From Foreign Policy in Focus, via Asia Times:
At first glance, the growing tension between China and Japan seems almost inexplicable. Massive anti-Japanese demonstrations in China over events that took place more than half a century ago? A heated exchange filled with mutual threats over an offshore petroleum field that Western oil companies think is not worth exploiting? Have a Shinto shrine and slanted textbooks really driven the two great Asian powers to the edge of a Cold War or worse?
No. While history does play a role in all this, if one wants to understand the antagonism between Beijing and Tokyo, one has to start in Washington and, in particular, Washington state.
