On the cover of this book, the publishers introduced it as one written by a right-wing author. I was attracted to the book because of this. I wanted to explore how "right-wing" writers view the early 20th century history of Japan and how that view determines how they assess the Japanese narrative today. I want to know why this author wrote the book.
This book is about Manchukuo, the short-lived state that existed between 1932 and 1945. Current view tends to represent it as a puppet state formed by the Japanese Kwantung Army to legitimise Japanese occupation of Chinese land. The author argues that this is not so, that in fact, that land has always belonged to the Manchus and the Mongolians, the demise of the Qing Dynasty did not change that. The Manchus, after relinquishing control of pre-Qing China (中原), would have just gone back to their old land and continued their pre-Qing lives in their ancestral lands but for two things: 1) The Han Chinese's violent purging of the Manchus resulting in their fear of admitting their race, leading eventually to the death of the voices that would have advocated for their own rights, and 2) a deliberate attempt by the Communists to provoke nationalism among the Han Chinese against the Japanese thereby erroneously giving them the impression that "their land" had been illegally occupied.
The author then went on to expound the things that Japan did to help the nascent country, including the heavy investments in industry and development based on the spirit of the East-Asian Co-prosperity Sphere. She even went as far as to state that it was these investments in the current North-Eastern China that made China what she is today. She then speculated that had Manchukuo survived, it would be better than China today, for isn't Taiwan better than mainland China after 50 years of Japanese rule?
Let me skip to the author's motivation for writing the book and return to critique her approach. She's fundamentally concerned about the self-blame attitude prevalent in Japan today which to her is uncritical about their history and would only sweepingly admit that the Japanese were evil and wrong in that part of their history. She felt that the Japanese were telling themselves that they deserve to always live in shame because of their erroneous interpretation of history. The younger generation is therefore brought up to be a bunch of self-blaming weaklings unwilling to strive.
While her worries are legitimate and understandable, her outlook is rather extreme and sometimes undermines her argument. First of all, she, like others of similar school of thought, always label those who face up to the ills of the then Japanese Imperial policies Communists. I cannot draw that link and wonder why they did. It is a generalisation and not even a very well substantiated one.
The other thing I find distasteful is to portray the Han Chinese as cruel, uncultured and devious. These are dropped liberally throughout the book and sometimes used to contrast with the Japanese, who being straight as arrow in their dealings according to her, are often deceived by the Chinese. I won't dispute that Chinese are not the model for nobility, but it's a stretch to claim that actions and behaviours of the Japanese in Manchuria were a reaction to the Chinese's deviousness and otherwise, the Japanese's own motivation would only be altruism. The Koreans, who were on the side of the Japanese, were not spared. On more than one occasion, when referring to wrong-doings, she would attribute them to Koreans in Japanese uniforms (pg., 26, 27).
At the start of the book, the author made an important point about how good history should be based on facts and not politics (pg., 22) and we cannot be selective with facts (pg., 253), a point I heartily agree with. She then promptly went on to make conclusions based on her own opinions 《我认为》(pg., 27, 158, 242), hearsay 《据说》(pg., 97, 259, 260), and selectively admitting "facts" about Zhang Zuolin's assassination. Zhang Zuolin's death has been established by many historians as an act of assassination by the Kwangtung Army. But she chose another source which singularly claimed that the bomb was placed inside the carriage of the train and not on the track and by extension, is an insider job, which she conveniently blamed on who else? The Communists. The most audacious is her claim that the Japanese atrocities were played up by the west to obscure their own acts of atrocities in Asia (pg., 21).
Notwithstanding, the book is not without merits. The history of the early 20th century in China is complicated. I do not know if any side can claim a monopoly to the "truth" even as both sides claim to be narrating the "facts". But this author chose to put the spotlight on what supports her position, some of which do give food for thought. For one thing, did the Japanese really not contribute anything at all to Manchuria? There are plenty of evidence that they did. She claimed that Japan "expanded" into other countries to help them modernise. Many would dispute that, Pu Yi would not, that is, until the Tokyo Tribunal. But we can also point to the Southeast Asian colonies of the British and the Dutch to see evidence that there were plenty who were willing collaborators who believed that the Japanese were able to help them gain independence. If there is one issue that the book highlighted that might be controversial and unacceptable to the Chinese today, it is the question of how the Chinese regarded Manchuria then. Did they consider it part of China? Why then did they have the concept of "within and beyond the border" 《关内,关外》? Sure, there were many Han Chinese beyond that border, but so are there today in Singapore and Vancouver. That does not make these places part of China. Was Manchukuo known as 满洲国 or 伪满洲国? The answer to this question many throw some light on the legitimacy of Manchukuo, something that even the Litton Report was purposely vague about.
In the end, I feel that this book is worth reading. If not for history, then as a test of one's critical thinking skills. To be sure, this is not a book devoid of research or facts. It's one that is pitted against general accepted historical narrative by highlighting less known facts and positions. Unfortunately, on occasions, the author went too far and thus reducing her own credibility.
例如,在美國學界中杜贊奇(Prasenjit Duara)所寫的《主權與本真性:滿洲國與東亞現代》(Sovereignty and Authenticity: Manchukuo and the East Asian Modern)在取向與立場上其實就很接近於本書,只是沒有本書那麼極端,立論也有根據。而陳永發與沙培德(Peter Zarrow)為該書所作的書評,也認為這也跟杜贊奇所使用的材料多半為日本與滿洲國的宣傳有關,卻忽略了日本政府在宣傳與實踐上的差距。[6]杜贊奇所寫的《主權與本真性:滿洲國與東亞現代》 我認為同樣的批評也適用於本書上。