Abstract
The relations between next-door neighbors Japan and China go back past several millennia. Their cultures are similar, but certain events in history have marred these relationships. One contributing issue to the tensions between these two countries is the Nanking Massacre, which occurred in 1937 at the time when Japan was an emerging military power. It sought to increase its own sphere of influence while occupying territories. It also sought to have access to the rich natural resources of the northeastern section of China and even of the whole of China. The atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers during the Nanking Massacre had the blessing of the officials of the Japanese Army, much to the dismay of the international community. Many Chinese to this day deplore the fact that Japan has not acknowledged its role in the massacre. Reconciliation must take place between these two nations if more regional cooperation is to take place. They must both sit down at the negotiating table and thresh out their differences before true reconciliation and more cooperation can take place. One way of initiating reconciliation is for both countries to mount a joint research project that will investigate the events surrounding the massacre, and to provide compensation for the victims of the same.
Background
One could say that China and Japan’s relationship with one another has been quite tenuous especially in the last few decades. A major source of the tension is the “bad blood” between the two countries due to events in history involving them. The Nanking Massacre is seen as an important event in the history of both nations. On one side is Japan, an emerging power in the 20th century, trying to get more territories and on the other side is China, who at the time of the Nanking Massacre was largely an agricultural country on the verge of a Communist takeover. Although it has been years since this event, the Chinese still view the Japanese negatively, as the Japanese have refused to acknowledge their role as conquerors and literally, murderers during this era. The Japanese feel that they simply did their duties as good soldiers during the war, while the Chinese feel that the human rights of the victims of the massacre have vanished into thin air with the refusal of the Japanese to commit to the recognition of their war atrocities.
The thesis of this paper is that this type of political tension between China and Japan will indeed continue to persist until and unless the Japanese do acknowledge their role in the massacre, and that both countries sit at a negotiation table in order to resolve the issue and move on to other issues concerning their politics, economy and other topics.
Historical Background
China and Japan have had mainly economic relations for the past two thousand years. The first recorded contact between the two countries was recorded as far back as the 3rd century BC. The influx of Chinese goods into the Japanese archipelago had a profound effect on the political systems of the country as ideas also came together with the goods. New technologies in the form of agricultural processes and weaving systems came from China, entering Japan through Korea. Towards the 10th century, Confucianism and Buddhism likewise found a home in Japan. In the next centuries, trade between China and Japan continued to flourish (Stimson: China and Japan: Economic Partnership to Political Ends). Thus economic relations between these two countries have been present all throughout history.
On the sociopolitical side, the relationship between the two nations has not been as pleasant. In the years between 1937 and 1945, the Republic of China and the Japanese empire were embroiled in a conflict known as the Second Sino-Japanese War. At the end of the First Sino-Japanese War, Japan was able to take for its territory Korea, and Taiwan was also annexed to Japan (Jansen, 335). The foreign policy of Japan after the Meiji Restoration was that of becoming an imperialist power in Asia. Japan wished to annex new territories not only to expand its land mass, but also to have access to the natural resources of Korea and China as well as the other countries in the East Asia region (Walker, 544). Thus by the time of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Japan was an emerging military power. The goal of Japan this time was not merely to occupy a few choice regions on the Chinese mainland, but to conquer and occupy the whole of China. The imperialist thrust of Japan was regional in scope. The nation endeavored to create the “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere”(Babones and Chase-Dunn, 75).
The Second Sino-Japanese War was actually longer than any of the two World Wars. It lasted from 1937 to 1945. Japan had initially installed its own puppet government in Manchuria, a province of China as early as in 1932 (Page and Sonnenburg, 300). In 1937, the Japanese soon occupied Shanghai, Nanking and Southern Shanxi via campaigns utilizing hundreds of thousands of Japanese soldiers. This war is said to have been the result of the new imperialist policy of the Japanese Empire, such that it could extend its influence over the region and take advantage of the available resources as well.
Japan
Japan at the time of the Second Sino-Japan was an emerging military and economic power. After the “Black Ships” incident involving Japan and the US Navy, the country was forced to open its doors to the international community in 1854 (Totman, 289). However, during the subsequent reign of Emperor Meiji, Japan grew into an industrial and military power. Japan, on its own as an archipelago, does not have an abundance of metals, oil and other natural resources needed for expansion. Therefore it pursued an expansionist policy of military conquests in order to obtain more territories in order to gain resources. Without the necessary resources, the country realized that it would not be able to become a military and economic power. These resources included the available labor in the regions they annexed (Hiroshi and Hitoshi, 17). One major military conquest in China was the invasion of Manchuria in 1931. Manchuria is on the northeastern portion of the Chinese mainland. Japan took advantage of the weak Chinese government which was embroiled in civil war with the Communists then. Eventually, the Japanese took over other major cities in China, and while they committed many atrocities during the course of their conquests, the most violent in terms of casualties and the kinds of atrocities is the Nanking Massacre.
China
In 1912, the Kuomintang Party led by Sun Yat Sen took power over the Chinese government. By the 1920s, Generalissimo Chang Kai Shek became the President of the Republic of China and moved its capital to Nanking. Chang was able to unify many parts of China and continued on with the policies of Sun Yat Sen in order to modernize the country. However, the Kuomintang Party had also been engaged in civil war with the Communist Party since its ascent to power (Apter and Sach, 198). With a young government in place, China was ill-prepared to face the strong military forces of the Japanese.
The Nanking Massacre
The Nanking Massacre was a major military episode in the Second Sino-Japanese War. The massacre began on December 13, 1937 and continued over a period of six weeks after. The Japanese committed mass murder and raped women and children before also murdering them. Looting and pillaging also occurred on a wide scale (Chang, 6). Prior to this incident, the Japanese had overrun Shanghai, committing many atrocities against its residents. It is even said that the reason why the advance through Shanghai and Nanking was a rapid as what had happened is because the Japanese officers of the military gave their consent to pillaging, looting and raping the women and children (Cummins, 149).
Evidence of the atrocities were recorded by foreigners who stayed in Nanking to protect the civilians. There were even contests among Japanese soldiers to see who could kill 100 civilians first with the use of a sword (Wakabayashi, 319). John Rabe, one of the foreigners who stayed behind, gives his account of corpses lining the streets of the city, with civilians whose backs were riddled with bullet holes, and Japanese soldiers looting shops and residences (Woods, 77). It is said that the looting and pillaging resulted in the loss and destruction of millions of pieces of cultural relics in the city (Lu, 12). Women and children were raped violently, with reports of objects such as bottles and bayonets being thrust into their vaginas. Even pregnant women were not spared, and met the same fates as the women and children who were raped. Babies were bayoneted at will. Chinese prisoners of war were dragged to the banks of the Yangtze River with their hands tied together, and were machine-gunned to death. Other prisoners of war were buried alive. Foreign news reports told of accounts of corpses piled six feet high while lined along a major thoroughfare of the city (BBC: Nanking Remembers Massacre Victims). It is estimated that the death toll of the Nanking Massacre reached up to 300,000 civilians (BBC: Nanking Remembers Massacre Victims). Many historians have classified the massacre as an act of genocide due to the large number of casualties and due to the nature of the atrocities committed against the victims.
Aftermath
Many of the Japanese officers involved in the Nanking Massacre were tried before the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in 1946. General Iwane Matsui, the commanding officer of the troops that entered Nanking, was charged with his failure to observe all protocols under the Hague Convention and for failing to maintain discipline among the troops, thereby preventing massacres and rapes. Koki Hirota, who was the Foreign Minister of Japan at the time of the massacre, was also convicted for his participation in the execution of a plan that resulted in mass murder. Both Matsui and Hirota were executed by hanging in 1948 (Bix, 734).
Another source of controversy is the fact that Prince Asaka, a ranking officer of the Japanese troops in Nanking, was spared from prosecution as he was a member of the Japanese Imperial family. It is said that under the pact between Emperor Hirohito and General Douglas MacArthur, no member of the Japanese Imperial family was to be prosecuted. Prince Asaka was an uncle by marriage of Emperor Hirohito and the son-in-law of Emperor Meiji (Bergamini, 24). Again, controversy erupted because of the exemption of Prince Asaka from prosecution.
Controversy and Effect on China-Japan Relations
The Nanking Massacre has been a thorn in the relations between China and Japan to this day. The two nations are the biggest trading partners of the other today. Together, these two nations hold in their hands around 20% of the world’s output, which is larger than the share of the United States. Their bilateral trade relationship is one of the most substantial in the world. Bilateral trade between them amounted to USD 340 billion in 2014. China is the biggest trading partner of Japan, and is also one of the largest investors in China. It is said that the foreign direct investment (FDI) of Japan in China as of 2014 amounted to USD 100 billion. Furthermore, Japan has likewise become China’s partner in its endeavor to make use of clean technologies in industry (East Asia Forum: The Geo-Economic Potential of the China-Japan Relationship).
Amidst all of this, many Chinese nationals still harbor animosity towards the Japanese and do not trust them in general. The war crimes committed by the Japanese against the Chinese in the Nanking Massacre are still fresh in their minds. They also think of the Japanese as being too proud and unapologetic when it comes to acknowledging their roles in the Sino-Japanese Wars. Other Chinese nationals detest the erection of the Yasukuni Shrine, a shrine for the dead Japanese soldiers of World War II, to include some of the officials of the Japanese Armed Forces involved in the Nanking Massacre. A panel in the museum adjacent to the shrine makes mention that no massacre took place, and this is another source of controversy in the matter. Furthermore, former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited the shrine in 2006 despite the advice of well-meaning diplomats from China and Korea. His pilgrimage then triggered international outrage. The Chinese Foreign Ministry protested his visit vigorously (The Christian Science Monitor: In Japan, Denial over Nanjing Still Holds Sway after 70 Years).
There have been other incidents on the issue that have also sparked outrage in the international community. In 1994, Japanese Justice Minister Shigeto Nagano called the Nanking Massacre a “fabrication” (Japan Times: Nagoya Mayor Won’t Budge on Nanking Remark). There have been other controversies as well, all with the end objective of denying that the massacre ever occurred, or that the details, number of casualties were fabricated, or that the Japanese did not have a choice in the matter.
Conclusion
Despite the evidence and the witness testimonies, the Japanese government still has refused to acknowledge the scope and degree of its participation in the Nanking Massacre and in other military episodes during its invasion and occupation of China. The outrage that this has generated in the hearts and minds of the Chinese people clearly is a stumbling block to healthy relations between China and Japan despite the substantial economic ties between them and despite the benefits enjoyed by both in this economic relationship. It appears that the deletion from memory and from history of the hundreds of thousands of innocent Chinese civilians who lost their lives in the Nanking Massacre cannot simply be accepted by the Chinese. One only has to think of the descendants of the survivors and of the witnesses to the massacre and one can feel what they still feel to this day. When the Japanese continue to deny their participation and the commission of atrocities, these individuals still feel the pain of the past. As they have been living for most of their lives in the pain and indignity of what happened to them, then it is but just that measures are taken by both sides in order to at least lessen the pain. However, memories and stories are indeed difficult to commit to oblivion. Only by taking concrete measures to investigate the past, resolve the issues and move forward will there be an acknowledgement of the human rights of the victims. Afterwards, there can be true reconciliation.
China has now more resources as well as the time to investigate and conduct research on historical issues such as the Nanking Massacre. There is the suggestion that both Chinese and Japanese scholars join forces and form a research team that can tackle these issues in an impartial manner. Also, reparations to the families of the victims can help, as well as more development assistance from the Japanese. On the part of the Japanese leadership, they must be more sensitive when dealing with these issues and carefully think about the international repercussions of any steps they make involving the issues. On the part of the Chinese, the leadership with the help of the media could launch a discussion of Japanese culture and why the events occurred as they did, so as to reduce the hatred and animosity felt by many Chinese towards Japan and the Japanese.
This historical problem cannot be simply thrown away into the past. Both China and Japan must sit down at the negotiating table and discuss these problems and issues. Afterwards, they can both put forth their own solutions to deal with these issues and have true reconciliation. It would not be difficult to envision these two nations in the context of reconciliation as they share similar elements of culture, and share very similar interests as well. Regional cooperation will be achieved only after these two countries sit down, thresh out their issues, and proactively find solutions to these issues. The solutions must be in the best interests of the region, of the citizens of both China and Japan. These solutions can also set examples for other countries around the globe involved in similar conflicts.
Works Cited
Apter, David and Sach, Tony. Revolutionary Discourse in Mao’s Republic. 1994. Boston, MA: Harvard University Press.
Babones, Salvatore and Chase-Dunn, Christopher. Routledge International Handbook of World Systems Analysis. 2012. NY: Routledge.
Bergamini, David. Japan’s Imperial Conspiracy. 1995. NY: Morrow Publishing.
Bix, Herbert. Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan. 2001. NY: Harper Collins.
Bristow, Michael. Nanking Remembers Massacre Victims. 2007. Web. Accessed 09 March 2016.
Cummins, Joseph. The World’s Bloodiest History. Beverly, MA: Fair Winds Press.
Chang, Iris. The Rape of Nanking. 1997. NY: Basic Books.
East Asia Forum. Are Japan-China Relations Sweetening or Souring? 2015. Web. Accessed 06 March 2016.
Hiroshi, S. and Hitoshi, H. Japan and Singapore in the World Economy. 1999. NY: Routledge.
Hongo, Jun. Nagoya Mayor Won’t Budge on Nanking Remark. 1994. Web. Accessed 10 March 2016.
Jansen, Marius. The Making of Modern Japan. 2002. NY: Harvard University Press.
Kambayashi, Takehiko. In Japan, Denial over Nanjing Still Holds Sway after 70 Years. 2006. Web. Accessed 09 March 2016.
Lu, Zuoshen. The Case for Repatriating China’s Cultural Objects.
Page, Melvin and Sonnenburg, Penny. Colonialism: An International, Social, Cultural and Political Encyclopeida. 2012. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.
Stimson. China and Japan: Economic Partnership to Political Ends. 2010. Web. Accessed 04 March 2016.
Totman, Conrad. A History of Japan. 2005. NY: Wiley-Blackwell.
Walker, Hugh. East Asia: A New History. Bloomington, IN: Author House.
Wakabayashi, Bob. The Nanking Atrocity: 1937-1938: Complicating the Picture. 2000. Oxfod, NY: Berghahn Books.
Woods, John. The Good Man of Nanking, the Diaries of John Rabe.
