EACS-2016. Book of Abstracts

Section 14 21st Biennial Conference of the European Association for Chinese Studies 175 Yonaha Keiko (Osaka University) English Education in Okinawa under the U.S. Occupation, 1945–1953: How did the San Francisco Peace Treaty Influence Elementary School English Education? Key words: San Francisco Peace Treaty, U.S. Japan Security Treaty, U.S. policy toward Japan, U.S. policy toward Okinawa, Education policy Why was compulsory English education in elementary schools discontinued in Okinawa under U.S. occupation? The author points out five factors as the answer to this research question. This paper deals with the last but most important factor among those five factors: political factors such as changes in and the finalization of U.S. policies toward Japan and Okinawa. This chapter traces U.S. policies toward Japan and Okinawa centering on the San Francisco Peace Treaty and how elementary school compulsory English education was ended by 1953 as the result of such a political factor. U.S. policy toward the Far East, which was a reflection of U.S. policy toward the U.S.S.R., influ- enced policies toward Japan and Okinawa and resulted in the San Francisco Peace Treaty. The political factors expressed in that treaty and the security treaty between the U.S. and Japan had been influencing education policies toward Japan and Okinawa; however, in Okinawa, where the military was made the highest priority, education was not regarded as so important by the U.S. military government and it was put in Okinawan educators’ hands as far as U.S. policy toward Okinawa permitted. Therefore, it can be said that with the finalization of Okinawa’s political position by the treaty in which Japan’s potential sovereignty over Ryukyu Island (Okinawa) was admitted, and also along with the requests from Japan and Okinawa, it was decided that the educational system in Okinawa would follow that of Japan and as a result, elementary school English education in Okinawa was ended. Zachmann Urs Matthias (University of Edinburgh) What China? Sino-Japanese Relations and the Discourse on China as a ‘Failed State’, 1895–1937 Key words: international law, empire, modern diplomacy, state failure, foreign intervention For most of the pre-modern period, China was the embodiment of the ‘eternal empire’, not only in East Asia and particularly to Japan, but also in western enlightenment discourse. This changed with the expansion of the western powers into Asia during the 19th century and the concomitant spread of the Westphalian state system into the region. Ironically, it was not the western powers, but Japan that pushed China over the edge and, in 1895, led to the full realization of the western state system in East Asia. However, China under this system remained an international embarrassment. On the one hand, the First Sino-Japanese War and subsequent developments gave rise to the discourse of China as a ‘failed state’ that continued well into the 20th century. However, unlike Korea, this did not lead to the formal partition or annexation of China, but on the contrary, to a call for the protection of ‘China’s integrity’ (Shina hozen) and the pursuit of more informal means of interference and intervention. This paper traces Japan’s discourse on China’s statehood, sovereignty and nature as a ‘failed state’ from the end of the First Sino-Japanese War unto the so-called Manchurian Crisis of 1931–1933 and its aftermath. For material, it draws mainly on public statements by Japanese politicians and intellectuals, but also publications by Japanese international lawyers on Japan’s China policy and the state of China. The paper demonstrates the unique position of China in Japan’s geostrategic thinking as a political entity sui generis that both invited and inhibited foreign intervention. Moreover, it shows in comparison with the British political and legal discourse that Japan was often in (tacit) agreement with western political power, which may also account for the rather ambivalent position that western powers took towards Japanese expansion on the continent in general.