Attitudes of Japanese left-wing political parties towards the issue of Japanese war reparations to the Republic of Vietnam

Abstract

Based mainly on documents of Japanese political parties and records of the Japanese National Assembly, this article analyzes the attitudes of Japanese left-wing political parties such as the Socialist Party and Communist Party towards the Japanese government’s war reparations for the Republic of Vietnam. It also provides additional understanding of 1) the relationship between Japan and the People's Republic of Vietnam before 1973, 2) the diverse and complex forms of international relations during the Cold War, which covered both antagonism and cooperation, as shown in the case of Japanese-Vietnamese relations, 3) a new approach in studying Japan-Vietnam relations in the post-World War II period.