Basic HTML Version
Behind the U.S.-ChinaThaw
the Pacific
Mainland China
-
one
fourth
of
all humanity
-
has
decided to politically rejoin the world. What is the signif–
icance
behind this move? Where are events in Asia headed
now?
by
Gene H. Hogberg
I
N LATE
January, 1969, a little–
reported two-day conference
between leading political figures in
Japan and the United States was held in
Santa Barbara, California. Viewed now
in retrospect, this meeting helped set
the stage for the surprising turn of
events between America and Communist
China.
Japanese Air Their Views
The conference was held at the
Center for the Study of Democratic In–
stitutions. lt was requested by severa!
members of Japan's ruling Liberal–
Democratic Party. They had formed a
dissenting body within the party, call–
ing themselves the "New Policy Dis–
cussion Group." They advocated a
change in official Japanese policy
toward the People's Republic of China,
then as now, not recognized by their
own government.
The Japanese representatives had
asked to meet with like-minded repre-
sentatives from the United States Con–
gress along with other inBuential
Americans knowledgeable in the area of
U. S. China policy.
The reason? The Japanese lawmakers
had come to realize that no significant
shift in official Japanese policy toward
Communist China could be possible
without a comparable change in Wash–
ington's position on the same issue!
"Unnatural" Separation
According to Japan's former Foreign
Minister Aiichiro Fujiyama, "peace and
stability in Asia" was impossible as
long as mainland China, with her vast
millions, was treated as a world outcast.
Peking, he maintained, should be given
a seat in the United Nations, where it
could meet other countries and talk on a
face-to-face basis.
Delegate Yasuyoshi Kurogane, for–
mer director of the Cabinet Secretariat,
stressed the historically dose relations
betweeen China and Japan. From the