Anti-Japan: The Politics of Sentiment in Postcolonial East Asia

177 Pages·2019·1.749 MB·English

by  Leo T. S. Ching

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The Politics of Sentiment in Postcolonial East Asia
Leo T. S. Ching
Duke University Press Durham and London 2019
© 2019 Duke University Press. All rights reserved. Publication of this open monograph
Printed in the United States of America on acid- free was the result of Duke University’s
paper ∞. Designed by Courtney Baker and typeset in participation in tome (Toward
Trade Gothic and Minion Pro by Copperline Books. an Open Monograph Ecosystem),
a collaboration of the Association
of American Universities, the
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Association of University Presses,
Names: Ching, Leo T. S., [date] author.
and the Association of Research
Title: Anti-Japan : the politics of sentiment
Libraries. tome aims to expand the
in postcolonial East Asia / Leo Ching. reach of long-form humanities and
Description: Durham : Duke University Press, 2019. | social science scholarship including
Includes bibliographical references and index. digital scholarship. Additionally, the
Identifiers: lccn 2018044268 (print) program looks to ensure the sustain-
lccn 2018059395 (ebook) ability of university press monograph
isbn 9781478003359 (ebook) publishing by supporting the highest
quality scholarship and promoting a
isbn 9781478001881 (hardcover : alk. paper)
new ecology of scholarly publishing
isbn 9781478002895 (pbk. : alk. paper)
in which authors’ institutions bear
Subjects: lcsh: East Asia—Relations—Japan. |
the publication costs. Funding from
Japan—Relations—East Asia. | East Asia—
Duke University Libraries made it
Relations—United States. | United States—Relations— possible to open this publication to
East Asia. | Japan—Foreign public opinion, East Asian. the world.
| United States—Foreign public opinion, East Asian. |
World War, 1939–1945—Influence. | Nationalism— This book is published under the
Japan—History. | Imperialism—History—20th century. Creative Commons Attribution-
Classification: lcc ds518.45 (ebook) | NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0
United States (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
lcc ds518.45 .c46 2019 (print) | ddc 303.48/25052—dc23
US) License, available at https://
lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018044268
creativecommons.org/licenses/by
-nc-nd/3.0/us/.
Cover art: Anti-Japanese protesters at the Bell Tower
Hotel, Xi’an, China. September 15, 2012. Courtesy of
BBBar / Alamy.
For Thanh
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contents
Acknowledgments · ix
Introduction. Anti- Japanism
(and Pro- Japanism) in East Asia · 1
one. When Bruce Lee Meets Gojira: Transimperial
Characters, Anti- Japanism, Anti-A mericanism,
and the Failure of Decolonization · 19
two. “Japanese Devils”: The Conditions
and Limits of Anti- Japanism in China · 36
three. Shameful Bodies, Bodily Shame: “Comfort
Women” and Anti- Japanism in South Korea · 57
four. Colonial Nostalgia or Postcolonial
Anxiety: The Dōsan Generation In- Between
“Retrocession” and “Defeat” · 80
five. “In the Name of Love”: Critical Regionalism
and Co- Viviality in Post – East Asia · 98
six. Reconciliation Otherwise: Intimacy,
Indigeneity, and the Taiwan Difference · 115
Epilogue. From Anti- Japanism to Decolonizing
Democracy: Youth Protests in East Asia · 132
Notes · 143
References · 153
Index · 161
Acknowledgments
In August 2017, four Chinese men dressed in Second World War Japanese
military uniforms posed at the Continental Bank Warehouse in Shanghai
where Chinese troops fought the Japanese imperial army in 1937. In Feb-
ruary 2018, two different men, also in Japanese military garb, struck vari-
ous poses in front of a memorial site on Zijin Mountain in Nanjing where
Chinese civilians were murdered by the Japanese army, also in 1937. The
images went viral and predictably garnered strong and mostly negative
reactions from netizens and unleashed a flood of criticisms against these
youths in both mainstream and new media. The situation has escalated
to the extent that China’s top legislative body, citing the Zijin case as an
example, is proposing a “heroes and martyrs protection law” to punish
people who “glorify wars or acts of invasion.” Even the Chinese foreign
minister, Wang Yi, joined the fray by calling them “scums among the Chi-
nese people” (Huang 2018). What upsets the netizens and politicians alike,
I surmise, is not only that these men dressed up as Japanese soldiers but
also that they deliberately posed in front of memorial sites of Japanese
aggression and Chinese resistance that formed the foundation of postwar
anti- Japanism.
The uproar caused by these incidents also inspired a new neologism in
cyberspace: jing- ri (精日), literally, “spiritually Japanese,” an abbreviation
of jing- shen- ribenren, or Chinese people who identify themselves spiritu-
ally with the Japanese. The premise is that these misguided youths’ minds
have been contaminated by Japan and, more importantly, they lacked