Mao Zedong thanking Japan controversy

Mao Zedong, the longtime Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and the founder of the People's Republic of China, was reported to have expressed his gratitude to the Japanese military and political figures who visited China in the 1950s and 1970s.

With the 2020 Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSE) history subject controversy on the historical understanding of Japan's invasion of China,[1][2] these remarks have returned to the spotlight on Hong Kong and mainland Chinese websites.

When Chairman Mao Zedong talked with former Japanese Lieutenant General Saburo Endo, who visited China in 1956, he said "You are also our gentlemen, and we want to thank you.

"[8][9] In 1961, Mao Zedong told Japanese Socialist Party advisor Shūnō Kuroda: "......occupied most of China in the past, so the Chinese people received an education.

It was because the Japanese imperial army had occupied most of China and there was no other way out for the Chinese people that they became aware and started armed struggle, establishing many anti-Japanese bases and creating the conditions for victory in the subsequent war of liberation.

In the conversation, Mao also expressed the meaning that "the relationship with the people should be treated differently from the relationship with the government" and that "the monopoly capitalist government and militarists in Japan should be responsible, but the Japanese people should not be responsible.

"[10][11] On 9 July 1964, Mao Zedong talked with the visiting delegates from Asia, Africa, and Oceania to China who attended the Second Asian Economic Symposium about Sanjuro Nango: "After our liberation, a Japanese capitalist named Sanjuro Nango talked to me once and said, 'I am very sorry that Japan has invaded you.'

In the middle of the eight-year war, our army grew to one million two hundred thousand men.

[12][13][14] On 10 July 1964, Mao Zedong met and conversed with several Japanese Socialist Party members who were visiting China.

In the past, Japanese militarism invaded China and caused you a lot of damage, and we all feel very sorry for that."

Tanaka Kakuei said, "We intend to change it according to Chinese (language) custom (through further talks between Ji Pengfei and Ohira Masayoshi, and in the final communiqué to 'express profound remorse for Japan's responsibility for the serious damage caused to the Chinese people by the war in the past').