A century ago, the US rejected Japan as an equal and it is doing the same with China today

The US urge to wage economic war on China has its roots in the American rejection of a rising Japan 100 years ago, a spurning that led, eventually, to the bitter fruit of Pearl Harbour and Hiroshima

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US President Donald Trump is welcomed by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Mobara Country Club, south of Tokyo, on May 26. Photo: AP

Published: 11:00pm, 4 Jun 2019Updated: 4:23am, 5 Jun 2019

Emboldened by what it perceived as a declining West, a rising power saw its dominance as only natural in its backyard of ancient civilisations. After a meteoric rise within just decades of focused national development, it wanted to be treated with the respect it deserved.

Its expansionist policies had alienated the West. It felt frustrated by the incumbent powers’ deliberate containment of its aspirations. Slighted by the West, indignant about unjust discrimination, the nation turned increasingly nationalistic — with disastrous consequences for all.

That nation was Japan. The declining West was Europe. The time was the early part of the last century.

The latest American reaction to a rising China may be clearly understood only within a broader historical context. Since the Industrial Revolution, the West has been uncomfortable with Asia’s long recovery — over more than a century — from its decline, seeing it as an affront to a Western-dominated world order.

Today, Japan stands among the most admired countries in the world. A century ago, white men could not accept Japanese as equals. At the Paris Peace Conference, Japan’s “Racial Equality Proposal”, seen by the West as controversial, was left out of the Treaty of Versailles, largely due to opposition from the US and Australia.