Shinzo Abe’s Discourse on the Sino-Japanese Relations: Take Japan Back and Japan’s War Guilt

In this paper, Shinzo Abe's political rhetoric will be taken into attention by utilizing Teun Van Dijk's 'critical discourse analysis' and James Martin's rhetorical structure, considering his perception of the war guilt of Japan during World War 2. For that purpose, Shinzo Abe's official speeches and interviews from his first and second presidential terms will be analyzed. This Analysis will help us to understand these two countries' shared past and the reflection of this past in today's international politics. Moreover, how political figures influenced these relations by their discourse. At the end of the paper, Abe's identity construction and its connections with his political rhetoric will be analyzed.