Japanese Studies of Post-Opium War China: 1982

Abstract

As one Japanese scholar of the modern and contemporary history of China, I feel the most important event that must first be raised as we look back over the year 1982 is the textbook issue, which erupted in the summer and spawned wide repercussions. Both the fact that the problem started as criticism and external pressure from a major power (China) and the fact that fervent arguments in the press were finally resolved through diplomacy were extremely Japanese ways of generating and then coping with a problem. The fact that the numerous views that arose branched out in many directions demonstrates that the scope of this issue was not confined merely to the accounts in the new history texts. The criticism from the peoples of Asia severely questioned how our postwar Japanese society regarded its responsibilities toward Asia, and in the final analysis the debate has much significance for the very national mentality of Japanese society.