the Second World War indicate that while both sides have made movements towards reconciliation, the surrounding situation has not coincided with such intentions for seventy years. This is rather distinct from Japan-Korea relations. During the 1950s, and the 1960s although the idea of reconciliation was emerging, there was only limited progress. Economic relations between Japan and China grew rapidly in the 1980s, but Japan’s movements to improve relations with China overlapped with China’s reinforcement of the anti Japanese education system that was adopted as a tool for controlling domestic society after the Cold War. From 1990 onwards, Japan and China’s continuous mutual efforts for reconciliation have shown a certain level of progress. Henceforth, in order to unify their disharmonic past, mutual efforts will need to be made towards pacification as the foundation for improved Japan-China relations.