Sunday, June 1, 2008After China asked Japan last week to transport emergency supplies for survivors of the May 12 Sichuan earthquake, even signaling that the use of Japanese Self-Defense Force aircraft would be acceptable, it appeared that C-130s would be the first Air Self-Defense Force aircraft to fly into China, aside from the special government planes that have transported Japanese leaders.
But Tokyo eventually decided against the dispatch of ASDF aircraft after consultation with Beijing. Both governments considered the emergence of strong opposition within China to the dispatch — a reminder that Chinese people's sentiment about Japan is complex and should be handled with care.
Beijing's request itself symbolized a warming of bilateral relations following Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to Japan in early May. At that time, Mr. Hu and Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda agreed to push for mutually beneficial strategic relations between the two countries. In light of Japan's military aggression against China in the 1930s and '40s — and the Chinese people's memory of those years — the ASDF mission would have been an event of historic significance.
China needs a large amount of tents, blankets and medicine for those affected by the quake. This urgent requirement together with the activities of a Japanese emergency assistance team in Sichuan Province may have led the Chinese leadership to think that even the dispatch of ASDF aircraft was feasible.
But after the possible dispatch of ASDF aircraft was reported in Japan, many Chinese people expressed strong opposition to it on the Internet. This is a reminder that Japan should not be lulled into thinking that the "issue of historical perceptions" is no longer a sensitive subject.
Japan will send chartered planes to China. The development also underlines a need to establish a network among Asian countries for cooperation in emergency relief work in the event of a major disaster, as recently proposed by Mr. Fukuda.
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