Japan's relations with its closest neighbors, China and Korea, are tense
- exacerbated by disputes over territorial issues and the unresolved
trauma of a tumultuous twentieth-century history. In this book, the
author, a veteran Japanese diplomat, examines his nation's relations
with its East Asian neighbors along a temporal axis stretching back some
two thousand years, a perspective he feels is essential to the
construction of a new Asian diplomacy. In his view, Japan's relations
with China and Korea in modern times have tended to be understood within
the context of Japan's relations with the West, and Japanese diplomacy
has often operated as a dependent variable of the foreign policies of
the Western powers. Yet as the political and economic importance of Asia
seems destined to increase in coming years, the interplay of foreign
policies among the Asian nations themselves should receive more of a
spotlight. In order to fully appreciate Japan's place in Asia and what
must be done to rebuild relations with China and Korea, an examination
of the deeper patterns of historical contact among these nations serves
as an essential point of departure.
No comments:
Post a Comment