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Abstract
After the First World War, to cope with the constraints of the Versailles-Washington system, Japan proposed a so-called coordinated foreign policy aimed at maintaining cooperative relations with Britain and especially the United States and expanding Japan’s interests and privileges in China on the basis of respecting China’s sovereignty. At that time, the Japanese people also participated in the publicity of the country’s external actions. This paper examines the activities of the East Asian Association of Tongwen in China, which is Japan’s oldest nongovernmental organization in China. Because the organization believes that the key to the success of coordination diplomacy lies in obtaining sympathy and support from China, it puts forward an argument based on ‘Japan and China coexist’, publicizes Japan’s policy toward China, and tries to form a favorable public opinion for Japan. Based on the analysis of the content of this propaganda activity in the political process, this paper points out that its propaganda only starts from the standpoint of the government and proposes the essence of the content that is only beneficial to Japan. The conclusion of the analysis is that the argument based on the very utilitarian position has greatly weakened the role of policy propaganda, but it is extremely helpful to understand the characteristics of Japanese diplomacy at that time.
Acknowledgment
Thank you to the two reviewers for their valuable feedback and guidance; The shortcomings of the paper all lie in the author.
Disclosure statement
The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Data availability statement
All information and data in this document are available.
Notes
1 House of Representatives of Japan, ‘Dai yonjyuroku kai tekoku gikai shugiin giji sokiroku dai 30 go kanpo gogai [Special Issue of Official News: The Activities of the House of Representatives at the 46th Imperial Conference]’, 24 Jan. 1923.
2 Toshikazu Inoue, Nihon gaiko dai ichi kan [Japanese Diplomacy: Volume 1] (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 2013), 139.
3 House of Representatives of Japan, ‘Dai gojyu kai tekoku gikai shugiin giji sokiroku dai san go kanpo gogai [Special Issue of Official News: The Activities of the House of Representatives at the 50th Imperial Conference]’, 23 Jan. 1925.
4 Inoue, Nihon gaiko, 140.
5 Yuichi Sasaki, Tekoku nihon no gaiko (1894-1922): naze hazi ha kakudaishita noka [Diplomacy of Imperial Japan (1894-1922): Why Japan’s Territory Has Expanded] (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 2017), 321.
6 Kijuro Shidehara, ‘Shina mondai gaikan [Overview of the China Issue]’, Diplomacy Times (Apr. 1928), 11.
7 Toyo Keizai Shinpo, Meiji Taisho National Census [Meiji Taisho Kokusei Soran] (Tokyo: Toyo Keizai Inc, 1975), 454–60.
8 Anonymous, ‘Kaiho [The Toa Dobun-kai Reports]’, East Asia Times, i (Dec. 1898), 1.
9 East Asia Times was created in December 1898 in Tokyo, and ceased publication in December the following year, after publishing 26 issues.
10 Anonymous, Shinkoku shinbun kankei zatsuken [Miscellaneous Articles about Qing Dynasty News]. Records of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. File No. 1.12.1.8 (Collection of the Foreign Affairs History Museum of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan); Masaharu Nakashita, Shinbun ni miru nichu kankeishi: chugoku no nihonjin keieshi [The History of Japan-China Relations Seen in Newspapers: Newspapers Run by Japanese Citizens in China] (Tokyo: Kenbun Publishing, 1996), 105-7; Anonymous, ‘Kaiho [The Toa Dobun-kai Reports]’, The Toa Dobun-kai Reports, May 1900, 10.
11 Anonymous, ‘Haikan ji [Abandoned Journal]’, East Asia Times (Dec. 1899), 1–2.
12 Anonymous, ‘Honkai kiji [Memorandum of the Association]’, The Toa Dobun-kai Reports (Dec. 1909), 70.
13 Anonymous, ‘Honkai kiji [Memorandum of the Association]’, The Toa Dobun-kai Reports (Jun. 1909), 85.
14 The Toa Language Institute, Toa dobun-kai shi [History of Toa Dobun-kai] (The Kazankai Foundation, 1988), 590.
15 The University History Compilation Committee, Toa dobun shoin daigaku shi: soritsu hachijhu shunen shi [The History of Toa Dobun Shoin: The 80th Anniversary Commemoration] (Tokyo: Koyu-kai, 1982), 101–29.
16 Anonymous, Toa dobun-kai hojyokin kingaku nendohyo [The Annual Subsidy Granted to Toa Dobun-kai]. Records of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, File No. H·4·2·0·1, Miscellaneous Articles in Relation to Toa Dobun-kai (Vols. i–vi) (Collection of the Foreign Affairs History Museum of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan).
17 East Asia Research Institute, Nihon no taishi toshi II [Japan’s Investment in China II] (Tokyo: Hara Shobo, 1974), 886–7.
18 Anonymous, Meire sho [Decree]. Miscellaneous Articles in Relation to Toa Dobun-kai (Vol. ii), File No. H·4·2·0·1-1 (Collection of the Foreign Affairs History Museum of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, 1912); Anonymous, ‘Kaiho [The Toa Dobun-kai Reports]’, East Asia Times, iii (May 1912).
19 see for example: Sakai Yukichi, ‘Konoe atsumaro to meji sanjhu nendai no taigai koha [Kōnoe Atsumarō and the External Hardline Policy of the Meiji Period in its Thirties]’, The Journal of the Association of Political and Social Sciences, lxxxiii (1970), 188–257; Aihara Shigehara, ‘Konoe atsumaro to shina hozen ron [Atsumaro and China Preservation]’ in Koji Okamoto (ed), Kindai nihon no ajia kan [Modern Japan’s Asia] (Kyoto: Minerva Shobo, 1999), 51-78; Z. B. Feng, Hyoden munakata kotaro: tairiku ronin no rekishi teki yakuwari [Comments on Kotaro Munakata: Historical Role of Continental Rōnin] (Kumamoto: Kumamoto Publishing Cultural Center, 1997); Atsushi Nakamura, Shiraiwa ryuhei nikki: ajia shugi jitsugyoka no shogai [Ryuhei Shiraiwa Dairy: The Career of the Asianist Industyalist] (Tokyo: Kenbun Publishing, 1999), 7-234.
20 see for example: C. Omori, ‘Toa dobun-kai to toa dobun shoin: sono seritsu jijyo sekaku oyobi katsudo [Tōa dōbun kai to tōa dōbun shoin: Its Establishment, Nature and Activities]’, Asian Economy, xix (1978), 76–92; D. R. Reynolds, ‘Chinese Area Studies in Prewar China: Japan’s Toa Dobun Shoin in Shanghai, 1900-1945’, The Journal of Asian Studies, xlv, (1986), 945-70.
21 see for example: Masatoshi Sakata, Kindai nihon niokeru taigaiko undo no kenkyu [Research on the External Hardliner Movement in Modern Japan] (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1978), 109–33; D. R. Reynolds, ‘A Golden Decade Forgotten: Japan-China Relations, 1898–1907’, The Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, iv (1987), 93–153.
22 see for example: Koji Hosono, ‘Toa dobun-kai no taigai ninshiki to bunka kosaku no kouzu: oubei rekyo to shinmatsu minkoku no hazama de [International Understanding and Cultural Work of Toa Dobun Kai – In the Midest of the European and American Powers and the late Qing Dynasty]’ in Hiroshi Abe (ed), Nichu kankei to bunka masatsu [Japan-China Relations and Cultural Friction] (Tokyo: Gannando Books, 1982), 101–58; Zhai Xin, Toa dobun-kai to chugoku: kindai nihon niokeru taigai rinen to sono jissen [Toa Dobun Kai and China: Ideology and Practice of Foreign Relations in Modern Japan] (Tokyo: Keio University Press, 2001), 3–303.
23 Anonymous, ‘Nihon no taishi haten [Japan’s development in China]’, China, x (Jan. 1919), 1.
24 Anonymous, ‘Nishi kyoson no unme [The Fate of the Coexistence of Japan and China]’, China, xi (Oct. 1920), 1–2.
25 Fusajiro Ichinomiya, ‘Shina monko kaiho to wagakuni [China’s Open-Door Policy and Our Country]’, China, x (Mar. 1919), 3.
26 Tadashi Negishi, ‘Nihon no taishi hoshin ha ikanni subekika [What Japan’s Policy Towards China Should Be]’, China, xvii (Nov. 1926), 11.
27 Anonymous, ‘Taishi keizai teki shinten [Advances in Japan’s Economic Development in China]’, China, ix (Jan. 1919), 6.
28 Tadashi Negishi, ‘Seiryoku hani to monko kaiho no shocho [The Rise and Fall of Spheres of Influence and Open-Door Development]’, Diplomacy Times (Jan. 1925), 34.
29 Anonymous, ‘Taishi keizai’, 6.
30 Tadashi Negishi, Shina tokubetsu kanzei kaigi no kenkyu [Study on China’s Special Tariff Conference] (Tokyo: Shiraikokan Bookstore, 1926), 216–7.
31 ibid, 208–12.
32 Ichinomiya, ‘Shina monko kaiho’.
33 ibid.
34 Negishi, Shina tokubetsu kanzei, 219–22, 252.
35 Katsumi Usui, Nihon to chugoku: taisho jidai [Japan and China: The Taisho Era] (Tokyo: Hara Shobo, 1972), 157–62.
36 Tang Qihua, Chinese Diplomacy and the Paris Peace Conference (Beijing: Social Science Literature Press, 2014), 142–5.
37 Margaret MacMillan, Peacemakers: The Paris Conference of 1919 and Its Attempt to End War, Translated by Deng Feng (Beijing: China CITIC Press, 2018), 452–3.
38 Yuichi Sasaki, Japanese Diplomacy and the Dynamics of Imperial Expansion, 1894–1922 (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press), 294–6.
39 Anonymous, ‘Heiwa kaigi to Shina [The Peace Conference and China]’, China, x (Feb. 1919), 2–4.
40 Fusajiro Ichinomiya, ‘Nishi kankei no kiki [Crises of Japan-China Relations]’, China, x (May. 1919), 1–3.
41 Takayoshi Matsuo, ‘Yoshino sakuzo no chugoku ron (kaisetsu) [Sakuzo Yoshino’s China View: A Commentary]’; Sakuzo Yoshino, Yoshino sakuzo senshu [Selected Writings of Sakuzo Yoshino], Vol. viii (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1996), 358.
42 Fusajiro Ichinomiya, ‘Pari kaigi to Shina [The Paris Conference and China]’, China, x (May 1919), 1–2.
43 Anonymous, ‘Shinso wo akiraka ni subeshi [Uncovering the Truth]’, China, x (Jul. 1919), 1–4.
44 Anonymous, ‘Sogo ni hanse subeshi [The Need for Both Countries to Reflect Upon Themselves]’, China, x (Dec. 1919), 2–4.
45 Anonymous, ‘Shina no fucyoin [China’s Refusal to Sign]’, China, x (Jul. 1919), 2–4.
46 Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Tokyo, Chronicle of Japanese Diplomacy and Major Documents, Volume II (Tokyo: Hara Shobo, 1966), 3–8.
47 Anonymous, ‘Santo mondai kaikeitsu [The Solution of the Shandong Problem]’, China, xiii (Dec. 1922), 1.
48 Anonymous, ‘Santo mondai zengo [The Aftermath of the Shandong Problem]’, China, xiii (Apr. 1922), 1.
49 Anonymous, ‘Nishi kyotei haichi ketsugi [Decision on the Abolition of the Japan-China Treaties]’, China, xiii (Nov. 1922), 1.
50 Tanzan Ishibashi, Ishibashi tanzan zenshu [Complete Works of Tanzan Ishibashi], Vol. iv (Toyo Keizai Inc, 1971), 69-70.
51 Toshio Ueda, Toyo gaiko shi [History of Japanese Diplomacy], Vol. i (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1969), 390.
52 E. H. Li, Beifa qianhou de “geming waijiao” (1925–1931) [Revolutionary Diplomacy’ Before and After the Northern Expedition (1925-1931)] (Taipei: Instititute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, 1994), 153–4.
53 Takanao Kitamura, Yume no nanajyunen: nishihara kamezo jiden [Over 70 Years of Dreams: A Biography of Kamezo Nishihara] (Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1965), 141–2.
54 Negishi, ‘Nihon no taishi hoshin’.
55 Usui, Nihon to chugoku, 222.
56 Tadashi Negishi, ‘Jyudai naru Shina kokusai mondai [Important International Issues of China]’, China, xvi (Aug. 1925), 32–4.
57 Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, Documents on Japanese Foreign Relations (1919) (Tokyo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, 1971), 244–50.
58 Tadashi Negishi, ‘Nankin seifu no hansei wo unagasu [The Urgent Need for Nanking National Government to Learn Its Lesson]’, Diplomacy Times, dlxxviii (Jan. 1929), 68–9.
59 Tadashi Negishi, ‘Shina no ishin [Social Reforms in China]’, China, xxi (Jan. 1930), 1.
60 Takayoshi Matsuo, Yoshino sakuza chugoku cyosen ron (kaiseitsu) [Sakuzo Yoshino’s Commentary on China’s View of Korea] (Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1970), 4.
61 Fusajiro Ichinomiya, ‘Hainichi undo to haigai netsu [The Anti-Japanese and Xenophobic Movement]’, China, x (Jun. 1919), 2.
62 Sakuzo Yoshino, ‘Pekkin gakusei dan no kodo wo nonoshiranaro [Let’s Not Blame the Beijing Student Group for Their Deeds]’, Chuo Koron, xxxiv (Jun. 1919), 124.
63 Yukio Ito, Hara takashi: gaiko to seiji no riso (II) [Takashi Hara: The Ideal of Diplomacy and Politics] Vol. ii (Tokyo: Kodansha, 2014), 310.
64 Ichinomiya, ‘Pari kaigi, 4.
65 Ichinomiya, ‘Hainichi undo’.
66 ibid.
67 Ichinomiya, ‘Nishi kankei’, 4.
68 Ichinomiya, ‘Pari kaigi’, 4.
69 Anonymous, ‘Shinso wo akiraka ni subeshi [We Should Find Out the Truth]’, China, x (Jul. 1919), 2–3.
70 Anonymous, ‘Santo ni kansuru nihon no shucyo [Japan’s Position Towards the Shandong Dispute]’, China, x (Aug. 1919), 4.
71 Anonymous, ‘Shina kyokanron to kokken kaifuku undo [The Theory of the Joint Management of China and China’s Restoration of National Rights]’, China, xii (Nov. 1921), 29.
72 Umeaki Mizuno, ‘Mini yori mitaru Shina genseiryoku no cyokan [An Overview of China’s Current Situation Based on the Public Opinion]’, Diplomacy Times (Aug. 1925), 100.
73 Negishi, ‘Nihon no taishi hoshin’, 12.
74 Tadashi Negishi, ‘Pekkin yori [From Beijing]’, China, xvi (Oct. 1926), 119.
75 Negishi, ‘Nihon no taishi hoshin’.
76 Tadashi Negishi, ‘Nanboku heiwa toitsu [The Peaceful Unification of the South and the North]’, China, xix (Apr. 1928), 1.
77 Tadashi Negishi, ‘Taishi heiwa kankoku [A Message of Peace to China]’, China, xix (May 1928), 31.
78 Negishi, ‘Nankin seifu no hansei’.
79 Ryuhei Shiraiwa, ‘Shina ha doko ni yuku [Where China is Heading]’, Diplomacy Times, dlx (Apr. 1928), 110.
80 Tadashi Negishi, ‘Shina no zento wo ikan [What China’s Future Would Be Like]’, China, xix (Feb. 1928), 1.
81 Tadashi Negishi, ‘Jyudai naru Shina kokusai mondai [Major China Issues Concerning the International World]’, China, xvi (Aug. 1925), 24.
82 Tadashi Negishi, ‘Nishi jyoyaku kaisei ni tsuite [The Modification of the Japan-China Treaties]’, China, xx (Oct. 1929), 140.
83 Negishi, ‘Taishi heiwa’.
84 Tadashi Negishi, ‘Waga taishi gaiko [Our Country’s Diplomatic Strategies Towards China]’, China, xx (Jan. 1929), 1.
85 Negishi, ‘Jyudai naru Shina kokusai’, 30–9.
86 Negishi, ‘Taishi heiwa’, 26.
87 Shiraiwa, ‘Shina ha doko’, 111–12.
88 Fusajiro Ichinomiya, ‘Tanaka gaiko no sokessan [An Overview of Tanaka Giichi’s Foreign Policy]’, Diplomacy Times, dlxxiv (Nov. 1928), 53–9.
89 Horiuchi Tateki, ‘Iwayuru“nisshi kyoson kyoei” [The So-Called Japan-China Coexistence and Coprosperity]’, China, xvi (Jul. 1925), 32.
90 Negishi, ‘Nisshi jyoyaku kaisei ni tsuite’, 140–41.
91 Negishi, ‘Nankin seifu no hansei’, 67.
Additional information
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Xin Zhai
Xin Zhai is a professor at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. In 1998, He obtained a PhD in Political Science from Keio University. Since then, He has been teaching in Chinese universities, conducting research on East Asian international relations and the history of Japanese politics and diplomacy, and have published 5 monographs.