Interview with Ms. H
"When Japanese politicians become prime minister, they usually make some kind of statement about history. In Tokyo, there is the Yasukuni Shrine—you can look it up—where some politicians openly go to pay their respects. They see those enshrined there as martyrs, people who died in the war.
But there are also politicians who care more about how the Chinese government will react, so they avoid going publicly, or at least don’t make their stance explicit. On the other hand, figures like Sanae Takaichi have no hesitation. She goes and pays respects regardless of outside opinion. For them, it’s a matter of belief.
The way they often explain it is this: America cut off Japan’s oil supply, and Japan had no choice but to find another path, which led them into China. That’s the justification they like to give. But still—no matter how you phrase it—aggression is aggression. Yet in public, you’ll never hear them openly apologize.
It’s completely different from Germany. In Japan, whether a politician visits Yasukuni Shrine is almost like a marker—you can tell what kind of ideology they hold. Just recently, one of the candidates from the Sanseito Party even posted something about the Nanjing Massacre on Twitter. People immediately criticized him—saying he didn’t even understand history, so what business did he have running for office? And it wasn’t only Chinese people complaining—Japanese netizens were scolding him too. It shows how extreme some members of Sanseito can be.
As for ordinary Japanese people, do they feel guilt or responsibility? I would say the younger generation really doesn’t care. The older generation, especially those over sixty, sometimes do show sincerity. If the topic comes up—though we usually avoid discussing war with Japanese people—some of them will quietly say they feel sorry. That generation tends to recognize it more. But with young people, I even doubt whether they know much about it at all. They certainly don’t pay attention.
For us Chinese living in Japan, the Chinese identity remains strong. Take my own family: our lifestyle is still very Chinese, even down to the food—we have “Chinese stomachs.” My child came here in first grade, but he still identifies as Chinese. He often introduces himself at school by saying, “I’m from Beijing,” and he takes pride in being Chinese.
It wasn’t always like this. I’ve heard that thirty years ago, Chinese children in Japan would sometimes hide their identity, or even lie, saying their parents weren’t Chinese. But now, things have changed. Most of us feel no shame at all. If anything, we’re proud of being Chinese."