I know hate is an emotional way to describe the attitudes of people collectively, and the degree to which you can generaliZe is limited. But I get the impression China and Japan have hated each other for a long time. Or maybe it was more of a historical rivalry that turned to hate over the centuries. But it seems like the Chinese hate the Japanese and think of them as brutal villains, while the Japanese similarly view the Chinese as more primitive and backwards, tho it’s my understanding that Japanese culture was sort of an offshoot of Chinese culture in many ways, and they clearly overlap in terms of genetics as well. So is this indeed the case? Was it always?
Disclaimer: I haven’t been to China in 11 years…
ISTM that hatred of Japan has largely died down in China and simply been replaced by a more muted negativity towards Japan and wariness of them. Not sure the Japanese ever really hated China but they are certainly wary/negative likewise.
The Japanese tortured and killed between 3 and 14 million people between the late 30s and mid 40s. A disproportionate number of their victims were Chinese. It would take a very forgiving nature not to still hate them given these atrocities were within living memory.