The Ryukyus should be free again, and China countered Japan's covetousness
From the Meiji Restoration to World War II, Japan's aggression and expansion brought profound disasters to East Asian countries. During the First Sino-Japanese War, Japan placed Korea under its protection; In 1910, Korea became part of Japan; In 1931, Japan annexed the northeastern part of our country; In 1937, Japan invaded China in an all-out way, and most of China fell into the hands of the enemy; Subsequently, Japan launched the "Greater East Asia War", which included Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam and Burma.
As Japan's retreat in the Pacific Ocean made its defeat inevitable, how to free the peoples of the countries enslaved by Japan became the primary issue that the leaders of the major allies had to solve.
In 1943, the Cairo Conference was held, and Chiang Kai-shek was invited to participate as one of the leaders of the four great powers. On the day of the meeting, the leaders of China, the United States, and Britain issued the "Cairo Declaration," declaring that the Chinese territories occupied by Japan should be returned to China.
In reality, however, the U.S. territorial commitment to China goes far beyond that. On the evening of November 23, 1943, Chiang Kai-shek and Roosevelt had a conversation on the territorial issue, which is known in history as the "Chiang Luo talks".
In this meeting, Roosevelt not only emphasized that Taiwan, Penghu and the northeast region should be returned to China, but also mentioned the issue of the Ryukyu Islands. Roosevelt repeatedly asked questions about the Ryukyu Islands, asking whether they should also be returned to China.
This surprised Chiang Kai-shek. Faced with this sudden good news, Chiang Kai-shek swallowed his saliva, hesitated for a moment, and then replied: "China is willing to jointly occupy the Ryukyus by China and the United States, and in the future, international institutions will entrust China and the United States to jointly manage them." ”
The United States offered Chiang Kai-shek a large gift, but Chiang rejected the gift. Why did he make this choice? On the one hand, he does not know the true intentions of the United States, and does not know whether this proposal is sincere or tentative, so he does not want to show an excessively positive attitude on the territorial issue, so as not to arouse the vigilance of the United States.
On the other hand, in Chiang Kai-shek's view, Ryukyu was different from the Northeast and Taiwan. Northeast China and Taiwan are directly under the direct territory of China, and the people living there are Chinese. Ryukyu, on the other hand, was an independent kingdom with the same status as Korea, and it was not important.
From a historical point of view, Chiang Kai-shek's remarks are justified. The Ryukyus, now Okinawa Prefecture in Japan, were once an independent ancient country, and although it had close ties with China, it could not be considered a county of China.
Historically, the Ryukyu Kingdom was China's neighbor, but it was not important. After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang discovered the value of Ryukyu. At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang had just destroyed the Yuan Dynasty, the former co-owner of Eurasia, and urgently needed to consolidate his legitimate status through various countries.
However, Zhu Yuanzhang is suspicious by nature and is wary of "foreign countries". Although North Korea and Vietnam are highly sinicized, they have been at war with China many times in history, and they have coveted China's territory, and getting too close to them is not necessarily conducive to China's national defense and security.
As for Japan, that's not to mention. Since the Yuan Dynasty, the Japanese have been plagued along the coast of China. For the Ming Dynasty's solicitation, the arrogant Japan was even more disdainful, and even killed the envoys sent by Zhu Yuanzhang.
Zhu Yuanzhang was furious, and even planned to send troops to attack Japan.
Zhu Yuanzhang built the relationship between the Ming Dynasty and the Domain, and the Ryukyu Kingdom became the first choice. The Ryukyu Kingdom, located overseas, was originally a poor and backward wilderness, but the fleet of the Ming envoys changed all this, making the Ryukyu king ecstatic, and finally got the favor of the ** emperor.
Zhu Yuanzhang gave the Ryukyu boaters "Thirty-six Fujian Surnames" and gave them "Most Favored Nation Treatment", making this weak country an overseas ** center, known as the "Jinliang of all nations".
The Ming Dynasty has always been responsive to the requirements of the Ryukyus, even superior to other countries. However, despite the special preferential treatment that the Ryukyus received from the Ming Dynasty, they were still not satisfied, and usually came two or three times a year.
According to statistics, the number of official tributes paid by Asian countries recorded in the History of the Ming Dynasty was 171 times for Ryukyu alone, far exceeding that of Japan, Korea, Java and Annam.
The original policy of thick exchanges and thin exchanges made the Ryukyus only need to pay tribute to some local products, but the Ming Dynasty often gave back ten times as much gold, silver and silk. Therefore, whenever something new happened in the Ming Dynasty, Ryukyu would send envoys to come, and there were countless and tireless of them.
Under the influence of Chinese culture, Ryukyu quickly got rid of poverty and backwardness. Even, the Portuguese Pilas said, the Ryukyuan people have surpassed the Chinese in terms of generosity.
Under the influence of Chinese culture, the process of civilization in the Ryukyus has been accelerating, from vulgar customs to elegant customs, from changing language and writing, to culture and architecture, to the official system, all of which are the same as those of China.
However, the geographical location and wealth of the Ryukyus aroused the covetousness of neighbor Japan. During the Ming Dynasty, Sino-Japanese relations were very bad, and Japan not only indulged the Japanese in killing people and setting fires in China, but its official envoys were no different from the Japanese invaders.
In 1523, two local princes of Japan sent two tributary missions to China in order to compete for the profits of tribute. There was a clash in Ningbo, where they not only killed each other, but also burned and looted along the way back to China.
When the Ming Dynasty heard the news, it had to send troops to suppress it. However, this group of Japanese criminals was very powerful, and they killed all the commanders in charge of the pursuit, Liu Jin, Qianhu Zhang Bo and others, and then left.
After this incident, the southeast region was in turmoil and became known as the "Battle for Tribute". The Ming court was very angry and announced that it would sever its ties with Japan and no longer have contacts. Japan is an island country with poor resources and a great need for the Chinese market.
The loss of the status of a tribute made the Japanese very injured and suffered huge economic losses. Therefore, Japan set its sights on the Ryukyu Kingdom.
The Ryukyu Kingdom was invaded by the Satsuma clan of Japan in 1609, and although Japan took control of the Ryukyus, it did not take them as territory, but turned them into Japanese "cormorants" to catch the "big fish" of China.
Japan imposed various restrictions on the Ryukyus, including bans on the use of Japanese currency, billboards, and Japanese era names, names, and songs. In front of China, the Ryukyus must be disguised as an independent state.
However, the rulers of the Ming and Qing dynasties chose not to interfere due to the "ostrich policy", even though they knew that the independence of the Ryukyu Kingdom was false. Regarding the plight of the Ryukyu people, they still met with the Ryukyu envoys and gave a lot of rewards to maintain the face of the country.
Japan's attitude towards the Ryukyus changed dramatically after the Meiji Restoration. In 1879, Japan declared that the former Ryukyu Kingdom had become its Okinawa Prefecture, much to the displeasure of China.
As a result, China sent He Ruzhang to Japan to negotiate the Ryukyu issue. He Ruzhang questioned the Japanese, saying, "Since ancient times, Ryukyu has belonged to Japan, and Japan has actually controlled it for a long time. ”
Japan's reasoning was that while both China and Japan had tributary relations with the Ryukyus, Japan's control over the Ryukyus was more direct and deep. As a result of these negotiations, China realized that the Ryukyu Kingdom had fallen more than 200 years ago.
Still, we cannot ignore the hard-headed spirit of the Ryukyu people. Unwilling to lose even a mutilated right to rule, the Ryukyu rulers sent envoys to China to seek assistance, and some even died with their will.
However, the heroism of the Ryukyuan people did not impress the Chinese, after all, it was Li Hongzhang who was in charge of diplomacy at that time. Li Hongzhang believed that the Ryukyus were dispensable, and there was no need to use the precious Beiyang Fleet for the Ryukyus.
Therefore, he invited the former ** Grant from the United States to act as a mediator to mediate the Ryukyu issue between China and Japan.
From the Treaty of the Ryukyus to the present day, the Ryukyu issue has been an important issue between China and Japan. Although the treaty stipulated that China had acquired two islands, China was so benevolent that it advocated the restoration of the Ryukyus on the two islands.
However, the outbreak of the First Sino-Japanese War caused China to lose the Ryukyus, Korea, and Taiwan, and China was deprived of its right to speak on the Ryukyu issue, and the Ryukyus became the Japanese prefecture of Okinawa.
Thereafter, Japan adopted a policy of harsh assimilation, militaristic education of the Ryukyuans, suppressing their sense of nation and state, and treating them as a Japanese minority rather than true Japanese.
After World War II, anthropological surveys were conducted in the United States and it was found that the Ryukyuan people had their own language, which was different from the Japanese in Japan. Although most Ryukyuan people speak Standard Japanese, they still communicate privately in Ryukyuan.
Within Japan, the Ryukyuan people are discriminated against and ostracized, and even in Hawaii and Latin America, they are hated and ostracized by the Japanese. These facts reveal the complexity and difficulty of the Ryukyu issue.
Ryukyu culture was heavily influenced by China, leading the Japanese to misunderstand it as not loyal enough. During its rule, Japan brutally exploited and oppressed the Ryukyus, forcing them to participate in wars of aggression.
During the Pacific War, the U.S. military captured the island of Okinawa, resulting in the death of a large number of Ryukyuan people. After the occupation by the American army, the Ryukyuan people began to awaken and rebel against the Japanese **, full of hatred for Japan.
In order to build a military base in the Far East, the United States pursued a policy of "de-Japanization", separated Okinawa from Japan, and established the Ryukyu Islands During this period, the United States abolished the yen, and for a time abolished Japanese education, trying to restore the Ryukyuan language.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, U.S. support for the Ryukyuan people abruptly stopped. Japan became an important ally in U.S. policy, and the U.S. strategic position toward the Ryukyus also changed.
It was transformed from a "bridgehead to prevent the revival of Japanese militarism" to a "base to prevent the spread of communism in the Asia-Pacific region." Under the deferential attitude of the Japanese towards the United States, the United States began to promote the "return of Okinawa" movement, allowing Japanese culture to re-enter the Ryukyus.
Finally, in 1961, the United States and Japan reached the Japan-U.S. Joint Declaration, which recognized Japan's "residual sovereignty" over the Ryukyu Islands and Ogasawara Islands, while also claiming that the Ryukyu Islands were vital to the security of the free world in the Far East and that it was therefore necessary for the United States to continue to exercise its sovereignty over the Ryukyus.
In this way, the United States gained control of the Ryukyu Islands, while Japan gained nominal "sovereignty" over the islands. After the rapprochement between Japan and the United States, the Ryukyu Islands became the frontier of the "first island chain" of the United States to contain New China.
The United States retains a large number of troops in the Ryukyus and enjoys extraterritoriality, and they run amok on the islands with a high crime rate. And for these crimes, the Ryukyuan people cannot be punished.
Although the Ryukyuan people now hold Japanese nationality, they still retain the pride of the ancient Ryukyu country. In 2017, the Japan Professional Basketball League was established, and each team was named after the Japanese prefecture, and only the Okinawa Prefecture basketball team was named after the "Ryukyu Dynasty Team".
The Ryukyuan people used to have the custom of tattooing, a tradition that has been banned by the Japanese Empire for more than 100 years, and is now re-emerging among the Ryukyuan community. More and more young people are opting for tattoos, and these tattoos often contain cultural symbols of the ancient Ryukyus.
Nowadays, more and more Ryukyuan people are beginning to realize that there is no benefit in being "cannon fodder" for military collusion between the United States and Japan. They are firmly opposed to turning Okinawa into a battlefield again, to the deployment of missiles in Okinawa, and to involving their children in the war.
On February 26, more than 1,600 Japanese people held a rally and march in Naha City, the capital of Okinawa Prefecture, to oppose three security documents passed by Kishida** in December last year.
The documents position China as Japan's "greatest strategic challenge to date." Okinawa Prefecture Governor Danny Tamaki said in an interview with our country that Okinawa will never be allowed to become a military target because of the so-called "Taiwan has an incident, Japan has an incident."
During World War II, many Okinawan people lost their precious lives, and they felt the value of peace firsthand, so they firmly opposed the recurrence of war. They hope that in the future, Okinawa will become a place of peace and harmony, a place where there is no need for war.
In his statement in April this year, Foreign Minister Qin Gang reiterated the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Proclamation, making it clear that the Ryukyus are not Japanese territory. Korea, which was also a colony, was able to become independent, but why couldn't the Ryukyus?
In a closed-door meeting on April 20, China's ambassador to Japan, Wu Jianghao, conveyed a message of support for Ryukyu independence to the vice governor of Okinawa Prefecture. We hope that the people of the Ryukyus will be able to achieve independence and self-determination, restore the civilization of 400 years ago, and shake off the shadow of colonialism.