The role that must not be skipped in the normalization of Sino-Japanese relations is Kakuei Tanaka, the Prime Minister of Japan who visited China for the first time after the war. Let's take a look back at that turbulent era and take a look at the Japanese prime minister's mental journey.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="126" > rich and poor birthplace</h1>
Kakuei Tanaka was born on May 4, 1918, to a peasant family in the village of Nitta in Niigata Prefecture, Japan, where he was the only boy of seven children.
In the early years, the Tanaka family, as one of the long-established open village farmers in Nita Village, was still very wealthy.
Soon, in order to start a large farm, his father smashed pots and sold iron to raise more than 40,000 yen and imported three Dutch breeding cattle.
These cattle do not know whether they are unable to travel a long distance or are not satisfied with the water and soil, and they have contracted the disease and died as soon as they arrived at home.
As a result, the Tanaka family lost everything they had, and the family's economy was in a slump, so they could only rely on Tanaka's mother to farm and support their family.
Because of this, Kakuei Tanaka, who was too poor to open the pot, had just graduated from Kakuei Elementary School and had no money to pay tuition and dropped out of school.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="9" > hard-working and humble workers</h1>
In March 1934, 16-year-old Kakuei Tanaka came to Tokyo to work, and he could only work as an apprentice in a small construction company, cleaning the company and going to the construction site every day, and going to night school after work to study, which can be described as the top textbook among the workers.
In this busy work and study, he only had four hours of sleep a day, and his monthly salary was only 5 yen, and he had to pay 3.5 yen for tuition, plus the cost of buying books and measuring experiments, and he had nothing left.
And it is this harsh environment that makes Tanaka's self-motivation more and more determined, "If I don't study seriously, I can only live this life for the rest of my life." ”
After that, Tanaka worked as a delivery man, intern reporter, and so on, while working during the day and studying at a private school at night, and finally got a diploma in civil engineering, which allowed him to find a serious job in Nakamura's office.
In Japan, a serious job means getting out of poverty and entering a life of food and clothing, and even now, it is worth showing off to have a formal job in Japan instead of an intern.
This is an opportunity that many people envy and cannot envy.
Therefore, Tanaka Kakuei took advantage of this opportunity to stand firm and climb up step by step.
At the office, Tanaka became acquainted with Masatoshi Ōkawa.
Masatoshi Okochi
Ōkawa was the director of the Institute of Physics and Chemistry and the chairman of the Riken Chemical Industry Corporation at the time, who undertook the task of developing new technologies in Japan, and a large number of intellectual elites from various fields gathered here.
In 1937, at the age of 19, Tanaka quit his job to start his own company and founded the "Gongei Architectural Office", which contracted the design and construction of civil engineering works, and Viscount Masatoshi Ōkawa subcontracted many projects of the Riken Institute to Tanaka, and everything seemed to be thriving.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="19" > good luck and sad logistics army</h1>
In December 1938, Tanaka was forced into the 3rd Morioka Cavalry Brigade by a conscription notice, and during the Battle of Nomonkan he was responsible for rear service, not combatants, but despite this, the intense work in the war filled him with stress and tension.
In November 1940, Tanaka suffered from complications of pneumonia and was sent back to China for treatment, which was not actually a discharge.
In the same year, Tanaka's sister also suffered from lung disease and was dying.
Sad, Tanaka said goodbye to his sister and then developed a high fever and became in a severe coma.
Just when the medics thought he could prepare for the aftermath, Tanaka miraculously recovered, and as a result he was demobilized as a wounded soldier, this time he finally got out of the war.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="25" > happy and miserable upstart</h1>
After returning to Tokyo, Kakuei Tanaka returned to his old business and met hanako, the daughter of his landlord.
Hanako is a divorced woman, with a child living in her mother's house, average looks, but hands and feet are diligent, kind, she sees Tanaka busy at work, sloppy clothes, always take the initiative to take care of him.
Tanaka was touched in his heart and felt more and more inseparable from the gentle and kind Hanako.
Tanaka married her in 1942, and the two had a son and a daughter, which was supposed to be a perfect family, but the son died at the age of six, which was a painful blow to their family.
Their daughter, Makiko Tanaka, became their only pearl in the palm of their hand, and although her mistress gave birth to two children for him, their status in Tanaka's mind naturally could not be compared with Thata's.
Makiko Tanaka
In 1943, Kakuei Tanaka established tanaka civil construction company and became its general manager. In one year, the scale of operation expanded several times, becoming one of the 50 largest construction companies in Japan at that time.
After the end of World War II, the shops that Tanaka bought during the war increased by millions of dollars due to the soaring real estate prices, and the business flourished, becoming a small nouveau riche in the business industry.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="33" > ready to enter politics and die</h1>
After the war, Kakuei Tanaka became acquainted with a man who had changed his life, the Cabinet Minister Marijuan.
Marijuana admired Kakuei Tanaka's wealth and youth, and persuaded him to give three million yen to fund the KMT campaign, and Tanaka, who had already intended to move closer to the political circles, immediately agreed to the proposal.
Soon, Kakuei Tanaka was elected to the House of Representatives, and as a member of the House of Representatives who was only 30 years old, he had no patrons and no qualifications, and was completely unable to attract people's attention.
In October 1948, the political situation in Japan changed drastically, and The Ashida Cabinet announced his resignation.
Hitoshi Ashida
According to general practice, the Liberal Party, the largest party in Parliament, will form the next Government.
At this time, Tanaka, who was at the last seat of the General Affairs Committee, passionately delivered a speech that "Although Japan is a defeated country, the United States cannot interfere in Japan's internal affairs," which caused the situation at the venue to take a sharp turn for the worse, and Shigeru Yoshida retained the position of president and then formed the second Yoshida Cabinet.
Shigeru Yoshida was so grateful to Kakuei Tanaka that he appointed him under-secretary of state affairs in the Ministry of Justice, but 40 days after Tanaka Kakuei took office, he was arrested and imprisoned for being exposed for alleged bribery.
After two years in prison, Kakuei Tanaka was running for parliament during his time in the detention center due to Shigeru Yoshida's campaign, and succeeded.
After his release from prison, Kakuei Tanaka first served as the general manager of the Nagaoka Railway Company, and later held an important position in the Liberal Democratic Party, and his position in the Liberal Democratic Party continued to steadily improve.
Makiko Tanaka and Kakuei Tanaka
In 1972, then-Japanese Prime Minister Eisaku Sato announced his resignation as prime minister and president of the Liberal Democratic Party, and Kakuei Tanaka was naturally elected prime minister of Japan as the "second in command" of the Liberal Democratic Party.
On July 7, the Tanaka Cabinet was officially formed, and Kakuei Tanaka was only 54 years old, the youngest prime minister in Japanese history and the first prime minister in Japanese history who did not go to university, so he was called a 'civilian prime minister'.
The civilian prime minister was unusually popular with the people, and Japan set off a 'Tanaka fever' for a time.
Tanaka is considered a decisive and executive civilian politician, and a poll conducted by the Asahi Shimbun in August showed Tanaka's approval rating was as high as 62 percent.
In the meantime, let's take a look at what was going on in our country at the time.
After the founding of New China, the Chinese Government at that time discarded the shackles of the history of war between China and Japan, and was willing to establish normal diplomatic relations with Japan based on the long-term interests of the two peoples.
At that time, the new China was in its infancy and needed a peaceful and stable international environment, although it had no one to rely on, but it was fearless.
At this time, Japan was in a state of a defeated country, full of holes, and could only rely on the hegemonism of the United States, and established diplomatic relations with Taiwan, but did not establish diplomatic relations with the Chinese mainland, and there were political parties at home and political interference (the United States) outside, which greatly hindered the normal advancement of Sino-Japanese relations.
Before former Japanese Prime Minister Eisaku Sato decided to establish diplomatic relations with China, he had no intention of abrogating the treaty with Taiwan, and both Mao and Chiang believed that there was only one China.
Sato sought to normalize relations with China, but did not want to abrogate the peace treaty with Taiwan before normalization, and the LDP believed so.
According to Makiko Tanaka, "At that time, the "pro-Taiwan faction" dominated Japan's Liberal Democratic Party, and it was unthinkable that Japan and Taiwan would sever ties."
Tanaka Kakuei considered that in 100 or 200 years, China would rise, so he immediately made a decision, taking advantage of his high support rate, and flew to China non-stop...
This move brought great concerns to him.
Even after a long time of war, Kakuei Tanaka, as the prime minister of Japan, is still panicking, will the food be poisonous? Will there be assassins coming?
He did not understand China at the moment, but he believed that after China's rise, it would be more difficult to establish diplomatic relations, and China and Japan must be friendly.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="58" > create trouble and successful diplomatic relations</h1>
On September 25, 1972, Kakuei Tanaka disembarked from the plane, and it was Zhou Enlai, the premier of the People's Republic of China, who greeted him.
After the meeting, Tanaka Kakuei shook hands with Zhou Enlai, at which point Tanaka Kakuei's eyes were downcast and bowed downwards, as if to express remorse to the Chinese people.
Zhou Enlai smiled and shook Tanaka Kakuei's hand to welcome his arrival, at this time Premier Zhou was already suffering from cancer, but he still did not miss this historic moment, because he had already paid a lot of effort to establish diplomatic relations.
As early as 1952, Premier Zhou had ideas about diplomacy with Japan, and in September 1953, when Premier Zhou met with Ikuo Oyama, chairman of the Japanese Committee for Supporting Peace, he said: "We welcome the Delegation of the Japanese People to visit china, and at the same time our people are willing to send representatives to Visit Japan, but now US imperialism and Japanese reactionaries are hindering the development of friendly relations between the Chinese and Japanese peoples." The current Japanese government is also openly implementing the "embargo" policy of the US government and doing its utmost to hinder the development of Sino-Japanese trade and cultural exchanges. ”
From these remarks, it can be seen that Premier Zhou has initially expressed the diplomatic policy toward Japan of 'putting the people first and using the people to promote officials'; under the strong advocacy of Premier Zhou and Chairman Mao, exchanges between China and Japan have become more and more frequent, and finally they have developed and grown, and only then has this time the Japanese prime minister's visit to China.
Kakuei Tanaka, Japan's youngest prime minister, began his own visit to China more than two months after taking office, which is enough to show the importance Tanaka Kakuei attaches to the normalization of Sino-Japanese relations.
Subsequently, Tanaka Kakuei sat in the welcome motorcade and was arranged to go to Building 18 of the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse.
When he was about to arrive at the station, Premier Zhou smiled and said: "When President Nixon came at the beginning of the year, he also lived here. ”
Kakuei Tanaka also replied with a smile: "Although the president of the United States came earlier than me, the relationship between China and Japan is much older than that between the United States and Japan." ”
In order to show the importance he attaches to the Japanese side, Premier Zhou accompanied Tanaka all the way to Diaoyutai, and after settling down the accommodation of the Japanese delegation visiting China, Premier Zhou planned to have a small talk with Tanaka in the parlor.
After coming to the parlor, Premier Zhou was about to take off his coat, but because Premier Zhou had a patient on his right hand, it was a little inconvenient to take off his coat.
At this time, Tanaka, who was standing nearby, rushed ahead of the staff and wanted to help Premier Zhou take off his coat.
Premier Zhou hurriedly said that he would stop it, he did not expect that the other party would actually help him take off his coat, so he slightly apologetically said to Tanaka, how good it is to let the GUEST take off his coat for me.
After Tanaka listened, he said with a smile: "You arranged for me to stay here, then I am the host here, you are my guest of honor, it is normal for me to take off my coat for you." ”
Prime Minister Tanaka's move expressed his respect for Premier Zhou, and also reflected the sincerity of this visit to China, which made a good start for the next trip to China.
The two sides held the first round of talks in the Anhui Hall of the Great Hall of the People in the afternoon.
Zhou Enlai spoke highly of Tanaka's speech on normalizing Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations since he became prime minister.
Tanaka first expressed regret that Japan and China had had a "period of misfortune" in the past, and sincerely said: "The past history cannot be repeated, and in the future, the japanese and Chinese peoples will live in friendly relations from generation to generation." ”
In the evening, Premier Zhou held a state banquet in the banquet hall of the Great Hall of the People to welcome Prime Minister Tanaka and Foreign Minister Daping and his party, and after Zhou Enlai delivered a welcome speech, Tanaka gave a reply.
Speaking about the history of the invasion of China, he said: "In the past few decades, Japan-China relations have undergone an unfortunate process. In the meantime, our country has caused great trouble to the Chinese people, and I once again express my deep introspection on this. ”
Tanaka's answer won applause from the audience.
Zhou Enlai also applauded, but he looked serious.
Unsuspecting, Kakuei Tanaka returned to the hotel with great joy, not knowing what kind of 'trouble' the reply had created for him during his visit to China.
On September 26, the day after Tanaka Kakuei came to China, the two sides held their second meeting.
Before the start, Kakuei Tanaka felt a hint of strangeness, and the venue was unusually serious.
Sure enough, premier Zhou mentioned yesterday's speech in reply, and Premier Zhou mentioned very seriously: "The first person regrets and reflects on the misfortunes of the past, we can accept it, but 'it has added a lot of trouble', this sentence has aroused strong resentment among the Chinese people, China has suffered great damage from aggression, and it cannot be said that it is 'adding trouble'." ”
Zhou Enlai's attitude towards this matter was very tough, which also made Tanaka Kakuei panic.
I had to explain it in a hurry, saying: "In Japanese, to add trouble is to sincerely express the meaning of apology, to express not to repeat the offense and to ask for forgiveness. ”
For such an explanation, Zhou Enlai said that it must be changed immediately.
Kakuei Tanaka also said that it could be changed according to Chinese customs, and then they talked about another troublesome topic, in fact, after the end of World War II, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida signed a so-called "peace treaty" with Chiang Kai-shek and announced the end of the "wartime state".
Therefore, if Japan once again declares the end of the state of war, it is equivalent to slapping itself.
In this regard, Zhou Enlai indignantly and firmly said: "When New China was founded, Chiang Kai-shek had already fled to Taiwan, and he could no longer represent all of China. He was indignant and suffered war losses mainly on the mainland. We have waived our demand for compensation based on the friendly relations between the two peoples and do not want the Japanese people to suffer because of the burden of compensation. Your treaty bureau chief did not appreciate us, but said that Chiang Kai-shek had already said that he would not make reparations, and this was an insult to us, and we absolutely could not accept it. ”
Odaira Masayoshi, who had been foreign minister for two terms, stared at the thin Zhou Enlai, and only then did he feel that the other party was an extremely clever diplomat.
Next, the Japanese side tried every means to consider how to express the state of war between China and Japan on the issue of ending the disposition of the treaty with Japan and Chiang Kai-shek, and considering that it could not slap itself, the Japanese side proposed: either unilaterally announced by the Chinese side, or replaced "the end of the state of war" with "full-scale peaceful relations".
The Chinese side clearly opposes it on the grounds that such an explanation by the Japanese side is tantamount to still recognizing that the Taiwan Chiang Gang clique is the legitimate representative of China, and the Chinese side certainly cannot accept it.
On September 27, the third meeting began, and Kakuei Tanaka, who had never been able to get an answer, could only ask without shame: "How can we make both sides accountable?" Yesterday I encouraged our diplomats to use their brains. ”
Zhou En: "I would like to express it in this way, that is, 'the normalization of Sino-Japanese relations has ended the abnormal situation between the two countries so far.'" ”
The 'abnormal situation' of course includes the 'war situation', and Tanaka Kakuei has just woken up from a dream, which is acceptable to both sides without losing their principled positions.
In the afternoon of the same day, the Japanese side also made adjustments.
On the issue of Taiwan's ownership, the Japanese side agreed to include in the joint statement the Chinese side's claim that Taiwan is an inalienable part of the territory of the People's Republic of China.
In a joint statement, the Japanese side stated that the Japanese side "fully understands and respects this position of the Chinese government and adheres to the position of article 8 of the Potsdam Proclamation."
Article 8 of the Potsdam Proclamation stipulates that territory stolen by Japan from China, such as Manchuria, Taiwan, the Penghu Islands, etc., shall be returned to China.
After the talks, Mao Zedong decided to meet tanaka Kakuei in person, and in fact the chairman at this time was already seriously ill, but he had just improved somewhat.
At eight o'clock in the evening, the chairman personally received Tanaka Kakuei, during which he mentioned the matter of the reply, and Chairman Mao asked: "How did you solve the problem of 'talking about trouble'?" ”
This time, Tanaka Kakuei was obviously cautious: "We strictly follow China's customs to change." ”
After hearing this answer, Mao Zedong expressed his satisfaction, and as he thought, the question of attitude toward the history of aggression against China was a matter of principle. He also stressed again: "If you say 'add trouble', the people of the whole country will not be satisfied." In China, this is what is said when splashing water on others. ”
After the talks, Mao Zedong also gave Tanaka Kakuei a set of Notes on the Collected Works of Chu Ci as a gift.
Kakuei Tanaka thanked him and expressed his regards to the chairman's body, and the next step was much smoother, and in the talks on the 28th, the two sides had reached a friendly agreement.
Finally, after four days of ups and downs, China and Japan formally established friendly diplomatic relations on September 29 and signed the Sino-Japanese Joint Declaration, and at the same time, the Japanese side solemnly announced the abrogation of the Japan-Chiang Kai-shek Treaty.
This marks the formal establishment of normal diplomatic relations between China and Japan after decades of hostile relations.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="109" > the prime minister and forced to have a caesarean section</h1>
On September 29, after the successful establishment of diplomacy, a banquet was held in Shanghai, and Zhou Enlai exuded a joy rarely seen in recent years, and Tanaka Kakuei was naturally very excited.
He left his seat, who had never been an alcoholic, and personally toasted Premier Zhou and Foreign Minister Ji, thinking that he had just been prime minister for more than two months, he had resisted the threat of the right wing and personally completed the great cause of normalizing diplomatic relations.
Tanaka Kakuei's daughter, Makiko Tanaka, still remembers vividly what her father said when she saw her family after returning home: "You should take Makiko with you!" ”
"Mao Zedong was a philosopher and thinker, and Zhou Enlai was a beautiful man and doer. Zhou Enlai and I were very close. After meeting with Premier Zhou and saying the first sentence, I felt that I would be able to cooperate with this person to get things done. If Premier Zhou didn't live up to my imagination, I would probably simply go back to Japan. Premier Zhou was wounded during the war and had a disability in his right arm. I saw the look of Premier Zhou's right hand and thought it was an injury I had suffered during a war with Japan. In short, the acquaintance with Zhou Enlai was very good. [We] quickly established a relationship of trust. Mao Zedong was also a great philosopher, but Zhou Enlai was very pragmatic and thoughtful. Premier Zhou is outstanding both as a politician and as a human being. I want Makiko to meet someone like that. Definitely take you next time! ”
Later, Tanaka Kakuei once wrote a poem praising Premier Zhou for "his body like a willow swaying in the breeze, and his heart like a rock shattering the waves."
After Returning to Japan, Kakuei Tanaka first went to the Emperor to give a "National Affairs Report" and then attended the Liberal Democratic Party congress, which continued to attack the contents of Tanaka Kakuei's visit to China.
The parliamentarians focused on attacking Kakuei Tanaka, questioning why he wanted to establish diplomatic relations with China, how qualified you were to break diplomatic relations with Taiwan, a national thief with his tail wagging, and so on.
The parliamentarians strongly demanded that Tanaka Kakuei resign from his position and commit suicide by cutting his stomach, and Tanaka Kakuei was naturally attacked and sweated.
When the parliamentarians' attacks were over, Tanaka's dishes were cold, and he told his daughter: "Dealing with the 'pro-Taiwan faction' is harder than negotiating with China."
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" data-track="119" > conclusion</h1>
Tanaka Kakuei's life may not have been glorious, as the first civilian prime minister, he either paid bribes and went to prison, or he lived a chaotic life, not only privately raising his mistress, but even in order to maintain power, he also put forward the statement that "numbers are power".
For a time, Japanese politics became a complete gang puller, and whoever had the largest number of people was the president of the Liberal Democratic Party, and the only way for these leaders to pull people was money.
Throughout his life, it is not difficult to imagine that his deeds and everything he did were brought by money and the masses.
Because the politicians led by Tanaka unscrupulously solicited money, Japan's big business also unscrupulously promoted bribery.
Within 2 years, he was forced to resign due to a money scandal.
Even so, it is impossible to ignore the fact that China and Japan have restored diplomatic relations, and this move to establish diplomatic relations earlier than the United States has also caused a sensation in the international forum of that year and made indelible contributions to the stability of Asia.