Journal paper
| Issue No. | No. 71 |
|---|---|
| Title | Observations on China during the Cold War Period: On the Writings of Sato Shinichiro |
| Author | Lin, Chih-hung |
| Page | 119-160 |
| Abstract | This article examines the writings on China and the Chinese
Communist Party (CCP) by the late Shinichiro Sato (佐藤慎一郎; 1905- 1999). His works are of great interest to historians in large part because of his unique experiences. Prior to and during the Second Sino-Japanese War, Sato served, in turn, as an official of the Manchurian Ministry of Civil Affairs, an instructor at the Tatung Academy, and a counselor of the Department of General Affairs. He left Manchuria and returned to Japan in 1947, following Japan’s surrender at the end of the war. In 1959, after assuming a teaching position at Takushoku University, Sato began writing a series of essays known as the CCP Observations. The old China hand had now become a staunch anti-communist. Beginning in 1967, in his role as professor of Takushoku University, Sato visited Hong Kong for three consecutive years, where he interviewed refugees from mainland China. When the Joint Communique of the Government of Japan and the Government of the People’s Republic of China was signed on September 1972, Sato was openly critical of the pro-communist stance of the Tanaka cabinet in Japan. I argue in this paper that to understand Sato’s works written at the height of the Cold War, including his critiques of China’s agricultural collectivization efforts and its people’s communes, we must also look at his writings from prior to the Cold War, for there is a great deal of continuity in his thought. He was sharply critical of traditional China, and his criticisms of Cold War China were an extension of his former views. According to Sato, traditional Chinese culture was embodied in Taiwan after the Kuomintang (KMT) government relocated to the island; hence, he was critical of aspects of Taiwan as well. |
| Keyword | Hong Kong, Japan, Sino-Japanese relationships after World War II, Cultural Cold War, Shinichiro Sato |
| Attached File | File download |