Japan's island issues with its neighbors

Regarding Japan's claim, I did see a statement from their consulate in the U.S. stating that prior to the Sino-Japanese war, Japan had claimed the islands based upon the fact that they were uninhabited, i.e., Terra nullis (?). 

In re:  "^They could not have totally beaten/conquered the Chinese, that is why they marched on to fight in other areas of Asia.  The Chinese were just too numerous and stubborn in their resistance.  Had they had the same training and weaponry as the Japanese, they would have been beaten back"

First of all, whatever damage the Japanese caused in China pales when compared to the damage that the Mao years did. Of course, unlike the Japanese War Machine, no one in the Chinese government of the time purposely set out to cause famines. Rather they ignored the growing signs and continued to report industrial figures their bosses wanted to hear, proving only that incompetence can be more deadly that intent. The Cultural Revolution, however, did have some intentions behind it, and is a murkier swamp whose disasters can only be laid at the feet of the Party in power. Fat chance of that, so Japan is the easier target. 

Nick
[/QUOTE]Ah yes, the same motive for Bush's illegal war with Iraq. As always, one side has oil or mineral reserves and the other side wants to take it[/QUOTE]

The dispute isn't nearly as insignificantly about merely nationalistic pride as the op says.  If Japan claims sovereignty to these islands (which they have completely no legal basis, as US only gave them managing authority, and even that was done illegally against Potsdam Proclamation), then their territorial water extends significantly south, essentially cutting off any way China, Korea, Russia or some other countries entering the West Pacific.

Hopefully it won't lead to war. Even the most aggressive militarist could see it would lead to mutual destruction as the US would almost certainly get involved to help Japan

heyamigos, Taiwan's claim (as the ROC), is based upon the same claim the mainland's is, i.e., the Qing dynasty decision to make Taiwan a province of China on the date I noted. If you have a contrary published source, it would be greatly appreciated.

More: http://www.rfa.org/english/east-asia-beat/sea-09222012101905.html

Toltec, the Taiwanese aborigines were happily hunting heads as late as the 1920s. The Chinese never set out to wipe them out. They confined them to the mountains, which is pretty much most of Taiwan. The Chinese on the narrow coastal plains inter-married with them. There are even several small islands off the east coast of Taiwan where fairly pure-blooded Aborigines live. The Japanese even got along fairly well with them, save for one nasty blip in 1937 where one tribe attacked a Japanese school. What made them a small minority was the arrival of millions of Chinese refugees from the mainland after the Nationalist government fell to the Communists in 1949.

Edited by lirelou - 28-Sep-2012 at 00:23

China's claim to the Daioyu islands arises from their claim to Taiwan, which they annexed in 1683, after the surrender of Coxinga, but did not develop until much later. 

Taiwan's aboriginal inhabitants were Malay-Polynesian peoples related to those of the Philippines. Considering their unchallenged oceanic seafaring record, there is little doubt that they knew the Diaoyu islands. Though no aboriginal communities remain on Diaoyu, several other small islands between themselves and Taiwan do have such communities. The Japanese began their interest in those islands in the 1500s, which should not surprise considering their maritime record.

In any event, China treated Taiwan as a far frontier and even restricted immigration there to men only at times. Following several Japanese punitive expeditions against the Aboriginals, and the Sino-French War of 1884-85 the Qing dynasty made Taiwan a province and began a modest development program. But ten years later, in the wake of the first Sino-Japanese War, China was forced to abandon claims to Korea, and cede Taiwan and the Daioyu islands to Japan.

When the Japanese moved in to Taiwan, there was resistance by the short-lived Republic of Formosa, and even a few Aboriginal uprisings, but it was the Japanese who developed Taiwan, and who would have been the most common visitors to the Diaoyu islands

What makes this really interesting is that the man responsible for drawing the Qing dynasty to annex Taiwan in the first place, Coxinga (Zeng Cheng-gong), was a half Japanese and half Chinese Ming loyalist from the Chinese mainland. But, he had to expel the Dutch, who were the ones who had brought in the Chinese laborers who the sparked the interest of mainland settlers in the first place. Later "men only" policies would ensure that many of these settlers ended up with Aboriginal blood in their veins.

So, given the Daioyu islands historic ties to Taiwan's Aboriginals, its location between Taiwan and Okinawa, and the historic coupling of both Taiwan and the Diaoyu islands in the Treaty of Shimonoseko, Taiwan has the stronger claim, even as the Republic of China.


Edited by lirelou - 27-Sep-2012 at 00:01