Battered China asks old enemy Japan for military for help as flood threat rises

Reeling from the soaring death toll of the May 12 earthquake and in growing fear of a catastrophic eruption from the “quake lakes”, China has invited its old enemy, the Japanese military, on to its soil for the first time since the Second World War. The extraordinary request for help from China’s historically detested foe will produce an image that few could have imagined possible two weeks ago. Revulsion at Japan’s wartime past - particularly the Imperial Army’s atrocities in China - continues to play an explosive role in Asian politics.