Wrap-up
Ezra Vogel
Professor Vogel thanks the organizers
and the participants.
He
said that we needed a glossary of common key terms in Chinese, Japanese and
English, with standardized translations. One should be available by the next
conference on military history.
Diana Lary
We
should encourage the use of illustrations wherever possible. We’ve been
looking at collections of photos in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, North America
and Europe; a list will be posted on the website. We want to encourage those
with information, esp. in Japan, to supply it. We would also appreciate information
on wartime films, newsreels, and other cultural sources.
Jonathan Spence
For
the book A Chinese Century we
found some of the most important sources in Taiwan, where there was a bewildering
array of freelance and military photographers. One Russian freelance photographer
was named Promenkov.
Jin Anping
There are a few private collections
in Taiwan. One photographer was Deng Nanguang, a private wartime photographer
from the late 1930s who disappeared in 1940s but left his plates to Feng Dazeng.
There were other private photographers.
Some of the very best movies about Taiwan
during the 1930s and 1940s are by Hou Hsiao-hsien, especially The Puppet
Master.
Stephen MacKinnon
We’ve
had two hard-working rapporteurs and we thank them very much. We’re going
to try to build a picture of the discussions at the conference, expressing
the flavor and atmosphere. We hope to post parts of it on the website.
We
had a lot of discussion about what to call the conference. The question of
terminology has run through our discussions; a big problem, but one we should
be able to get past.
At the start there were questions that we wanted each author to answer: Where
did Chinese and Japanese regimes intersect? Most ignored this question but
perhaps just as well. The discussion raised many new questions.
As
someone who’s been involved from the very beginning, I’m pleased with
the level of discussion and with the translators, whose work was crucial for
the free-wheeling discussion. As Mr. Jin from Beijing said last night, “We’re
really talking.” We’ve moved beyond konghua (empty words) and onto another level. This
is the beginning we hope of a kind of triangular dialogue on the way to Professor
Wakeman’s mega-history, although perhaps that’s a way off.
Diana Lary
I’d
like to thank the person who made this all possible, Vogel, who has moved
seamlessly between English, Chinese, and Japanese, aware of the views of all
the participants.
Yang Tianshi
How did our conference go? This question
will be answered by all of you. I believe that this conference has brought
participants from China, Japan, and the West to discuss the Sino-Japanese
War for perhaps the first time. Also this is the first conference with this
kind of focus of looking at each area of China. In other conferences we have
looked at the War situation as a whole. This is the first time we have discussed
the War in different areas of China. I personally have learned a lot from
this conference. But due to limits of time, I can’t express all my thoughts.
The traditional form for expressing my feelings is a classical Chinese poem,
which I’ll write on the board here:
We
were once warring states, fighting each other with weapons;
But,
today, we are sitting together to discuss our papers.
The
gunsmoke has turned into a scholarly seminar;
And
we discussed difficult questions so as to seek truth.
Now I’ll explain. In the past we fought
each other with weapons. The first lines are that from 1937-1945 Chinese and
Japanese peoples fought each other with weapons. Today, the countries that
had once warred sit together at a table as scholars discussing our papers.
This shows the great changes that have occurred. The gunsmoke has turned into
intellectual exchange. We engage in debates on difficult questions, consulting
each other – this has a purpose – to strive to reach the truth. Although
there are heated debates, there is one purpose – to have the truth. I believe
Prof. Vogel will organize a series of such conferences; our meetings will
happen in the spirit of finding truth. With this spirit, we’ll make much
progress. Finally, I’d like to express on behalf of all the Chinese participants
our gratitude to Professor Vogel and you all.
Yamada Tatsuo
Unfortunately
I don’t have the scholarship of Professsor Yang to express my thoughts in
poetry. I’d like to express one episode; the night before the conference
I stayed in Concord (Massachusetts). I was told that on April 19th,
British and American soldiers came together in mutual celebration [of the
battle there]. It took more than 200 years to begin this progress. I don’t
know how long this will take between China and Japan, but I hope we can accelerate
this process.
I
I’d like to make two statements, quite businesslike. We would like to make
a list of the institutions and libraries with sources on the Sino-Japanese
war. But also we are in the process of making a bibliography on Sino-Japanese
relations, written in Japanese, still not complete, but we’ll make efforts
to complete this, hopefully within one or two years. That’s our plan. Lastly,
through the discussion of the Sino-Japanese war this time, we are finding
strange but interesting spaces under some regional regimes, which were quiet,
stable, economically developed, even under the conditions of war. We hadn’t
paid attention to this interesting space before, but many people have pointed
out this interesting space in this conference. I don’t mean to legitimize
the war or the regimes, but as Professor Wakeman mentioned this morning, we
have to approach the war from an entirely new level. Without this, the regional
regimes approach will not have meaning. But this time the regional regimes
approach revealed many new aspects. In that way, this conference was very
successful.
Ezra Vogel
As
Yang Tianshi was speaking I was reminded of Shuihu the story that when brothers meet they
begin fighting, they find they’re about evenly matched, and they become
matched. I think of Asia in the last 150 years, and Okuma Shigenobu, the founder
of Waseda University who hoped Japan could help Asia to civilize and modernize
to live on par with Europe as great friends. The process of coming together
has to begin with debate. I was interested in Iokibe’s remarks that his
meetings fluctuated between personal and national. These issues won’t go
away all at once. But we all at this conference believe in the meaning of
our conference. That’s why the organizers and the staff put in so much time
and dedication and have gone far beyond their responsibilities. So I want
to express my personal appreciation for your help.
[Missing are notes on discussion
of sources and bibliography on evening of June 27. No notes were taken. But
full accounting is being provided by Steven Phillips on Web bibliography he
is developing--parts of which in hard copy he distributed at the conference.]