War Remembrance in China and Its Influence on Sino-Japanese Relations in the 1950s – Early 1980s

Problems of the past remain one of the most important factors that have plagued Sino-Japanese relations for the last few decades. Questions that are related to events of WWII and in particular events of the Second Sino-Japanese war are still relevant and remain a sensitive issue in contemporary China. Complicated postwar Sino-Japanese relations are not only caused by political and economic factors, but to a great extent are related to specific perceptions of events of the shared past in the first half of the 20th century by these two nations. Collective remembrance of Sino-Japanese wars and one of the most major wars of the 20th century – WWII – that was formed during the 20th centenary is vastly different in China and Japan, and still has a great impact on the dynamics of bilateral relations. The paper studies Chinese approaches to the interpretation of the Sino-Japanese war of resistance, role of the State and non-State actors in forming collective war remembrance in China during different stages of postwar development in the 20th century: during the first decades after the end of WWII (1950–70s), period of normalization of Sino-Japanese relations after 1972 – when a joint declaration was signed and “renewing” war remembrance in the 1980s.