The Change Of Modern Japan’s Territory And Its Influence On The Structure Of East Asia

This study of the change of modern Japan’s territory and its influence upon the structure of East Asia grows out of a consideration like this:the existing related researches need to be expanded, promoted, and when appropriate, partly displaced by new explorations. To make clear why and how this is undertaken, the study is attempted as follows:Chapter one gives an introductory investigation of several problems around the subject "modern Japan’s territory". More psecifically, section one in this chanpter makes a survey of the existing researches on the theme and the related ones, making explicit where and how the existing researches can be expaned or promoted or partly displaced by new explorations; section two points out that the concept of "Japan" has undergone an important historical change in itself which has been inextricablly linked with the change of Japan’s territory since the start of the modern era, and, therfore, demands us to offer a historical (i.e. not static) observation; section three presents an overview of the Japanese understanding of the outer world and the change of the Japanese idea of "territory", pointing out that it was just the change of the idea aginst the broader changing surroundings that finally gave an impetus to the change of Japan’s territory.Chapter two is intended for a more detailed inquiry into two problems relating to each other. Sections one, two and three in this chapter are provided for the inquiry of "the Ryukyu Problem", and section four, "the Ogasawara (i.e. Bonin Islands) Problem". Concerning "the Ryukyu Problem", the author argues that Ryukyu, because of its unique geographical and historical importance, stands as a special East-Asian existence, that it was and is never only an exsitence in the scale of a state or a region, but an integral part of the whole world of East Asia, having a very close relationship both with Taiwan and with the North Korea, and that from the Ming Dynasty through the Meiji Restoration in 1868 and even the revival of Japan after World War II, Japan’s policy towards Ryukyu had always been the wind vane of its policy for its outward expansion. "The Ogasawara Problem" has long been neglected by Chinese scholars, perhaps due to its less important relations with China. But in effect, the Ogasawara/Bonin Islands, both in terms of their becoming a part of Japan via Japan’s negotiations with the western powers during the Meiji period, and in terms of their going back from the occupation of U.S. to Japan through the negotiations after World War II, resembled Okinawa to so great an extent. In relation to these two problems, what the author endeavors to present is that when we are aware of the inner link between the Japanese nationalism and Japan’s policies for its outward expansion we can find that, against a broad historical background of such a sort, many things have so much in common.Chanpter three brings the present hotly debated question, the Japan-Russian territorial disputes, into the historical context of Japan’s outward expasion since the time when it began to exist as a modern country. The "Northern Territories Problem" between Japan and Russia was the focus of the international relations in Northeast Asia, and had undergone a long period before its final formation. Before the 17th century, Russia was only a territorially European country, but it was just since this period that Russia had grown into an empire spanning Eurasia with its expansion towards the Far East. Nearly in the meantime, Japan, however, began to practise its seclusion policy, expecting that it could be immune to the invasion from the outer world with its door closed. One important result of this practice was that Japan could hardly observe the tendency that Russia entered the Far East and was able to exert an influence on the structure of East Asia. Just due to the contrast of idea of diplomacy between the two countries, the foundation of the Japan-Russian relations before the 18th centry had been laid. Based upon an in-depth inquiry we can find the traces of the two countries’foreign policies behind their terrritorial disputes. By contrast to its earlier foreign policy, the foreign policy Japan held after the Meiji Reformation was of indicative significance:it was indicative of the beginning of Japan’s policy for its continental expansion, as can be seen from the various choices Japan had made about the "Northern Territories Problem". The Japan-Russian territorial disputes-or the "Territories Problem"-since the end of World War II, is seemingly only a problem between the two countries, but in truth, during the Cold War era, it had already been a problem of international significace with U.S. involved. It was just because of the fact that both Russia and U.S. aimed to go close to Japan by way of their respective handling of the territorial disputes that the real solution to this problem excluded such a way. Consequently, compared with their zeal for raising the problem, their enthusiasm for giving a complete solution to it was much less noticeable. Both as a member of the American Camp in the Cold War and as a neighbour to Soviet Russia, Japan was never able to be the master of its own destiny so far as the "Northern Territories Problem" was concerned but only able to go between the two superpowers. This is the basic reason why the complete solution to the territorial disputes had never been reached.Chapter four firstly investigates Japan’s rule over Okinawa, the first territory Japan obtained by annexation at the beginning of its being a modern country. From the Meiji Reformation, the time when it became a modern nationalist country, onwards, Japan’s foreign policy had been characterized by expansionism, the cornerstone of the policy. Its policy of such a sort, as can been seen, made Chinese people victims. In the exsting related researches, what has been especially focused on is the way and the process in which Japan had obtained by force or trickery its territories, but in fact the way to occupy and the process of occupation, that is, the process that Japan had ontained its territories, was only the first step towards its expansion; it was the rule on the newly obtained territory or territories in its expansion to make it or them an integral part of itself that made what it had undertaken a kind of expansion in a complete sense. Taking this into consideration, in what follows special attention is paid to Japan’s policy towards its new territory or territories after a survey of the way and process of its expansion in the previous chapters and sections. As we shall see, Japan’s annexation of the Ryukyu Islands as the first step towards its modern expansion had exerted a far-reaching incluence: it was just owing to its annexation of the Ryukyu Islands with great favorableness that Japan speeded up its expansion in an aggravated form; after Okinawa-ken was set up based upon the annexation of the Ryukyu Islands as an experimental field for its colonial policy, Japan brought forth and practised its colonial policies for its rule over Taiwan and the North Korea, both of which bore a resemblence to some degree with what Japan did in the case of Okinawa. Considering this, the author, besides an investigation of Japan’s policy towards and rule over Okinawa, turns his attention to Japan’s colonial policy towards Taiwan, making a comparison between its policies to Taiwan and to Okinawa and revealing the continuity through its colonial policies.On the basis of a study as above, the author thinks that the various forms of territorial expansion Japan had conducted since the start of its existence as a modern country were never isolated individual cases, but had had the nationalism within the country as what they shared at a deeper level, that the nationalism affected Japanese understanding of the outer world and the changed Japanese understanding of the outer world gave an impetus to Japan’s search for outward expansion in order to change its international environment and to give a response to the chanllenges from the outside, and that the change of Japan’s territory thereby has been exercising a far-reaching influence upon the whole structure of East Asia, which deserves our Chinese special attention.