China and Japan: Facing History

by Ezra F. Vogel

Overview

A Financial Times “Summer Books” Selection

“Will become required reading.”
—Times Literary Supplement

“Elegantly written…with a confidence that comes from decades of deep research on the topic, illustrating how influence and power have waxed and waned between the two countries.”
—Rana Mitter, Financial Times

China and Japan have cultural and political connections that stretch back fifteen hundred years, but today their relationship is strained. China’s military buildup deeply worries Japan, while Japan’s brutal occupation of China in World War II remains an open wound. In recent years both countries have insisted that the other side must openly address the flashpoints of the past before relations can improve.

Boldly tackling the most contentious chapters in this long and tangled relationship, Ezra Vogel uses the tools of a master historian to examine key turning points in Sino–Japanese history. Gracefully pivoting from past to present, he argues that for the sake of a stable world order, these two Asian giants must reset their relationship.

“A sweeping, often fascinating, account…Impressively researched and smoothly written.”
—Japan Times

“Vogel uses the powerful lens of the past to frame contemporary Chinese–Japanese relations…[He] suggests that over the centuries—across both the imperial and the modern eras—friction has always dominated their relations.”
—Sheila A. Smith, Foreign Affairs

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674251458
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	06/01/2021
Pages:	536
Sales rank:	655,178
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.70(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Ezra F. Vogel (1930-2020) is the author of Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and winner of the Lionel Gelber Prize, and of the international bestseller Japan as Number One. He was Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences Emeritus at Harvard University.

Table of Contents

Preface vii

1 Chinese Contributions to Japanese Civilization, 600-838 1

2 Trade without Transformative Learning, 838-1862 29

3 Responding to Western Challenges and Reopening Relations, 1839-1882 65

4 Rivalry in Korea and the Sino-Japanese War, 1882-1895 100

5 Japanese Lessons for a Modernizing China, 1895-1937 with Paula S. Harrell 132

6 The Colonization of Taiwan and Manchuria, 1895-1945 175

7 Political Disorder and the Road to War, 1911-1937 with Richard Dyck 203

8 The Sino-Japanese War, 1937-1945 248

9 The Collapse of the Japanese Empire and the Cold War, 1945-1972 286

10 Working Together, 1972-1992 327

11 The Deterioration of Sino-Japanese Relations, 1992-2018 356

12 Facing the New Era 404

Biographies of Key Figures 419

Notes 471

Sources and Further Reading 481

Acknowledgments 503

Index 505

Editorial Reviews

Ezra Vogel’s China and Japan is more than just an important, new addition to scholarship. Based on more than half a century of Vogel’s own work, along with that of many others, this masterful book traces the long relationship between China and Japan in a way that favors neither over the other and covers a wide range of social, political, economic, and cultural ties. General readers and scholars alike have much to gain from reading this marvelous and welcome history of the interactions between China and Japan.

Joshua A. Fogel

The importance of this book—by one of the great Asian specialists from the U.S. of the modern era—is in alerting what will hopefully be a wide readership to how complex, and crucial, Sino-Japanese relations are, and how any complacency about the two being able to get on easily and unproblematically can be cured by attending to their long, complex and frequently acrimonious history.

Times Higher Education - Kerry Brown

Will become required reading…Vogel delves broadly into Japanese and Chinese societies to urge less acrimony and better mutual understanding…Displays a lifetime of deep engagement with sources in English, Chinese and Japanese…He is one of the few thinkers alive with sufficient traction to speak equally with leaders in both countries as well as people on the street.

Times Literary Supplement - Alexis Dudden

While it is not easy for outsiders to plumb the deep-seated emotions and complex psychology of the Sino-Japanese relationship, no one is better qualified to help us than Ezra Vogel. As the author of many important and influential books on both countries and possessing an extraordinary network of contacts among scholars and policy makers in China, Japan, and the United States, he is truly a unique scholar of Asia, and it is no surprise that his new volume is a work of exceptional learning.

Monumenta Nipponica - Kenneth Pyle

A sweeping, often fascinating, account…Impressively researched and smoothly written, China and Japan is a timely reminder of how public perceptions are shaped by political expediency, how new leaders and propaganda can efface existing goodwill.

Japan Times - Nicolas Gattig

For 1,500 years, China and Japan have taken turns as the major Asian power players, shaping each other’s destinies even as they’re often at odds. Vogel traces the nuances.

New York Times Book Review

Vogel uses the powerful lens of the past to frame contemporary Chinese-Japanese relations…With scholarly care and an eye on contemporary policy, Vogel suggests that over the centuries—across both the imperial and the modern eras—friction has always dominated their relations.

Foreign Affairs - Sheila A. Smith

This elegantly written history of the relationship between East Asia’s two major powers deploys a 1,500-year chronology with a confidence that comes from decades of deep research on the topic, illustrating how influence and power have waxed and waned between the two countries.

Financial Times - Rana Mitter

Vogel’s wonderful book offers a compelling account of over a millennium of China–Japan history…Powerful and riveting.

China Review International - Edward Friedman

Ezra Vogel’s China and Japan is more than just an important, new addition to scholarship. Based on more than half a century of Vogel’s own work, along with that of many others, this masterful book traces the long relationship between China and Japan in a way that favors neither over the other and covers a wide range of social, political, economic, and cultural ties. General readers and scholars alike have much to gain from reading this marvelous and welcome history of the interactions between China and Japan.

From the Publisher

The importance of this book—by one of the great Asian specialists from the U.S. of the modern era—is in alerting what will hopefully be a wide readership to how complex, and crucial, Sino-Japanese relations are, and how any complacency about the two being able to get on easily and unproblematically can be cured by attending to their long, complex and frequently acrimonious history.

Times Higher Education

Vogel uses the powerful lens of the past to frame contemporary Chinese-Japanese relations…With scholarly care and an eye on contemporary policy, Vogel suggests that over the centuries—across both the imperial and the modern eras—friction has always dominated their relations.

Foreign Affairs

Will become required reading…Vogel delves broadly into Japanese and Chinese societies to urge less acrimony and better mutual understanding…Displays a lifetime of deep engagement with sources in English, Chinese and Japanese…He is one of the few thinkers alive with sufficient traction to speak equally with leaders in both countries as well as people on the street.

Times Literary Supplement

A sweeping, often fascinating, account…Impressively researched and smoothly written, China and Japan is a timely reminder of how public perceptions are shaped by political expediency, how new leaders and propaganda can efface existing goodwill.

Japan Times

This elegantly written history of the relationship between East Asia’s two major powers deploys a 1,500-year chronology with a confidence that comes from decades of deep research on the topic, illustrating how influence and power have waxed and waned between the two countries.

Financial Times