Sun Yatsen in Kobe in 1924
Sun Yatsen (1866-1925) was a symbolic Chinese who put an end to the Qing dynasty and led China to modernization.
Though he was not a communist, he had a strong influence on Mao Tse- tung. In Taiwan, Sun is regarded as the father of the country, since the actual founder of Republic of China Chiang Kaishek was one of followers of Sun.
Before Sun died in 1925 in Beijing, he visited Japan. Sun was traveling from Southern China to Beijing by sea through Shanghai and Kobe, Japan. It is thought that he intentionally took this route to stop in Japan where he had spent many years before the fall of the Qing dynasty.
Sun and other revolutionary Chinese at the time used Japan as their base to fight Qing. Sun and Chiang Kaishek had been helped by many Japanese. Without their support despite rather cool attitude of the Imperial Government of Japan toward young activist Chinese, the revolution of China in the early 20th century should have been impossible, leading to probably a century-long era of chaos and civil wars.
Anyway, Sun Yatsen must have thought that he must speak to Japanese people now that his revolution was almost successful and his life might have been ended in near future due to his illness. He sent the last message to Japan on this occasion, which is called "Greater Asianism."
In this speech, he mentioned future of the Empire of Japan with a strong sense of apprehension, though Sun started his speech in the following way:
Gentlemen: I highly appreciate this cordial reception with which you are honoring me today. The topic of the day is "Pan-Asianism," but before we touch upon the subject, we must first have a clear conception of Asia's place in the world. Asia, in my opinion, is the cradle of the world's oldest civilization. Several thousand years ago, its peoples had already attained an advanced civilization; even the ancient civilizations of the West, of Greece and Rome, had their origins on Asiatic soil. In Ancient Asia we had a philosophic, religious, logical and industrial civilization. The origins of the various civilizations of the modern world can be traced back to Asia's ancient civilization. It is only during the last few centuries that the countries and races of Asia have gradually degenerated and become weak, while the European countries have gradually developed their resources and become powerful. After the latter had fully developed their strength, they turned their attention to, and penetrated into, East Asia, where they either destroyed or pressed hard upon each and every one of the Asiatic nations, so that thirty years ago there existed, so to speak, no independent country in the whole of Asia. With this, we may say, the low water mark had been reached.
When Asia reached this point, the tide started to turn, and the turn meant the regeneration of Asia. It started thirty years ago when Japan abolished all the Unequal Treaties that she had entered into with the foreign countries. The day when the Unequal Treaties were abolished by Japan was a day of regeneration for all Asiatic peoples. After the abolition of the Unequal Treaties, Japan became the first independent country in Asia. The remaining countries, such as China, India, Persia, Afghanistan, Arabia, and Turkey were not independent, that is to say, they were still dominated, and treated as colonies, by Europe. Thirty years ago, Japan was also a colony of the European countries. But the Japanese were far-sighted. They realized that the only way to power was to struggle with the Europeans and to abolish all Unequal Treaties, which they did, thus turning Japan into an independent country. Since Japan has become an independent country in East Asia, the various nations in this part of the world have been buoyed up with a new hope. They realized that since Japan has been able to achieve her independence through the abolition of the Unequal Treaties, they could do the same. So once again they have mustered courage to conduct their various independent activities with the hope of shaking off the yoke of European restriction and domination and regaining their own rightful position in Asia. This has been the prevailing thought in Asia during the past thirty years, which indeed gives ground for optimism.Note that Japan was not colonized by any European countries or the US. Japan was only imposed unequal treaties on by these Western Powers when it opened the nation in the 1850s after a 250-year-long isolation period under a samurai regime.
Anyway Sun closed his speech as follows:
Japan to-day has become acquainted with the Western civilization of the rule of Might, but retains the characteristics of the Oriental civilization of the rule of Right. Now the question remains whether Japan will be the hawk of the Western civilization of the rule of Might, or the tower of strength of the Orient. This is the choice which lies before the people of Japan.It was November 28, 1924 that Sun delivered this speech. And 13 years later, the Empire of Japan and China entered a full scale of war which was eventually ended when the US defeated the Imperial military of Japan over sever battles over the Pacific Ocean in August 1945.
Indeed, Japanese leaders before WWII must have paid more respect to the words of the greatest hero in the modern Chinese history.
But China today, led by the Chinese Communist Party, looks like proceeding to becoming a military power under the rule of Might.
As Japanese leaders before WWII must have paid more respect to the words of Sun Yatsen, today's Chinese leaders must study these words of their great predecessor.
(For full text, refer to http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Sun_Yat-sen's_speech_on_Pan-Asianism)
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