Historical Analogy and Demonization of Others: Memory of 1930s’ Japanese Militarism and Its Contemporary Implications

Some pundits in Beijing and Tokyo use the analogy of Japan’s militarism in the 1930s as a vantage point through which to interpret each other’s present and future behavior. While those in Tokyo have likened China’s recent offensive posture to that of Japan’s military in the early 1930s, those in Beijing see the Abe’s proactive pacifism as a prelude to the revival of its 1930s militarism. The paper aims at elucidating the dynamics of mutual demonization between China and Japan that is anchored in the ‘Siamese twin’ analogy of the 1930s episode. We argue that shadow projection, scapegoat behavior, revival of geopolitical discourses, and identity politics have been by and large responsible for the dilemma of mutual demonization and that domestic political abuse and misuse of historical narratives and subsequently the formation of a transnational coalition among adversaries have further complicated the situation. Such mutual demonization process casts worrisome implications for bilateral relations between China and Japan in particular and peace and stability in Northeast Asia in general. The paper concludes that political leadership, civil society, and mass media in each country should work hard to prevent an excessive politicization of memory politics and to block the formation of a transnational adversarial coalition among ultra-nationalists.