Towards Becoming a "Normal Country". The History Issue and Sino-Japanese Relations in the Koizumi Era

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The presented thesis was devoted to exploring how the problems stemming from the unsettled wartime past between the People's Republic of China and Japan influence the latter's effort to become a "normal country". It was a nonexperimental study based mainly on secondary sources and enriched with the findings from qualitative semistructured interviews. The thesis explored the connection between a "normal country" advocacy, state-centred patriotism and history issue in Japan, with reference to the visits of Prime Minister Koizumi Junichirô to the Yasukuni Shrine. It also examined the stance of the People's Republic of China on Japanese ambitions to become a "normal country" and prime ministerial visits to Yasukuni. The study argued that the prime ministerial visits to the Shrine might be seen as a mean of encouraging state-centred patriotism, which is expected to help Japan to become a "normal country". Nonetheless due to its past role as a locus of militarism, Yasukuni is an ambivalent symbol. Koizumi pledged to preserve peace and denied the accusations about glorifying Japan's wartime deeds, yet his assurances were conflicting with his actual practice. Furthermore they were dismissed by the PRC. China will not accept a ...