As the saying goes, killing people to pay for their lives and owing debts has been a natural thing since ancient times. In modern times, Japan's invasion of China has caused heavy harm to the Chinese people, so compensation should be paid to China after the war.
However, when Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations were established in 1972, Chairman Mao announced that he would give up compensation and no longer ask Japan for war compensation. There are different opinions on this. Some people think that they should not be obsessed with past hatred and should look forward; some people think that they should insist on asking Japan for compensation and make Japan pay the price.
So, what consideration does Chairman Mao advocate giving up the compensation? Looking back on that history many years later, why is it said that this is a major diplomatic victory?
1 Japan's war reparations
1931, Japan attacked Shenyang and created the "September 18th" incident, marking the beginning of the war of aggression against China. In 1937, Japan created the " Lugou Bridge Incident " in Wanpingcheng , and the full-scale war of resistance broke out. After that, the Chinese people fought an arduous eight-year war of resistance. It was not until 1945 that the Japanese invaders were driven out of their territory and achieved a comprehensive victory in the war of resistance.
Japan's war of aggression against China brought huge disasters to China. Not only are the losses in material aspects difficult to count, but the losses in spiritual, psychological and cultural aspects are even more difficult to estimate.
The famous economist Wu Bannong once served as the head of the National Government's compensation group to Japan. According to his estimates, China's losses in the War of Resistance against Japan were no less than US$62 billion;
There are also scholars who estimate that Japan's war compensation to China should be a hundred times higher than the compensation paid by China to Japan during the Sino-Japanese War of 1895. After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, China paid 210 million yuan in war compensation to Japan, so Japan should pay at least 21 billion taels of silver to China; in 1995, Jiang Zemin pointed out that the direct economic losses caused to China by Japan's aggression reached US$100 billion and indirect losses reached US$500 billion.
No matter which statement is adopted, Japan's war compensation is a huge number.
In fact, in the late stage of World War II , the United States, the Soviet Union and other countries began to formulate compensation plans for defeated countries such as Germany and Japan. Considering that both the victorious and the defeated countries were damaged and it was difficult to pay huge compensation, the allies formulated a compensation policy of " to replace the currency with physical objects". The so-called physical objects are various industrial machines of the defeated countries.
For example, after the Soviet Union sent troops to the Northeast, it demolished the $1 billion worth of machinery and equipment left by Japan in the Northeast in the name of asking for war reparations from Japan and transported all of them back to the Soviet Union. These industrial equipment greatly strengthened the Soviet Union's industrial strength.
However, other countries are not as lucky as the Soviet Union. For example, China only received tens of millions of dollars in compensation, and the compensation was repaid into the pocket of the Kuomintang.
Originally, the New China wanted to use Japan's compensation to develop its own industry, but in the end it was too late. In 1950, when talking about the issue of China's industrialization, Liu Shaoqi wrote:
"Japanese imperialism destroyed countless Chinese property in the war, and could have asked Japan to pay a part of the compensation as compensation, but with the world policy of US imperialism invading, this kind of compensation cannot be obtained, let alone obtain compensation for developing China's industry."
With the beginning of the Cold War , the international form also changed greatly.
In order to include Germany and Japan in their own system against the Soviet Union, the United States was not active in claiming compensation. Until 1950, the United States demolished only 700 factories in the West German-occupied area, far lower than the original planned number.
After that, the United States directly announced that it would give up asking for compensation. British, French and other Western countries also followed the United States and announced that it would exempt war compensation from defeated countries such as Germany and Japan.
Similarly, the Soviet Union followed closely. In June 1955, at the London Negotiation Conference, the Soviet Union announced that it had waived Japan's right to claim compensation.Since then, several major participating countries in the world have greatly reduced or given up the war compensation of the defeated countries. In addition, Chiang Kai-shek also announced his abandonment, and it has become even more difficult for our country to ask for compensation from Japan.
2 Looking forward, giving up compensation
In fact, the Kuomintang has not been active in pursuing war reparations from Japan. After the end of the Anti-Japanese War, Chiang Kai-shek focused his main energy on preparing for the civil war and was not concerned about asking for compensation.
After the outbreak of the Korean War, Chiang Kai-shek naively believed that the time was for a counterattack on the mainland. In exchange for the support of the United States, he did not hesitate to bow to the United States and agreed to many unreasonable demands of the United States, including giving up Japan's war reparations.
Of course, New China will not admit that Taiwan unilaterally gave up the compensation. However, Taiwan's move did bring great difficulties to the claims of New China. Since then, China has held several rounds of negotiations with Japan, but every time when talking about compensation, Japan uses Taiwan as a reason to make excuses.
After the end of the Korean War, new changes have taken place in the international situation. Chairman Mao and other leaders have realized that relying on the Soviet Union and blindly implementing the "one-sided" policy can no longer cope with complex international relations, and it is not conducive to the development of New China.
1972, as the Nixon 's special plane slowly landed in Beijing, Premier Zhou Enlai, who had been waiting at the airport early, walked forward and held Nixon's hand together. This is the first time that senior leaders of China and the United States have such a close contact.
A week later, after repeated consultations by the representatives, the delegations of the two countries released the "Joint Announcement of Sino-US" in Shanghai. China and the United States officially established diplomatic relations and a new era began. After the establishment of China's diplomatic relations, Japan was no longer calm and began to have tentative contact with China, hoping to establish normal diplomatic relations with China, and China also had the same intention.
In September 1972, Kakuei Tanaka, then Prime Minister of Japan, visited China and took the first step to break the ice between China and Japan. However, Kakuei Tanaka's visit to China did not come completely with kindness, especially on the issue of compensation between China and Japan. Kakuei Tanaka even said: If China asks for compensation, return to China immediately.
After Tanaka Kakuei arrived in Beijing, Zhou Enlai first held a talk with him. When talking about , Japanese war of aggression against China , Kakuei Tanaka easily brought it over with just one sentence "It has caused trouble for the Chinese people." At this time, Zhou Enlai, who had always been gentle, suddenly looked solemn. He looked at Kakuei Tanaka and said seriously:
"The war of aggression launched by Japan has brought heavy disasters to the Chinese people, and it is not simply causing trouble."
Zhou Enlai said bluntly that if the Japanese government refuses to face up to history and cannot correctly recognize the historical mistakes it has made, it may be difficult to meet Chairman Mao during this trip.
Zhou Enlai's tough attitude made Kakuei Tanaka see the firm position of the Chinese government. So, at the second meeting, Kakuei Tanaka admitted the fact that Japan invaded China and apologized to the people of China. This is the first time that Japan apologized to the Chinese people since its defeat, and it is also the only time.
After passing Zhou Enlai's level, Kakuei Tanaka got his wish and met Chairman Mao. After the talks began, Tanaka complained to Chairman Mao, saying that Japan's domestic economy was in a recession and was experiencing an economic crisis and that the situation was not optimistic. Both of them were asking Chairman Mao to exempt Japan from war compensation.
Chairman Mao seemed to have expected Kaori Tanaka for this speech. He smiled slightly and said: "China does not want this big money."
Kaori Tanaka could not believe his ears. It was not until he confirmed to the translator again that he felt relieved and nodded to Chairman Mao.
After the news that China gave up Japan's war reparations came back to Japan, it caused a shock.Japan's Komeito Party Chairman Takeru Yoshikazuki Later, recalled:
"When I heard China's request for compensation for war against Japan, I was completely confused. It turned out that I was thinking about whether Japan would pay 50 billion US dollars in war reparations."
Of course, Takeru Yoshikazuki's "confusion" was overjoyed. China's abandonment of Japan's war reparations not only relieved Japan of a heavy burden, but also made the negotiations on normalizing diplomatic relations between China and Japan more likely to develop in the direction Japan hopes.
During Kakuei Tanaka's visit to China, China and Japan signed the " Sino-Japanese Joint Statement ". In this statement, Japan apologized for launching a war to cause great harm to the Chinese people and recognized the People's Republic of China as China's only legal government. Our country also expressed that it would give up war reparations for the sake of the friendship between the two peoples for generations and restore normal diplomatic state. From then on, diplomatic relations between China and Japan entered a normal track.
3 Chairman Mao’s intentions are good
Why did Chairman Mao and Zhou Enlai take the initiative to give up the war compensation? What are the considerations behind it?
First of all, it is important to point out that my country's abandonment of Japan's compensation is not the same as the Taiwan authorities' abandonment of compensation.
During the first round of China-Japan foreign ministerial talks, Takashima Mairo, then director of the Treaty Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, believed that there was a Japan-Taiwan treaty between Japan and Taiwan, and Chiang Kai-shek had announced his abandonment of Japan's war compensation claims. From this point of view, the issue of war compensation between China and Japan has been resolved, and there is no need to write the issue of war compensation in the statement with the People's Republic of China.
Gaodao confuses the Chinese government's abandonment of compensation with the Taiwanese authorities and intends to represent China with Taiwan. This remark aroused Zhou Enlai's extremely angry. Zhou Enlai pointed out that comparing " Chiang Kai-shek's abandonment of war compensation " with us is simply an insult to us.
Zhou Enlai said to the Japanese foreign affairs staff righteously:
"We give up the compensation for war based on the overall situation of friendship between the peoples of China and Japan. We gave up in order not to increase the burden on the Japanese people."
The Japanese probably will never understand this broad mind and openness.
Of course, this is the reason for the public announcement by our government, but the actual situation is far more complicated than this. Chairman Mao Zhou Enlai and others made this decision based on considerations on many aspects.
First, several major participating countries in World War II, such as the United States, the Soviet Union and Britain, have basically given up war compensation.
Second, when Japan compensated Southeast Asian countries, although it followed the compensation policy of "replace currency with physical goods", in actual operation, the Japanese refreshed some worn-out equipment and then compensated the victim countries according to the original price, which resulted in Southeast Asian countries receiving some useless junk iron.
In this case, Chairman Mao announced the exemption of Japan's war reparations. Of course, there are some helpless elements in this, but it is more of a pragmatic decision made based on the actual situation.
However, my country did not give up Japan's compensation unconditionally, but put forward two requirements.
First, my country emphasizes that it is only a government level to give up compensation, but insists that the Chinese people have the right to demand compensation from Japan. This is a declaration to Japan that the Chinese people will never forget that history and will never forgive the crimes committed by the Japanese invaders.
Since the 1980s, there have been more cases of private claims in China. On December 9, 1996, Sun Jingxia, a victim of the Japanese poison gas bomb, filed a lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court, demanding that the Japanese government apologize and compensate 200 million yen. The Tokyo District Court made a verdict supporting the plaintiff's lawsuit, ruling that the Japanese government would compensate 190 million yen for 13 Chinese victims, but rejected the lawsuit requesting the Japanese government to apologize.
Since then, the Chinese people have successively launched 25 compensation lawsuits against Japan, but less than one-quarter of the winners have won the case. Japanese courts always use reasons such as exceeding the statute of limitations and "the state has no major responsibility" to determine that the claimant loses the case. Therefore, there is still a long way to go in the private claim lawsuit against Japan.
Second, my country also proposed that although Japan does not have to pay war compensation, it will provide China with low-interest loans and some necessary technical support in the future. is this condition that plays an indispensable role in the future reform, development and economic takeoff of my country.
Time came to 1978. In October of that year, Deng Xiaoping visited Japan. During this period, when the reporter asked about the historical contradictions between China and Japan and the territorial disputes between the two countries, Deng Xiaoping calmly replied:
"We can put these aside first. I believe that our descendants have enough wisdom to solve these problems."
Then, Deng Xiaoping also said humorously that there is another purpose in this trip to Japan, looking for "elixirs". Those who have a little understanding of history must know the extended meaning of Deng Xiaoping's words.
The legend of "elixir" comes from Qin Dynasty . It is said that in order to achieve immortality, Qin Shihuang sent Xu Fu to lead 3,000 boys and girls to sea to find elixirs. Finally, Xu Fu and others came to Japan and became the current Japan. However, the elixir mentioned in Deng Xiaoping does not refer to the medicine that makes people live forever, but Japan's advanced technology and development experience.
Shortly after Deng Xiaoping returned from Japan, the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was held as scheduled. Soon, China started the craze for reform and opening up of .
, and Japan has also begun to provide China with a large number of low-interest or even interest-free loans, which have greatly solved the need for funds in the early stages of China's industrial development. In addition, Japan's technology output has also played a great role in promoting China's industrial development, and has achieved explosive development in China's science and technology.
It was not until 2008 that Japan's low-interest loans and technical support for China ended. In 40 years, Japan has provided more than US$260 billion in loans to China, which is much larger than the amount set for war compensation that year.
Only from this point can we see how far-sighted Chairman Mao’s decision was. Chairman Mao once said: " does not count the gains and losses of a city and a place", and giving up Japan's compensation is a reflection of his strategic view. Give up Japan's compensation in exchange for Japan's forty years of low-interest loans and technical input. From this perspective, this is a huge diplomatic victory in my country's diplomatic history.
Of course, the pain that Japan brings to us cannot be simply measured by money. Faced with a complex international situation, we need to look forward and seek the best interests, but at the same time we cannot forget and betray history.
