Going to a so-called “Chinese" restaurant, many Indians relish what they believe is a “Manchurian" dish. It’s not. It’s merely an Indo-Chinese fusion, invented entirely in India!

But the Chinese themselves are extremely sensitive about the sanctity of their Manchuria, which Japan had invaded and colonised from 1931 to 1945. Manchuria is a vast Chinese region comprising three provinces and is some 200 km from the nearest point in Japan. During its occupation, Japan built extensive infrastructure connecting the two regions, such as the South Manchurian Railways, a key economic and military artery, facilitating trade and troop movement between Japan, Korea, and Manchuria.

A festering wound in Sino-Japanese bilateral relations is the alleged Japanese atrocities in Manchuria. China has a long-standing demand for a sincere apology and legal compensation from Japan regarding the “comfort women" issue in Manchuria and other occupied Chinese territories during the Second World War. China has, for decades, accused Japanese soldiers of taking nearly 200,000 Chinese women as sex slaves; Japan maintains it has upheld previous apologies.

To fathom the flaring Sino-Japanese relations and their muscle-flexing now, it is important to first understand that these two ancient Asian neighbours, sunk deep in rival history, have never forgotten their old wounds and, given a chance, they would like to correct “historical wrongdoings". Material progress hasn’t diminished their mutual hatred and animosity.

China is acutely aware of what a revivifying Japan means. The Land of the Rising Sun scares its neighbours as the one eclipsing them. But one thing is certain: whatever Japan does, it does thoroughly and perfectly.

After a 220-year isolation from the rest of the world, the Shogun-controlled Japan was “opened up" to the West by the American expedition led by Commodore Matthew Perry in 1853. Arriving with a squadron of US Navy warships in Tokyo Bay, he forced Japan to open its ports to American trade and supplies. Feudal Japan never forgot this “humiliation" and sought to avenge it in 1941 with the aerial attack on Pearl Harbor, forcing the US into the Second........

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