Continental Policy of Japan as Seen from France: From Manchurian Incident to China Incident
This article analyzes the responses of French analysts and journalists to a then new phase of Japanese expansion into China known as the Manchurian Incident and to a new balance of power after the establishment of the puppet-state Manchukuo under the total control of Japan. The League of Nations...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | Russian |
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Nauka
2021-01-01
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| Series: | Ежегодник Япония |
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| Online Access: | http://www.yearbookjapan.ru/images/book/2020/japan_2020_253-273.pdf |
| Summary: | This article analyzes the responses of French analysts and journalists
to a then new phase of Japanese expansion into China known as the Manchurian
Incident and to a new balance of power after the establishment of the puppet-state
Manchukuo under the total control of Japan. The League of Nations as well as the
governments of almost all Great Powers condemned Japan’s action as aggression
and violation of international law, but French analysts, first of all thinking about
preserving and strengthening the country’s position in French Indochina, discussed
the arguments of both sides according to their own political positions. A former
legal advisor to several Chinese national governments Professor Jean Escarra
simply ignored Manchukuo’s existence. Legal advisor of the Japanese embassy
in Paris, Doctor of Law Jean Ray called Manchukuo “an experience worth
being attempted and helped”. Doctor of Law A.R. Tullie viewed Manchukuo’s establishment as fully legal and according to the Nine Powers Treaty of 1922.
Known for her critical attitude to militarism and colonialism, the “queen of great
reportage” Andree Viollis (1870–1950) in her books Shanghai and China’s Destiny
(1933) and Japan and Her Empire (1933), written after visiting China and Japan,
considered the broadening of the Japanese expansion into China as a manifestation
of “fascist” (radical Nationalist and conservative-revolutionary) tendencies inside
the country and also gave a sarcastic description of Japanese attempts to look
like Europeans in her book Intimate Japan (1934). Journalist Maurice Lachin
(1909–1977) visited Japan, Korea, and Manchukuo, talked to well-informed and
influential people and was able to produce a full-scale panorama of the current
situation with quite objective analysis according to the traditions of the “great
reportage” in his book Japan 1934 (1934). Secretary of the Committee for Pacific
Problems Study Roger Levy (1887–1975) became highly valued as a good expert
on the Far Eastern situation after a series of works with an “equidistant” view of
the Sino-Japanese conflict. A study of French opinion and response to the Japanese
continental policy will enrich our knowledge of this period and will help us to
understand better its political philosophy as well as the working of the propaganda
and image-making systems. |
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| ISSN: | 2687-1432 2687-1440 |