History Textbooks: Joint East Asia Supplementary History Textbook
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A History That Opens the Future:
Modern and Contemporary History of Three East Asian Countries
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Mirai o hiraku rekishi: Higashi Ajia sankoku no kingendaishi
223 pages, Tokyo: Kôbunken, 2005 (in Japanese)
Note: This is an unofficial translation of the Preface and the Table of Contents. Please do not distribute without permission.
To Our Readers
Seen from space, the earth has a beautiful blue color.
It is the only planet in the solar system where life exists.
Humans changed nature and created civilization on this beautiful planet.
Although the memory of human beings is limited, because of the existence of the written word, they are able to receive knowledge from previous times and accumulate new knowledge on the basis of that. However, people do not always remember the experiences of prior generations with care. At times they even cover up memories of the past and erase them from the record. There is a tendency in everyone to forget the unpleasant past quickly, so that one can live happily in a carefree manner.
But please be careful. Is it unconditionally only a good thing to erase bad memories?
Somebody falls to the ground by tripping on a rock around the corner on the way to school. If one completely forgets this by just thinking “it’s really a bad luck day,” she may fall again by the same rock on her way back from the school.
It is possible to avoid the folly of repeating the same mistake.
Our study of history too has the purpose of opening up the future by learning lessons from the past.
A History That Opens the Future is concerned with the history of East Asia centering on the three countries Japan, China and Korea.
East Asia’s history in the 19th and 20th centuries is marked by deep wounds caused by war, aggression and the suppression of human rights that are difficult to wash away.
Of course, the past of East Asia is not entirely bleak.
East Asia has a long tradition of exchange and friendship, and there are many people who are striving for a bright future by overcoming the barriers of nation-states.
By inheriting the positive legacies and thoroughly reflecting upon the errors of the past, we should be able to bring about a more peaceful and brighter future on this beautiful earth.
What are the lessons we can learn from history in order to bring about a future East Asia where peace, democracy, and human rights are ensured?
Let’s consider this question together while reading this book.
Scholars, teachers and ordinary citizens from Japan, China, and Korea have taken part in drafting this book.
While there were numerous occasions during the three-year preparation when our views differed, we were able to reach a common historical understanding through dialogue and discussion, and succeeded in publishing this book simultaneously in three countries.
These three countries possess profound geographical and historical ties that cannot be severed. In this era of the ever-shrinking “Global Village,” we have prepared this book in the hope that it may deepen the understanding of the histories and inter-relations of these neighbors.
We hope that the young people of the three countries will, through mutual cooperation, resolve the outstanding issues left by the previous generations and bring about a new history in East Asia.
As this book embraces the modern and contemporary history of three countries, it may contain some difficult or incomprehensible parts. Nevertheless, please do not get discouraged. It is only through the desire for mutual understanding that the future of East Asia and of the world is becoming brighter.
May 2005
Japan-China-Korea Committee on Common History Teaching Materials
Table of Contents
Preface
From Chinese Authors
From Korean Authors
From Japanese Authors
Prelude: Three Countries before Opening
1. Relations Among the Three Countries
Columns: How did people in the past view the “world”?
Drifted people between the three countries
2. Domestic Conditions in Three Countries
a. Japan—samurai and the people
b. Korea—yangban and the people
c. China—literati and the peoplele
Columns: capitals of three countries—Beijing, Edo, Seoul
Confucian thought and three countries
Ch. 1. Opening of Ports and Modernization
Introduction
1. Pressure From Europe And America And Responses Of Three Countries
a. China—The Opium War and yangwu movement
b. Japan—opening the country and Meiji Restoration
c. Korea—entanglements around open ports
Columns: open ports in three countries—Shanghai, Yokohama, Inchon
Japan’s modern emperor system
2. Wars Engulfing Three Countries
a. Rivalries among three countries
b. Sino-Japanese War
c. Russo-Japanese War
Columns: Fukuzawa Yukichi, Kim Ok-Kyun, Li Hongzhang
3. Reform Movement In Three Countries
a. Japan—People’s Rights Movement
b. China—Reform under Qing and Boxer Uprising
c. Peasants’ War and Independence Club Movement
Columns: Nakae Chomin, Kang Youwei, and leaders of the Tonghak Peasants' War
4. People’s Lives And Culture In Three Countries
a. Changes in Korean society and the people
b. Changes in Chinese society and the people
c. Changes in Japanese society and the people
Columns: Chinese characters in modern and contemporary history
Summary
Ch. 2. Expansion of Japanese Imperialism and Resistance by China and Korea
Introduction
1. Relations Among Three Countries Before And After WWI
a. Japan’s annexation of Korea and Korean resistance
b. Japan’s colonial rule over Taiwan
c. The 1911 Revolution and the founding of the Republic of China
d. WWI and Japanese Imperialism
Column: Anti-Japanese resistance by Taiwanese people
An Chung-Kǔn and Ito Hirobumi
Did Japan “forcibly occupy” or “merge with” Korea?
2. Strengthening of Japan’s Rule Over Korea
a. Rule by Military Police
b. Realities of “Cultural Rule”
c. Economic policies and exploitation
d. Education and cultural policies
Column: Control the railways!
The Oriental Development Company
3. Independence And Resistance Movement And Social Movements
a. March First Movement
b. May Fourth Movement
c. Social Movement in Three Countries
d. Great Kanto Earthquake and Massacre of Koreans and Chinese
Column: Shin Chae-Ho, Fuse Tatsuji, Li Dazhao, Chen Tiejun, Chǒng Chong-Myǒng, Kaneko Fumiko
4. Societies and Culture in Transition
a. Transformation of Korean culture and society
b. Transformation of Chinese culture and society
c. Transformation of Japanese culture and society
Columns: Na Hye-Sǒk, Hiratsuka Raichô, He Xiangning
(Westernization and changes in women’s lives)
Summary
Ch. 3. War of Aggression and Victimization of the People
Introduction
1. Japan’s Invasion of Northeastern China
a. Manchurian Incident
b. Appearance of “Manchukuo”
c. Society and economy in “Manchukuo”
d. Joint resistance by China, Korea, and their people
Columns: Zhang Hanhui and songs of resistance—“By the Songhua River”
“Righteous Act” in Shanghai and Yun Pong-Kil
2. Japan’s War of Aggression
a. Full-scale war between Japan and China
b. The Asian-Pacific War
c. The Illusion of the “Greater East Asian Co-prosperity Sphere”
d. The Total War system
Columns: War leadership of the Showa Emperor
War as seen in leaflets
3. Japanese Military’s Brutality Toward Chinese People
a. People and refugees in war zones
b. The Nanjing Massacre
c. Indiscriminate bombing, three-all campaigns and establishment of “no-man’s zone”
d. Bacteriological and poison gas warfare, human experiment
e. Sexual violence of the Japanese military
Columns: Feng Yiping—testimony of a forced laborer
Testimony of a former Japanese soldier
4. Korea Become A War Base And Suffering of Its People
a. Kominka policy
b. Armament industry during wartime
c. Material mobilization for war
d. Human resource mobilization for war
e. Korean women abducted as Japanese military “comfort women”
Columns: “Pro-Japanese elements” and “Chinese traitors”
Grandma Kang Tǒk-Kyǒng—revealing victimization of “comfort women” through painting
5. Japanese People as Perpetrators and Victims
a. Wartime total mobilization and people’s support for war
b. People’s lives and resistance
c. The Great Tokyo Air Raid and urban bombing
d. The Battle of Okinawa
e. Atomic Bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Columns: Special Attack Corps and Student Conscripts
Japan’s Total War and Women
6. The Failure of Japan’s War of Aggression
a. China’s War of Resistance
b. Korean resistance and preparation for independence
c. Resistance by people in Southeast Asia
d. Victory of the Anti-fascist war and Japanese surrender
Columns: The Provisional Government of Korea
Association of Anti-War Japanese Soldiers
Summary
Ch. 4. Postwar East Asia
Introduction
1. New Beginnings For Three Countries
a. Japan’s Defeat and Postwar Reform
b. Liberation and Division of the Korean Peninsula
c. Establishment of the People’s Republic of China
Columns: Two faces of Gen. MacArthur
Distant Motherland
2. Questions About Japan’s “War Settlement”
a. The Tokyo Trial
b. San Francisco Peace Treaty and Issues of Reparation and Compensation
c. Social Problems Left by Colonial Rule and War
Columns: Other War Crime Trials
International Comparison of Postwar Reparation
3. Division in East Asia and Diplomatic Normalization
a. Cold War in East Asia and Korean War
b. Establishment of Japan-Korea Diplomatic Relations
c. Japan-China Diplomatic Normalization
d. Establishment of China-Korea Diplomatic Relations
Columns: Struggle of Koreans in Japan For Their Rights
Association of (Japanese) Returnees From China
Summary
Epilogue: Issues For Peace in East Asia in the 21st Century
Introduction
- Remaining Individual Compensations
- Japan’s Military “Comfort Women” and Women’s Rights Movement
- Problems over History Textbooks
- Problems over the Yasukuni Shrine
Columns: Ienaga
Saburô and His Textbook Lawsuits
Women’s
International War Crimes Tribunal as a People’s Court
War in Museum Exhibitions
- Exchange Among Youth in Three Countries
- Anti-War Peace Movement and Citizen’s Movement
- For Reconciliation and Peace in East Asia
Modern and Contemporary History of Japan, China, Korea, and the World:
A Chronology
Postscript
Division of Labor
Contributors from Each Country
