The Dispute between China and Japan over the Senkaku-Diaoyo Island

During the early nineteenth century, both China and Japan enforced policies restricting foreign trade in order to avoid industrialization and western ideas, but after both societies experienced foreign invasions and unequal treaties being established by foreigners, Japan began to industrialize and became imperialists trying to create an empire, while China differed in that the people wanted reform and government restrained the reformation of their society, therefore causing multiple rebellions and overall the collapse of their empire.

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.

Since their purchase by the Japanese government from their private owners in September 2012, the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands have been a topic of protest and discontent in the East China Sea and its surrounding area. While current conflicts have arisen because of skirmishes with patrol boats and sightings of Chinese drones flying over the islands, disputes over sovereignty of the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands have existed since the cession of Chinese territory in the Treaty of Shimonoseki following China’s defeat in the Sino-Japanese War. Original ownership of the islands was never officially settled between China and Japan, but after the establishment of several more international treaties in the twentieth century, jurisdiction over the islands became unclear and practically undeterminable. While conflicts were set aside during the latter half of the twentieth century in order to improve Sino-Japanese relationships, the purchase of the islands and military activity renewed tensions between the two nations. Present-day territorial disputes over the sovereignty of the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands are a result of the multiple cessions and reversions of control in twentieth century treaty laws between China and Japan.

Before America entered WWII, the U.S. and Japan were trading partners. However, Japan had been involved in the Pacific Theater of WWII, conquering land across Asia and the Pacific Ocean, before the U.S. joined the war. As a result, American resources had aided Japan in imperializing other nations. Critical of America’s relationship with Japan, Dr. Seuss released a political cartoon, shown above. In the cartoon, a man wearing a sweater labeled “Japan” shops at a store run by a bird, which dons a hat with a U.S. flag design. The Japanese man orders “kerosene, some excelsior and a blow torch”, claiming his mother wishes to “bake a cake” (Seuss, “Gimme some kerosene, some excelsior and a blow torch. Ma wants to bake a cake”). Using these details,

Once the Okinawa Reversion Treaty was signed by Japan and the Untie States, the return of the Ryukyu Islands were in full control to Japan. With the return of the islands to Japan seemed to set a better security alliance between the Untied States and Japan. As part of Okinawa the Unites States government set of boundaries for the Senkaku/ Diaoyu Islands. With Nixon as President during the time he wanted peace in the pacific. But a neutral stance by the Nixon administration was taken on their sovereignty. Nixon’s with hopes of ending the Vietnam War but his priorities with retaining bases in Okinawa and normalizing relations with the Peoples Republic of China

This confrontation between Japan and the United States impacted the battles to come in the Pacific. History has proven the island of Midway to be an important base for many operations during World War II. Had the United States lost this battle, the war may have reached a different outcome.

The real beginning of the tension between America and Japan began during WWI. In 1915, Japan issued “Twenty-One demands” to China’s government. These demands included giving Japan control over Chinese ports, increasing Japan’s leasehold on the South Manchuria Railway Zone for 99 years, handing over rights to settle and commercialize Manchuria and Inner Mongolia, give control of the Hanyeping mining complex to Japan, barring China to give any coastal or territorial concessions to foreign powers, excluding Japan.

The first contention is that the US presence in Okinawa is unnecessary. The United States only has the base in the region so that they are able to defend from a possible Chinese or North Korean advancement. Concerns about China’s influence are centered in the South and East Asian Sea. To reduce the burden on Okinawa, the United

nationalists refuse to acknowledge the dispute, and express pride in the military aggression of the

As of today, China has expanded and built over seven artificial islands in the South China Sea since 2014. The South China Sea has recently come to be a major problem in Asia as issues have risen over who has rights of passage and claims in this area. The Chinese of recent have been making territorial claims in the South China Sea that are in areas of free passage for many other Asian countries and the United States. In October 2015, a U.S. guided missile destroyer encountered one of the artificial islands and China’s response was that it would “take any measure” to maintain its security in “their territory”. The Chinese have been questioned in the Permanent Court of Arbitration by the Philippines after claiming rights to historical locations in the South China Sea, which violates sovereign rights of the Philippines, yet China responded to this outcome with refusal and has continued to advance itself in the territory causing huge disputes with its neighboring countries as freedom of navigation has been compromised through China’s actions.. In order to guarantee resolution and maintain the freedom of navigation aspect of international law there needs to be a foreign policy put in place that puts more United States military in the South China Sea with support from disputing countries like Japan and the Philippines as a way to make the issue multilateral and law abiding.

Throughout the dynasties in China and Japan, religion, economy and politics have been affected by each other in various ways. In the book “Religion and Making of Modern East Asia”, Thomas Dubois brings to light the impact religion made on both politics and economy in China and Japan throughout the historical period up till date. In his words, he describes “religion as an extremely political force” (Dubois, 2011, pp. 7-16). As various religions were introduced, it shaped the politics of leaders as most of them saw it as an avenue to impose their religion on the citizens. In all, religion invented political and economic stabilities and instabilities in various dynasties throughout Japan and China

After the conclusion of the San Francisco Peace Treaty between Japan and the allied powers in 1951, Japan and the ROC signed the Treaty of Taipei. Under these treaties, Japan confirmed that it renounced its claim to sovereignty over Taiwan. Consequently, it is not disputed that from October 1945 to 1949, both mainland China and Taiwan belong to one nation: ROC. Even if we assume that the San Francisco Peace Treaty is not able to decide the status of Taiwan, it cannot be ignored

The dispute over the South China Sea denotes the process of power rebalancing while China rising as a hegemony in East Asia. China craves for more resources and power and decides to effectuate that by controlling more maritime territory. This act impelled the United State to align with the Philippines to balance with China. In a realism world, U.S. has adequate reason to intervene for fear for China becoming too strong a power.

An enduring dispute over Dokdo Island has proven difficult to resolve. Japan and Korea have been having an argument over the island for sovereignty ever since 1910 (South). This island has three names, Dokdo, Takeshima, and Liancourt. Dokdo, a solitary island, is a Korean name for this island. Takeshima, a Bamboo Island, is what Japanese call it. Both Japan and South Korea uses historical facts to support their claims for the island (Profile). To what extent is the dispute between Korea and Japan an issue about resources versus history?

In order to better understand the dispute of these islands and this body of water, geography plays a role considering the area sea is located to borders on many different regions. According Chmillier-Gendreau (2000), the south-west of the Indian Ocean, the sea connects with the Straits of Malacca and Singapore. To the north-east, the sea connects with the Sea of Japan and the Strait of Korea. The position of this body of water is interconnected with many other bodies of waters which coincide with many countries. The islands residing in the middle of this sea therefore lies in the middle of many different countries. The two islands, Spratly and Paracel Islands lie in the middle of the maritime zone. Since it is in the middle, no neighboring country is really physically connected to these islands by geography (Chemillier-Gendreau, 2000, p. 16). Despite that fact, China and Vietnam both claim sovereignty over these islands based on historical and