CHINA AND JAPAN

• In the context of a) the political chaos that follows the fall of the centralized dynastic power of the Qing in the Republican Revolution in 1911 and b) the growing nationalism that crystallizes as the May 4th Movement after the 1919 Versailles Peace settlement (see topic 8) — two political parties work and compete to reunify China and to modernize it to face the challenge of imperialist encroachment by the West and Japan. These are the Nationalist Party (Guomindang or Kuomintang) and the Chinese Communist Party.

• Inadequate political control over the Japanese military, economic strains, and the worldwide Depression of the 1930s set the stage for the rise of the military in Japan and the pursuit of Japanese imperialist interests in Asia. Japan feels excluded by the West in the division of spoils in China. Japan pursues its own dominance of China by occupying Manchuria in 1931 and invading China in 1937 and remaining there until its defeat at the conclusion of WW II in 1945.

• In China, the army of the Nationalist Party, led by Chiang Kai-shek (political heir of Sun Yat-sen), marches north in 1926 on the "Northern Expedition" from its base in southern China to establish a new government at Nanking in 1927 and to reunify part of China. This is sometimes called the Nationalist Revolution. The Nationalist government remained in power in Nanking until 1937 (1927-37 is known as the "Nanking Decade") when it is forced by the Japanese invasion to move inland and ultimately establish its wartime capital in Chungking (Chongqing) in 1938, where it remains until 1945. Japan captures the capital city of Nanking in 1937 in a brutal battle and subsequent reign of terror known as the "Rape of Nanking."

• Members of the Chinese Communist Party, pursued by the Nationalists in the 1930s, march from southern China to a remote region, Yenan, in northern China where they refine strategies for rural mobilization and revolution. This "Long March" takes place from 1934-1935. (See map on p. 349 Murphey; 536, Schirokauer)

• When the Japanese attack the American fleet in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, the United States enters World War II and goes to war with Japan; the war ends when the U.S. drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki (August 9) in Japan in 1945 and Japan surrenders unconditionally to the Allied forces. Japan's first attempt to enter the modern international system ends in failure.

• During the course of the war Japan conquers other Asian nations, pursuing its own imperialist objectives and challenging Western powers for economic and military dominance in Asia. Hostility and unsettled issues resulting from the Japanese occupation remain in Japan's relations with Korea, China, and the countries of SE Asia.

• When WW II ends in 1945 with Japan's defeat in China, the Nationalists and the Communist forces fight a civil war for control of China. The Communists are victorious in 1949 and the Nationalists leave the mainland of China and establish a rival government on the island of Taiwan. (The rival governments continue to exist today as the People's Republic of China on the mainland and the Republic of China on Taiwan.)

• The Allied Occupation of Japan (1945-1952), headed by General Douglas MacArthur and the American forces, constitutes the third major historical instance in which Japan deliberately borrows and adapts from other countries. (The first is in the 6th century to the 8th century when Japan looks to China for models during Japan's classical period; the second instance is in the late 1800s when Japan looks to the West as it seeks to modernize under the Meiji Restoration.)

KOREA 1910-1945: COLONIALISM, LIBERATION, AND CIVIL WAR

Japanese Colonial Rule (1910-1945)

• Japanese colonial rule (1910-1945) was a deeply ambivalent experience for Koreans. On the one hand, Japanese colonialism was often quite harsh. For the first ten years Japan ruled directly through the military, and any Korean dissent was ruthlessly crushed. After a nationwide protest against Japanese colonialism that began on March 1, 1919, Japanese rule relaxed somewhat, allowing a limited degree of freedom of expression for Koreans.
  
  
• Despite the often oppressive and heavy-handed rule of the Japanese authorities, many recognizably modern aspects of Korean society emerged or grew considerably during the 35-year period of colonial rule. These included rapid urban growth, the expansion of commerce, and forms of mass culture such as radio and cinema, which became widespread for the first time. Industrial development also took place, partly encouraged by the Japanese colonial state, although primarily for the purposes of enriching Japan and fighting the wars in China and the Pacific rather than to benefit the Koreans themselves. Such uneven and distorted development left a mixed legacy for the peninsula after the colonial period ended.
  
  
• By the time of the Japanese surrender in August 1945, Korea was the second-most industrialized nation in Asia after Japan itself.
  
  
• But the wartime mobilization of 1937-45 had reintroduced harsh measures to Japanese colonial rule, as Koreans were forced to work in Japanese factories and were sent as soldiers to the front. Tens of thousands of young Korean women were drafted as “Comfort Women” - in effect, sexual slaves - for Japanese soldiers.
  
  
• In 1939, Koreans were even pressured by the colonial authorities to change their names to Japanese names, and more than 80 percent of the Koreans complied with the name-change ordinance.
  

Liberation, Division, and War

• The Japanese surrender to the Allies on August 15, 1945, which ended World War II, led to a time of great confusion and turmoil in Korea.
  
  
• The country was divided into zones of occupation by the victorious Americans and Soviets, and various individuals and organizations across the political spectrum from Communists to the far Right claimed to speak for an independent Korean government. The Soviets and Americans failed to reach an agreement on a unified Korean government, and in 1948 two separate governments were established, each claiming to be the legitimate government of all Korea: the Republic of Korea in Seoul, in the American zone, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in Pyongyang, in the Soviet zone.
  
  
• On June 25, 1950, North Korean forces invaded the South. The Korean War drew in the Americans in support of South Korea and the Chinese in support of the North.
  
  
• In July 1953, after three years of bloody fighting in which some three million Koreans, one million Chinese, and 54,000 Americans were killed, the Korean War ended in a truce with Korea still divided into two mutually antagonistic states, separated by a heavily fortified “De-Militarized Zone” (DMZ). Korea has remained divided ever since.