“…Even optimists, however, did not predict that the thaw would be so rapid as to ever put Japanese military boots on the ground in China. But the devastating tremors and its punishing aftermath have caused China to break starkly with the past in many ways…”

 By Leo Lewis
Source: Times

Reeling from the soaring death toll of the Sichuan earthquake and in growing fear of a catastrophic eruption from the “quake lakes”, China has invited the Japanese military on to its soil for the first time since the Second World War.

The extraordinary request for help from China’s historically detested old enemy will produce symbolism that few could have imagined possible two weeks ago.

Revulsion at Japan’s wartime past - particularly the Imperial Army’s atrocities in China - continues to play an explosive role in Asian politics. Relations between Tokyo and Beijing have been improving, and China has already welcomed teams of Japanese medical experts to help with the quake.

Even optimists, however, did not predict that the thaw would be so rapid as to ever put Japanese military boots on the ground in China.

But the devastating tremors and its punishing aftermath have caused China to break starkly with the past in many ways: for the time being at least, Beijing has suspended its habit of secrecy and insularity around natural disasters and allowed the outside world to join in the relief efforts.

According to Japanese foreign ministry sources, the country’s military - what it refers to for constitutional reasons as its “Self Defence Forces” - has been included in a wider request from China for aircraft and to help to transport additional relief materials as China continues to cope with the situation on the ground in Sichuan.

Millions remain homeless and in need of shelter and other supplies. Over the past 24 hours, more than 150,000 people have been evacuated from the valley below the largest of the Sichuan “quake lakes” formed by landslides. Despite massive efforts to release water pressure from the natural dams that have formed in the mountains, it is slow and painstaking work.

Heavy earth-moving equipment has been airlifted into the remote valley that contains the lake and Chinese troops have transported about 16 tonnes of explosives to the site. But rising water levels and forecasts of heavy rain have created a race against time to drain-off the pressure before the largest of the lakes - Tangjiashan - bursts and creates a second disaster for the refugees struggling to survive downstream.

Government sources in Tokyo, who told The Times that the unexpected request from Beijing was currently being evaluated, said that the Chinese Government’s invitation to its former foe reveals the growing desperation in the quake-hit area. A pair of strong aftershocks Yesterday wreaked yet more havoc on the stricken region, felling 420,000 more buildings.

The invitation to Japan’s military came just weeks after a breakthrough visit to Tokyo by China’s President, Hu Jintao - a visit that appeared to re-unite the two neighbours after many years of barely-contained hostility.

The acrimony hit a peak in 2005 when revulsion at the visits to a controversial war shrine made by the Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi spilled on to the streets of Beijing and other Chinese cities.

Widespread anti-Japan demonstrations came close to running out of control, and it was only after Mr Koizumi stepped down from office in 2006 that leaders in Tokyo and Beijing were able to embark on their carefully choreographed “ice melting process”.

That process, which began in earnest with a tour of Japan by the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in 2007, has left the two countries on constructive terms over several issues that used to be sources of deep suspicion.