The extremely arduous War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression severely restricted the development of modern society in our country and caused us to suffer immeasurable and tremendous losses. After the end of World War II, Japan compensated a lot of military expenses to the countries that had been invaded by them, but our country, which was deeply traumatized by the war, resolutely refused Japan's war reparations. What kind of considerations does the decision to abandon Japan's reparations conceal in our revolutionary ancestors?
First, how many twists and turns have passed on the road to indemnity?
High school history textbooks once defined our country's War of Resistance Against Japan in this way, and this was the first time that our country had won a complete victory in the arduous journey against imperialist aggression. However, this victory was not easy to come by, and in the War of Resistance Against Japan, chinese soldiers and civilians suffered more than 30 million casualties, direct losses of trillions of US dollars, and indirect losses of as much as 500 billion US dollars.
China's victory in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression is not only a victory in a country's war of anti-aggression, but also a dawn of hope on the battlefield of anti-fascism in the world. China has the right and reason to obtain Japan's war reparations, and Japan is the initiator of this war; if it were not for the aggressive acts of Japanese militarism and lust, China would not have suffered such heavy losses and been engraved with war scars that could not be healed.
Therefore, immediately after the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Nationalist Government drafted a "Outline of Conditions for Peace with Japan after the War," which was the basic principle and policy of China's war reparations against Japan, and the amount of claims envisaged in the plan was extremely high, which was not only to compensate China for the money lost in the war for many years, but also to weaken Japan's proud economic foundation after the Meiji Restoration, divert Japan's assets, and strengthen China's industrial strength.
In response to this "Outline of Conditions for Peace with Japan after the War," the National Government convened a meeting of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of the Interior, and the Executive Yuan, and after two meetings and nearly two months of great discussion, the conditions for claiming compensation against Japan were divided into two major factions. One is the insistent claimant faction represented by Zhu Shaoyang, counselor of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who advocates that the Japanese side must be allowed to make monetary compensation and compensate China for the losses of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression for several years in real money and silver. Pay huge military bills.
Another faction, represented by Wang Zhonghui, the convener of the meeting and then secretary general of the National Government's Supreme Committee for National Defense, believed that economic compensation should be replaced by compensation in kind. Their reasoning was that the war had also hit the Japanese economy, and in order to make up for the war reparations, the Japanese side was likely to print more money, which in turn would cause inflation.
Once inflation spreads to Asia or even the world, China will not only fail to achieve the goal of using Japanese money to develop industry, but will also impact the normal international economic order, which will fundamentally do more harm than good. It is better to abandon monetary payments and let the Japanese side compensate China for losses with actual items instead.
After some heated discussion, Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of the Nationalist Government, finally chose Wang's opinion and decided to demand in-kind war reparations from Japan in accordance with Japan's actual economic ability at that time.
Japanese warships, the only compensation obtained after several years of war?
After that, the Chinese Nationalist Government did implement this resolution to the end, and in June 1947, it was given thirty-four Japanese warships of various types, which was the only compensation for many years of bloody resistance. Was Chiang Kai-shek's decision to give up war reparations really only for economic reasons? The answer may not be that simple.
In 1951, just after the establishment of the republic, the United States single-handedly presided over the peace conference with Japan, intending to support Japan in the Far East as an Asian base for the United States to oppose socialism, communism, and suppress the former Soviet Union. Therefore, at the conference on the peace treaty with Japan, the United States was extremely protective of Japan, and with regard to which side of the Kuomintang should conclude a post-war reparations treaty on behalf of China and Japan, the United States gave Japan great autonomy and even asked Japan to choose which side to negotiate with the Kuomintang.
In the end, under the intervention of the United States, China was excluded from the Peace Conference with Japan, and the San Francisco Peace Treaty clearly stipulated that Japan would compensate for this protracted war of aggression by providing labor or technical services to other countries and giving up Japanese property rights and interests in the Territory of the Allies. Although the Allies completely renounced Japan's military compensation, Our Premier Zhou Enlai issued a statement on behalf of the Government of the Republic not recognizing the San Francisco Peace Treaty signed under the manipulation of the United States.
In April 1952, the Nationalist government, which had retired to Taiwan, unilaterally signed the Japan-China Treaty with Japan, announcing that it would completely abandon the reparations for the War of Resistance Against Japan. This resolution is intended to proclaim the so-called "legal status" of Taiwan's National Government, and it is also one of the measures taken by the National Government to curry favor with the United States. At that time, the Nationalist government intended to seek the support of the United States, in order to cooperate with the adjusted Asia strategy of the United States, to curry favor with the powerful backstage of the United States, and also followed the United States in abandoning its demand for compensation against Japan and giving up the national righteousness for the selfish interests of a party.
Japan's long-overdue compensation has not yet arrived. So, for what reason did New China give up claiming compensation from Japan? On what basis did the great man decide to abandon his claim?
3. Tanaka visited China, and the great man decided not to make a claim again?
In the 1970s, when then-Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka visited China, Premier Zhou Enlai spoke highly of the Japanese prime minister, saying that Kakuei Tanaka was braver than U.S. President Richard Nixon. He went to China and immediately decided to restore diplomatic relations as soon as he took office, which eventually led to the normalization of Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations and created immortal historical merits.
According to the Compensation Committee of the Executive Yuan of the Kuomintang, Japan should compensate China for 96 billion US dollars, and by the 1970s, when Tanaka Kakuei visited China, this money had snowballed to 120 billion US dollars. This made Kakuei Tanaka a little nervous, for fear of arousing opposition from the right wing in Japan, so as to affect sino-Japanese diplomatic relations that were about to develop for the better.
On the issue of paying war reparations, Kakuei Tanaka did show extraordinary courage and perseverance. Before coming to China, Kakuei Tanaka was mentally prepared to pay war reparations. Kakuei Tanaka has said that if the Chinese side asks for compensation, as long as the amount is reasonable, he will pay the war reparations that have been delayed for many years.
After arduous negotiations, China and Japan finally reached a "Sino-Japanese Joint Statement" that will be remembered in the history of Qingqing, and as soon as Chairman Mao saw Tanaka and his party, he immediately asked in a relaxed tone, "Is the quarrel over?" The discussion of the Taiwan issue and the issue of reparations is over. Prime Minister Tanaka quickly replied, "The quarrel is over." Chairman Mao then turned to the Accompanying Japanese Foreign Minister Dahei and half-jokingly said, "The world is at peace."
The signing of the Sino-Japanese Joint Declaration announced that the Japanese side had severed diplomatic relations with the National Government of Taiwan and established correct diplomatic relations with the Republican Government on the mainland. At the same time, my Government has renounced war reparations and no longer claims against Japan.
The reason why Chairman Mao gave up war reparations was mainly based on two considerations. The war also hit the Japanese economy, and Japan now has not much compensation, nothing more than material compensation for the renovation of some old things, and China cannot get enough monetary compensation and cannot obtain advanced compensation in kind. Claiming war reparations now makes no sense.
On the other hand, Japan has established diplomatic relations with China, and for the sake of establishing friendly diplomatic relations, China should also give up this indemnity. When the Eight-Power Alliance invaded China, the Chinese people also suffered the loss of Gengzi's indemnity, and now asking for compensation will increase the burden on the Japanese people. The war was the fault of the militarists, and it could not be used to punish the common people, and Japan also needed to rebuild its country in the ruins of the war.
The central authorities finally decided to give up Japan's war reparations in order to achieve long-term peace and coordinated development between China and Japan in the next fifty years. China and Japan are geographically similar, and if China had recovered war reparations against Japan that year, it would only lead to embarrassment in the relations between the two countries that have just resumed normal diplomatic relations, and would not be conducive to New China establishing closer ties with neighboring countries in the international diplomatic arena.
Second, demanding war reparations would increase Japan's burden and would not be beneficial to the economic development of the asian region. Chairman Mao was far-sighted, and in nearly fifty years, people will be able to understand the good intentions of the great man if they look at the decisions made by the great man in those years.