As a overseas Chinese (neither born in China, HK or Taiwan), my own take is this.
Japan and China need each other. The Japanese needs the cheap Chinese labour to reap more profits and the Chinese needs Japanese companies to invest and create more jobs for their locals. If you read up, Japanese companies are one of the highest contributor to the Chinese economy.
Both Noda and Hu know this. But we have to understand, Noda is facing a huge drop in popularity back at home and Hu is handing over to Xi Jinping. For politicians, nothing helps to boost rating like your typical nationalistic sabre-rattling. Hence, China send over activists to 'invade' while Japan allowed their own nationalists to raise Japanese flags all over the island to show their own that they will not be bullied.
We could be getting at each other throats in this thread, but as we argue, both Japanese and Chinese businessmen are probably having a good time and toasting to each other over a newly-inked business deal worth millions.
To be honest, while a few Chinese protestors are genuinely aggrieved about Japan, most are taking to the streets to vent their anger on their local officials and government. In China, unlike the US, people are not allowed to freely protest. However, if one uses nationalistic issues such as this, chances are the local police will close one eye to the destruction they cost, since they will be seen as bastards if they arrest these people. And HK people actually hates the mainlanders more than the Japanese. So don't be deceived by a bunch of HKers landing on Senkaku/Diaoyu and thinking that HK is anti-Japan. Most HKers I talk to have more gripes against the Chinese than the Japanese.
The CCP has actually benefited much from the Japanese. During the Sino-Japanese war, they were actually pretty gleeful that the KMT were too busy fighting against the Japanese to get rid of them. Mao actually ordered the rebels to sit back and let both sides exhaust each other off, and when the time is right, claim victory. Hence, after the war, the exhausted KMT was thrown out of China into Taiwan.
Furthermore, the CCP in the past had accepted millions of dollars in aid from the Japanese govt. If they were really sincere about getting an apology from Japan, why accept $$$ from them first? Obviously, they don't really give a fuck about the Japanese invasion. It is only when they need to shore up domestic ratings, then Japan becomes the bogeyman. In reality, China has received much $$$ from Japan, so they aren't one to protest either.
However, there is no denial that the Imperial Japanese had committed much war crimes against their victims. Only issue now is, they should stop forcing the current generation to apologise. I don't think its fair to get the son to apologise for his grandfather's deeds, when he was not even born to witness what his grandfather did. Let bygones be bygones. Clutching onto straws of the past just makes you look like an idiot.
I can understand that the older generations of China and Korea will bear a hate against Japan. But I believe that the hatred should stop at their generation and not seep into the young ones. If not, all this will just lead to further wars, which goes against what the Allies had intended in WWII, to create a better world for the future generation.
