The Documentary: Archive 2014

They are Asia’s economic giants – yet the historical record of Japan and China continues to cause tensions. In programme two, Japanese journalist Mariko Oi and Chinese journalist Haining Liu, travel around China, including the city of Nanjing, where Japanese forces committed rapes and mass killings during the war. How are events like these remembered in modern China? And, why can young Chinese consume Japanese pop culture while demonstrating against Japan’s historical record? The pair discover that, despite the deep cultural links between their nations, history remains a barrier.