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Understanding is crucial to peace - forum president

By Li Xiaokun (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-02 10:29

Of the many Japanese eager to see their country's ties with China improve, Kenji Tanaka, 61, stands out.

Chinese tourists receive a warm welcome at the Tokyo Narita Airport in July. Japan is one of the top tourism destinations for Chinese tourists. [China News Service]

"My father was injured when the US dropped the atom bomb in 1945. Needless to say, I am against war," Tanaka, now president of the Asia Pacific Forum, told China Daily in an exclusive interview on the weekend.

"I want to see countries make peace with each other, and am willing to do whatever is in my power to see the friendship between China and Japan grow," he added.

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Chinese tourists receive a warm welcome at the Tokyo Narita Airport in July. Japan is one of the top tourism destinations for Chinese tourists. China News Service

The Asia Pacific Forum is one of the organizations helping the Japanese Foreign Ministry receive Chinese youths as part of efforts to improve understanding between the two sides.

Tanaka, who has visited China over 300 times, started to help push forward Sino-Japanese relations in February 1972, when he was working at a travel agency.

His first trip to China was in August that year, several years before Beijing ended the "cultural revolution" (1966-76) and embarked on its economic reform policies.

"Now I have innumerable Chinese friends. They are in various organizations ranging from central and local governments, to think tanks in the economic and cultural fields," Tanaka said.

The Chinese luminaries his group has received include Vice-Premier Wang Qishan and Secretary-General of the State Council Ma Kai.

According to Wu Anqing of the All-China Youth Federation, Tanaka is one of those Japanese who have "devoted their lives to establishing good ties with China".

Wu recently returned to Beijing from Japan with a 500-strong Chinese youth delegation that Tanaka's organization received.

Wu said Tanaka's "splendid hospitality" included his best efforts to treat his Chinese guests with hand-pulled noodles at restaurants.

"But the restaurants were too small to hold the quantum of guests, so he bought every representative two bags of instant noodles of popular flavors and sent them to every guest's room.

"Even a gesture as small as this confirmed his dedication toward improving ties with China. From that, I learned that he holds sincere feelings toward China and his work," Wu said.