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March 17, 2005
Historical ironies
Courtesy of Der Spiegel, we have a very nice run-down of recent news on the Japan-China front, which regular readers will know as an early interest here on Natural Selection. Along with much else of note, the piece reminds me of a historical irony which I am shocked and deeply embarrassed to have initially overlooked: Taiwan is a former Japanese colony. Not only that, but Japan won Taiwan by force from China, in the 1894-95 war between the two countries. In addition, Taiwan's colonial experience was uniquely more positive than that of Japan's many other early twentieth century colonies, with some Taiwanese sentimentality toward Japan lingering to this day. That Japan has now more explicitly linked its security to Taiwan -- in obvious opposition to China -- represents an intriguing irony. The history between Japan and Taiwan -- more than just mere irony, to be sure -- should be kept in mind as the East Asian security dynamic continues to evolve.
Japan's also having some problems with South Korea over a few islands. South Korea, as opposed to Taiwan, harbors absolutely no sentimentality for Japan or for its period as colonial underling. So there's no historical irony there for me to overlook ... I don't think.
UPDATE: More background on Japan-South Korea animosity here.
Posted by Daniel Widome at 02:19 PM to Asia
