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Sun Yat-sen and the Japanese: 1914–16

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Albert A. Altman  and
Harold Z. Schiffrin
Albert A. Altman
Affiliation:
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Harold Z. Schiffrin
Affiliation:
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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Extract

The First World War changed the pattern of international relations in East Asia. What had previously been another arena for the European power struggle became the cockpit for two regional forces, Japanese expansionism and incipient Chinese nationalism. The confrontation between the two, which was to last for a quarter of a century, began as a most unequal contest. Great power rivalry had enabled China to balance off her enemies and to maintain her status as a sovereign entity. But with Europe distracted, China was helpless, and Japan had a unique opportunity to pursue an independent expansionist policy. Instead of cooperating with England and the other powers in order to get a fair share of the China spoils, after 1914 Japan could make her bid for the grand prize, exclusive access to China's resources. Thus the European powers’ pre-occupation with mutual slaughter exposed China to extreme danger, greater than that which she had faced during the heyday of classical imperialism.1 But Japan was not alone in welcoming the European retreat. Japan’s opportunity was also Sun Yat-sen's opportunity.

Type
Articles
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 6 , Issue 4 , July 1972 , pp. 385 - 400
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1972

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References

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37 H. Z. Schiffrin's interview with Mr Kuhara in Tokyo, 5 December 1963. The first loan is also recorded in Japanese Foreign Ministry (ed.), Nihon Gaikō Nenpyō narabi ni Shuyō Bunsho, 1840–1945 [A Chronology and Major Documents of Japanese Foreign Relations, 1840–1945] (Reprinted, Tokyo, 1965), I, p. 210.Google Scholar See also Shōzō, Fujii, ‘Dai ichiji taisenchū Son Bun to Nihon’ [Sun Yat-sen and Japan During World War I], Rekishi Kyōiku, VIII, No. 2 (1960), 31.Google Scholar

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42 Receipt in Mr Kuhara's possession.

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51 Letter to Teng Tse-ju, 10 April 1916, in ibid., V, 226.

52 Telegram to Chü Cheng, 1 April 1916, in ibid., IV, 247; Telegram to Shanghai, 7 April 1916, ibid., IV, 249.

53 On Yamada's role, see Junsaburō, Yamada, ‘Shina kakumei to Son Bun no Chūnichi remmei’ [The Chinese Revolution and Sun Yat-sen's Sino-Japanese Alliance], in Ryūichi, Kaji (ed.), Dai ichi nin sha no kotoba [Words of the Number-one Men] (Tokyo, 1961), p. 274Google Scholar. Both he and Kayano are mentioned in Sun's telegrams to Shanghai and Tsingtao during this period. These Japanese friends were especially important at a time when influential Kuomintang leaders rejected Sun's leadership. In March 1916, for example, Sun suggested using Kayano to ‘remove’ Po Wen-wei in Tsingtao if the latter refused to obey him. See letter to Chü Cheng in KFCC, V, 223–4.

54 Telegram to Swatow, 4 April 1916, in KFCC, IV, 248; telegram to Hankow, 14 April, in ibid., 252.

55 See, for example, ibid., 239, 241, 242, 246, 249, 253.

56 Kuo-fu nien-p'u, I, 607, 611.

57 Telegram to Chü Cheng, 15 April 1916, in KFCC, IV, 253.

58 Letter to Chü Cheng, 4 April 1916, in ibid., V, 224; telegram to Swatow, 7 April, in ibid.., IV, 248.

59 Letter to Teng Tse-ju, 10 April 1916, in ibid., V, 227.

60 Telegrams to San Francisco, 21 March and 9 April 1916, in ibid., IV, 240–1, 250.

61 Telegram to Chü Cheng, 29 March 1916, in ibid., IV, 245.

62 Telegram to Ch'en Ch'i-mei, 11 April 1916, in ibid., IV, 250.

63 Telegrams to Ch'en Ch'i-mei, 25 March and 11 April 1916, in ibid., IV, 242–3, 250.

64 Telegram to Chü Cheng, 20 April 1916, in ibid., IV, 255.

65 Additional telegram to Chü in ibid.

66 Telegram to Shanghai, 24 April 1916, in ibid., IV, 257.

67 Telegram to Shanghai, 13 April, in ibid., IV, 251–2.

68 Telegram to Chü Cheng, 22 April 1916, in ibid., IV, 256.

69 Telegram to Shanghai, 21 April 1916, in ibid., IV, 255.

70 Telegram to Shanghai, 26 April 1916, in ibid., IV, 258. Aoki's aide, Lieutenant Colonel Matsui, served as a bodyguard for Sun when the latter arrived in Shanghai. (Twenty years later Matsui commanded Japan's Shanghai Expeditionary Army in the Sino-Japanese War.) See Tōa Senkaku, II, 611; and Johnson, Chalmers A., Peasant Nationalism and Communist Power (Stanford, 1962), p. 35.Google Scholar

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72 Ibid., IV, 16–19. While in Shanghai, Sun stayed at the home of Murai Keijirō, head of the local office of the South Manchurian Railway Company. See Yamada, ‘Shina Kakumei’, p. 274.

73 Ibid., IV, 259–60.

74 Ibid., 259.

75 Kuo-fu nien-p'u, II, 639–40.

76 Ibid., 642–3.

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