China hosts first Japanese warship since WWII
Updated
![The Japanese destroyer, Sazanami, will spend five days in China, in a visit that aims to improve ties between the two nations. [Reuters]](http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/img/news/base/china_japan_rtr_240608.jpg "The Japanese destroyer, Sazanami, will spend five days in China, in a visit that aims to improve ties between the two nations. [Reuters]")
The Japanese destroyer, Sazanami, will spend five days in China, in a visit that aims to improve ties between the two nations. [Reuters]
A Japanese warship has docked at a Chinese port for the first time since World War II.
The Japanese destroyer, Sazanami, will spend five days at the tightly-guarded Zhanjiang naval port, in the southern province of Guangdong, in a visit that aims to improve ties between the former enemies.
Foreign journalists and the general public have been barred access to the Chinese naval installation but the ship was in full view as it approached the port, with its crew standing at attention on deck beneath Japanese flags.
Japan invaded and occupied parts of China from 1931 to 1945, and relations are still overshadowed by animosities stemming from Japanese wartime atrocities.
Chinese President Hu Jintao was dogged on a state visit to Japan in May by protests over Beijing's crackdown on riots in Tibet.
And Japan's offer to transport relief supplies to victims of China's devastating May 12 earthquake on a military flight was abandoned after a flood of Chinese Internet users reacted angrily to the proposal.
But ties have been generally been improving, with President Hu's visit leading to an agreement over the development of natural gas in disputed waters in the the East China Sea.
