Nanjing: Not So Anti-Japanese
The Japan-China Friendship Jūdō Hall in Nanjing, constructed with financial assistance from Japan, opened on March 1, 2010. Funding for the project was provided through the Grant Assistance for Cultural Grassroots Projects program administered by Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The jūdō hall in Nanjing is the second such facility in China; the first was built in Qingdao in 2007. Having been involved in the project from the very beginning, I went there for the opening ceremony and coached some students from local sports schools at the grand opening. Japanese media people were out in full force that day, and I told an interviewer that I considered Nanjing, a place with terribly painful associations for Japanese people too, to be, for that very reason, the most suitable site for a jūdō hall.
A jūdō hall celebrating friendship between Japan and China has been built in Nanjing—that Nanjing. Nothing could be more gratifying than for Japanese people to realize what this means and see Nanjing as it really is. That is how I truly felt about it.
The next day, however, I was dismayed when I saw the newspapers. Without exception, every newspaper I read described Nanjing as a hotbed of anti-Japanese sentiment. Frankly, they made it sound as if I deserved to be congratulated for going to a place like that and doing what I did. I appreciated the compliment, but it was not true.
Nanjing casts a shadow over us in many ways, in light of the atrocities carried out there by the Japanese Imperial Army. Most Japanese people probably take it for granted that anti-Japanese feelings are more intense in Nanjing than anywhere else in China. I can assure you, however, that Nanjing is not in any way an “anti-Japanese” city. I had hoped that the completion of the jūdō hall would provide an opportunity for the media to correct this misunderstanding, but I was completely deluded.
My only reason for helping to build jūdō halls in China and get more people there interested in jūdō is a desire to help people in China know and understand Japan better. For a true friendship to develop, each side has to know the other very well. In this article, I would like to try once again to eliminate the misconceptions about and the bias against Nanjing.
Yamashita Yasuhiro
Renowned jūdōka. Won five gold medals in international competitions, including the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, and achieved 203 successive victories. Has been the International Jūdō Federation’s director of education and head coach of the Japanese jūdō team. Is now a trustee and dean of the Department of Physical Education at Tōkai University and executive director of the nonprofit organization Solidarity of International Jūdō Education.
