Sunday, September 23, 2012

Japanese government's mishandling of Senkakus

Somebody said the following regarding the Senkaku Islands: 

"Follow what has been reported during 田中角榮's (Takana Kakuei's) visit to Zhou En Loi (周恩来), both leaders agreed that there is dispute, but both leaders agreed to put aside the difference for future leaders to resolve, which is the basis for normalization of relationship between the two countries." (so why Japan now tries to spoil the relationship with China?) 

Well, I thought about this comment for a moment, and in fact, it leads to a critical point, that is: Many Japanese politicians and officials have weak spots with China and have not spoken up clearly the facts and Japan’s positions as they are supposed to.  

In fact, Takana Kakuei (田中角栄) did not say there was a dispute, though he ended up agreeing tacitly to Zhou En Loi (周恩来)’s suggestion not to discuss the issue of Senkaku Islands at the time of signing the Joint Communique on normalization in 1972. 

The 4-day negotiation meeting was held in September 1972 between Tanaka Kakuei and Zhou En Loi just before they signed the Joint Communique.  During this meeting, Takana asked Zhou En Loi “What do you think of Senkaku Islands?”, and Zhou En Loi replied “With regards to Senkaku Islands, I don’t want to discuss at this time. It’s not good to discuss this now. Oil is discovered, which has become a problem. Without oil, both Taiwan and the U.S. would not make it an issue” (translated from the meeting minutes stored at the University of Tokyo). The serious mistake that Tanaka made was that he did not say that the islands have been under Japanese administration since 1895 and that “the issue” does not exist. 

The same goes for the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and China, which was signed in August 1978 with the issue of Senkakus suspended. When Deng Xiaoping visited Japan in October in the same year, and said that the issue should be dealt with by the future generation, the Government of Japan didn’t respond properly, letting the “territorial dispute” be a fixed matter. 

Not saying the right thing at the right time, or not saying anything at all, gives the room for others to take advantage of, and gives a wrong impression. The fault is partly with the Government of Japan in this regard. Chinese leaders were clever in making the non-issue an issue. Asahi Shimbun, the leftist, pro-China newspaper in Japan, has been gladly helping China to make this an issue. 

However, this does not change the historical fact and the fact in light of the international law that the Senkaku Islands are the Japanese territory.

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In fact, both China and Taiwan verify Japanese sovereignty over the Senkaku Islands through their own documents, for example:
1. World Atlas (Beijing Map Publishing Co., 1960)
2. World Atlas, Vol. 1
East Asian Nations (joint publication by the Taiwan’s National Defense Studies Institute and the Chinese Institute for Geoscience, 1965)
3. The letter of gratitude from the Chinese consul in Nagasaki (1920)
4. A classified 1969 map produced by People’s Republic of China official map authority (posted in the Washington Times, September 19, 2010)
5. People’s Daily (January 8, 1953)


These documents are explained with the actual graphics in this link:
http://www.sdh-fact.com/CL02_1/77_S4.pdf

The document “The Senkaku Islands Constitute an Intrinsic Part of Japan” explains the issue in much detail based on the historical evidence:
http://www.sdh-fact.com/CL02_1/79_S4.pdf

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