CHINA AND JAPAN
CHINA AND JAPAN
12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12
Facing History
EZRA F. VOGEL
The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
cambridge, mas sa chu setts
london, england
2019
Copyright © 2019 by Ezra F. Vogel
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of Amer i ca
First printing
Design by Dean Bornstein
Jacket photographs: ( top) Door knockers at Longhua Ta (Longhua Temple and Pagoda),
Shanghai, China/Pictures from History/David Henley/Bridgeman Images; ( bottom) Detail
of door, Kyoto, Japan/ Jim Holmes/Design Pics/Bridgeman Images
9780674240766 (EPUB)
9780674240780 (MOBI)
9780674240759 (PDF)
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as fol ows:
Names: Vogel, Ezra F., author.
Title: China and Japan : facing history / Ezra F. Vogel.
Description: Cambridge, Mas sa chu setts : The Belknap Press of Harvard University
Press, 2019. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018053335 | ISBN 9780674916579 (alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: China— Relations— Japan. | Japan— Relations— China. |
China— Foreign relations— Japan. | Japan— Foreign relations— China. |
China— Civilization— Japanese influences. | Japan— Civilization—
Chinese influences.
Classification: LCC DS740.5.J3 V59 2019 | DDC 327.51052— dc23
LC rec ord available at https:// lccn .loc .gov / 2018053335
Contents
Preface vii
1. Chinese Contributions to Japa nese Civilization,
600–838 . 1
2. Trade without Transformative Learning,
838–1862 . 29
3. Responding to Western Challenges and Reopening Relations,
1839–1882 . 65
4. Rivalry in Korea and the Sino- Japanese War,
1882–1895 . 100
5. Japa nese Lessons for a Modernizing China, 1895–1937
with Paula S. Harrell . 132
6. The Colonization of Taiwan and Manchuria,
1895–1945 . 175
7. Po liti cal Disorder and the Road to War, 1911–1937
with Richard Dyck . 203
8. The Sino- Japanese War, 1937–1945 . 248
9. The Collapse of the Japa nese Empire and the Cold War,
1945–1972 . 286
10. Working Together, 1972–1992 . 327
11. The Deterioration of Sino- Japanese Relations,
1992–2018 . 356
12. Facing the New Era . 404
Biographies of Key Figures 419
Notes 471 . Sources and Further Reading 481
Acknowl edgments 503 . Index 505
Preface
If the relationship between China and the United States, the world’s
two largest economies, is the most impor tant relationship in the world, then
arguably the second most impor tant relationship is that between China,
which is about to become the world’s largest economy, and its neighbor,
Japan, the third largest economy. China’s biggest trading partner is the
United States, and its second biggest trading partner is Japan. Japan’s largest
trading partner is China.
The relationship between China and Japan is tense, dangerous, deep, and
complicated. Ships and planes from the two countries confront each other
regularly over the Senkaku / Diaoyu Islands, which Japan administers but
China claims as its territory, and the risk of dangerous incidents is high.
After incidents that occurred in 2010 and 2012, fewer than 10 percent of the
Chinese polled expressed positive feelings toward Japan and fewer than
10 percent of the Japa nese expressed positive feelings toward China. In
China, emotions about Japan run high enough that officials can easily
mobilize the Chinese public to join anti- Japanese demonstrations and
protests, as witnessed in recent years when protesters, roused by anti- Japanese
sentiment in the media, have thrown rocks at the Japa nese ambassador’s
residence and at Japa nese stores in China. Fewer Japa nese tourists travel to
China now than some years ago, and Japa nese citizens living and working
in China have sometimes tried to disguise their nationality.
If the Sino- Japanese relationship is mishandled, it could lead to vast mil-
itary spending by both nations, frustrate cooperation on bilateral, regional,
and global issues, and even descend into conflict. If handled well, the two
countries could cooperate in preserving the international order and sup-
porting regional organ izations that provide a framework for collaboration
in trade, construction, scientific research, peacekeeping, and responding to
natu ral disasters.
Leaders of both countries have said that for relations to improve, the
other side must deal properly with history. No countries can compare
with China and Japan in terms of the length of their historical contact:
1,500 years. Given the depth of emotion among the Chinese and Japa nese
. vii .
Preface
people concerning their past, it would be impossible for them to gain a
balanced perspective without discussing history.
Japa nese and Chinese scholars have a much deeper understanding of
their own history than we foreigners can match. Unfortunately, when
scholars from China and Japan come together to try to resolve differences,
the meetings result in renewed tensions and a lack of agreement on impor-
tant issues. Outsiders can potentially contribute to their mutual under-
standing by examining the history with more objectivity and balance. The
Chinese have a saying, “Bystanders can be clearer” ( pangguanzhe qing), and
the Japa nese have made this expression into a Japa nese saying as well.
I see myself as a friend of both China and Japan. I undertook this study
as a bystander sympathetic to both countries, which I have been studying
for more than half a century. I want both countries to succeed. Therefore,
in this book I attempt to the best of my ability to provide an objective un-
derstanding of the history of relations between the two countries, in the
hope that it will help them improve their relations with each other. I see
my mission as seeking truth from facts, not slanting the truth toward the
interests of any one country, including my own.
Throughout my career, I saw it as my responsibility to convey the re-
sults of my research on China and Japan to an audience of Americans and
other Westerners who want to understand those two countries. While
writing this book, however, I was thinking about how I might reach audi-
ences not only in the West but also in China and Japan. I am aware that
many Chinese and Japa nese people who dislike the other country will not
be interested in reading a book on Sino- Japanese relations written by a
Westerner, no matter how accurate the book might be. However, I have
written this book for those in China and Japan who do seek, as I do, to
&
nbsp; achieve an objective understanding of the other country. I feel a responsi-
bility as a bystander who can potentially reach audiences in both countries.
I have had the unique good fortune of having the Japa nese translation of
my book Japan as Number One become a bestseller in Japan, and my book
Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China, in Chinese translation, be-
come a bestseller in China. As a friend of both China and Japan, I fervently
hope the two countries can improve their ability to work together for their
common interests. I believe their cooperation is also in the interest of the
rest of the world.
. viii .
Preface
I have no training as a professional historian. I am a sociologist who until
now has focused on the broad features of con temporary society. In this book,
I write as a historical sociologist, following the perspective of my teacher
(and later my se nior colleague) Talcott Parsons. A leading specialist on Max
Weber, Parsons analyzed socie ties in terms of their basic po liti cal, economic,
and social structures and their under lying values. My interest in using a
broad so cio log i cal framework to analyze the history of national socie ties
dates back to my graduate- student days before I became an Asia specialist,
when I benefited from the teaching of Parsons and from discussions in the
circle of gradu ate students gathered around him, including Bob Bellah, Cliff
Geertz, Chuck Tilly, Jesse Pitts, Norman Bell, Ed Tiryakian, and Bob
LeVine. We were all passionately absorbed in an effort to understand the
broad structural features and values of national socie ties.
I have or ga nized this book sequentially, covering the 1,500 years of
recorded contacts between China and Japan. Throughout, in addition to re-
lating the most impor tant events, I have endeavored to consider the larger
social structures of China and Japan and the structure of their relationship.
The history of Sino- Japanese relations was shaped not only by broad
forces but also by individual people. For recent centuries, when more bio-
graphical information is available, I also include brief biographies of some
of the main individuals involved; these are found in the Biographies of Key
Figures section. My purpose is to understand what drove them, how they
related to the other country, and what impact they had on history.
I am unable to read original documents in classical Chinese or classical
Japa nese. The task of reading all the relevant original documents to cover such
a vast period is beyond my ability, and perhaps beyond the ability of any single
scholar or any small group of scholars. I do read modern Chinese and Japa-
nese. In preparation for this book I spent years reading works on the history
of relations between China and Japan by Western, Japa nese, and Chinese
scholars. There are many outstanding books by dedicated scholars of great
ability from China, Japan, and the West who have studied the interactions
between China and Japan throughout history. I also had the opportunity to
speak with many of the authors. I am deeply indebted to all of the scholars
who made it pos si ble for me to attempt to write this historical overview. For
each chapter, I include at the back of the book a section on “Sources and
Further Reading.”
. ix .
Preface
To make this book accessible to general readers, I have minimized the
use of notes. I have also simplified transliterations. I do not use macrons in
Japa nese terms, but for scholars seeking to use the sources, I use them in
the notes. For Chinese names, I use the most widely accepted translitera-
tions for the names of familiar figures, such as Chiang Kai- shek, Chiang
Ching- kuo, and Sun Yat- sen; other wise I use pinyin, following the current
mainland usage. For Chinese cities, I use their current names throughout,
with one exception. I refer to Beijing, the “Northern Capital,” as Beiping
when it was not the capital, to make it clear when it was and when it was
not the capital city. I use the name Guangzhou even in the era when it was
known as Canton, and I use Shenyang rather than Mukden (the city’s
Manchu name), Hoten (its Japa nese name), or Fengtian. I pre sent Chinese
and Japa nese personal names in their original order, surnames first.
Two chapters were written jointly with friends, Paula Harrell and Rick
Dyck, who were extraordinarily generous with their time, expertise, and
contributions. Harrell, who studies late nineteenth- and early twentieth-
century Sino- Japanese relations using both Chinese and Japa nese sources,
has written outstanding books on exchanges between China and Japan after
the Sino- Japanese War of 1894–1895. Dyck, who received his Ph.D. from
Harvard, has spent more than four de cades living in Japan, where he is an
exceptional scholar as well as a successful businessman.
In this book, I pay special attention to the three periods when one
country was engaged in deep learning from the other: from 600 to 838, when
Japan was learning the basics of Chinese civilization, and two later periods,
1895 to 1937 and 1972 to 1992, when China was learning from Japan. I have
arranged the chapters chronologically with the exception of Chapters 5
through 7, which address diff er ent aspects of the period from 1895 and 1937,
when impor tant developments— China’s learning from Japan, Japa nese co-
lonialism, and the politics that led to war— were so diverse that I chose to
cover them in three separate chapters. Since my goal is to understand con-
temporary East Asia, I have written about the past 200 years in more detail
than earlier centuries. Chapters 1 and 2, however, trace the relations be-
tween the two countries across more than 1,200 years, from 600 to 1862. In
those initial chapters I have tried to provide an overview while also fo-
cusing on issues that are particularly crucial for understanding current
Sino- Japanese relations.
. x .
CHINA AND JAPAN
chapter one
Chinese Contributions to Japa nese
Civilization, 600–838
After Empress Suiko, at age thirty- nine, became sovereign of the
Yamato clan in Japan in 593, to expand her control over a broader geo graph-
i cal area she sought to import features of the more advanced Chinese civi-
lization that had enabled China’s leaders to govern far larger areas than those
that she controlled.1 In 589, four years before Empress Suiko rose to power,
Emperor Wen Di of China had united a substantial part of China for the
first time in several centuries and had established the Sui dynasty. To main-
tain peaceful relations beyond the borders that he governed, Emperor Wen
Di revived the practice of meeting with representatives of foreign groups
and spreading Buddhism in territories that were part of what are today
Korea and Japan. The Yamato clan sent its first mission to China in 600,
and it continued studying and learning from China until 838, when it sent
its last diplomatic mission. Japan’s missions to China began because of the
fortuitous timing and complementary perspectives of these two lead
ers,
Empress Suiko, who sought to learn from China, and Emperor Wen Di,
who welcomed the establishment of formal relations with territories that
later would become part of Japan.
During this period, the Japanese mastered a written language, Chinese
characters, that al owed officials to communicate over a broader geo graph ical
distance and to provide greater consistency in contacts among the highest of-
ficials in the capital and officials who served elsewhere. Japan developed stan-
dardized rules to clarify what local officials were expected to do and a special-
ized administrative staff to manage a larger and more complex organ ization.
The Japa nese learned how to write histories of former rulers to support the
legitimacy of the current ones. They also learned about Buddhism, and
strengthened the legitimacy of their rulers by linking them with the natu ral
order. They learned how to plan large communities in a systematic way and
. 1 .
china and japan
how to build large Buddhist temples. Furthermore, they imported Confu-
cianism, which reinforced the importance of the loyalty of the subjects to
their leaders and emphasized the rules of propriety to maintain a stable
organ ization. They developed new art techniques and poetry styles after
studying Chinese culture, and they imported musical instruments. Of course,
the Japa nese adapted all that they learned to their own needs and tastes.
The Chinese were receptive to teaching others about their civilization,
for they were fully confident of their superiority, both culturally and mili-
tarily, and they had no fear that ethnic groups outside China’s borders might
overtake them. Teaching other ethnic groups about their civilization was
indeed a conscious part of China’s po liti cal strategy.
The structure of Yamato that Empress Suiko had inherited was essen-
tially a federation of clans, with one being first among others. Empress Sui-
ko’s mother was a member of the Soga clan ( uji) , which was attempting to
provide overall leadership for the Yamato administration by controlling an
unwieldy group of some thirty other clans, each of which had acquired of-
ficial recognition in the form of a title ( kabane) awarded by the leader of
the dominant clan at the time.2 When Suiko assumed office, one clan, the
China and Japan Page 1
