Sep. 8, 1968Calls for Restoration of Sino-Japanese Ties
In a speech given on this day before some 20,000 university students in Tokyo, Ikeda called for normalized diplomatic relations between the People's Republic of China and Japan. The restoration of bilateral ties and the development of genuine peace and friendship between China and Japan, he believed, was crucial to ending the vicious cycle of war and poverty not only in Asia but the world.
While Ikeda was not the first Japanese to advocate Sino-Japanese rapprochement at what was the height of the Cold War, he was certainly among the most prominent figures to do so outside the running political and ideological debate in Japan at the time. Many Chinese historians now cite Ikeda's call as a major turning point in the normalization process, which had stood at a diplomatic impasse until then.
[See also "Further New Ventures: China-Japan Relations" in PROFILE and Sino-Japanese Relations in PEACEBUILDER]