Tony Brooks PhD Thesis Angry States 240513 FINAL

330 Pages·2013·5.26 MB·English

ANGRY STATES: MAINLAND CHINESE VIEWS
OF JAPAN SINCE 1949

This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy

Anthony David Brooks

Trinity Hall, Cambridge

January 7, 2013
Copyright © 2013 Anthony David Brooks
All rights reserved
To Mike Lloyd
Without whose support this project would not have been possible
Declaration

This dissertation is the result of my own work and includes nothing which is the
outcome of work done in collaboration except where specifically indicated in the text.
The dissertation does not exceed the word limit for the Asian and Middle Eastern
Studies degree committee. It is 80,000 words long.

Notes on style

Chinese and Japanese names are not italicised and are given with the surname first,
so Mao Zedong’s family name is Mao and not Zedong. Other Chinese and Japanese
terms are italicised, and written in pinyin and romaji respectively. In the People’s
Republic pinyin is normally written in lower case. However, for ease of reference this
study uses sentence-style capitalisation for the titles of films, books, documents,
papers and texts (in pinyin), as well as for place names. For the sake of clarity, words
commonly used in English are usually chosen in preference to their Chinese and
Japanese counterparts; for example “Taipei” (a city in Taiwan), is used in preference to
the Chinese Taibei.
A character glossary of the most important Chinese terms is provided. A list of
abbreviations used in the text is at the beginning of the bibliography. Dates in the
footnotes are presented in abbreviated British format, such that August 15, 1945
becomes 15/8/45.
Many of the individuals interviewed for this project did so on the condition that
they remain anonymous. Interviews in this study therefore follow the format used by
Perry Link in his book The Uses of Literature: Life in the Socialist Chinese Literary
System (2000), whereby the name of the interviewee is included only when he or she
agrees to be named. Full interview transcripts are available on request.
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Acknowledgements

First and foremost I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Barak Kushner.
Without his direction, advice and encouragement, I would never have been able to write
this dissertation. Any merit that the thesis has is in no small part due to the detailed
critical feedback which I received from Dr. Kushner on each of my many drafts. Other
people also patiently read through various versions of the manuscript and made many
valuable comments, including Dr. Lily Chang, Donald Fraser and Andraz Melansek.
Special thanks also go to my advisor Dr. John Swenson-Wright for his suggestions on
tackling the primary literature, as well as to Professor Rana Mitter and his “China’s
War with Japan” research group, who helped to shape my rapidly evolving views on
the research topic. Rana Mitter, Caroline Rose and Amy King invited me to
conferences in Oxford, Leeds and Bristol, where I was not only made to feel most
welcome, but I was also given important critical feedback on my work. I am most
grateful to both Trinity Hall and the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies for
the award of generous travel grants, which allowed me to make research trips to China
and also to present my work at Harvard University.
Finally, I also owe a great debt to the following individuals in China and elsewhere
who gave generously of their time: John Armitage, Henry Chen, Chen Rihua, Chen
Xiaoni, Chen Yanshi, Ding Xiangli, Adam Dunnett, John Feng, Gao Yu, Gao Haoqing,
Gui Xiaotao, Guo Dingping, He Sai, Hu Cheng, Jin Feng, Kong Yang, Ioana Kraft,
Lai Junfei, Li Baiyang, Li Bin, Li Chen, Li Jia, Li Qinyan, Li Tingjiang, Li Xing, Li
Ying, Li Yong, Lian Degui, Lin Wei, Lin Xiaoguang, Ling Hai, Joshua Harper, Liu
Cheng, Liu Hua, Liu Jianping, Liu Qiong, Lu Peng, Dirk Moens, Sherzod Muminov,
Nikolay Murashkin, Pang Liang, Rao Junfei, Ren Kang, Stefan Sack, Jonathan Scott,
Jorn Seiero, Michael O’Sullivan, Su Weijun, Wang Dongke, Wang Le, Wang Min,
Wang Ping, Wang Xinsheng, Wu Shiyou, Xie Li, Xie Ye, Xu Bin, Xu Hailong, Yan
Haisong, Yang Fan, Yang Haobo, Yao Xiaoshu, Yu Chunyu, Yu Tiejun, Charlie
Valonso, Kazuyuki Yamazaki, Zheng Zheng, Zhou Ke and Zhu Xiaolong.
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Abstract

This thesis presents a study of Chinese views of Japan since the foundation of the
People’s Republic of China in 1949. The introduction summarises the main aims of
the thesis, which are to compare and contrast the way in which different “institutions”
(such as the Chinese media) have presented Japan to mass audiences from a historical
perspective. The introduction also describes the theoretical models used and outlines
the most important recent scholarship on the research topic. Chapter one offers an
overview of elite representations of Japan, by concentrating on critical junctures
where the Chinese leadership’s views of Japan changed. The role of the patriotic
education campaign is explored, as well as the hypothesis that since 1949 Chinese
Communist Party leaders have always been intensely interested in Japan. The thesis
then moves on to four chapters, which analyse how Japan is presented in key
institutions. Chapter two on war museums suggests that national and provincial party
officials have frequently clashed over the way in which memory of the 1937–45
Anti-Japanese War is depicted. Chapter two also examines the rationale for the rash of
museum building during the 1980s. Chapter three concentrates on textbooks, but also
deals with the way in which classroom discourses on conflict with Japan are used as a
means of emphasising selected government policies. Furthermore, I suggest that the
way in which textbook compilers have sought to portray Japan in schools has shown
remarkably little variation over the past 60 years. Chapter four analyses war films. My
aim here is to explain both why, as in textbooks, the war is used as a vehicle for
pursuing unrelated policy objectives, and also why conflict with Japan is still virtually
the only acceptable means of portraying that country on celluloid. Chapter five deals
with newspapers, and as in chapter two, I find that views of Japan at the national and
provincial level are frequently at variance. Chapter six concludes the thesis and
summarises its findings, as well as making suggestions for further research.

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Contents

Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1
Chapter 1 ...................................................................................................................... 21
Elite Views of Japan ..................................................................................................... 21
Chapter 2 ...................................................................................................................... 67
Anti-Japanese War Museums: Unit 731 ....................................................................... 67
Chapter 3 .................................................................................................................... 109
Education and Textbooks ........................................................................................... 109
Chapter 4 .................................................................................................................... 159
Anti-Japanese War Films ........................................................................................... 159
Chapter 5 .................................................................................................................... 211
Media Representations of Japan ................................................................................ 211
Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 267
Reference Matter ........................................................................................................ 272
Glossary ..................................................................................................................... 273
Select Bibliography .................................................................................................... 283

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Figures

Figure 1. People’s Daily article showing support for the Japanese people framed
by news highly critical of the Japanese government (7/7/53, p. 4) .............. 30

Figure 2. Two photographs of former Japanese barracks at Pingfang ............... 100

Figure 3. The entrance to the Unit 731 museum ................................................ 100

Figure 4. The “atonement for Japanese crimes” memorial at Unit 731, unveiled in
2010............................................................................................................ 103

Figure 5. The new commemoration corridor at Unit 731 .................................. 105

Figure 6. Chinese lower middle school history textbooks showing almost identical
images of students protesting at the GMD’s refusal to fight the Japanese in
1935............................................................................................................ 118

Figure 7. “A little Eighth Route Army soldier” (xiao ba lu) Elementary School
Language Textbook, 2000, vol. 2, p. 34 ..................................................... 153

Figure 8. Yu Lai is interrogated by Japanese soldiers. Elementary School
Language Textbook, 2010, vol. 4.2, p. 66 .................................................. 156

Figure 9. A scene from the film Underground War (Didao zhan, 1965) showing
Japanese troops cowering in the face of a Communist guerrilla ............... 167

Figure 10. The Japanese commander in Guerrilla War on the Plains (Pingyuan
youji dui, 1955) .......................................................................................... 183

Figure 11. The Japanese officer (left) and the Chinese Communist leader (right) in
the movie Letter with Feathers (Ji maoxin, 1953) ..................................... 183

Figure 12. A scene from City of Life and Death (Nanjing! Nanjing!, 2009) where
Nanjing residents are being buried alive by Japanese soldiers after the fall of
the capital ................................................................................................... 204

Figure 13. A scene from Flowers of War (Jinling shisan chai, 2011) showing both
schoolgirls (left) and prostitutes (right) trapped in a Nanjing church ........ 207

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Figure 14. Comparison of the annual total of People’s Daily articles relative to the
annual total of articles on Japan (1949–2005) ........................................... 218

Figure 15. Relative frequency of People’s Daily articles on Japan (1949–2005)
.................................................................................................................... 218

Figure 16. Annual total of People’s Daily articles with headlines containing the
words “resist Japan” or “War of Resistance” (1949–2005) ....................... 221

Figure 17. Monthly totals of People’s Daily articles entitled “resisting the Japanese”
(top) or “War of Resistance” (bottom) (selected years) ............................. 224

Figure 18. Monthly totals of Japan-related articles in the People’s Daily 18 months
prior to and 18 months following decennial anniversaries of the Japanese
defeat .......................................................................................................... 228

Figure 19. Identical coverage of the anniversary of the Japanese surrender on
3/9/70 (selected newspapers) ..................................................................... 241

Figure 20. Reform era coverage of the Anti-Japanese War in selected newspapers
(15–16 August, national events only) ........................................................ 243

Figure 21. Reform era coverage of the Anti-Japanese War in the Heilongjiang
Daily and the Chongqing Daily (15–16 August, local events only) .......... 246

Figure 22. Chongqing Daily editorial showing how the CCP’s version of the war
in Chongqing dominates the Nationalist one (15/8/05, p. 3) ..................... 248

Figure 23. People’s Daily montage showing Anti-Japanese War cartoons (17/8/65,
p. 6) ............................................................................................................ 251

Figure 24. People’s Daily war montage emphasising Chairman Mao’s contribution
to defeating Japan on the top row (29/8/65, p. 6) ...................................... 254

Figure 25. Images from the People’s Daily showing wartime atrocities allegedly
committed by the Japanese in Nanjing, Shanghai and Guangzhou (4/8/82, p.
4) ................................................................................................................ 258

Figure 26. A People’s Daily war montage which gives prominent place to
Nationalist resistance to the Japanese at Taierzhuang (30/8/85, p. 8) ........ 260

Figure 27. Photograph printed in the People’s Daily showing Premier Wen Jiabao
at the 2004 ASEAN summit seated next to Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro
who has been cut from the picture (30/11/04, p. 6) ................................... 263
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Figure 28. People’s Daily image showing Prime Minister Abe Shinzo seated at
President Hu Jintao’s right hand (8/10/06, p. 1) ........................................ 263
x