Japanese Rule Over Rural Manchukuo: Strategies and Policies

JAPANESE RULE OVER RURAL MANCHUKUO: STRATEGIES AND POLICIES A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY OF THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY MO TIAN September 2015 DECLARATION I, Mo Tian, declare that, except where otherwise acknowledged or noted, this thesis is entirely my own work. Mo Tian iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This study is the outcome of a frustrating intellectual trajectory. It started as an enquiry into the political ideology of Manchukuo, but later on switched its direction to the examination of the political institutions of Manchukuo, and finally landed on the area of Japanese rule over rural Manchukuo. On the path towards completing this thesis, I have incurred debts to many individuals and institutions. This thesis would have never been possible without their assistance and support. First, I would like to thank my family for carrying me through this PhD journey. I dedicate this thesis to my mother Huang Wei. Her unceasing love has supported me in various ways. I dedicate this thesis to my father Tian Shubin who died prematurely in 2001. He was a great father who taught me to pursue excellence and to become a man of integrity. I dedicate this thesis to my grandfather Huang Kexuan who grew up in Manchuria under the Japanese rule. In my early childhood, he strongly cultivated my genuine interest in Japan. His stories of the various aspects of the Japanese rule in Manchuria are the sources of inspiration for my work on Manchuria. My mentors and colleagues in Australia have greatly facilitated the process of my writing. The three members of my examination panel have been tremendously helpful for my thesis writing. Li Narangoa, the chair of my panel, commented on the whole manuscript. Her guidance and advice have been invaluable in my PhD journey. My supervisor Robert Cribb provided detailed comments on my writing. I learned tremendously from Robert about academic writing and critical thinking. My advisor Thomas DuBois advised on the general direction of my thesis. Thomas contributed many brilliant ideas to my thesis and I benefited greatly from his insight into history. I thank Tam Ka Chai from Hong Kong Baptist University for agreeing to serve as the external advisor for my thesis examination. I thank Rosalind Hewett for commenting on the early versions of my thesis. I thank Pedro Iacobelli for offering useful comments on part of the early versions of my thesis. I thank Andrew De Lisle for commenting on Chapter five. I thank David Marr for reading and commenting on the Introduction and Chapter two. I thank Tessa Morris-Suzuki for introducing to me resources for my research. I thank Gavin McCormack for providing advice at the initial stage of my thesis writing. I thank Mark Strange for advising me on the theoretical structure of my thesis at the early stage of my writing. I thank Paik Yonjae for his assistance in the transliteration of Korean terms in my thesis. The maps for this thesis are created by Karina Pelling from the CartoGIS department at the College of Asia and the Pacific of v the Australian National University. I thank her for this input. I am grateful to Maxine McArthur for editing the final draft of my thesis. I am grateful to Candida Spence from the Division of Information at the Australian National University for her technical assistance on the formatting of my thesis. I thank Joanne Bushby and Penelope Judd from the department of PhD administration for their administrative support during my PhD candidature. In addition, colleagues of the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University have commented usefully in my thesis seminars. My mentors and friends in Japan greatly assisted my research on this thesis. I thank my former supervisor Iijima Noriko for her continuing guidance and support. She made the technical arrangements for my visit to Japan and assisted my fieldwork research in Tokyo. She is also an inspiring mentor who ignited my passion for East Asian studies. My thankfulness goes to my former supervisor Yulia Mikhailova. Yulia is the very first mentor in my life who guided me into the study of modern Japanese history. She also kindly commented on the Introduction. I thank Murata Yujirō for accepting me as a visiting scholar to the University of Tokyo and for advising me on the archives in the Tokyo area. I thank Wang Le for her support and friendship during my fieldwork in Tokyo. She generously assisted me to obtain access to the archival resources in the University of Tokyo. I thank Yang Li for assisting me to collect materials at the University of Tokyo. I thank Sun Jiaru for her friendship during my stay in Tokyo. I thank Nakagawa Michiko for her hospitality during my stay in Tokyo. I thank Sven Saaler for sharing some leisure moments with me during my stay in Tokyo. I am deeply grateful to the librarians at the Menzies Library and Chifley Library of the Australian National University and the National Library of Australia for their assistance in obtaining the materials for my research. In particular, I wish to thank Shinozaki Mayumi, Kanazawa Sumiko, Rika Wright, Irina Chou and Li Xiaoli at the National Library of Australia for their support. I also thank Takagi Toshio, Miyuki Matthews, Deveni Temu, Darrell Dorrington, Catherine Churchman and Friederike Schimmelpfennig at the Menzies Library of the Australian National University for their support. In addition, the College of Asia and the Pacific of the Australian National University provided generous financial support for me to attend conferences and to conduct fieldwork in Australia, China and Japan. The Australian Reseasrch Council provided financial support (project No. DP1093519) for me to obtain materials from Japanese archives. These materials greatly developed the structure and content of Chapter three and Chapter four. I thank Wang Yanyan from the College of Asia and the vi Pacific for the tutor appointment at the beginning of my studies. This position provided some financial stability and developed my ability to teach. I should also record my gratitude for the assistance of Waseda University and the University of Tokyo for their formal sponsorship of my research in their respective institutions. Finally, I must thank my British teacher Michael McShane from the University of Glasgow. When I was much younger, Michael encouraged me to pursue an area of studies that might have the potential to make the world a better place. It is from Michael that I learned of the significance of social activism as a force pushing towards social progress. vii ABSTRACT The Japanese Kwantung Army created Manchukuo as a client state in northeast China in March 1932. The new entity followed policies that coincided closely with Japanese political and economic interests. In the enterprise of constructing Manchukuo, the Japanese authorities employed a set of strategies and policies to restructure the relationship between state and society. The strategies and policies established the Japanese power in the political domains of Manchukuo and facilitated drastic change in its socioeconomic structures. However, Manchukuo eventually dissolved after the Japanese surrender at the end of the Pacific War in August 1945. Drawing from primary sources in Chinese, Japanese and Korean published in the 1930s and 1940s, this thesis presents a history of the central characteristics of Japanese rule over rural Manchukuo during 1932 and 1945. This thesis analyses the elements of Japanese rule that were expressed in the policies and practices implemented in Manchukuo. In doing so, the thesis illuminates the nature, strength and weakness of Japanese imperialism. This approach generates insights into the mechanisms and limitations of Japanese rule, and it contributes to the theoretical construction of Japanese imperialism. Japanese rule over rural Manchukuo involved a high degree of political intervention in the military, economic and social spheres as well as the reorganisation of state structures. The Japanese authorities stablished public order through the elimination of social resistance and the construction of rural settlements; the reorganisation of the rural administration through the baojia and self-government initiatives; the establishment of rural financial order by organising cooperatives; the control of the procurement and distribution of agrarian output through coercion; and the management of labour through state mobilisation. This thesis argues that the Japanese strategies and policies of control represented a process of reshaping state structures. The Japanese authorities demonstrated great skill in exercising control over the agriculture, government administration, and finance and labour relations in Manchukuo. The Japanese rule over rural Manchukuo revealed both effectiveness and limitations. The effectiveness was manifested in the establishment of social order and institutions to serve the needs of control. The limitations lay in the degree of compliance that the Japanese ensured in the local populace and in the extent to which the Japanese power penetrated into the production relations of the rural society. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... v Abstract ........................................................................................................................... ix Table of Contents ............................................................................................................ xi List

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