Chapter 13 twelve prayers for peace

In 1946, Wang Yunsheng, a famous reporter from Ta Kung Pao, traveled to Japan and issued a warning to the Chinese people: "Today China is a victorious country, but not strong; , although it is dilapidated, it always makes you feel that it has a vigor invisibly." As an excellent expert on Japanese issues, Wang Yunsheng made a practical comparison of the current situation of China and Japan: "Observing from the sky, at the beginning of the surrender, the Japanese had a vague admiration for China, thinking that China was great after all. Great Power, Eight Years War The unyielding struggle eventually caused Japan to fail.After more than a year, I heard that China was still in war, and seeing the insignificance of the Chinese in Japan, I looked down on the Chinese again. "Should the Chinese themselves be vigilant and reflect on the change in the Japanese attitude towards China?

The history of any country or nation can be said to be a history of competition for survival.The pros and cons of the competition process and the success or failure of the result determine the fate of the country or nation.The success or failure of success or failure depends on the ability of the country or nation to adapt to the environment of the times.For more than a hundred years, China's ability to adapt to modernization has been lagging behind Japan.More than half a century later, Wang Yunsheng has passed away long ago, but his prediction of the development trajectory of China and Japan has unfortunately become a reality.

The Frenchman Schreiber also had a similar prediction: "The silent night enveloped Japan, and the people of any country in the world have never fallen into such a complete defeat. If Japan will one day emerge from this pile of ashes, from 1945 It will be another Japan if it is reborn from all that is left to it on August 14th, 2010.” Post-war Japan rose from the ruins, grasping the global technological revolution and the 1960s The opportunity of economic transformation has created a world-renowned economic miracle and re-entered the ranks of the most developed countries in the world.However, China has suffered from wars and political movements. For more than 30 years after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, China went in a big circle. It was not until the end of the 1970s that the late reform and opening up began.At this time, China has been left far behind by Japan.

Japan's territorial area is 370,000 square kilometers, only one-twentieth of China's, and it is not as large as Heilongjiang Province.Sixty percent of Japan's land is mountainous, and its natural resources are extremely scarce. Natural disasters such as earthquakes, typhoons, volcanoes, and tsunamis are extremely frequent.However, Japan, which suffered a disastrous defeat in World War II, not only did not fall into long-term poverty, but instead rose into an economic and technological power in just over two decades. Since ancient times, the Japanese have always treated civilizations that are more advanced than themselves with the spirit of "catching up and surpassing".In ancient times, Japan regarded China as a teacher; in modern times, Japan regarded the Netherlands as a teacher; in modern times, Japan regarded the United States as a teacher.This is a nation that is good at using "bringing doctrine".

Japan announced in the "Social Speed ​​Index" published by the "International Traffic Safety Society" that the fastest walking speed in the world is Japanese, among which Osaka people rank first in the world, with 1.67 meters per second; Tokyo people Second, 1.56 meters per second.In comparison, the Parisians are only 1.46 meters per second.Walking speed is very symbolic, and on modern roads, the Japanese are clearly not just walking fast. In 1952, the United States ended its occupation of Japan and Japan became an independent country.At that time, Japan's GDP was lower than that of developing countries such as Chile and Malaysia.However, by 1957, Japan had already surpassed Italy, the descendant of ancient Rome; In nine years, Japan once again surpassed Germany, the industrial powerhouse that once invented the production line and shocked the world, and truly became the country with the second largest GDP in the world.Soon, Japan achieved an astonishing achievement of a gross domestic product of five trillion U.S. dollars.This speed of development is indeed rapid.

Today, Japan has world-class manufacturing technology, and its investment in scientific research ranks among the best in the world.Japan's Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi, Sony, Toshiba, Canon and other multinational companies are among the top in the world in terms of scientific research and management and operation.Since the 1980s, Japan has surpassed its mentor, the United States, in the production of automobiles and steel.Japan's foreign exchange reserves are as high as more than 360 billion US dollars, ranking first in the world.Japan is the third largest economy in the world after the United States and Europe. For a long period of time, no country has been able to shake this position.

The economic and trade relations between China and Japan are extremely complementary.Since the normalization of diplomatic relations between China and Japan resumed on September 29, 1972, the economic and trade ties between China and Japan have become increasingly close. The trade volume between China and Japan rose from less than US$7 billion in 1979 to US$101.9 billion in 2002.For China, Japan has been its largest trading partner since 1993. Sino-Japanese trade accounts for a quarter of foreign trade, and Japan is also an important source of capital; for Japan, China has It has become the second largest trading partner and one of the main export markets after the United States, and China is also an important foreign investment country.Over the past ten years, Japan's investment projects in China have reached more than 23,000, with an actual use of 40 billion U.S. dollars.

Among the 1,000 large companies in Japan, 420 have moved their production bases to China.According to the British "Economist" magazine's "comparison of business costs in the world" survey of 31 countries in the world, China ranks 28th, which is close to the country with the lowest cost.According to the survey of the 2001 edition of the "White Paper on Investment" by the Japan External Trade Organization, 95.5% of member companies believe that "China is an ideal country for overseas investment." shifted half of its production capacity to China by the year.

Japan also provides yen loans to China, which are in the nature of government development assistance.By the end of 2002, Japan had pledged a total of 2,950,489 million yen in government loans to China, covering 199 projects.China has received a total of 127.972 billion yen in free aid from Japan for the construction of 119 projects.Yen has indeed played a big role in China's economic development, especially in infrastructure construction. Today, it is difficult for us to find a Japanese urban household without Chinese-made clothing and toys, and it is also difficult to find a Chinese urban household without Japanese-made household appliances.In today's increasingly integrated global economy, neither China nor Japan can ignore the existence of the other.

The cheap labor resources in mainland China, the vast market space, and the average annual growth rate of about 8% provide Japanese companies with a bright future.Shirata-san, former chairman of the Japan External Trade Organization, believes: "There should be no When the development of mainland China is regarded as a threat, the prosperity and development of mainland China should be regarded as the prosperity and development of Japan itself, because the development of mainland China will also bring us benefits. " The sound development of Sino-Japanese economic and trade relations has not only promoted China's economic modernization, but also further promoted the adjustment of Japan's industrial structure.In turn, the common prosperity of the economy has become the link linking the Sino-Japanese relationship and the foundation for the stability and development of East Asia.

However, economic and trade cooperation between China and Japan is not enough.Over the years, China and Japan have been extremely indifferent politically, and the basic understanding and friendship between the two peoples are far from being reached.To become close allies, China and Japan have to overcome many obstacles and cross many gaps. According to a poll conducted by China Youth Daily, among Chinese respondents, as many as 42 percent of Chinese people think Japan is "bad" or "very bad".According to the Japanese Prime Minister's Office Diplomatic Public Opinion Survey, the number of Japanese nationals who have an affinity for China was as high as over 70 percent in the late 1980s, but fell to less than 45 percent in 1996. .In 1997, for the first time, the number of people who had no affinity for the Chinese exceeded the number of people who had affinity. The above-mentioned surveys inevitably show that China and Japan have formed a situation of mutual dislike even at the level of most ordinary citizens. Against this background, we must sincerely pray for peace and friendship, and we must create a solid foundation for peace and friendship. Living at home, if the neighbor is disgusting and fearful, if we can't make him go away, the best we can do is move away ourselves.However, China and Japan are neighbors separated by a strip of water. Even if neither of them thinks the other is a lovable neighbor, it is doomed that neither can let the other move away, nor can they walk away.Therefore, whether it is dislike or love, China and Japan cannot avoid or ignore each other, and cannot talk to each other wishfully when dealing with each other. Since we cannot avoid the existence of Japan, we should understand and study this neighbor who has had complicated entanglements and grievances with us for thousands of years.For China, perhaps the most appropriate, most important, and best choice is to objectively understand, study, and understand each other, to rationally control oneself, and to do one's own affairs well.Insults, hatred and hostility not only do not help to solve the problem, but will cause great harm to ourselves. American scholar Benedict wrote "The Chrysanthemum and the Sword", European writer Yakumo Koizumi wrote "Japan and the Japanese", and Korean professor Li Yuning wrote "The Shrinking Consciousness of the Japanese", all of which have become classics for foreigners to study Japan book.However, the Chinese, who are close neighbors and victims of the war, have not yet written a masterpiece on Japan that is universally recognized. On the contrary, the Japanese academic circles have carried out in-depth research on China, whether it is ancient China or modern China, whether it is literature, politics, economy, military and other aspects. Japanese scholars such as Yoshio Yasumaru have achieved outstanding achievements that put our own scholars to shame. Director Jiang Wen, who once filmed a movie, said: "I am not disgusted with the Japanese nation itself, but I am angry with their actions. We must be careful about them, and we must study them." On the one hand, we fear Japan's ambitions, but on the other hand, we envy Japan's wealth.As soon as we heard the incident of Japan insulting China, we became emotional, and as soon as we saw Japan's cheap and high-quality goods, we became jealous. But what exactly are Japan's historical traditions, national character and social structure?What is the root cause of Japan's prosperity and strength?What is the direction of Japan's future economic adjustment and political development?Few Chinese people can answer such uncomplicated questions.This phenomenon itself contains a danger: an opponent who does not understand is an opponent that is difficult to defeat.Contempt for the enemy is a qualification that can only be displayed after "knowing yourself and the enemy". China's understanding and research on Japan is in a state of "although it is close, but it is far away", and it is even far behind its understanding and research on Europe and the United States.Japan is China's close neighbor, but ordinary Chinese only know about sumo wrestling, geisha, flower arrangement, Sony Electric, Toyota, Haruki Murakami's novels and youth idol dramas. However, we must face a real Japan that is just around the corner, and we must gain insight into Japan's spiritual core and political direction.All of this has to rely on empirical research, rather than imagination and speculation, just as Jiang Wen said: "There are many Japanese right-wingers, anti-China forces, and deniers of war crimes. They are not a small group as we often say. There are only a handful of people jumping up and down there. If we don’t realize this, we are tantamount to not facing up to Japan, a powerful opponent. Another bad tendency is: some of our literary and artistic works often apologize to the Chinese for the Japanese. In fact, There are a large group of Japanese who refuse to apologize, why do we always use the small group of Japanese who apologize to anesthetize and satisfy ourselves?" If China wants to win a status of being friendly to Japan and treating each other as equals, the most important thing is to make itself a modern, wealthy, civilized and democratic Asian power at an early date.The intellectual class in China must be vigilant against nationalism, closed-doorism, anti-modernism, and anti-modernization trends, and stick to the elaboration of advanced values ​​such as humanity, peace, democracy, freedom, and fraternity, so that China can integrate into the mainstream of world civilization as soon as possible. In a rather long historical period, cultural and economic competition between China and Japan will be inevitable.However, this competition should be peaceful, friendly and mutually reinforcing. Both the "China Threat Theory" and the "Japan Threat Theory" are quite one-sided.Neither the Chinese people nor the Japanese people want to see the tragedy of fighting in battle on the battlefield in the past. To avoid tragedies between China and Japan, as far as China itself is concerned, the most critical thing is to make itself stronger.The so-called "powerful" must include leaps in the economic level, innovations in the political system, development of culture, education, science and technology, and There are many aspects such as the improvement of the overall quality of the people, not just the "strong boats and powerful guns" that the Westernization School of the Manchu Qing Empire said more than a century ago. Only the strength of "ships and guns" is by no means real strength. The tragedy of modern Chinese blood has illustrated this truth.During the Sino-Japanese War, the Chinese Beiyang Fleet was stronger than the Japanese fleet, but without the modernization of "people", this huge fleet with good "hardware" but poor "software" did not exert its due combat effectiveness.The soldiers were drying their clothes on the fort, and even an excellent captain like Deng Shichang brought his pets on board the warship to take care of them.After observing these details, Japanese spies were convinced that the Japanese fleet would definitely win. People are the most important factor in the revitalization of a country.When it comes to the root cause of Japan's highly developed economy and technology, both Easterners and Westerners will say with one voice: education.Japan's economic miracle has indeed benefited from a sound education system and the high-quality citizens it has cultivated. A universally recognized view is that education is the foundation of whether a country can be built into a civilized society and whether it can develop sustainably.International competition in the 21st century is actually a competition of educational strategies and a competition of national quality. As early as the beginning of the last century, the illiteracy rate in Japan dropped to almost zero. The "School System" promulgated during the "Meiji Restoration" clearly pointed out that "every household in every town and every household has people who do not want to learn" in the whole of Japan. Today, Japanese school-age children and teenagers have reached 100% of primary education and 100% of junior high school education, 96.8% of junior high school students enter high school, and 50% of high school Graduates progress to university studies.Forty-eight percent of the population has a college education.Lifelong education is also very common in Japan, and many retirees in their 70s and 80s are still diligently learning computers and foreign languages. Japan has twelve Nobel laureates, eight of whom are in the natural sciences.Japan has formulated a plan to increase this number to thirty in the next fifty years.The total number of scientific and technological personnel in Japan, calculated on the basis of the population per 10,000 people and the labor force per 10,000 people, has surpassed that of the United States since 1986, ranking first in the world.Japan maintains around 390,000 patent applications per year, ranking first in the world. However, China's data is in stark contrast to Japan's: the number of illiterate and semi-literate people in China accounts for more than 15% of the total population.According to the data of the "World Bank Development Report", in 1992 China's education expenditure accounted for only 2.5% of the government budget. Below 2%, it ranks 149th among 151 countries in the world. There is still a quarter of counties in China that do not have universal primary education, and the enrollment rate for primary school in poverty-stricken areas, mountainous areas, and ethnic minority areas is only 30%, and the enrollment rate for middle school is only 10%.The national average middle school enrollment rate is only 44%, which means that 56% of the children in the country do not go to middle school.The national university entrance rate is less than 2%. Even if the national "Education Development Outline" plan is completed, it is still far below the average of 16% of the world's total population of college students, let alone the percentage of high-income countries. Forty-two are on a par.To this day, China, whose population is ten times that of Japan, is still not eligible for the Nobel Prizes. When the Japanese Meiji government used most of the reparations from the Sino-Japanese War for basic education, China's just-launched Reform Movement of 1898 put the emphasis on education on the establishment of the Imperial University.Perhaps out of selfish ideas, or out of lofty ideals, China's intellectual elites are trying to build a world-class university at once.They have forgotten the simplest common sense: castles in the air cannot be built.Without the corresponding universal and high-level basic education, a few isolated aristocratic universities cannot play a benign role in the country's modernization process. More than a century has passed, and China's policymakers still seem to have not learned the lessons of this past experience.Since the 1990s, the Chinese government has allocated tens of billions of education funds to a few famous universities and hyped up the wrong direction of "industrialization" of education, making basic education, general education, vocational education, and technical education worse. The difficulty of walking makes the nine-year compulsory education almost useless, and makes almost most urban and rural people suffer under the heavy pressure of education expenditure. While many first-class scholars in China are complacent in the ivory towers of universities, a large number of intellectual elites in Japan are going to the classrooms of primary and secondary schools.They don't think primary and secondary school teachers are overqualified, and they know that this profession is closely related to the future of the country.This is true patriotism. Japanese comparative education scholar Nan Liangjin believes that: China’s primary education is equivalent to Japan’s level from 1905 to 1910, 85 years behind Japan; secondary education is equivalent to Japan’s level from 1915 to 1919 The level in 2020 is 75 years behind Japan; higher education is equivalent to Japan's level in 1920, 70 years behind Japan; education expenditure is equivalent to Japan's level in 1925, 65 years behind Japan year. It can be affirmed that education is the field that has failed the most, been criticized by history, and has had the most profound negative impact on the social development of the Chinese nation as a whole in the past 20 years of China's reform and opening up. It can be asserted that if China does not catch up with Japan in education, it will have little chance of winning in other aspects. By the end of 2000, Japan's total overseas assets had increased by US$331.7 billion in one fell swoop, and the overseas sales of Japan's manufacturing industry were more than US$1 trillion every year. This alone surpassed that of China. The gross national product of the year.Japan is the largest creditor nation in the world. According to the statistics of the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, by the end of 2000, the total deposits of the National Bank of Japan were 7.7 trillion US dollars, which was more than ten times the total national savings of China in that year.Japan's personal financial assets are 12 trillion yen, housing assets and social assets The assets of the club are more than one trillion yen. In 1999, the amount of international refugee aid provided by Japan was more than 290 million US dollars, and the amount of international refugee aid provided by Japan ranked first in the world.This is an important reason why a senior official of the UNHCR is often appointed by a Japanese woman, and it is also a sharp weapon for Japan to strive for its international status.Japan also ranks among the top contributors to the United Nations, so it actively campaigns to become a permanent member of the Security Council. In recent years, while Japan has kept crying for poverty and yelling about its decline, the funds quietly invested in equipment technology development and stimulating production have reached as high as 1 trillion yen, equivalent to about 70 trillion yuan.According to estimates by the Chinese economic circles, by 2001, China's total social assets will be between RMB 36 trillion and RMB 52 trillion.That is to say, even if Japan's industrial base was zero in the past, using this huge sum of money to rebuild an industrial kingdom has already exceeded the sum of China's social assets! Japan is justifiably proud of being the first in Asia to transition to modernization.However, this kind of pride has to pay a heavy price because it ignores the need to sublimate moral concern and human concern while material economy is growing. The history of the 20th century shows that human self-improvement is still an unfinished process.Just like the salvation of individual souls, the self-improvement of human beings must and can only rely on the self-consciousness of each nation, rather than external coercion.Although Japan completed the modernization of the economy first, various historical twists and turns show that the Japanese people will not automatically complete the self-improvement of human nature due to economic progress.In recent years, the subway poisoning case of Aum Shinrikyo, the corruption and bribery scandals of banks and financial institutions, etc., have fully presented various crises and ills in Japanese society.According to Japanese official investigations, Aum Shinrikyo once purchased bacteria in Africa and set up factories to reproduce, and planned to release them in Tokyo, which is expected to kill millions of people, thereby causing social turmoil and waiting for an opportunity to seize power and exert its power overseas. Although Japan is one of the most politically stable democracies in Asia, the nature of its plutocratic politics is still full of hidden dangers, and the Liberal Democratic Party’s one-party dominance is difficult to change.Japan's politics is still at the stage where a few privileged classes and politician families are fighting for power and profit, and it is far from entering the field of responsible and ethical care of social order.It lacks openness and transparency internally, and lacks support and care for other Asian countries externally. At the turn of the century, the "Japanese Syndrome" made many people of insight start to be vigilant and reflect: financial reconstruction, reform of administrative institutions, adjustment of economic structure, rising unemployment rate, aging population, declining birth rate, etc. The series of problems are becoming more and more serious.The economic stagnation of the past decade has been called the "lost decade" by the Japanese. When all these problems are imminent and urgently need to be solved, the entire Japanese society is still in a state of mutual distrust, overstaffed, and distracted.Japan's response to the new industrial revolution and technological revolution also lags behind the development of the times.A vicious circle with no way out has formed between the important factors that underpin economic activity—the banks that provide the funds, the companies that produce them, and the individuals who buy them. In the 1990s, land prices and stock prices plummeted in Japan.In the Asian financial crisis, Japan failed to exert the expected positive influence.On the contrary, the century-old Yamaichi Securities, the famous Yaohan Department Store and the Hokkaido Takushoku Bank closed down one after another, symbolizing the depression of the Japanese economy. Behind the economic crisis, there is a more serious human crisis.In today's Japanese society, most of the middle class purely pursue personal enjoyment and are indifferent to the people around them. The traditional serious and dedicated spirit among young people has become weak. The news media is attached to power and capital and has lost the concept of supervision. Spiritual hollowing out and classroom breakdown due to depopulation.All this shows that the self-improvement of the Japanese national spirit must go through repeated self-examinations of history, as well as the diagnosis and treatment of the weaknesses of reality, which must be completed without pain. The view that historical review will bring about "national self-abuse" is precisely the most irresponsible attitude towards the self-help of the nation.This is the biggest root cause of Japanese society and Japanese culture. More than 20 years ago, former German Chancellor Schmidt discovered Japan's isolation in Asia. He pointed out: "Japan seems to be gradually isolated in Asia. All the leaders of Asian countries I met did not consider Japan a friend." This upstart-style isolation is caused by Japan itself, and it is not conducive to the peace and development of Japan itself, but also to the peace and development of Asia. Schmidt believes: "Although some politicians are aware of the fact that the Japanese lack friends in the world, especially in neighboring countries, they really want to have friends, but they don't know how to win them. At the same time, because Japan believes that It can get through without apologizing for the aggression and atrocities of others, which adds unnecessary difficulties to its efforts to build trust in neighboring countries.” As a bystander, Schmidt’s sincere admonition was how many “under the Lushan Mountain” Did the Japanese in "中" hear it? In modern times, Northeast Asia is like the Balkan Peninsula in Europe, with constant disputes and wars.Peaceful coexistence between China, Japan, and North and South Korea has always been the dream of good people. On August 14, 2003, "Nihon Keizai Shimbun" published an editorial titled "Stability of Japan-China Relations is the Cornerstone of Peace in Asia."This editorial represents the thinking of quite a few Chinese and Japanese citizens: peace is the common cause of the two peoples, and maintaining an equal, healthy and stable Sino-Japanese relationship is a major event that cannot be ignored for China and Japan.The two countries should embark on a "win-win" road. We should realize that Japan, as a neighbor, is terrible not because its conservative forces do not recognize war crimes, revise textbooks, pay homage to the Yasukuni Shrine, occupy the Diaoyu Islands, etc., but because of its rational state management and mature social mechanism , high-quality citizens and far-sighted international competition strategies and tactics. On the horizon of the 21st century, the image of Japan as a political power and a military power is ready to emerge.When China was negotiating with Russia to jointly develop Siberian oil resources, Japan came from behind and reached a joint construction agreement with Russia. Oil pipeline cooperation plan; when China had just reached a free trade agreement with ASEAN, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi invited the heads of ASEAN countries to Tokyo to attract ASEAN and Japan to establish a closer cooperative relationship with huge investment and economic assistance.The fierce competition between China and Japan in the international arena looms. Between China and Japan, there are not only memorable friendships, but also blood and tears that cannot be looked back.History is a mirror. If it all started from Japan's Meiji Restoration, China's Westernization Movement, and Reform Movement of 1898, it would be almost impossible to get rid of this heaviness and complexity.If we broaden the horizon of history, counting from the time when Japan sent Tang envoys to China, the two countries have had close exchanges for more than a thousand years.In the meantime, the identities of teacher and student have been cleverly dislocated, and the relationship between brother and enemy has also undergone a strange permutation. A long history is a valuable asset only when it becomes a resource for reflection; a deep suffering is a capital to be proud of only when it becomes a driving force for rising. In order for China to truly become a world power and be respected and valued by all countries in the world, including Japan, the first step is for every Chinese to become an independent, free, civilized, civilized, creative and imaginative The uppercase "person".Just as Hu Shi, the standard-bearer of the May 4th Movement and the pioneer of Enlightenmentism, said: "Now someone says to you: 'Sacrifice your personal freedom, and seek the freedom of the country! It is fighting for freedom for the country! Fighting for your own personality is fighting for personality for the country! A free and equal country cannot be built by a group of slaves!'” Reality echoes history, and history inspires the future. In the future, in the relationship between China and Japan, there can only be three options: friendship, confrontation, and side-by-side. Friendship is not something we can get by wishful thinking; confrontation, maybe neither of the two is willing; and if we can’t do our own things well and can’t win our own status and dignity in the competition, then we may not even have the qualifications to stand side by side . There's no use complaining, no use cursing, no use hating. Only one thing is useful: do your own thing! Can we do it well? Regarding this question, every Chinese who truly loves the motherland cannot avoid it. Let the answer take root like a seed in everyone's heart; let the answer bloom like a flower in every piece of land. I would like to dedicate this book to the martyrs who have devoted themselves to the independence and prosperity of the country for a hundred years, and died after their death; I would like to dedicate this book to the pioneers who have fought for personal freedom and human rights over the past century.