Submitted By: Evelyn Ma

I found a short video (20 min) on Frontline that gives insight on relations between China and Japan. It gives a dual perspective on the conflict of the Nanking Massacre, and how this horrific event has shaped China and Japan’s relationship.

Both Japan and China acknowledge that this massacre, also known as “The Forgotten Holocaust,” has occurred, but it is the historical portrayal that is the root of tension between the two countries. The video describes aggressive protest against a Japanese junior high history textbook that refers to the massacre as an “incident,” and essentially censors the topic. As you may remember from Dr. Morris’ history lesson, we know there is much animosity between the two countries, and the Nanking Massacre is one of the root causes. To learn more about this horrific event, I suggest reading Iris Chang’s The Rape of Nanking, The Forgotten Holocaust, to get a better understanding of the historic events leading up to the massacre, the actual slaughter of Chinese citizens for those six weeks, and the aftermath. I also have a much shorter description of the book in my book review as well.

To describe how many Chinese feel about this censorship by the Japanese, imagine Germany denying that the Holocaust happened, that concentration camps ever existed, that the Jews were treated fairly and respectfully during that time. Also picture Nazi war criminals being treated as heroes, and the Holocaust referred to as an “event” in a footnote in your high school history textbook. This is what many Chinese feel, and why the denial of this history is such an atrocity.

Things to think about: What can be done between China and Japan to repair relations between the two? Why is it important for us as MBA students going to China to understand this dynamic between the two countries? Why is it important to know about this event, in general?

Professor Carr Addendum: See also this related post and comments thereto that Lindsay made back in February 2007, Wartime Chinese Laborers Sue Japan for Compensation.

During our travels in China, we will meet and see a number of “Overseas Chinese” — people of Chinese birth or descent who live outside China.

“China”, in this usage, also usually includes Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. This is sometimes referred to as “Greater China”; that is, territory currently administered by both rival governments; the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC). People of partial Chinese ancestry also often consider themselves Overseas Chinese. (Source: Wikipedia)

One book I was recently flipping through estimated the number of overseas Chinese to be at least 60 million people.

To help you better understand this group of people and some of the overseas Chinese business professionals on the trip you will meet and/or when you hear them say things like “This century will be our (China’s) century,” read this wonderful, wonderful, wonderul WSJ article, A Return to China: Amid a Tide of Homecomings, A Granddaughter Visits the Land Her Family Left in 1948.

And keep the following quote from this article in mind ….

For Chinese people, the blood that binds us is thicker than any body or water that separates us.

While this quote is warm and fuzzy, it is also bound to have geopolitical consequences (some good; some bad) for both the US and China in the future.

Why are overseas Chinese returning to China? Blood and cultural loyalty? It’s truly “home” for them? To the shock of the West are there now more opportunities for them in China than abroad? Each of these reasons?

In any event, be ready to see and recognize this issue when you come across it in China. Ask them why they have returned to China and see what you can find out.

When we are in the airport in LAX or SFO, that will be a good opportunity (and your very first) to try to meet these folks and try to understand what they think and where they are coming from.

Professor Carr July 22, 2010 Addendum: See these related Wall Street Journal articles, More Chinese Graduates Return Home and Strangers at Home (and be sure to study the interactive map and data that shows where the bulk of the Chinese Diaspora now reside).