Alvin D. Coox and Hilary Conroy, eds. China and Japan: A Search for Balance Since World War I. Pp. xxii, 468. Santa Barbara, CA: American Bibliographical Center, 1978. $19.75. Wolf Mendl. Issues in Japan's China Policy. Pp. xii, 178. New York: Oxford University Press, 1978. $18.50
| Author | R. Kent Lancaster |
| Date | 01 January 1979 |
| DOI | 10.1177/000271627944100122 |
| Published date | 01 January 1979 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
204
ALVIN
D.
COOX
and
HILARY
CONROY,
eds.
China
and
Japan:
A
Search
for
Balance
Since
World
War
I.
Pp.
xxii,
468.
Santa
Barbara,
CA:
American
Bibliographical
Center,
1978.
$19.75.
WOLF
MENDL.
Issues
in
Japan’s
China
Policy.
Pp.
xii,
178.
New
York:
Oxford
University
Press,
1978.
$18.50.
These
two
works
on
Sino-Japanese
relations
provide
a
solid
and
useful
background
to
August’s
Treaty
of
Peace
and
Friendship
between
Tokyo
and
Peking.
As
their
titles
indicate,
the
author/editors
have
viewed
those
rela-
tions
from
different
perspectives.
Wolf
Mendl
has
concentrated
almost
entirely
on
Japan
and
the
evolution
of
her
post
World
War
II
China
policy.
More
than
three
quarters
of
his
text
is
devoted
to
a
chronological
analysis
of the
period
since
Prime
Minister
Tanaka’s
visit
to
Peking
in
1972.
Alvin
D.
Coox
and
Hilary
Conroy
broaden
the
view
by
pushing
back
to
World
War
I
and
by
encompassing
both
nations
in
their
focus,
although
limita-
tions
on
evidence
necessitate
much
closer
attention
to
Japanese
than
Chinese
motivations
during
the
recent
period.
In
a
series
of
seventeen
articles,
their
work
moves
slowly
from
the
Shantung
Prob-
lem
and
the
Twenty-One
Demands
up
to
the
present,
converging
with
Mendl’s
s
material
only
in
the
last
quarter of
the
book.
The
one,
a
tightly-focused
mono-
graphic
analysis,
the
other,
a
somewhat
sprawling
series
of
disparate
essays,
the
goals
of
both
are
the
same-to
explore
the
hows,
whys,
and
where-do-we-go-
from
here’s
of
this
summer’s
treaty.
As
they
converge,
both
works
stress
the
present
and
past
heterodoxy
of
Japanese
views
of
China,
and
both
give
considerable
attention
to
the
policy
mak-
ing
process
in
Japan-specifically
the
process
that
led
to
detente
with
China.
There
are
minor
points
of
disagreement.
Yung
H.
Park,
in
an
excellent
article
on
the
Tanaka
period,
holds
that
public
opinion,
the
press,
and
opposition
parties
had
virtually
no
part
in
Japan’s
China
policy
decisions;
Mendl
finds
it
difficult
to
gauge
the
importance
of those
elements,
but
sees
them
as
definite
fac-
tors
in
the
process.
Both
cite
the
business
community
as
the
prime
advocate
of
im-
proved
relations
with
China,
and
busi-
nessmen
as
much
quicker
to act
than
the
politicians.
Business,
however,
was
divided,
too,
with
articulate
sectors
tied
by
interest
to
Taiwan.
Both
cast
careful
glances
into
the
future
of
Sino-Japanese
relations,
and
as
Tang
Tsou,
Tetsuo
Najita,
and
Hideo
Otake
put
it,
see
a
rela-
tionship
&dquo;not
of
alliance
but
not
of
con-
frontation
either.&dquo;
There
is
no
consen-
sus
as
to
the
relative
importance
of
factors
which
might
destroy
detente.
Mendl
gives
special
prominence
to
Korea
as
such
a
factor,
while
Tsou
and
others
see
Taiwan
as
the
major
potential
irritant,
at
least
in
this
decade.
Although
both
books
make
valuable
contributions
to
an
understanding
of the
Sino-Japanese
relationship,
neither
is
perhaps
the
ideal.
Mendl’s
chief
contri-
butions
are
his
chronological
coverage
of
policy
developments
in
Japan
and
the
useful
data
in
his
appendices.
He
tends
to
make
his
points
at
rather
in-
ordinate
length,
obscuring
some
of
the
basic
excitement
of
his
material,
and
his
conclusions
are
somewhat
timid,
which
may,
of course,
extend
the
shelf life
of his
work
in
a
world
of
continuous
change.
Coox
and
Conroy
note
that
few
guide-
lines
were
set
for
the
contributors
to
their
volume,
and
thus
the
search
for
the
balance
of
their
sub-title
is
carried
to
a
number
of
rather
obscure
corners.
While
all
the
essays
are
of
a
very
high
order
of
scholarship
and
discrete
interest,
not
all
contribute
a
great
deal
to
the
main
theme.
After
an
excellent
introduction
by
Robert
A.
Scalapino
and
an
&dquo;over-
view&dquo;
by
Chalmers
Johnson,
there
fol-
low a
long
series
of
articles,
some
of
which
revise
some
rather
minor
mis-
conceptions
or
illuminate
rather
minor
episodes
in
past
Sino-Japanese
relations.
As
the
chronological
coverage
of the
col-
lection
moves
into
the
post
World
War
II
period,
the
focus
broadens from
the
forgotten
comer
to
the
general
theme.
The
shift
is
one
in
genre
and
is
abrupt;
the
two
sections
of
the
book
do
not
hold
together.
The
earlier
essays
contribute
to
chronological
advance,
but
not
really
to
To continue reading
Request your trial