Cognition Of Japan-from The Perspective Of Northeast Chinese Intellectuals In Manchoukuo

Taking the intellectuals who lived in the northeast of China (NE intellectuals) during Manchoukuo(1931-1945) as the subjects of examination, this dissertation makes a general review of their cognition of Japan, Japanese nationality and Japanese culture. The significance of this discussion lies not only in the fact that the standpoints of these intellectuals which are so far obscure constitute an indispensable part of the bigger topic, i.e., the Chinese cognition of Japan, but also in its meaning to Manchukuo study.The research is carried out on the basis of prewar records and postwar reminiscences in respect of time. The former part attempts to study the self-exiled intellectuals with concentration on their publications about Japan on newspapers and journals inside Shanhaiguan Pass and a group of northeastern writers with Gu Ding and Liang Shanding as the representatives and the image of Japan portrayed in their works; while the latter points to the reminiscences of the students of Jianguo University, Manchoukuo Military Academy, Xinjing University of Law and Political Science and other universities, and National College.The basic means of the investigation is textual research and demonstration, thus consulting literature, archives and histories systematically becomes essential. A great number of materials have been collected, including eighty-eight volumes of Chinese archives, histories and theses provided by National Library of China, Dalian Library, Library of Jilin Province, Changchun Library, the Archives Administration of Jilin Province, Jilin Academy of Social Sciences, Library of Jilin University and Library of Northeast Normal University; sixty-eight reels of archives, histories and papers in Japanese language; sixty-one memoirs by fifty-five students from 1st to 8th programs of Jianguo Univeristy; eighty-three articles and a book of recollections by seventy students from 1st to 7th programs of Manchoukuo Military Academy; fifty pieces of memories by fifty students of National College; thirty-six anthologies and personal albums by Manchoukuo writers such as Gu Ding, Liang Shanding, Wang Qiuying, Xiao Jun, Xiao Hong, etc.; and forty-five histories, papers and collections of materials. In the meanwhile, more than twenty subjects who themselves experienced the period of Manchoukuo are interviewed in the method of oral history, through which counterbalances the scarce literary sources.Chinese intellectuals'cognition of Japan in Manchoukuo can be classified into three aspects: First, according to hierarchy of needs put forward by the great American psychologist, Abraham Maslow, the NE intellectuals suffered from the loss of multiple identities resulting from Japanese intrusion, which led to their recognition of the hazards brought about by the Japanese national trait of invasion to China, Chinese people and every individual and pubic and secret resistance afterwards; secondly, they showed deep ethnic hatred toward Japanese Jingoism that insulted and persecuted Chinese people; thirdly, they took Japanese culture as the other. Their understanding of Japan has three major features: negative cognition of Japan's filthy and ugly facets takes more proportion; justice evaluation and objective recognition are given to the good aspects of Japan and Japanese nationality; compared with the sight of the intellectuals inside Shanhaiguan Pass, NE intellectuals'seems to be narrow in width and shallow in depth for lack of dialectic thinking.Generally speaking, NE intellectuals'cognition of Japan during Manchoukuo is formed on the grounds of their experience during Manchoukuo period, and takes a completely different path from Japanese description of Manchoukuo. What I emphasize here is that some Japanese are still indulging in"Manchoukuo Complex", putting efforts to glorify"Manchoukuo"and making propaganda for the fallacy that it was Japan who once brought civilization to"Manchoukuo". Undoubtedly, aiming to distort and rewrite history, this action has injured the feelings of Chinese people, especially of those who live in NE China once more, and will definitely lead to the destruction of Sino-Japan relationship. This dissertation initiates and applies the"theory of difference in Chinese and Japanese social stages"and"principle of finality"to criticize the above deliberate mistakes. With the expectation to correct the wrong ideas of some Japanese and bring the true experience of the NE intellectuals to light, I have interviewed many people who had a personal experience of that period of history and abstracted a chain of authentic and convincing evidences from their sensory awareness of those historical events. I suppose the creative efforts given to this argument has both academic value and realistic meaning, for approaching history as it was and disclosing the nature of historical events through investigation and analysis is the exact reason and ultimate goal of my starting this program.