ments began to rule within their respective geo graph i cal bound aries, and
adjustments in national identity began to follow.
In 1950, as these massive relocations were tapering off, the Korean War
broke out, re orienting Asian international relations to bound aries drawn
by the Cold War, binding China with the Soviet Union and Japan with the
United States, and splitting the governance of Taiwan from that of main-
land China.
In the three de cades after World War II both China and Japan under-
went some of the most dramatic changes in their histories. The governments
formed in China after 1949 when the Chinese Civil War ended and in Japan
after 1952 when the Allied Occupation was over not only had diff er ent
bound aries than those before the world war but also diff er ent governmental
structures and national goals.
In 1949 the victorious Communists reunified China for the first time
since the end of the imperial era in 1911 and established a national struc-
ture diff er ent from both that of imperial China and that of the Guomin-
dang. China underwent many domestic changes when it established com-
munist structures following its 1949 alliance with the Soviet Union. In 1953
. 286 .
The Col apse of the Japa nese Empire and the Cold War, 1945–1972
it introduced economic planning and then undertook wrenching mobiliza-
tion of its people during the Great Leap Forward program and the Cul-
tural Revolution, both of which devastated the country and were ultimately
abandoned. In 1969 China fought a border war with the Soviet Union and
initiated a comprehensive opening to the West for the first time in its
history.
The Allied Occupation that ruled Japan from 1945 to 1952 guided the
most comprehensive reor ga ni za tion and re orientation of a nation ever un-
dertaken by an occupying force. Japan abandoned militarism, empowered
demo cratic institutions, re oriented its economy, and revised its educational
system. Beginning in the 1950s Japan strengthened its links to the global
economy and launched the world’s first rapid industrialization, setting the
pattern for the spread of rapid industrialization to Korea, Taiwan, and main-
land China, that brought dramatic improvements in the standard of living.
During the Cold War, between 1949 and 1972, China and Japan had few
contacts. However, Chinese and Japa nese merchants and leaders repre-
senting their changing governments managed to keep channels open be-
tween their two countries, channels that after 1972 provided a means for
the two countries to develop the closest relations in their history.
The Col apse of Japa nese Imperialism
The Japa nese defeat not only ended Japanese imperialism but also its im-
perial ambitions. World War II saw the end of many colonial empires, but
Japan had had far more colonial servants, soldiers, and settlers than any
other country. During the war, some 6.9 million of Japan’s 72 million
people—3.7 million soldiers and 3.2 million civilians— were living abroad.
Nor had any other imperial power penetrated so deeply into its colonies,
with such thorough involvement in all aspects of life, as Japan had in Taiwan,
Korea, and Manchuria. In the two- thirds of China that Japan occupied
during World War II, it exercised far tighter control than the Western
powers exercised in the distant colonies that they occupied.
Similar to the Chinese public’s reaction in 1895 following the First Sino-
Japanese War, the Japa nese public in 1945 was stunned that their country
had suffered such a stunning defeat. Just as the Chinese before 1895 had
had no doubts about the superiority of Chinese civilization, the Japa nese
. 287 .
china and japan
public, proud of their nation’s victories over China and Rus sia and in-
formed by a controlled press, was supremely confident of Japan’s role as
the leader of Asia— until the air raids and bombs began devastating their
country in 1945. China’s defeat in 1895 had forced the Chinese to recognize
that their imperial system was no longer viable, and Japan’s defeat in 1945
forced the Japa nese to recognize that their military- dominated imperi-
alism was no longer viable. The Japa nese, like the Chinese, underwent a
jarring readjustment as their proud self- image disintegrated. And as China
after 1895 had learned about the new world from Japan, the country that
had defeated it, Japan after 1945 learned about the new world from the
United States, the country that had defeated it.
By August 1945 the imperialist Japa nese, who only shortly before had
dominated top positions of power in China, Korea, and Taiwan, were sud-
denly being told what to do. They had been the victimizers, proud soldiers
and settlers, but now, defeated, they became the victims, refugees and suppli-
cants. In China the currency that had been used by Japa nese residents was no
longer valid and the Japa nese living there were almost immediately impover-
ished, many reduced to sel ing their clothing in an effort to get enough to eat.
Resettlement and the Narrowing of Japa nese Identity
The end of Japa nese imperialism brought a narrower definition of what it
meant to be Japa nese. By the 1920s after their incorporation into the Japa-
nese empire, the people in Taiwan and Korea came to be regarded as Japa-
nese citizens, and in Manchuria, if they were not regarded as Japa nese citi-
zens, at least they were Japa nese subjects, part of the Japa nese empire.
Educated youths in Taiwan, Korea, and Manchuria attended Japanese- led
schools, used the Japa nese language, studied Japa nese history; in Taiwan and
Korea, they were given Japa nese names. The Japa nese had come to accept a
broader, more cosmopolitan definition of what it meant to be “Japa nese,” a
definition that included both Taiwanese and Korean people. Some mem-
bers of these groups felt that they were treated as second- class citizens;
nonetheless they were regarded as second- class Japa nese citizens.
After Japan’s defeat in 1945, in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement
signed by three of the Allied powers, Great Britain, the United States, and
. 288 .
The Col apse of the Japa nese Empire and the Cold War, 1945–1972
the Soviet Union, Koreans, Taiwanese, and residents of Manchuria were
no longer considered Japa nese. The classification “Japa nese” was narrowed
to include only those whose ancestors had been Japa nese and who had lived
on one of Japan’s four main islands or on one of its smaller islands before
the Sino- Japanese War of 1894–1895. People living in Korea became Ko-
reans and people living in Manchuria and Taiwan became Chinese. The
Korean- Japanese and Taiwanese- Japanese people living in Japan became for-
eign residents of Japan.
Most of the Japa nese in the three provinces of Manchuria (Heilongjiang,
Liaoning, and Jilin) had been living in the northern province of Heilongjiang
next to the Rus sian border, and at the end of the war they surrendered to
the Rus sians. Some tried to run away and others committed suicide. Ap-
proximat
ely 600,000 Japa nese prisoners were taken across the border into
Siberia, where many of them performed manual labor on construction proj-
ects. Rus sian officials estimated that during the next several years 60,000
Japa nese prisoners died, but Japan estimated that a far higher number died
or were missing. Between 1947 and 1949 some 450,000 Japa nese prisoners
in the Soviet Union were allowed to return to Japan. Survivors returning
from Rus sia recalled not only the freezing climate but also the inhumane
living conditions and the cruelty of their captors.
Because soldiers were given priority for space on ships returning to
Japan, few Japa nese civilians, most of whom had been living in Manchuria,
had an opportunity to leave China before May 1946, when the United States
began supplying ships to bring Japa nese civilians back to their homeland.
Amid food shortages and without any income after Japan’s surrender, the
Japa nese civilians awaiting an opportunity to board a ship and return home
had to strug gle to survive. It has been estimated that as many as 200,000
Japa nese civilians in China died while waiting to return to Japan. When Na-
tionalist troops gained control over most of southern Manchuria in late
1946, Chiang Kai- shek cooperated with U.S. troops in assisting Japa nese
civilians to return to Japan. By the end of 1946 approximately 1,492,000
Japa nese had returned to Japan, and by the end of the following year 3,758
more had returned. Repatriation continued until August 1948, but an esti-
mated 60,000 Japa nese, mostly children of mixed marriages, remained in
China after 1949. Between 1949 and 1953 few returned to Japan, but in 1953
. 289 .
china and japan
an estimated 26,000 returned.1 Between August 1945 and December 1946,
6.7 million Japa nese soldiers and civilians, mostly from China, but also from
Southeast Asia, Korea, and Taiwan, returned to Japan.2
Some compassionate Chinese families supplied food and shelter to the
needy Japa nese in Manchuria, and some adopted Japa nese children who
either had been separated from their parents or whose parents had died.
Thousands of Japa nese widows, widowers, and single men and women mar-
ried Chinese partners. Some Japa nese children remained with their Chi-
nese families even after the end of 1946, by which time most of the Japa-
nese survivors in Manchuria had been repatriated.
When the once- stranded Japa nese settlers fi nally found a place on a ship
and returned to their country, the situation they faced at home was similar
to the situation that Chinese refugees faced on returning to their home
areas. The Japa nese economy was depressed, the food supply was inade-
quate, and returnees strug gled to find a place to live and a way to earn a
living. Like the Chinese Hakka in earlier centuries, who after defeat had
escaped to the south and settled in hilly, less- fertile land that was not al-
ready occupied by local farmers, many of the repatriated Japa nese seeking
to grow food to survive settled initially in hilly or mountainous areas of mar-
ginal productivity. Most settled on the southern island of Kyushu or in the
southern part of the main island of Honshu, where their families had lived
before setting off for Manchuria. Some returnees crowded into the homes
of relatives and friends. Many Japa nese relatives of the refugees, while strug-
gling amid the postwar shortages to find food and housing for themselves,
nonetheless tried to help the returnees. But others were less enthusiastic
about sharing what little they had with relatives, acquaintances, and former
coworkers, some of whom they had not seen and had rarely heard from for
years or even de cades.
Even after 1947 when, with wheat imported from the United States, food
shortages in Japan began to ease, psychological strains between returnees
and locals who had not traveled abroad did not dis appear. Japan is suffi-
ciently homogeneous that small differences sometimes loom large. To many
local people, the returnees did not fully share their homogeneous culture,
and they were regarded as outsiders. As Japan began expanding its global
contacts, some of the talented, more cosmopolitan returnees connected
easily with foreigners, but others suffered from being treated as outsiders.
. 290 .
The Col apse of the Japa nese Empire and the Cold War, 1945–1972
The experiences of Japa nese returnees, both while they had lived abroad and
as they tried to adjust to local society in Japan, became popu lar topics for
novels, short stories, tele vi sion dramas, and movies.
When the Communists came to power in China in 1949, an estimated
34,000 Japa nese still remained in China, mostly in the Northeast. Some
Japa nese settlers who had developed deep local roots in Chinese society
chose to remain in China and work with the Chinese. Others who had tech-
nical skills and knowledge judged impor tant for keeping former Japa nese
factories operating at least for some years were not given exit permits.3 The
Communist Chinese Air Force, for example, which later fought in Korea,
was established by Japa nese Army Air Corps officers who had surrendered
to the Chinese.
At the end of the war, about two million people originally from Taiwan
and Korea were still living and working in Japan. Some of them had gone
to Japan of their own free will, but many were men who had been forced
into manual labor on construction proj ects or in mines, replacing those who
had been drafted into the military. Chinese, Korean, and some Western la-
borers referred to this work as “slave labor” and later wrote of their experi-
ences toiling long hours under difficult conditions. But because of the un-
settled situation in their homelands, some Taiwanese and Korean workers
chose not to return home, and some Koreans who went back to Korea later
returned to Japan. Eventually, roughly half of the forced laborers returned
to Taiwan or Korea, where they faced the same prob lems as the Japa nese
who returned to the land of their ancestors.
In the heyday of Japa nese imperialism, foreign workers had been re-
garded as Japa nese, but after Japan’s defeat, when employment opportuni-
ties were limited and the definition of what it meant to be Japa nese changed,
they faced difficulties being accepted as Japa nese. Most of the foreign
workers who were in Japan were not granted Japa nese citizenship until de-
cades later, when the economy had been revived and Japa nese policy became
more generous.
After 1945, the Koreans and Taiwanese who had remained in their own
countries also faced prob lems of identity as they ceased being Japa nese
subjects. Because Taiwan had been a Japa nese colony for half a century, all
those under the age of sixty had received a Japa nese education, and all
Koreans under the age of forty- five had also received a Japa nese education.
. 291 .
china and japan
Many had become accustomed to Japa nese banking and commercial prac-
tices. Because Japa nese rule had penetrated so deeply, culturally the young
Koreans and Taiwanese had
become Japa nese. Many had improved their
standard of living, and some had worked closely with Japa nese settlers and
had Japa nese friends. In Taiwan, the Japa nese military had not been a promi-
nent presence for more than four de cades, and in Korea the Japa nese mili-
tary did not play as large a role as it did in Manchuria. Many Koreans and
Taiwanese maintained contacts with their Japa nese friends after 1945.
Before Japan took over Taiwan in 1895, Taiwan had been a Chinese pre-
fecture and, for a few years, a province, but not a separate nation, and there
was no nationalist rallying point against the Japa nese occupation in Taiwan
as there was in Korea. When Chinese mainlanders fled to Taiwan to es-
cape the Civil War and the rise of communism, they renamed the streets and
localities that had Japa nese names, giving them new Chinese names instead.
After February 1946, Japanese- language movies were no longer allowed; only
Chinese- language movies could be shown, even though many local people
could not understand them. After the Chinese Nationalist troops arrived
in Taiwan, the Taiwanese, who had absorbed Japa nese culture, were
ruled by Chinese troops and government officials who introduced Chi-
nese culture in the schools. In Taiwan— and in Korea— life was especially
difficult for those who had worked with the Japa nese during the war, for
they were regarded as unpatriotic collaborators, and in some cases they
were publicly criticized or even killed.
Some of the Japa nese people who stayed in China after 1949 later ex-
pressed a wish to return home. After 1946 when the Civil War broke out in
China, repatriating Japa nese citizens was not a high priority for the Chi-
nese. But after 1952, when contacts between the Chinese and Japa nese gov-
ernments began to increase, a key issue for the Japa nese government was
the return of its citizens still living in China. Liao Chengzhi, the leading
Japan specialist among high- level Chinese officials, led talks with Japan on
this issue in February and March 1953 (see Biographies of Key Figures). In
the six months following the talks, approximately 20,000 Japa nese were re-
patriated. In July 1955, when relations between the two countries improved,
Japan asked China for information about 40,000 Japa nese individuals be-
lieved to be missing in China. Information was provided about some of
China and Japan Page 45
