China and Japan

Facing History

Ezra F. Vogel

• Publisher: Belknap Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9780674251458
  9780674916579
• eBook ISBN:
  9780674240759
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Chinese History
• Index: History

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

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• 1. Chinese Contributions to Japanese Civilization, 600–838
• 2. Trade without Transformative Learning, 838–1862
• 3. Responding to Western Challenges and Reopening Relations, 1839–1882
• 4. Rivalry in Korea and the Sino-Japanese War, 1882–1895
• 5. Japanese Lessons for a Modernizing China, 1895–1937 with Paula S. Harrell
• 6. The Colonization of Taiwan and Manchuria, 1895–1945
• 7. Political Disorder and the Road to War, 1911–1937 with Richard Dyck
• 8. The Sino-Japanese War, 1937–1945
• 9. The Collapse of the Japanese Empire and the Cold War, 1945–1972
• 10. Working Together, 1972–1992
• 11. The Deterioration of Sino-Japanese Relations, 1992–2018
• 12. Facing the New Era
• Biographies of Key Figures
• Notes
• Sources and Further Reading
• Acknowledgments
• Index