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Abstract
After victory in the Anti-Japanese War, Chiang Kai-shek issued the famous radio speech “Letter to Soldiers and Civilians of the Whole Nation as well as the Peoples of the World after the Victory of the Anti-Japanese War.” The main idea of this speech was long interpreted as “returning virtue for malice” (or “good for evil”), a basic principle of the Kuomintang's policy towards Japan. Many scholars who have considered the returning virtue for malice policy in the postwar period include the following major issues: first, China repatriated Japanese prisoners of war and the Japanese diaspora with mercy; second, China allowed the Tenno, or imperial, system to be preserved in Japan; third, China did not participate in the occupation of Japan; and fourth, China gave up the right to ask for war reparations from Japan. This article examines the above four issues to reevaluate the returning virtue for malice policy. The first issue seems to reflect the Chinese national character of being lenient with others. However, it was in fact due to Chiang's anti-Communist strategy and the declared policy of the United States of eradicating Japan's influence in China. With regard to the second issue, Chiang's attitude was merely to let the Japanese people make their own choice, while the fate of the Japanese Tenno system was entirely determined by the US occupation authority, on which Chiang had little influence. The third issue was mainly the outcome of Chiang's focus on domestic political struggle in the postwar era in China. As for war reparations, China actually made efforts to obtain them in the beginning, but had to give up its right eventually. The decision-making process in the Kuomintang government was restrained by American policy and subordinated to Japanese pressure. Thus, it is not persuasive to summarize the basic principle of Kuomintang postwar policy towards Japan as returning virtue for malice.
Notes
1 The radio speeches by American and Soviet leaders were published on 2 September 1945 after Japan's signing of the surrender announcement on board the Missouri in Tokyo Bay. Both speeches were later than Chiang Kai-shek's “Letter to Soldiers and Civilians of the Whole Nation as well as the Peoples of the World after Victory of the Anti-Japanese War.” American President Harry S. Truman stated in his radio speech, “[But] it is a day which we Americans shall always remember as a day of retribution – as we remember that other day, the day of infamy [the Pearl Harbor Incident]”, Xinhua ribao [Xinhua Daily], September 3, 1945. The Soviet Russian leader, Joseph Stalin, announced in his radio talk on 3 September, “The Russian army's defeat in 1904 left a painful memory in the Russian people's heart. The taint from the past generation has waited for forty years to be cleansed. Now that day has finally come,” Xinhua Daily, September 4, 1945 (the quotation is translated from the Chinese; it is not from the Russian original). The Kuomintang also published a “Letter by the Kuomintang to our National Brethren” on 3 September. However, because Chiang Kai-shek had already given the radio talk concerning the victory in the War of Resistance, the Kuomintang's letter, after Japan's signing of the surrender, did not receive much attention.
2 Qin Xiaoyi, ed., Xian zongtong Jianggong sixiang yanlun zongji [The Complete Collection of the Speeches and Thoughts of President Chiang], vol. 32 (Taipei: Zhongguo guomindang zhongyang weiyuanhui dangshi weiyuanhui, 1984), 121–23.
3 Zhu Huisen, ed. Zhonghua minguo shishi jiyao (chugao): 1945 nian 8–9 yue [Summaries of the Historical Events of the Republic of China (1st ed.): August–September 1945] (Taipei: Academia Historica, 1988), 300. Japanese scholar Iechika Ryoko believes that “returning virtue for malice” can be regarded as a summary of Chiang Kai-shek's radio talk. See Iechika Ryoko, Nitchu kankei no kihon kozo [The Basic Structure of Sino–Japanese Relations] (Kyoto: Koyo Shobo, 2004), 131.
4 Taiwanese scholar Lin Chin-ching argues that Chiang Kai-shek's returning virtue for malice policy includes four issues: preserving the Japanese Tenno system, preventing the Russian army from occupying Japan, swiftly repatriating Japan's military and civilian personnel from the mainland, and giving up huge potential war reparations. See Lin Chin-ching's Zhanhou zhong ri guanxi zhi shizheng yanjiu [The Positivistic Research of Sino–Japanese Relations in the Postwar Era] (Taipei: Zhongri guanxi yanjiuhui, 1984), 46. In his postwar writings, He Yingqin underscored Chiang Kai-shek's attempt to preserve the Japanese Tenno system, China's nonparticipation in occupying Japan, and repatriation of Japanese military and civilian personnel. See He Yingqin's Zhongguo yu shijie qiantu [The Fate of China and the World] (Taipei: Zhengzhong shuju, 1974), 158–59. As for studies of Chiang Kai-shek's “returning virtue for malice,” one of the most comprehensive is Huang Tzu-chin's article, “Kangzhan jieshu qianhou Jiang Jieshi de dui ri taidu: yidebaoyuan zhenxiang de tantao” [Chiang Kai-shek's View of Japan around the Time of the Victory in the Anti-Japanese War: the Exploration of the Truth about “Returning Virtue for Malice”], Zhongyang yanjiuyuan jindaishi yanjiu suo jikan [Bulletin of the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica], no. 45 (2004), 143–95. This article, on the one hand, defines the content of returning virtue for malice and excludes the Kuomintang's decision to forfeit the right to claim Japan's war reparations in 1952 from this policy. On the other hand, it offers some new interpretations of the historical significance of this policy. Some Japanese scholars also touch on this issue in their research, such as Okubo Denzou, Yide baoyuan-yiye bukewang de lishi [Returning Virtue for Malice: an Unforgivable Episode of History], trans. Chen Bingxiang (Taipei: Zhengwen shuju, 1972). Iechika Ryoko also devoted a chapter to discussing this issue in her book, Nitchu kankei no kihon kozo.
5 Furuya Keiji ed., Jiang zongtong milu: Zhong ri guanxi bashinian zhi zhengyan [Secret records of President Chiang (Kai-shek): A Testimony of Eighty Years of Sino-Japanese Relations] (Taipei: Zhongyang ribao she, 1986), vol. 1, 8.
6 Mei Sangyu, Sanbaiwan rifu riqiao qianfan shilu [A True History of the Repatriation of Three Million Japanese Prisoners of War and Members of the Japanese Diaspora] (Beijing: Zhonggong dangshi chubanshe, 2004), 304.
7 Huang Renyu, “Riben, Nippon, Japan,” in Guanxi qianwanchong [Thousands of Layers of Relations] (Beijing: Sanlian shudian, 2001), 187.
8 Furuya Keiji ed., Jiang zongtong milu, vol. 1, 10–13.
9 U.S. Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1946, Volume X, The Far East: China (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1972), 898.
10 Liang Ching-ch'un, “Maxieer shihua baogao shujian zhu” [The Annotated Report of the Marshall Mission to China], in Zhongyang yanjiuyuan jindaishi yanjiusuo shiliao congkan [Collection of Historical Materials, the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica], no. 22 (1994), 183–84.
11 Ibid., 184.
12 Qin Xiaoyi, ed., Zhonghua minguo zhongyao shiliao chubian-dui ri kangzhan shiqi [Preliminary Collection of Important Historical Materials of the Anti-Japanese War Period,], vol. 7, Postwar China IV, (Taipei: Zhongguo Guomindang zhongyang weiyuanhui dangshi weiyuanhui, 1980), 638.
13 Mei Sangyu, Sanbaiwan rifu riqiao qianfan shilu, 258.
14 U.S. Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1946, Volume X, The Far East: China, 889.
15 Ibid., 905.
16 Ibid., 897.
17 Ibid., 890.
18 Liang Ching-ch'un, Maxieer shihua baogao shujian zhu, 195.
19 Ibid., 197.
20 Furuya Keiji ed., Jiang zongtong milu, vol. 1, 15.
21 Dagong bao [L'Impartial], 4 October 1945.
22 He Yingqin, Zhongguo yu shijie qiantu, 156–57.
23 Ibid., 159.
24 Huang Tzu-chin, “Kangzhan jieshu qianhou Jiang Jieshi de dui ri taidu,” 150.
25 U.S. Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States, the Cairo and Tehran Conferences, 1943 (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1961), 322–25.
26 Zhu Huisen, ed., Zhonghua minguo shishi jiyao, 137–38. The quotation is translated from the Chinese, and is not the original English.
27 Furuya Keiji ed., Jiang zongtong milu, vol. 1, 15.
28 Zhu Huisen, ed., Zhonghua minguo shishi jiyao, 172.
29 Qin Xiaoyi, ed., Xian zongtong Jianggong sixiang yanlun zongji, vol. 37, 307.
30 Zhu Huisen, ed., Zhonghua minguo shishi jiyao, 173.
31 Fang Lianqing et al., eds., Xiandai guoji guanxi shi ziliao xuanji [Selection of Sources for Modern International Relations History] (Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe, 1987), 452.
32 Qin Xiaoyi, ed., Zhonghua minguo zhongyao shiliao chubian-dui ri kangzhan shiqi, 638.
33 Xinhua Daily, August 23, 1945. As a matter of fact, during the war, the CCP had already proposed repealing the Japanese Tenno system. During the period from October to November 1945, Xinhua Daily reiterated the above attitude in a series of editorials and essays, such as “Eliminating the Japanese Tenno,” “Why Nakano Seigo Committed Suicide,” and “Eradicating Fascism.”
34 Yazhou shiji she [Asian Century Society], ed., Dui ri heyue wenti [The Issue of Establishing a Treaty with Japan] (Shanghai: Yadong xiehui, 1947), 6.
35 Ibid., 4.
36 Dagong bao, September 15, 1947.
37 Dagong bao, September 10, 1947.
38 U.S. Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States, the Cairo and Teheran Conferences, 1943, 323–24.
39 Ibid., 323.
40 Huang Tzu-chin, “Kangzhan jieshu qianhou Jiang Jieshi de dui ri taidu,” 155.
41 Shi Yuanhua, ed., Zhonghua minguo waijiao shi [The Diplomatic History of the Republic of China] (Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe, 1994), 633.
42 Furuya Keiji ed., Jiang zongtong milu, vol. 1, 202.
43 Huang Renyu, “Riben, Nippon, Japan,” 186.
44 Shi Yuanhua, Zhonghua minguo waijiao shi, 632.
45 Zhonghua minguo zhuri daibiao tuan [Delegation of the Republic of China in Japan], ed., Zai ri banli peichang guihuan gongzuo zongshu [A Survey of the Work Concerning Reparations and Restitution in Japan], in Jindai zhongguo shiliao congkan xubian [A Sequel to the Collection of Historical Sources of Modern China], ed. Shen Yun-lung, vol. 710 (Taipei: Wenhai chubanshe, 1980), 27.
46 F.C. Jones et al., 1942–1946 de yuandong [The Far East, 1942–1946], trans. Department of Foreign Languages, Fudan University, vol. 2 (Shanghai: Shanghai yiwen chubanshe, 1979), 751.
47 Zhonghua minguo zhuri daibiao tuan, ed., Zai ri banli peichang guihuan gongzuo zongshu, 66.
48 Qin Xiaoyi, ed., Zhonghua minguo zhongyao shiliao chubian-dui ri kangzhan shiqi, 804–9.
49 Ibid., 890.
50 Ibid., 899.
51 Ibid., 1069.
YUAN Chengyi, professor at the Center for the Study of Republican History of Hangzhou Normal university, specializes in the history of the Sino–Japanese War and has publications including The Issue of War Reparations between China and Japan (Xi'an: Shaanxi People's Publishing House, 1999), and “Several Quantitative Issues in the Study of the History of the Sino–Japanese War,” The Journal of Studies of China's Resistance War Against Japan, no. 1 (2000).