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The U.S. Role in the Sino-Japanese Dispute over the Diaoyu (Senkaku) Islands, 1945–1971*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Extract

In 1996, the Sino-Japanese conflict over the Diaoyu (Senkaku) Islands intensified to the point where the American mass circulation periodical Time asked: “Will the next Asian war be fought over a few tiny islands?” That such a question could be asked seems incredible given that the Diaoyu Islands, which lie north-east of Taiwan and west of Okinawa, consist of only five small islands and three rocky outcroppings with a total landmass of no more than 7 square kilometres or 3 square miles. Apart from their miniscule size, the islands are uninhabited, are incapable of supporting human habitation for an extended period of time and are unlikely to support any economic life of their own from indigenous resources.

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Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 2000

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References

1. “In an ocean of controversy,” Time, 7 10 1996, p. 30.Google Scholar

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8. Hereinafter I use the term Diaoyu Islands to refer to the disputed islands.

9. Quoted in Niksch, Larry A., “Senkaku (Diaoyu) Islands dispute: the U.S. legal relationship and obligations,” PacNet Newsletter, No. 45 (8 11 1996), http://www.csis.org/html/pac45.htmlGoogle Scholar. This is an U.S. Congressional Research Service analysis.

11. Niksch, , “Senkaku (Diaoyu) Islands dispute.”Google Scholar Apparently, an earlier Congressional Research Service Report came to the same conclusion. This is reported in Kristof, , “Would you fight for these islands?”Google Scholar A copy of the 1960 agreement appears in Grenville, J. A. S. and Wasserstein, Bernard, The Major International Treaties Since 1945: A History and Guide with Texts (London: Methuen, 1987), pp. 124–26Google Scholar. In an agreed minute to the 1960 treaty, Japan stressed its residual sovereignty in the Okinawa chain and expectations of consultations and discussions with the U.S. in the event the islands were threatened or attacked. The U.S. stated it intended to take measures for the defence of the islands.

12. Even though an agreed minute to the 1971 reversion treaty incorporated the Diaoyu Islands as part of the Ryūkyū Islands being returned to Japan, the U.S. government took the position that “this treaty does not affect the legal status of those islands at all.” See United States Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, Okinawa Reversion Treaty. Hearings, 92nd Congress, first session, Ex. J. 92–1, October 27–29, 1971 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. GPO, 1971), p. 11.Google Scholar

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14. This does not imply that the Japanese do not have a valid legal claim.

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28. Dzurek, Daniel, “The Senkaku/Diaoyu islands dispute,” 18 10 1996Google Scholar, (mailbaseadmin@mailbase.ac.uk) (a revised and updated version of this paper appears at www- ibru.dur.ack.uk/senkaku.html); Dzurek, , “Effect of the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands dispute on maritime delimitation,” pp. 14Google Scholar; and Downs, and Saunders, , “Legitimacy and the limits of nationalism,” pp. 131–35.Google Scholar

29. The Chinese case is made in Dushu, Su, “Some notes on problems concerning defence,” p. 81Google Scholar; and Zhongguo zhoubian guanxi yu anquan huanjing (China's Relations with Its Neighbours and Its Security Environment) (Shaanxi: People's Education Press, n.d.) in Joint Publications Research Service-China (JPRS-China)-93–037, 8 06 1993, pp. 2526Google Scholar. For official comments, see “On Diaoyu Islands issue,” and “History proves Diaoyu islands are China's territory,” both at http://www.china-embassy.org. Other important statements of the Chinese positions appear in Inoue, Kiyoshi, “Japanese militarism and Diaoyutai (Senkaku) Island – a Japanese historian's view,” http://www.interlog.com/~yuan/diaohist.htmlGoogle Scholar; and Zhong Yan, “China's claim to Diaoyu Island chain indisputable,” http://ss5.ihep.ac.cn/ins/Book/Bjreview/November/96-45-10.html. The Inoue article originally appeared in Beijing Review, Vol. 15, No. 19 (12 05 1972)Google Scholar while the Zhong piece appeared in Beijing Review, Vol. 39, No. 45 (4–10 11 1996).Google Scholar

30. A copy of the treaty is included in Israel, Fred L. (ed.), Major Peace Treaties of Modern History, 1648–1967 (New York: Chelsea House and McGraw-Hill, 1967), Vol. II, pp. 1101–10, esp. p. 1102.Google Scholar

31. These declarations appear in Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP), Government Section, Political Reorientation of Japan: September 1945 to September 1948 (Grosse Pointe: Scholarly Press, 1968), pp. 411, 413.Google Scholar

32. Pursuant to Article II of the 1951 Treaty of Peace, Japan renounced all claims to Korea, Formosa, the Pescadores, the Kuriles, part of the Sakhalin peninsula, the Antarctic, the Spratlys and Paracels, and numerous mandated territories. Article III changed the administrative status of various Japanese islands. For the treaty, see Israel, , Major Peace Treaties, Vol. IV, pp. 2641–56.Google Scholar

33. On Japan's claims, see “The basic view on the sovereignty over the Senkaku Islands,” http://www.mofa.go.jp/ja/Senkaku.html. See also Ma, Ying-Jeou, “The East Asian seabed controversy revisited,” pp. 3132Google Scholar; Prescott, J. R. V., The Maritime Political Boundaries of the World (London: Methuen, 1985), pp. 244–46Google Scholar; Dzurek, , “Effect of the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands dispute on maritime delimitation,” p. 5Google Scholar; and Guoxing, Ji, “Maritime jurisdiction in the three China seas.”Google Scholar

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39. U.S. Department of State, Administrative Subdivisions of Japan: Atlas and Gazetteer, and Appendix, RG 59 (State Department), Records of the Geographer, Series 007 331/A/08/05, National Archives—College Park.

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