posted on Jun, 30 2006 @ 02:23 PM
Chinese people have repatriated over one million Japanese citizens who were held in Northeast China after the Second World War. According to the
Geneva Convention, prisoners of war may be used to serve their captor's country. However, China repatriated Japanese at the expense of financial,
material and human resources.
During the war, in 1940, the Chinese National Army rescued a Japanese girl from the battlefield. For security reasons, General Nie Rongzhen of the
Eighth Division of the National Army decided to send the girl back to Japan. Even in their own telling of Manchurian history, the Japanese have
conceded that Chinese people didn't take revenge on them after the war. On the contrary, Chinese people sympathized with the Japanese and tried to
protect and help them.
Late Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai once said, "We [China and Japan] have co-existed peacefully for the past 2000 years." Indeed, most of the time,
China and Japan learn from each other and live peacefully. After China began the process of reform and opening up, Japanese experts came to China to
assist with construction.
But the war 60 years ago has left Chinese people with bad memories and a lot of resentment. It is not hard to understand why people's memories from
that time are still so fresh. Japanese who witnessed this period in history also understand why the memories linger. The repatriation of Japanese
people after the war made some former POWs determined to return to China at a later stage.
China repatriated Japanese after World War II. China commemorates those days because they don't want people to forget that period in history. China
should remember and be responsible for that period of history. China must not shirk its responsibilities in improving bilateral relations. This year,
a survey of the Japanese Foreign Affairs sector showed that 80 percent of Japanese hope to improve Sino-Japanese relations.
China and Japan are influential countries in Asia as well as in the world. China should value peace and improve mutual understanding to promote common
prosperity. This should be the consensus of the two peoples.