Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T21:21:29.694Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A True Sino-Japanese Amity? Collaborationism and the Yokohama Chinese (1937–1945)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 September 2013

Eric Han
Get access

Abstract

Taking the Yokohama Chinese community as an exemplary case, this article delves into linkages between Chinese diasporic identities and collaborationism during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–45). Using published memoirs, Japanese government and police records, and local newspapers, it examines the wartime experiences of a community struggling to maintain both its Chinese identity and its position in local society. Japanese authorities did not categorically assimilate, intern, or deport this population. Instead, they enforced displays of support for collaborationist regimes in occupied China in order to manufacture what they termed “Sino-Japanese amity.” Public expressions by the Yokohama Chinese contributed to this narrative, but these Chinese were not merely puppets. They actively negotiated the meanings and practices of collaborationism to fulfill local needs. By examining their engagement with Chinese and Japanese national imperatives, this article reflects on the nature of Sino-Japanese friendship, hidden resistance, and local integration.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 72 , Issue 3 , August 2013 , pp. 587 - 609
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

List of References

Barrett, David P. 2001. “The Wang Jingwei Regime, 1940–1945: Continuities and Disjunctures with Nationalist China.” In Chinese Collaboration with Japan, 1932–1945: The Limits of Accommodation, eds. Barrett, David P. and Shyu, Larry N., 102–15. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Boyle, John Hunter. 1972. China and Japan at War, 1937–1945: The Politics of Collaboration. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Brook, Timothy. 2005. Collaboration: Japanese Agents and Local Elites in Wartime China. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brook, Timothy. 2012. “Hesitating before the Judgment of History.” Journal of Asian Studies 71(1):103–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burgess, Chris. 2010. “The ‘Illusion’ of Homogeneous Japan and National Character: Discourse as a Tool to Transcend the ‘Myth’ vs. ‘Reality’ Binary.” Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus 9 (1, no. 10). http://www.japanfocus.org/-Chris-Burgess/3310 (accessed April 29, 2013).Google Scholar
Chen Changhao. 2003. “Huiyi yu qipan—yiwei lao guiqiao de xinsheng” [Recollection and anticipation, feelings of one old returned overseas Chinese]. In Huiguo wushinian [Fifty years since returning to the homeland], ed. “Huiguo wushinian” bianxie zubian, 276–85. Beijing: Taihai Chubanshe.Google Scholar
Chen Jicheng. 1941. “Qiaowu gongzuo zhi jinzhan xianzhuang ji qi jihua” [Current progress and plans for operations related to overseas Chinese affairs]. Kabun Ōsaka mainichi 7(10):11–13.Google Scholar
Chen Kunwang, ed. 2004. Nihon kakyō, ryūgakusei undōshi [History of overseas Chinese and exchange student movements in Japan]. Tokyo: Nihon Kakyōhō.Google Scholar
Chen Xiaoyin. 2005. “Yokohama Chūka kōritsu shōgakkō no omoide” [Memories of the Yokohama Chinese public elementary school]. In Yokohama Yamate Chūkagakkō hyakunen kōshi [Hundred-year history of the Yokohama Yamate Chūkagakkō], ed. Yokohama Yamate Chūkagakkō Hyakunen Kōshi Henshū Iinkai, 143. Yokohama: Yokohama Yamate Chūkagakuen.Google Scholar
Chūkakaikan and Shiryōkan, Yokohama Kaikō, eds. 2010. Yokohama kakyō no kioku: Yokohama kakyō kōjutsu rekiski kiroku shū [Memories of overseas Chinese in Yokohama: Oral histories of overseas Chinese in Yokohama]. Yokohama: Chūkakaikan.Google Scholar
Daitōashō Shina Jimukyoku Sōmuka. 1944. Gen jikyokuka ni okeru Nihon kakyō no katsuyō men [Uses of the overseas Chinese in Japan during the current situation]. Tokyo: Daitōashō Shina Jimukyoku Sōmuka.Google Scholar
Doak, Kevin. 2007. “The Concept of Ethnic Nationality and Its Role in Pan-Asianism in Imperial Japan.” In Pan-Asianism in Modern Japanese History: Colonialism, Regionalism and Borders, eds. Saaler, Sven and Koschmann, J. Victor, 168–82. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Duara, Prasenjit. 2003. Sovereignty and Authenticity: Manchukuo and the East Asian Modern. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Feng Ziyou. 1981. Gemin yishi [Anecdotal history of the Chinese revolution]. Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju.Google Scholar
Fujino Yutaka. 2000. Kyōsei sareta kenkō: Nihon fashizumu-ka no seimei to shintai [Compulsory health: Life and bodies under Japanese fascism]. Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kōbunkan.Google Scholar
Fukushima, Yū. 1973. “Chūkagai shijitsu roku (5): Shōwa ki chūkagai no seisui” [Chinatown history file (5): Vicissitudes of Chinatown during the Shōwa years]. Gekkan chūkagai 6:16–18.Google Scholar
Gaimushō. 1936. Chūgoku ryūgakusei shiyō kyōkasho oyobi kyōiku ni kanshi gaimu, monbu, naimu sanshō kyōgi no ken [Discussion among Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Education, and Home Affairs about textbooks used by and education of Chinese students in Japan]. Ref. B05015408000. Diplomatic Records of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, National Archives of Japan, Tokyo. http://www.jacar.go.jp (accessed April 29, 2013).Google Scholar
Gill, Tom. 2001. “Review: Multiethnic Japan.” Monumenta Nipponica 56(4):574–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodman, Bryna. 1992. “New Culture, Old Habits: Native-Place Organization and the May Fourth Movement.” In Shanghai Sojourners, eds. Wakeman, Frederic Jr. and Yeh, Wen-hsin, 76–107. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Guo Fang. 1999. Zainichi kakyō no aidenttiti no henyō [Changing forms of identity among overseas Chinese in Japan]. Tokyo: Tōshindō;.Google Scholar
Hayashi Masashige. 2005. “Kōbe kakyō no kokoro o tsutaeru” [Conveying the feelings of a Kobe overseas Chinese]. Kōbe kakyō rekishi hakubutsukan tsūshin 5 (June):1.Google Scholar
“Hengbin Huaqiao Funühui Wushinian Shi” Bianji Weiyuan Hui, , ed. 2004. Hengbin huaqiao funühui wushinian shi [Fifty-year history of the Yokohama Overseas Chinese Women's Association]. Yokohama: Hengbin Huaqiao Funühui.Google Scholar
Hirota Kazuko. 2003. Kakyō no ima: Nitchū no bunka no hazama de [Overseas Chinese today: Between Chinese and Japanese cultures]. Tokyo: Shinhyōron.Google Scholar
Iriyama Taiichi. 1941. “Honpō ni okeru kakyō o ronzu” [On the overseas Chinese in our country]. Hikone kōshō ronsō; 30:195–225.Google Scholar
Itagaki Seishirō. 1941. “Supplement: Japan to Assist, Not Oppress, China.” In China and Japan: Natural Friends—Unnatural Enemies, ed. Tang, Liangli, 153–66. Shanghai: China United Press.Google Scholar
Jansen, Marius B. 1970. The Japanese and Sun Yat-sen. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Jiji shinpō. 1897. “Nankinmachi” [Nanjing town] (2). March 21, 10.Google Scholar
Kagotani, Naoto. 2005. “The Chinese Merchant Community in Kobe and the Development of the Japanese Cotton Industry, 1890–1941.” In Japan, China, and the Growth of the Asian International Economy, 1850–1949, vol. 1, ed. Sugihara, Kaori, 49–72. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kanagawa-ken. 1939. “Chin Dōtei [Chen Dongting] kōseki chōsho” [Report on Chen Dongting's accomplishments]. In Kigen ni sen roppyakunen kinen kōshō no ken tsuika naishin [Supplementary confidential report on awards for the commemoration of Japan's 2,600-year anniversary]. Ref. 1199405393. Kanagawa Kenritsu Kōbunshokan, Yokohama.Google Scholar
Kanagawa-ken. 1945. Shōwa nijūnen hachigatsu nijūgonichi genzai zairyū gaikokujin meibo [List of foreign residents, August 1945]. Ref. A06030109400. Public Records Restituted from the United States. Diplomatic Records of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, National Archives of Japan, Tokyo. http://www.jacar.go.jp (accessed April 29, 2013).Google Scholar
Kantō Butoku. 1914. Hainichi kyōkasho ni kansuru ken [Matter related to anti-Japanese textbooks]. Ref. B03030217500. Diplomatic Records of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, National Archives of Japan, Tokyo. http://www.jacar.go.jp (accessed April 29, 2013).Google Scholar
Kikuchi Kazutaka. 2011. Sensō to kakyō: Nihon, kokumin seifu kōkan, kairai seiken, kakyo kan no seigaku rikigaku [Overseas Chinese and the Asia-Pacific War 1937–45: The political dynamic among Japan, China, and the puppet regimes]. Tokyo: Kyūko Shoin.Google Scholar
Kuhn, Philip A. 2008. Chinese Among Others: Emigration in Modern Times. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Li Chunjia. 2005. “Shisso de kenjitsu na shōgakkō” [A modest but sound elementary school]. In Yokohama Yamate Chūkagakkō hyakunen kōshi [Hundred-year history of the Yokohama Yamate Chūkagakkō], ed. Yokohama Yamate Chūkagakkō Hyakunen Kōshi Henshū Iinkai, 141–43. Yokohama: Yokohama Yamate Chūkagakuen.Google Scholar
Lie, John. 2001. Multiethnic Japan. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Liu-Farrer, Gracia. 2009. “Creating a Transnational Community: Chinese Newcomers in Japan.” In Japan's Minorities: The Illusion of Homogeneity, 2nd edition, ed. Weiner, Michael, 116–38. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Luckman, Otis. 1947. Otis Luckman, Capt. A.G.D., to Commanding Officer, Sugamo Prision, APO 181, Apr 17, 1947. Box 125, Folder 26. Sugamo Prison Files, Record Group 554. National Archives at College Park, Md.Google Scholar
Makino Nobuaki. 1936. Chūnichi gakuin shiyō no kyōkasho chū hainichi jikō toriatsukaikata, Shōwa jūichinen gogatsu [Handling of anti-Japanese items in textbooks of the China-Japan Institute, May 1936]. Ref. B05015326500. Diplomatic Records of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, National Archives of Japan, Tokyo. http://www.jacar.go.jp (accessed April 29, 2013).Google Scholar
Matsumoto Otō. 1942. “Nanyang huaqiao wenti yu zai-Ri huaqiao de shiming” [The problem of the overseas Chinese of Southeast Asia and the mission for overseas Chinese in Japan]. Kabun Ōsaka mainichi 8(8):11.Google Scholar
Miyazaki Tōten. 1982. My Thirty-three Years' Dream: The Autobiography of Miyazaki Tōten. Translated by Shinkichi, Eto and Jansen, Marius B.. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Morris-Suzuki, Tessa. 1998. Re-inventing Japan: Time, Space, Nation. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Murakami Rei'ichi. 1997. Yokohama chūkagai teki kakyō den [Biographies of overseas Chinese in Yokohama Chinatown]. Tokyo: Shinpūsha.Google Scholar
Murphy-Shigematsu, Stephen. 1993. “Multiethnic Japan and the Monoethnic Myth.” Melus 18(4):63–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murray, Alice Yang. 2008. Historical Memories of Japanese American Internment and the Struggle for Redress. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Naimushō Gaijika. 1939. Shina jihen ka ni okeru gaiji keisatsu no ippan jōkyō [General state of affairs of the Foreign Police during the China Incident]. Ref. A07040002700. Public Records Restituted from the United States. Diplomatic Records of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, National Archives of Japan, Tokyo. http://www.jacar.go.jp (accessed April 29, 2013).Google Scholar
Naimushō Keihōkyoku, ed. 1937. Hokushi jihen ni kansuru jōhō [Information regarding the incident in north China]. Ref. A06030016600. Public Records Restituted from the United States. Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, National Archives of Japan, Tokyo. http://www.jacar.go.jp (accessed April 29, 2013).Google Scholar
Naimushō Keihōkyoku, ed. [1936] 1980. Gaiji keisatsu gaikyō [General conditions of the Foreign Police], vol. 2. Tokyo: Ryūkei Shosha.Google Scholar
Naimushō Keihōkyoku, ed. [1937] 1980. Gaiji keisatsu gaikyō, vol. 3. Tokyo: Ryūkai Shosha.Google Scholar
Naimushō Keihōkyoku, ed. [1938] 1980. Gaiji keisatsu gaikyō, vol. 4. Tokyo: Ryūkei Shosha.Google Scholar
Naimushō Keihōkyoku, ed. [1939] 1980. Gaiji keisatsu gaikyō, vol. 5. Tokyo: Ryūkei Shosha.Google Scholar
Naimushō Keihōkyoku, ed. [1941] 1980. Gaiji keisatsu gaikyō, vol. 7. Tokyo: Ryūkei Shosha.Google Scholar
Nihon Gaikō Kyōkai, ed. 1938. Honpō zaijū kakyō no Nisshi jikyoku kondan (dai ikkai) [Discussion about the state of affairs between Japan and China with overseas Chinese living in Japan, first meeting]. Ref. B02030924400. Diplomatic Records of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, National Archives of Japan, Tokyo. http://www.jacar.go.jp (accessed April 29, 2013).Google Scholar
Nihon Gaikō Kyōkai, ed. 1939. Ryūnichi kakyō no Nisshi jikyoku kan (dai nikai) [Discussion about the state of affairs between Japan and China with overseas Chinese in Japan, second meeting]. Ref. 4338. Tōyō Bunko, Tokyo.Google Scholar
Ogasawara Kenzō. 2009. Sonbun o sasaeta Yokohama kakyō: On Heishin, Keishin kyōdai [Overseas Chinese who supported Sun Yatsen: Brothers Wen Bingchen and Huichen]. Tokyo: Yasaka Shobō.Google Scholar
Qingyi bao. 1898. “Hengbin qingyi bao xuli” [Editorial principles of the Yokohama journal of pure critique]. No. 1 (December 23), 3–5.Google Scholar
Scott, James C. 1990. Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Spence, Jonathan D. 1982. The Gate of Heavenly Peace: The Chinese and Their Revolution, 1895–1980. New York: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Sugawara Kōsuke. 1991. Nihon no kakyō [Japan's overseas Chinese]. Tokyo: Asahi Shinbunsha.Google Scholar
Chōsa Kyoku, Tōa Keizai, ed. 1929. Shina kokutei hai-Nichi dokuhon [Chinese state-authorized anti-Japanese textbooks]. Tokyo: Tōa Keizai Chōsa Kyoku.Google Scholar
Tsai, Chutung. 1910. “The Chinese Nationality Law, 1909.” American Journal of International Law 4(2):404–11.Google Scholar
Waijiaobu. 1949. “Hanjian Bao Qikang” [Traitor Bao Qikang]. In Hanjian chuzhi yu shenpan 1946–49 [Trials and punishment of traitors, 1946–49]. Ref. 020-010117-0025. Academica Historica, Taibei, Taiwan.Google Scholar
Wang, Gungwu. 1981. “A Note on the Origins of Hua-Ch'iao.” In Community and Nation: Essays on Southeast Asia and the Chinese, 118–27. Singapore: Henemann Educational Books.Google Scholar
Wang Liang, ed. 2002. Zhonghua minguo liuri Hengbin huaqiao zonghui maixiang liushinian jinian tekan [Sixty-year progress of the Republic of China overseas Chinese association in Yokohama, Japan, memorial volume]. Yokohama: Zhonghua minguo liuri Hengbin huaqiao zonghui.Google Scholar
Wang Wei. 2001. Nihon kakyō ni okeru dentō no saihen to esunishiti: Saishi to geinō o chūshin ni [The reorganization of tradition and ethnicity among overseas Chinese in Japan, with a focus on ritual and performing arts]. Tokyo: Fūkyōsha.Google Scholar
Weiner, Michael. 2009. “The Invention of Identity: Race and Nation in Pre-War Japan.” In Japan's Minorities: The Illusion of Homogeneity, 2nd edition, ed. Weiner, Michael, 96–117. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Wu Bokang. 1939. “Enkaichū hitokoto mōshiagemasu” [A comment during the banquet]. Kōsei jidai 1(2):8.Google Scholar
Wu Bokang. 2005. “Yi Hengbin huaqiao xuexiao” [Remembering the overseas Chinese school]. In Yokohama Yamate Chūkagakkō hyakunen kōshi [Hundred-year history of the Yokohama Yamate Chūkagakkō], ed. Yokohama Yamate Chūkagakkō Hyakunen Kōshi Henshū Iinkai, 133–35. Yokohama: Yokohama Yamate Chūkagakuen.Google Scholar
Yamashita Kiyomi. 1979. “Yokohama chūkagai zairyū chūgokujin no seikatsu yōshiki” [The way of life of Chinese living in Yokohama Chinatown]. Jinbun chiri 31(4):33–50.Google Scholar
Yamashita Kiyomi. 2003. “Formation and Development of Chinatown in Japan: Chinatowns as Tourist Spots in Yokohama, Kobe and Nagasaki.” Geographical Review of Japan 76(12):910–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yasukawa Keiichirō. 1917. Nisshi shinzen no kiso taru beki kyōiku jigyō [Education programs as the foundation of Japan-China friendship]. Ref. B03030214300. Diplomatic Records of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, National Archives of Japan, Tokyo. http://www.jacar.go.jp (accessed April 29, 2013).Google Scholar
Yokohama bōeki shinpō. 1937. “Zai-Hama Shinajin gun ni sōryōji yori hikiage junbi tsūchō” [Consul-general issues notice to Chinese in Yokohama to prepare for mass evacuation]. August 15, 1.Google Scholar
Yokohama bōeki shinpō. 1938. “Goshokuki mantenshoku, wakitatsu Hama no Nankinmachi” [Five-color flags fill the sky, Yokohama Chinatown in excitement]. January 18, evening edition, 2.Google Scholar
Yokohama bōeki shinpō. 1939. “Daijōteki kanten kara Kaga-chō sho no hogaraka na sabaki” [For the general good, Kaga-chō police station's sanguine judgment]. January 10, 2.Google Scholar
Yokohama bōeki shinpō. 1940a. “Nisshi shinzen ongakukai” [Concert for Japan-China friendship]. May 30, 2.Google Scholar
Yokohama bōeki shinpō. 1940b. “Nikka o musubu kata kusabi, ‘shin Tōa’ e hi no netsujō, harikiru Chin-san no kyō no konogoro” [The days of Mr. Chen, a strong linchpin binding Japan and China, with fiery passion for ‘new East Asia’]. September 6, 5.Google Scholar
Yokohama Chinatown Official Website. n.d. “Sonrō keirō intabyū: kakyō issei no jidai” [Respect for the aged interview: Life and times of a first-generation overseas Chinese]. Yokohama: Yokohama Chinatown Development Association. http://www.chinatown.or.jp/lovechinatown/talk/respectolder.html (accessed September 26, 2007).Google Scholar
Yokohama Yamate Chūkagakkō Hyakunen Kōshi Henshū Iinkai. 2005. “Bainian xiaoshi” [Hundred-year history of the school]. In Yokohama Yamate Chūkagakkō hyakunen kōshi [Hundred-year history of the Yokohama Yamate Chūkagakkō], ed. Yokohama Yamate Chūkagakkō Hyakunen Kōshi Henshū Iinkai, 41–130. Yokohama: Yokohama Yamate Chūkagakuen.Google Scholar
Yokohama-shi Sōmukyoku Shishi Henshū-shitsu, ed. 1993a. Yokohama shishi 2 [History of Yokohama City 2], vol. 1. Yokohama: Yokohama-shi.Google Scholar
Yokohama-shi Sōmukyoku Shishi Henshū-shitsu, ed. 1993b. Yokohama shishi 2 [History of Yokohama City 2], vol. 2. Yokohama: Yokohama-shi.Google Scholar
Yomiuri shinbun. 1938. “Goshokuki ketsugi o sōryōji jūrin” [Consul-general suppresses five-color flag resolution]. January 15, 7.Google Scholar
Young, Louise. 1998. Japan's Total Empire: Manchuria and the Culture of Wartime Imperialism. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Zanasi, Margherita. 2008. “New Perspectives on Chinese Collaboration.” Asia Pacific Journal: Japan Focus. http://japanfocus.org/-Margherita-Zanasi/2828 (accessed April 29, 2013).Google Scholar