A Study On Japanese Territorial Policy In The Early Days After WWⅡ(1945-1952)

From the last stage of the Edo era to the end of World War II,Japan started its territorial expansion into surrounding areas and neighboring countries,which lasted for more than half a century.During the end of the Shogun era and the beginning of the Meiji period,through diplomatic negotiations with relevant countries and under the so-called doctrine of “terra nullius”,Japan successively occupied what is known today as Hokkaido,Kuril Islands,Ogasawa and other neighboring areas whose ownership was relatively vague at that time.Subsequently,the Meiji government ignored the resistance of the Ryukyu Palace and protest of the Qing government,wielded force to annex the Ryukyu Islands between China and Japan,and changed the main territory of the former Ryukyu State into Okinawa Prefecture of Japan.During the Sino-Japanese War and the later period of the Japanese-Russian War,the Meiji emperor,with the power of victory,occupied the Diaoyu Island between China and Japan and Dokdo Island between Japan and the Korean Peninsula respectively,and seized large areas of territory such as Taiwan and Korea after the two wars.Later,Japan’s external expansion gradually evolved into a full-scale invasion of the Asian continent and the Pacific region.Until the end of World War II,Japan’s long-term expansion was effectively curbed by the Allies of China,the United States,Britain and the Soviet Union.However,the expansive thinking deeply rooted in Japan was not effectively eliminated.In the early post-war period,Japan continued to formulate territorial policies based on its expansionary thinking,seeking to retain the territory previously under its rule to the maximum extent.After World War II,the territorial disputes related to Japan were directly or indirectly related to the peacemaking efforts towards japan in the early post-war period.According to the Potsdam Proclamation,the territory that Japan could retain after the war would be limited to four major islands,Hokkaido,Honshu,Shikoku and Kyushu,as well as “other islands” determined by the major allies of World War II.After the peacemaking in San Francisco,American post-war occupation was ended and Japan restored its national sovereignty.The territorial issues that should have been solved in the peacemaking process gradually turned into disputes between Japan and the relevant countries.These disputes are not only related to the expansion of modern Japan,but also a direct legacy of Japan’s territorial policies in the early post-war period.As a legal document for Japan to end its war with most of the World War II Allies,the San Francisco Peace Treaty neither stipulates Japan’s borders nor touches upon the geographical scope as well as the ownership of the territory abandoned by Japan.Moreover,among the countries with territorial problems with Japan after the war,China,South Korea and the Soviet Union(Russia)are all not signatories of the “peace treaty”.After Japan regained its independence,based on the vague territorial clauses of the Peace Treaty,it sought to acquire the territory of Amami,Ogasawa,Okinawa,the Kuril Islands(referred to as the Northern Territories by Japan),Dokdo Island and the Diaoyu Island.In the early post-war period,the territorial policies adopted by Japan were closely related to the territorial provisions of the San Francisco Peace Treaty.After the end of World War II,Japan did not take the passive attitude of waiting for the signing of the peace treaty,but began to study and anticipate the peace plans and countermeasures the following month after the signing of the Instrument of Surrender.In the first year of its defeat and surrender,Japan intended to comply with,and even cooperate with,territorial disposition of the victorious countries in order to avoid more severe punishment.With the changing international situation,Japan constantly adjusted its territorial policies with the aim of “retaining as much its former territory as possible”.In May 1946,for the first time,the Yoshida Cabinet proposed to expand the “other islands” allowed to be retained by Japan on the basis of the Potsdam Proclamation.From then on to October 1948,Shigeru Yoshida,Tetsu Katayama and Hitoshi Ashida came to power one after another.And Japan had tentative discussions with representatives of major allies stationed in Japan around the peacemaking issues including the territorial one.In October of the same year,Shigeru Yoshida formed his second cabinet and took office for a long time.As a result of the intensification of the cold war,peacemaking efforts towards japan turned to a limited process led by the United States.Accordingly,Yoshida’s cabinet more and more focused its negotiation efforts on the United States,and Japan-US relations gradually shifted from enemies to allies in the Cold War.Ultimately,the Yoshida Cabinet exchanged compromises on security,armaments and other issues for the United States to accept part of Japan’s territorial claims.After many consultations on the draft peace treaty,the United States and Japan tackled the relevant territories in a vague form of “undetermined attribution and undetermined scope”.After Japan regained its independence,it made use of the ambiguous provisions of the territorial clauses in the San Francisco Peace Treaty to seek to translate the potential space of struggle into Japan’s real interests,and territorial disputes emerged one after another in this process.In the early post-war period,Japan continued to view territorial issues based on the expansionary thinking passed down since the end of the Shogun era,and formulated its territorial policies accordingly.This is directly related to the formation of territorial clauses in the San Francisco Peace Treaty and the occurrence of territorial disputes.Japan’s territorial policies in the early post-war period were not only the conclusion of the expansion practice of modern Japan,but also the breeding ground of current territorial problems.