TMCnet News
Yasukuni row detrimental to Asian region as a whole: U.S. scholars+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)TOKYO, March 2_(Kyodo) _ The dispute between Japan and China over Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to the war-related Yasukuni Shrine hurts not only bilateral ties but also the Asian region as a whole, because the issue hinders regional cooperation, two U.S. experts on China said Thursday. The shrine visits, which also strain Japan's ties with South Korea, are affecting the role of the United States in Asia as well, and Washington has apparently been trying in private to exert influence to settle the matter, according to Phillip Saunders and Ellen Frost, research fellows of the National Defense University's Institute for National Strategic Studies. "It doesn't help us at all to have this quarrel going on. It exacerbates nationalism in both countries and makes cooperation on many subjects more difficult," said Frost, formerly counselor to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and deputy assistant secretary at the Department of Defense. "Downturn in China's relation with Japan would also have a big impact on the region as a whole. If China and Japan can't cooperate, we cannot see much cooperation in the broader region," said Saunders, formerly with the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California. Frost pointed out the Yasukuni issue is damaging China as well. "It's hurting China because other governments are beginning to say what kind of leaders in China cannot get over something that happened 60 and 70 years ago," she said. Saunders said the dispute over the shrine visits "gets in Japan's way and is playing a kind of regional war," thus preventing Japan from offering its assets in areas such as economics and technology to other Asian countries. Frost said she believes the U.S. government is "trying to do something" to settle the row. But Saunders said despite Washington's concern, there is not much place for the United States "to offer specific suggestions on how to fix" the problem because it is a regional matter in Asia. During his upcoming visit to the United States in April, Chinese President Hu Jintao is expected to bring up the Yasukuni issue, he said, adding that Washington will not "push any suggestions" on how to solve it. Yasukuni honors 14 Class-A war criminals together with Japan's war dead. China says Japan has not done enough to atone for the war and criticizes Koizumi's repeated visits to the shrine. |