Well, size doesn't matter. It's a person, and an equal in the international setting, right ?
O, we're just a small country, not even as big as Japan, and the population is also perhaps somewhere near 60% of that of Japan ?
I never thought of it that way. Perhaps there are great possiblities that Korea and Japan can help each other once the uncomfortable *remainders of Old Japan* is cleared out of the way. I'm guessing (about the two positive articles that Wang posted yesterday and today) that Kim Dae Jung's mild populatiry with the Japanese may have influenced to some degree the softening of the hard-liner rhetoric. But mostly (from Machiavellian point of view) that the tough, serious response from PRC people and gov't (of course S. Korea as usual) has had a positive effect in the signs of change. There was a passage from a book written by one Japanese-Korean Mizuno Shunpei ﾂ絶?ｦ窶禿ｬﾂ俊窶｢ﾂｽ;
"To deal with the Japanese well, diplomacy alone might not be enough.
One must be ready to play hard ball." (paraphrase)
I tend to agree. Do you honestly think that Japan would have been so malleable to the wishes of the US if US lacked the military superiority ? Carrot and stick, I always say. As for Japan, more stick, but not to forget the carrot. Just my impression. I hope nobody gets offended by my opinion. Different measures for different times, I guess.