Lots of email, mostly on this theme:

Jonah,
As a student of East Asia (particularly Korea), I’d like to add a bit to your
comment on China/Japan. (By the way, South Korea has also been having massive
anti-Japanese protests in the past few weeks but they are not as destructive
as the Chinese ones).
Youre right, there are deeper issues in the China/Japan row. Not too long ago
(a month or so?) Japan joined the US in declaring that the Taiwan issue should
be resolved peacefully and that China should reduce military tension. This is
what really angered China – they see it as interference in their internal
affairs from a historical enemy.
Yet overall, the Chinese and Koreans are deeply upset over the lack of
Japanese contrition for their imperialism – and quite reasonably so. However
the Chinese and Korean leadership both exploit popular feelings for domestic
political reasons. In China it is virtually illegal to protest anything
except Japan (or America) and the Chinese people have A LOT to protest over,
so they use this rare opportunity to vent. In Korea, the government is deeply
unpopular for the bad economy, so their President declared a “diplomatic war”
and bashed the Japanese at a Holocaust commemoration in Germany last week
because these things distracts from his high unpopularity (only 20something%
approve of his performance).
Cheers from England,