Excerpt: "History and Sovereignty over the Diaoyu Islands" by Kiyoshi Inoue

At the beginning of November last year (1971), I travelled to Okinawa Prefecture for the first time, in order to study the modern history of Okinawa and the real situation of Japanese army's decisive battle in Okinawa in World War II. Besides, I also wanted to learn about the historic struggle of local residents to against 20 years' of US Army occupation and try to understand their thoughts and feelings as well as collect some documents.

During my trip, I tried to get some historical documents about the so-called Senkaku Islands, in order to confirm whether they had belonged to the Ryukyu Kingdom since ancient times or not. The islands, located about 120 sea miles off Keelung City in Taiwan, between Okinawa and Fujian Province of the Chinese mainland, have become a disputed territory between Japan and China. But, due to my poor knowledge of Ryukyu, I haven't found any documents to prove that the Senkaku Islands belonged to Ryukyu Kingdom. So I went to ask local residents.

Thanks to the local people's support, I received evidence to prove that none of the so-called Senkaku Islands had ever belonged to Ryukyu. Instead, they think [the islands] belong to China. Japan took these islands after the Japan-Qing Dynasty war in 1895, and renamed them the Senkaku Islands in 1900 (the 33rd year of Meiji).

I think it is a very serious issue. The Senkaku Islands, the right name of which should be the Diaoyu Islands (I will describe the reasons in the book), were taken by Japan from China during Japan-Qing Dynasty war. When Japan surrendered in World War II, lands it took from China should have been returned automatically, according to the relevant territorial clause of the Potsdam Proclamation. However, now some people still plan to include [the islands] in the sovereign territory of Japan. Isn't it the revival of Japanese imperialism! Territorial issues often provoke national sentiment. Reactionary rulers have always used territorial issues to incite people's false patriotism and flame these sentiments to a fever pitch. The revival of Japanese imperialism has tried to engulf the Japanese people in a whirlpool of nationalist sentiment through the possession of Senkaku Islands.

About the author

The book "History and Sovereignty over the Diaoyu Islands" written by Kiyoshi Inoue, a well known Japanese historian, proves that the Diaoyu Islands have belonged to China since ancient times by verifying a large amount of China and Japan's historical documents. Although it is an academic work, the book features vivid descriptions and can easily be accepted by ordinary readers.

Inoue was born in 1913 in Kochi Prefecture of Japan and died in 2001. He graduated from University of Tokyo in 1936 and he served as Professor at the Institute of Humanities of Kyoto University and focused on Japanese history. His famous books include "Modern Japanese history - Meiji Restoration", "Japanese Militarism", "History of Japan" and "Women's History of Japan".

His books such as "History of Japan" and "Modern Japanese History" were translated in Chinese during 1970s. Many Chinese scholars who studied Japanese history are familiar with his works. For the research of Japanese history and studies related to Japanese history, he has always proposed different views and ideas based on scientific verification.

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