비팽창주의론의 확산과 문제점

The Spread of Non-Expansionist Theory and Its Problems: Views of Seikanron and the Sino-Japanese War

Recently many Japanese scholars have been trying to reappraise the Japan’s East Asian policies of the early Meiji period. They tend to regard these pre-Sino-Japanese war policies as non-expansionist. Their view is just the opposite of the widely accepted view and is exerting a strong influence upon the writing of many of history textbooks, introductory histories, and books of general interest. Their argument is well expressed in their view of the Seikanron and the Sino-Japanese War and can be summarized as follows. Firstly, they emphasized that the moderate group which advocated the cooperation between Japan and Ch’ing China played a dominant role in shaping the foreign policies of the Japanese government. Secondly, they are pointing out that the policy of military expansion designed to have a showdown with Ch’ing China was curtailed by the moderates. Thirdly, they emphasized Ch’ing China’s preoccupation with Sinocentrism, Korea’s anti-modern attitude, and Korea’s rude response to Japanese demand to open its ports. Fourth, they overestimated the threat from both Russia and China. Fifth, they argue that Japan did not want or need to put Korea under its direct rule. Based on these aspects they argued that Japan’s East Asian policies were basically non-expansionist, and the Sino-Japanese war was an accidental war which led blessedly to the modernization of East Asia. This non-expansionist stance has serious problems in building up its logic and interpreting historical documents. The most serious problem is that they have a preconceived idea called the non-expansionist theory even though they strongly argue that historical studies must be free from prejudices.