Postwar Japan's Diplomacy toward China and the Soviet Union and its Leaders' Perceptions on the Sino-Soviet Relations: Focusing on the 1950s

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25780118
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: International relations
• Research Institution: Niigata University
• Principal Investigator: Kanda Yutaka 新潟大学, 人文社会・教育科学系, 准教授 (70609099)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 日本外交 / 日中関係 / 日ソ関係

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Focusing not only on the bilateral relations between Japan and the United States but on Japan's broad response to the trilateral power politics among the United States, the Soviet Union and China, this project proposes a new framework to understand the foreign policy lines of the "Conservative Mainstream" and the "Anti-Yoshida" groups in Japanese political leaders. Namely, the "Conservative Mainstream" sought the "Japan-US-China" partnership against the Soviet Union, attaching importance on the "pro-China, anti-Soviet" tradition of Japanese diplomacy, whereas the "Anti-Yoshida" groups pursued the goal of the "Japan-US-China-USSR," accepting the international order centered by Washington and Moscow and attempting to approach both China and the Soviet Union. These two respective goals continued for a long time, from the prewar period through the entire Cold War era. Depending on which faction was ruling, there was a clear difference in Japan's diplomacy toward China and the Soviet Union.

Free Research Field

日本政治外交史