HOW JAPAN'S POST-WAR RELATIONSHIP WITH BURMA WAS SHAPED BY AID

Abstract

A relatively small group of Japanese war veterans has played a major part in creating a favourable image of Burma in Japan. In the early 1950s both Japan and Burma needed a swift agreement on reparations, the Japanese because the export markets and natural resources of South East Asia offered a real opportunity to rebuild the Japanese economy, Burma because economic policy was already faltering and financial aid was needed. The Reparations Agreement between Japan and Burma became the model for ODA agreements with other South East Asian nations and the Japanese committed large sums to Burma, yet the Japanese mercantilist approach was never compatible with the Burmese road to Socialism. Since the imprisonment of Aung San Suu Kyi, some in Japan have promoted a policy of solidarity towards Burma, while others, including the new Prime Minister, Hatoyama have advocated an approach based on concern for human rights.

Notes

Such a phrase has often been used in Japanese to refer to the Japan-Burma/Myanmar bilateral relationship. See, for example, Tashima Takashi, Myanmar ga mietekuru, Saiken e no Sugata to Pagoda Bunka (Bringing Myanmar into View, Reconstruction of the Form and Pagoda Culture). Tokyo: Yuuhou Shouin, 2002, pp. 10–17.

Aung San Suu Kyi, Freedom from Fear. London: Penguin, 1995, p. 142.

See U. Maung Maung, From Sangha to Laity: Nationalist Movements of Burma, 1920–1940. Columbia: South Asia Books, 1980, chapters 2 and 3; and John F. Cady, A History of Modern Burma. New York: Cornell University Press, 1960, pp. 231–234.

The minami kikan was an organisation set up by Japanese military intelligence to close the Burma Road by supporting the independence movement in Burma. It would train the “thirty comrades” (who would then form the Burma Independence Army) and who are often regarded as the “fathers” of modern Burma.

Burma National Army leader, General Aung San, after returning from Tokyo and a meeting with Prime Minister Tojo, said about Burma's upcoming independence that, “We have no illusions about it”, Josef Silverstein, The Political Legacy of Aung San. New York: Ithaca, 1993, p. 88.

The goals of which were formalised at the Liaison Conference of Government and the Imperial GHQ on 27 July 1940 as the “Outline of Handling the Situation following the Change in the World Situation”. See Herbert P. Bix, Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan. New York: Harper Collins, 2000, p. 375.

Tatsuro Izumiya, The Minami Organ. Rangoon: Rangoon University Press, 2nd ed., 1985, pp. 9–10.

Hisao Tanabe, “OKUDAIRA”, in Ryuji & Saito Teruko (Eds.), Burma and Japan: Basic Studies on Their Cultural and Social Structure. Tokyo: Burma Research Group, 1987, p. 308.

Yanaga Chitoshi, Big Business in Japanese Politics. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1968, p. 214.

Lawrence Olson, Japan in Postwar Asia. London: Pall Mall Press, 1970, p. 17.

Sudo Sueo, The Fukuda Doctrine and ASEAN: New Dimensions in Japanese Foreign Policy. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1992, p. 41.

The zaikai applied pressure that resulted in the resignation of PM Yoshida. See Yanaga, pp. 130–133.

F. Quei Quo, “The Impact of Domestic Politics on Japan's Foreign Policy”, in Gail Lee Bernstein & Fukui Haruhiro (Eds.), Japan and the World. Essays on Japanese History and Politics in Honour of Ishida Takeshi. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1988, p. 181.

MOFA, Some Problems of Japan's Foreign Relations, excerpts from the 1957 Foreign Policy Bluebook. Tokyo: Japan Institute of Pacific Relations, 1958, p. 22.

MOFA, Gaikoseisho [Diplomatic Bluebook]. 1964, p. 87 (an annual Foreign Policy report published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan).

Louis J. Walinsky, Economic Development in Burma, 1951–1960. New York: Twentieth Century Fund, 1962, p. 161.

Article III, 1, Reparations Agreement. United Nations Treaties Series No. 3543, 1956, p. 218.

Lawrence Olson, Japan in Postwar Asia. London: Pall Mall Press, 1970, p. 22.

Article III, Reparations Agreement.

Yoshikawa asserts that the signing of the agreement between Japan and Burma on 5 October had an influence on the agreement reached between Prime Minister Yoshida and Philippine Foreign Minister Laurel in November 1954. See Yoshikawa Yoko, Nippi Baisho Gaiko Kosho no Kenkyu 1949–1956 [Japanese-Philippine Negotiations over the Payment for War Reparations, 1949–1956]. Tokyo: Keiso Shobo, 1991, p.251.

Up to 2007, cumulative grant, technical assistance and loan aid to Myanmar totaled ¥619 billion (over US$6 billion). Kuni Betsu Databook (Myanmar) [Country-by-country Databook (Myanmar)]. Retrieved 20 May 2009 from: http://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/gaiko/oda/data/gaiyou/odaproject/asia/myanmar/index_02.html

OECD, Geographical Distribution of Financial Flows to Developing Countries. OECD Publishing, 1970–1988.

David I. Steinberg, Burma: The State of Myanmar. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press, 2001, p. 22.

Mya Myaung, The Burma Road to Poverty. New York: Praeger, 1991, pp. 120–122.

For estimates of the size of the black market, see Martin Smith, Burma: Insurgency and the Politics of Ethnicity. London: Zed Books, 1999, pp. 24–26.

Myaung, 1991, p. 201.

See http://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/gaiko/oda/shiryo/jisseki/kuni/j_99/g1-11.htm, and http://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/gaiko/oda/shiryo/jisseki/kuni/04_databook/01_e_asia/e_asia_09/e_asia_09.html, retrieved 28 March 2006.

MOFA Press Release, “Meeting between the Foreign Ministers of Japan and the Union of Myanmar”. Retrieved 6 September 2009 from http://www.mofa.go.jp/announce/announce/2009/5/1192306_1134.html

In October 2007, for example, Hatoyama Yukio said of the Japanese government response to developments in Burma, “watashi ha, nihon seifu no hanno ga totemo nibui to kanjiteimasu” [“I feel that the Japanese government response is very slow”]. http://www.hatoyama.gr.jp/minutes/071003.html, retrieved 6 September 2009.

Article V, 1(a) I, Treaty of Peace between the Union of Burma and Japan, signed in Rangoon on 5 November 1954, United Nations Treaty Series, No. 3542, 1956, p. 204. Also, Article I, 1, The Agreement between the Union of Burma and Japan for Reparations and Economic Cooperation, signed in Rangoon on 5 November 1954, United Nations Treaty Series, No. 3543, 1956, p. 216.

Article V, 1(a) II, Treaty of Peace. United Nations Treaties Series No. 3542, 1956, p. 204. Also, Article I, 2, Reparations Agreement. United Nations Treaties Series No. 3543, 1956, p. 216.

Additional information

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Patrick Strefford

Patrick Strefford is a lecturer in International Relations at Kyoto Sangyo University. In 2005, he received his doctorate in Political Science from Kobe University. He is a member of the Society.