The Cause And Effect Of The Conflicting Relations Between China And Japan

One of the biggest fears the United States has is that China will try to conquer one of our allies in the

Starting in the early 1930’s, the Japanese began to display their great imperialistic dreams with ambition and aggression. Their goal was to create a "Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere" where they controlled a vast empire in the western Pacific.1 In September of 1939, Japan signed the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis Treaty, allying themselves with Germany and Italy in an effort to safeguard their interests in China from the Soviet Union. Japan’s only major obstacle left lay in the significant size of the United States Pacific Fleet. To rid themselves of this, Japan attacked the United States Pacific Fleet in hopes of crippling it enough to prevent any further hindrance from the

China suffered the worst of the two nations after trying to stand up to European powers during the Opium Wars and the anti-western Boxer Rebellion. Japan, however, embraced foreign ideas and was able to prove itself to be a threatening world power after their war with Russia.

Over the span of a few decades, the Japanese and Americans were as is, heading towards war due to a varying amount of disputing between the two. In the 1930’s, Japan invaded China. This caused an uproar between the two countries at the time. This was one of the first few sparks to the flame. In order to create the perfect Yamato race, the Japanese felt that there was more validity if there were no one to stop them, (Document A). Destroying the Pacific fleet was the goal so they could expand and imperialize the world around them. America, being one of their main oil producers, made them the perfect target. Leading up to the attack, America placed an embargo on Japan, (Document C). Japan wanted to destroy the Pacific Fleet to gain oil and continue imperialization to obtain the perfect Yamato

China and Japan are too enormous and influential nations located in Eastern Asia. These two nations are almost always confused because of their similar culture and people, and they also happen to be right next to each other. Japan and China have never been allies and the two countries always seem to be in conflict. These two superpowers are very important to the world, and without them everything would be imbalanced in the global market. The rising superpower, China, is a nation that will continue to grow and improve their economy, while the fragile superpower, Japan, could fall apart at any moment and ruin the balance between all of the other countries.

Even though they started as allies they both wanted different things and never had an agreement. The one thing that they both wanted was control and dominance in the Pacific. Japan was thirsty for power after the First World War. If they had power in the Pacific they would have ownership of raw materials, which means they would not have to pay anything to have access to them. The Japanese were determined to make this an accomplished goal. The beginning of Japans and Chinas problems can be traced back to the invasion of Manchuria. In 1931the Japanese invaded Manchuria which part of China and renamed it Manchukuo. This was the start of it all and the reason for the Sino-Japanese War. The Sino-Japanese was lasted until the end of the Second World War (Iriye 4). When China made the decision to take on Japan, other countries got involved, the United States being one of them, who took the Chinese side under Chiang Kai-shek. The Japanese had a slogan: “the Great East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere” which frightened the United States (Iriye 7). Just because the U.S. was known to be the

① After the opium wars of the 19th century, countries began to realize just how much power the western territories have over the nation when it comes to advanced military technology. Many decided that it was time to end their isolation and start modernizing in order to catch up with the great power of Europe. By the late nineteenth century, China and Japan began approaching the modernization process in different ways, with one still trying to maintain their traditional values and the other immediately encouraged their change to a modernized country that would be seen as an “equal” to the western countries. China began to realize that they need to build up their country after being defeated by the British during the opium war, so they decided

In the present, Japan is a military and economic superpower with strong influence. However, it was not always like this. In the early 1700s, Japan isolated itself from the world and greeted foreigners unfortunate enough to shipwreck in Japan with hostility. In the 1850s, the United States attempted to make contact with Japan to establish a treaty. The U.S. knew even though Japan was hostile, it was weak compared to a western power. Although the U.S. was stronger than Japan, it was nowhere close to being as strong as other western powers such as Brittan or France and was struggling to keep up. Japanese hostility, U.S. power struggles, and Japan’s isolation all led to the inevitable Japanese and U.S. conflict.

What did all of this have to do with the U.S.? Well, because the U.S. had ties with East Asia, politically and economically, the decisions Japan were making were also affecting the U.S. So, America took it upon itself to increase military and financial aid to China. The reason this decision was made was to cut off oil shipments and raw materials to Japan. This is what really angered the Japanese.

For the last several decades China and Japan have both risen as superpowers and dominated the Pacific. Japan during the 1980s had the “economic miracle”, however it had a recession in the 1990s that set Japan back. As China becomes a rising superpower due to growing populations and cheap labor and, while Japan remains a “fragile superpower” because of the lack of resources and ageing population both nations will continue to grow, or will China become another fallen communist nation and will the tiger of the Pacific come to a roaring halt? Ever since the Four Humiliations in 1839 China was in desperate need to modernize and change many aspects of its government if it wanted to keep up with the ever-changing world.

The more Japan fought with China the more relations were lost (Source B). Japan was undergoing a large set of embargoes as countries such as the U.S, Britain and the Netherlands responded to its grant for Japanese air bases in French Indochina (Source C). Source B states that Japan was already lacking in natural resources and its practical response was to expand into neighboring countries (Source F). Tokyo negotiated with Washington as to the issue regarding Japans expansionism. Japan was in desperate search of oil (Source C), although it also knew that a full scale invasion of South-East Asia would prompt war with America (Source B).

People often confuse China with Japan, especially when it comes to their history together. Because of this, one might infer that the two have striking similarities. But in fact they have a multi duos amount of differences such as their economies, cultures and politics. As China and japan sport similar beliefs and curiosities towards Christianity and the European Missionaries, they feel threatened due to their underlying beliefs. Disagreements led to China and Japan's economy to launch by establishing grounds and Christianity also took a big toll onto their diplomacy.

China was part of the mainland, accessible by both land and sea. This exposed China’s borders greatly as there was much land and coast to protect, leading to consequent invasion. On the other hand, Japan was isolated as an island, only accessible by sea. This protected Japan by leaving only the coast to protect from invaders, and almost a lack of invaders. They did not have to deal with nomads in the north and west or rising empires in the south, but rather shared a common awareness with China for Russia. Both feared Russia and Europeans as well because of the new rise of their empires and their expeditions to China and Japan. Japan feared the Russians because they were pressing hard to engage in trade with them. In contrast, China feared the Russians because of their new expansion and political power after several wars and conquests. Both also greatly feared the Europeans because of their behavior at ports they were at and their aggressive style of trade and Christianity. The Chinese despised the Europeans because they were rowdy and obnoxious at port cities like Macao, while the Japanese feared the Europeans because of their aggressive conversions of Christianity that sparked some uprisings. All in all, the Japanese and Chinese had vastly different locations and geography which led to different problems arising, but

In 1984 the Sino-Japanese war happened. This war has significant influence for Chinese government, because this is the first time China were defeated by a non-western power, and Japan was consider as a weak “tiny” neighbor of China. China and the entire world was shocked by losing Sino-Japanese War. Losing Sino-Japanese War is a symbol that Qing Dynasty is going to perished, and the way that China lose is worth to study. Even though the westernization movement did not operated so well, but it still modernize and improve the Chinese military power. Especially Chinese marine has lots of modern warship and weapon, and China has more soldier than Japan. It is fair to say that China has enough army to fight with Japan. But, why Japanese win the Sino-Japanese War? Firstly, Chinese government did not realized that Japan dare to fight with China, so they did not prepare well. Secondly, Chinese government try to stop the war by diplomacy, they trying ask western countries for help, but, at the moment the western countries were stand for Japan. Last and most importantly, the old feudalism and bureaucracy made Chinese army lose the war. The commander of Chinese marine Li Hongzhang, who is also the leader of “westernization” party in the government. Because he is the commander of the marine, so he has authority in Qing government. He does not wants to fight with Japanese army, because if he lose his marine, he will also lose the

Both Japan and China lie in the East of Asia. ‪To a certain extent，Japan and China own similar culture background, in the Confucian Cultural Circle. But when we look back into the modern history development, Japan and China made quite different decisions when facing the western countries’ aggression. China suffered the invasion in 1840 after the first Sino-British War. Japan was in a similar situation in the black boat incident in 1853, the Opium War made the West began to pay attention to East Asia. From then on, Japan began to face the western culture. ‬The reactions, as well as the result of Japan and China were quite disparate. This article wants to discuss what lead to the difference. ‬‬