Japanese scholar reveals how Japan claimed the Diaoyu Islands
- By Zhang Lulu
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E-mail China.org.cn, November 15, 2013
"Bringing the real history to light was what motivated me to write this book and what I want to emphasize most is the issue of the Diaoyu Islands," Professor Tadayoshi Murata of Japan's Yokohama National University told China's Oriental Outlook magazine on Nov 4.
Professor Murata's new book, "The Origins of the Japan-China Territorial Issue", was published in Japan this June, and its Chinese version went on sale last month. The 67-year-old historian revealed in the book how Japan came to claim ownership of the Diaoyu Islands.
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Japanese historian Tadayoshi Murata has revealed the true story of how Japan came to claim the Diaoyu Islands in his book "The Origins of the Japan-China Territorial Issue". [Photo/Chinadaily] |
Professor Murata told Oriental Outlook that his research started with Sutezou Nishimura, the fourth governor of Okinawa prefecture.
The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs claims that the islands were discovered uninhabited during surveys carried out by Okinawa Prefecture in the late 19th century, and hence were legitimately incorporated into the Japanese territory.
But according to professor Murata's research, the then Okinawa governor Nishimura insisted the islands were not uninhabited, and were well known to people who travelled the Fuzhou and Ryukyu regions.
Furthermore, when the Japanese government urged governor Nishimura to survey the Diaoyu Islands, he only stayed on the islands for six hours in October 1894, too short a time to complete a full-scale survey.
Regarding a proposal to the Japanese government to set up territorial markers on the islands, professor Murata argues that it was not made by the governor, but by someone else in his name. In fact, governor Nishimura thought the islands were disputed territory and believed Japan should not take possession of them.
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