History of China–Japan relations
China and Japan are geographically separated only by a relatively narrow stretch of ocean. China has strongly influenced Japan with its writing system, architecture, culture, religion, philosophy, and law. When Western countries forced Japan to open trading in the mid-19th century, Japan moved towards modernization (Meiji Reformation), viewing China as an antiquated civilization, unable to defend itself against Western forces in part due to the Opium Wars and Anglo-French Expeditions from the 1840s to the 1860s. Japan's long chain of invasions and war crimes in China between 1894 and 1945 as well as modern Japan's attitude towards its past are major issues affecting current Sino-Japanese relations.
First evidences of Japan in Chinese historical records AD 1-300
The first mention of the Japanese Archipelago was in the Chinese historic text Book of Later Han, in the year 57, in which it was noted that the Emperor of the Han Dynasty gave a golden seal to Wa (Japan). The seal itself was discovered in northern Kyūshū in the eighteenth century. From then on Japan was repeatedly recorded in Chinese historical texts, at first sporadically, but eventually continuously as Japan matured into a notable power in the region.
There is a Chinese tradition that the first Chinese Emperor, Qin Shi Huang, sent several hundred people to Japan to search for medicines of immortality. During the third century, Chinese travelers reported that inhabitants of Japan claimed ancestry from Wu Taibo, a king of the Wu state (located in modern Jiangsu and Zhejiang) during the Warring States era. They recorded examples of Wu traditions including ritual teeth-pulling, tattooing and carrying babies on backs. Other records at the time show that Japan already had the same customs recognized today. These include clapping during prayers, eating from wooden trays and eating raw fish (also a traditional custom of Jiangsu and Zhejiang before pollution made this impractical). Kofun era traditions appear in the records as the ancient Japanese built earthen mound tombs.
The first Japanese personage mentioned by the Wei Dynasty is Himiko, the female shaman leader of a country with hundreds of states called Yamataikoku. Modern historical linguists believe Yamatai was actually pronounced Yamato.
Introduction of Chinese political system and culture in Japan AD 600-900
During the Sui Dynasty and Tang Dynasty, Japan sent many students on a limited number of Imperial embassies to China, to help establish its own footing as a sovereign nation in northeast Asia. After the fall of the Korean confederated kingdom of Baekje (with whom Japan was closely allied) to combined Tang and Silla forces, Japan was forced to seek out the Chinese state on its own, which in those times was a treacherous undertaking, thus limiting the successes of Japanese overseas contacts during this time.
Important elements brought back from China (and some which were transmitted through Baekje to Japan) included Buddhist teachings, Chinese customs and culture, bureaucracy, architecture and city planning. The Japanese kimono is very similar to the clothing of the Tang Dynasty, and many historians believe that the Japanese started wearing robes like what Tang royalty wore, eventually adapting the garb to match Japanese culture. The capital city of Kyoto was also planned according to Feng Shui elements from the Chinese capital of Chang'an. During the Heian period, Buddhism became one of the major religions, alongside Shinto.
The use of Chinese model of Imperial government ceased by the tenth century, overtaken by traditional Japanese clan and family rivalries (Soga-Mononobe, Taira-Minamoto).
First recorded China-Japanese battle
In AD 663 the Battle of Baekgang took place, the first China-Japanese conflict in recorded history. The battle was part of the ancient relationships between the Korean Three Kingdoms (Samguk or Samhan), the Japanese Yamato, and Chinese dynasties. The battle itself came near the conclusion of this period with the fall of Baekje, one of the Samguk or three Korean kingdoms, coming on the heels of this battle.
The background of the battle involves Silla (one of the Korean kingdoms) trying to dominate the Korean Peninsula by forging an alliance with the Tang Dynasty, who were trying to defeat Koguryo, an ongoing conflict that dated back to the Sui Dynasty. At the time, Koguryo was allied to Baekje, the third major Korean kingdom. Yamato Japan supported Baekje earnestly with 30,000 troops and sending Abe no Hirafu, a seasoned general who fought the Ainu in campaigns in eastern and northern Japan. As part of Silla's efforts to conquer Baekje, the battle of Baekgang was fought between Tang China, Baekje, Silla, and Yamato Japan.
The battle itself was a catastrophic defeat for the Yamato forces. Some 300 Yamato vessels were destroyed by a combined Silla-Tang fleet of half the number of ships, and thus the aid to Baekje from Yamato could not help on the land, having been defeated at sea. Baekje fell shortly thereafter, in the same year.
Once Baekje was defeated, both Silla and Tang focused on the more difficult opponent, Koguryo, and Koguryo fell in 668 AD. For the most part, Silla, having been rivals with Baekje, also was hostile to Yamato Japan, which was seen as a brother state to Baekje, and this policy continued (with one pause between roughly AD 670-730) after Silla united most of what is now Korea and repelled Tang China from what is now the Korean peninsula. Yamato Japan was left isolated for a time and found itself having to forge ties with mainland Asia on its own, having had the most safe and secure pathway obstructed by a hostile Silla.
The prosperities of maritime trading 600-1600
Marine trades between China and Japan are well recorded, and many Chinese artifacts could be excavated. Baekje and Silla sometimes played the role of middleman, while direct commercial links between China and Japan flourished.
After 663 (with the fall of allied Baekje) Japan had no choice (in the face of hostility from Silla, which was temporarily deferred in the face of Tang imperialism - as Tang imperialism posed a threat both to Japan and unified Silla - but resumed in after 730 or so) but to directly trade with the Chinese dynasties. At first the Japanese had little long-range seafaring expertise of their own but eventually (some suggest with the aid of Baekje expatriates who fled their country when it fell) the Japanese improved their naval prowess as well as the construction of their ships.
The ports of Ningbo and Hangzhou had the most direct trading links to Japan and had Japanese residents doing business. The Ming dynasty decreed that Ningbo was the only place where Japanese-Chinese relations could take place.[1] Ningbo, therefore, was the destination of many Japanese embassies during this period. After going into Ningbo they then went to other cities in China. A 1523 embassy was sent by Japan to Ningbo. In it was a Chinese, Sung Su-ch'ing, who had moved to Japan earlier.[2]
Besides Korea during the Korean Three Kingdoms period (i.e. roughly AD 300-670), the Ryukyu Islands, once subjugated by the Japanese crown, also served as a stopover for China-Japanese trading. Commodities included fine porcelain, sandalwood, tea and silk. As a result of the close proximity to China (especially Jiangsu and Zhejiang), Kyushu and Ryukyu Island (then independent from Japan) traditions have Chinese influences in addition to influences from Baekje. Kagoshima and Okinawa cuisine have a dish called "kakuni" which is the same as "Dongpo pork" from Hangzhou: stewed pork in sugar, rice vinegar, ginger and soy sauce. Fried fish or meatballs (such as Satsuma age) are also traditionally from Southern China (mainly Zhejiang and Fujian). Noodle dishes (such as Hakata Ramen) and clay-pot casseroles are also Chinese influences. Okinawan palaces and dress show Chinese color styles, which use red, green, blue and gold adorned with mythical animals as opposed to naturalistic and simplistic traditional Japanese designs.
Direct trade with China was limited by the Tokugawa Shogunate after 1633, when Japan decided to close all direct links with the foreign world. Some trading was conducted by the Shimazu clan of Satsuma province through the Ryukyu Islands. Significant trading between China and Japan did not resume until the twentieth century, well into the modern age.
Japanese piracy on China's coasts and Mongol invasions 1200-1600
Japanese pirates (or Wokou) were a constant problem, not only for China and Korea, but also for Japanese society, from the thirteenth century until Hideyoshi's failed invasions of Korea at the end of the sixteenth century. Japanese pirates were often from the undesirable parts of Japanese society, and the Japanese were just as happy to be (for the most part) rid of them as they were raiding more prosperous shores (at the time, Japan was ravaged by civil wars, and so while Korea, China, and the Mongol Empire were enjoying relative peace, prosperity, and wealth, the Japanese were upon hard times).
Ming Dynasty during Hideyoshi's Korean invasions of 1592-1598
Toyotomi Hideyoshi was one of the three unifiers of Japan (Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu were the others). After subduing the Mōri and Shimazu clans, Hideyoshi had the dream of eventually conquering China but needed to cross through Korea.
When Hideyoshi received refusals to his demands by Korea to cross the country to Ming Dynasty China, he invaded Korea. In the first year of invasion in 1592, the Japanese reached as far as Manchuria under Kato Kiyomasa and fought the Jianzhou Jurchens. King Seonjo requested aid from the Ming Dynasty, but since Japanese advances were so fast, only small Ming forces were initially committed. Konishi Yukinaga, who garrisoned in Pyongyang in winter 1592, first encountered and defeated a force of 5,000 Chinese soldiers. In 1593, greater Chinese participation under General Li Rusong with an army of 45,000 took Pyongyang with artillery and drove the Japanese to the south, but the Japanese counterattacked at Pyokjekwan.
As it turned out, the Japanese were unable to keep their supply lines clear and the Korean navy, under the command of Yi Sun-shin, was able to cut off supply lines between Japan and Korea frequently, eventually causing the Japanese forces in Korea to stall for lack of supplies. By 1593, it was clear to all that the Japanese forces would be unable to continue with their advance under the conditions, and the Japanese, for the most part, retreated into a few strongholds they still controlled on the Korean mainland.
After 1593, there was a truce of about four years. During that time, Ming granted Hideyoshi the title as "King of Japan" as withdrawal conditions, but Hideyoshi felt it insulted the Emperor of Japan and demanded concessions including the daughter of the Wanli emperor. Further relations soured and war reignited. The second invasion was far less successful for Hideyoshi. The Chinese and Koreans were much more prepared and quickly confined and besieged the Japanese in the south until they were finally driven to the sea and defeated by the Korean admiral Yi Sun Shin. The invasion was a failure but severely damaged the Korean cities, culture and countryside with huge civilian casualties (the Japanese massacred civilians in captured Korean cities). The invasions also drained Ming China's treasury and left it weak against the Manchus, who eventually destroyed the Ming Dynasty and created the Qing Dynasty in 1644.
Afterwards, Japan, under the Tokugawa Shogunate adopted a policy of isolationism until forced open by Commodore Perry in the 1850s.
Meiji Reformation and the rise of the Japanese Empire 1868-1931
After the arrival of Commodore Perry and the forced opening of Japan to western trading, Japan realized it needed to modernize to avoid the humiliation of China during the Opium Wars. Anti-Tokugawa tozama[3] from the Shimazu and Mori clans overthrew the bakufu during the Meiji Restoration and restored the Japanese Emperor as head of state. Afterwards, military and government positions were taken by Mori and Shimazu clan members who institutionalized rapid modernization, militarization and imperialism based on Western countries. The first countries to feel Japanese Imperialism were China and Korea.
Friction between China and Japan arose from Japan's control over the Ryukyu Islands from 1870, annexation of Taiwan after the First Sino-Japanese war of 1894. China was almost forced to cede more territory in Manchuria but was saved by Russian intervention. Despite this, China still paid a huge indemnity and relinquished Taiwan. During the First Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War, Japanese troops beheaded and executed many Chinese civilians in Liaoning and Manchuria after capturing cities, such as Port Arthur, but treated Russian prisoners with respect.[citation needed] Japanese troops participated in the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 at the Siege of the International Legations (Boxer Rebellion), Seymour Expedition, Battle of Tientsin, Gasalee Expedition, Battle of Beitang and Battle of Beicang. The Chinese were again forced to pay another huge indemnity to Japan, but Japan was pressured to accept much less by the U.S. Rivalries between the imperialist Western nations and Japan prevented China from being carved up into many colonies. During World War I, the Japanese attacked and occupied the German colony in Qingdao. The Japanese also issued the infamous Twenty-one Demands in 1915. After World War I, China felt betrayed by the Allied countries as China was an Allied nation but was forced to give territory in Shandong to Japan and accept the Twenty-one Demands. This culminated in the May Fourth Movement. However, Japanese imperialistic aims steadily increased over the 1920s, focusing on Manchuria.
Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II
In the beginning of the Showa era, the Japanese wanted to occupy Manchuria for its resources, but the powerful warlord, Zhang Zuolin stood in their way. His train was bombed by Japanese agents in 1928. In 1931, Japan fully occupied Manchuria and created a new state called Manchukoku (Manchukuo), after a series of incidents culminating in the Mukden Incident and came to full scale invasion of China in July 1937. Japan was soon able to gain control over all Chinese outlying territories.[4]
The period between the Mukden Incident in 1931 and the official beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 involved constant regional armed resistance to Japanese advances in Manchuria and North China, and Nanjing's efforts in stopping further encroachments through diplomatic negotiations. This era was turbulent for the Chinese Nationalists, as it was mired in a civil war with the Chinese Communists and maintained an uneasy truce with remnant warlords, who nominally aligned with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek (Jiang Jieshi), following the Northern Expedition. This period also saw the Chinese Nationalists' pursuit in modernizing its National Revolutionary Army, through the assistance of Soviet, and later German, advisors.
The Japanese invaded Beijing after accusing the Chinese Second United Front troops of shooting at Marco Polo Bridge. This marked the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War. Chinese nationalist aircraft then bombed Japanese positions in Shanghai and marked the beginning of the Battle of Shanghai. Afterwards, the Japanese advanced and faced little resistance as the best Chinese troops were sacrificed in Shanghai. Japanese troops massacred Chinese prisoners of war (considered shameful by Japanese Bushido) and civilians over the course of two months during the Rape of Nanking. Actual numbers of killed vary according to Chinese or Japanese sources. Chinese sources accept 300,000 or more killed.
The war became a struggle of attrition after 1940 as major Chinese forces were exhausted. After the USA involved itself in the World War II, the Chinese received more supplies, but Chiang Kai-shek hoarded the money and weapons to fight the Communists after the Americans defeated Japan. Due to this, Japanese troops were able to make advances in China as late as 1944 and 1945 during Operation Ichi-Go. After the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Soviet invasion of Japanese-occupied Manchuria, the Japanese finally surrendered.
The Republic of China (ROC) administrated Taiwan after Japan's unconditional surrender in 1945, following decision of the Allied Powers at the Cairo Conference in 1943. The ROC moved its central government to Taiwan in December 1949. Later, no formal transfer of the territorial sovereignty of Taiwan to the PRC was made in the post-war San Francisco Peace Treaty, and these arrangements were confirmed in the Treaty of Taipei concluded by the ROC and Japan in 1952. At the time, the Taiwanese authorities (the Chinese Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang (KMT)) were recognized by Japan, not communist China (the People's Republic of China, or PRC). As such, the KMT did not accept Japanese reparations only in the name of the ROC government. Later, the PRC also refused reparations in the 1970s. See more details in the section about World War II reparations and the statement by Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama (August, 1995).
See also
References
- ^ Jacques Gernet (1996). A history of Chinese civilization (2, illustrated, revised ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 420. ISBN 0521497817. Retrieved 14 December 2011.
Official relations with Japan could only be conducted through the port of Ning-po, at the north-eastern tip of Chekiang;
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help) - ^ Jacques Gernet (1996). A history of Chinese civilization (2, illustrated, revised ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 421. ISBN 0521497817. Retrieved 14 December 2011.
Thanks to the embassies, over a hundred known Japanese monks were thus able to come to China in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, visiting, on the way from Ning-po to Peking, Hangchow, Soochow, Nanking, the valley of the Huai and Tientsin, and make contact with Chinese literai. . . There was a case of a rich Chinese merchant by the name of Sung Su-ch'ing (1496-1523), a native of Chekiang, who, after trading with Japan and settling down there in 1510, formed part of the Japanese embassy which arrived in Ning-po in 1523.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help) - ^ major clans who sided against Tokugawa Ieyasu during the battle of Sekigahara in 1600
- ^ Barnouin, Barbara (1998). Chinese Foreign Policy during the Cultural Revolution. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 113–116. ISBN 0-7103-0580-X.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help)