Where can I call home?

It is getting increasingly difficult to live here. The Japanese election will be held on 9/11, and though the commercialization of the post office is the headline campaign issue, lurking in the background is the rewriting of the Japanese constitution to permit a full-strength army. unabashed major bookstores feature eye-popping titles that deny Japanese war crimes such as the rape of Nanking and villify China and Korea as sullen and defeated WW2 nations with a sadistic taste for revenge. it is most appalling that most Japanese simply tolerate such racist publications as just another point of view. the new rise of nationalism is clearly in the air, and it is getting harder to find clean air to breathe.

on the other hand, Chinese youth's accusative bantering and violent anti-Japanese demonstrations represent its own brand of nationalism. While it is true that sentiments were partially provoked by Prime Minister Koizumi's annual visits to the controversial Yasukuni shrine and right-wing revisionists' incessant and insidious attempts to whitewash Japanese war atrocities, most movements were actively encouraged by the Chinese government to temporarily deflect the masses' attention away from local problems: huge economic disperity between rich and poor, government's control of yuan valuation and resulting loss of purchasing power, and political corruptions at every level of government. Little did the Chinese government realized, however, that the flame that they were so eagerly fanning would lead to a volitile situation they can no longer control. we are staring at the worst Chinese-Japanese relations since WW2; with the red army 3 million strong, poor, fanatic and ready for action, we have reached a boiling point.

what people in both countries failed to learn even after the war tragedies is the difference between patriotism and nationalism. Patriotism, the love of one's nation and its people and one's willingness to defend his homeland, is a virture. Nationalism, one's arrangant belief that one's nation and its people are by nature superior to other countries and their people, is a recipe for disaster. as many well-dwelling and self-destructive Japanese advocates ignorantly continue to legitimize its imperial past and beautify its national identity, keep in mind that this time, the Chinese are ready and watching with close scrutiny. An autonomous army, prepared to take military action against its own brothers across the strait to unify motherland, will not hesitate to defend its honor if unjustly provoked.

A common first action of a nation at war is freezing of foreign assets, particularly those with warring citizenships. The second is the encampment of foreign private citizens, for fear of information leakage and for containment of potential local uproars. What I did not think possible in my lifetime is now a disturbing possibility before my eyes. Many Jews did not leave Poland early enough in hope of a quick German defeat. Frogs die in warm water when slowly boiled. It is not too early to consider an exit strategy.