Chapter 35

Chapter 35
Rebirth and Revolution: Nation-Building in East Asia and the Pacific Rim

I.Introduction
i. Japan the anomaly in non-Western societies
a. Fought imperialism & high level of industrialization
b. Imitation of Western rivals - imperialist tendencies
ii. Korea has also emerged as leading industrial center
iii. China and Vietnam resemble other emerging nations
a. Suffered from exploitive terms of exchange w/ West
b. Had to deal with underdevelopment, overpopulation
c. And..poverty and environmental degradation
d. Sound familiar?
e. But...they also saw collapse of 1000 year civilization
iv. Confucian system destroyed in Vietnam and China
a. External aggression + internal upheaval
b. Imperialism destroyed political institutions
i. Left nothing for nation-building
v. Recent themes
a. Confucianism and traditions reworked/adapted
b. Economic development
c. Growing independence and self-assertion
II. East Asia in th Postwar Settlements
A. Introduction
i. Divisions after WWII
a. Korea divided between Russian/US zone
b. Taiwan returned to China - ruled by Chiang Kai Shek
c. US regained Philippines, pledged quick turnover w/ bases
d. Europeans retook control of Vietnam, Malay and Indonesia
e. Japan occupied by US forces
B. New Divisions and the End of Empires
i. Decolonization led to independence for Malaya, Indonesia, Philippines
ii. Taiwan ruled by Chiang Kai Shek, mainland to Mao
a. Taiwan emergs as separate republic
iii. US intervention preserves South Korean independence
C. Japanese Recovery
i. Recovered economy in surprising speed
a. US provided opportunity for selective westernization
ii. New political system
a. Ruled by General Douglas MacArthur
b. Got rid of wartime political structure
i. military disbanded
ii. police decentralized
iii. officials removed
iv. political prisoners released
c. Democratization
i. women suffrage
ii. encouraging labor unions
iii. abolishing Shintoism as state religion
d. People in favor of demilitarization
e. Parliament system easy to incorporate - already have history
iii. New economic pattern
a. Broke up landed estates
b. Tried, but failed to break up zaibatsus
iv. Other changes
a. Military abolished forever - unique for industrialized nation
b. Emperor becomes symbolic figurehead only
c. 1963 law for taking care of elderly
v. Japanese society
a. Education - reduced nationalism in textbooks
i. Back to state control after occupation
ii. Have to teach tradition to children
b. Extreme meritocracy - rigid examination system
D. Korea: Intervention and War
i. Gave Russia control of north in exchange for potential help against Japan
ii. North Korea - People's Democratic Republic of Korea
a. Communist totalitarian state - Kim Il-Sung until 1994
iii. South Korea - Republic of Korea
a. Parliamentary institutions but authoritarian
iv. Korean War
a. 1950-1953 - N. Korea invades, S. Korea + United Nations pushes back
b. China gets invovlved, pushes back to original borders
c. Sign armistice
v. Two divergent paths since then
a. N. Korea - isolated one-man rule
i. Power to one political party + military
b. S. Korea - w/ help from US economic + military bases
vi. Tensions continued between two nations with border clashes
E. Emerging Stability in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore
i. Nationalists take over Taiwan island after losing civil war
a. Communists couldn't threaten Taiwan - no navy
a. Becomes authoritarian - must keep island under control
c. Support of US - convinced Chiang to not attack mainland
ii. Hong Kong - returned to China from British control in 1997
a. Chinese population swelled - economy boomed
iii. Singapore
a. British naval base until 1971
b. Became strong port and independent nation
iv. Why economically successful?
a. Western aid/contacts
b. Tradition of group loyalty
c. Political stability
d. Eventually grows to substantial international influence
III. Japan, Incorporated

1. Japan’s Distinctive Political and Cultural Style
1. Conservative stability
1. Liberal Democratic party controls 1955-1993 – compromise
2. Made agreements/deals with opposition leaders
3. Returned to oligarchy rule
2. Government-business coordination
1. Lending public resources
2. limit imports
3. Kept traditions
1. Tradition – state-sponsored discipline
1. Promoted birth control/abortion – population slowed
2. Customs – poetry, painting, tea ceremonies, flower arrangements
1. Kabuki and No theater
4. Incorporated Japanese w/ western
1. Western music w/ Japanese instruments
2. Some rejected westernization
1. Hiraoka Kimitoke – Yukio Mishima – hate Western ways
1. Ritual suicide in 1970
2. The Economic Surge
1. By 1983 growth phenomenal, behind only US and Germany
1. Automobile/electronics manufacturers – mass quantity/high quality
2. Why so successful?
1. Active government encouragement
2. Educational expansion
1. More engineers
3. Foreign policy – no money for military
1. US protects them
4. Labor policy
1. Company unions – worked with corporation
2. Lifetime employment
3. Social activities – group exercise
4. Less class conscious and less individualistic
5. Group consciousness
1. few changed firms
2. Long term success of firm important
3. Reluctance to take vacations
3. Family life
1. Women well-educated and declining birth rates, but…
1. Fewer leisure activities than husband
2. Shame toward non-conformist behaviors
3. Game shows – elaborate, dishonoring punishment for losers
4. Chance for release – geishas, alcohol, still stressed by exams
5. Popular culture
1. Fusion of east and west
2. Sometimes tension between westernization and Japanese identity
1. The great chopstick calamity of the 1980s
2. Young people tired of taking care of old people – too many
6. Problems in the 1990s
1. Government corruption
2. Recession led to unemployment

IV. The Pacific Rim: New Japans?

1. The Korean MiraclePolitics in South Korea
1. Series of generals, put down by student protest pressure, new general
2. Opposition groups tempered or jailed
1. Freedom of the press minimal
3. Economic focus of Korea
4. Combination of government and private enterprise working together
1. Huge industrial firms created w/ gov’t aid + entrepreneurship
1. Daweoo and Hyundai
1. Built ships, supertankers, housing units
2. Built schools, cars
3. Took care of workers
1. Workers worked 6 day weeks, 3 vacation days
2. Worshipful ceremonies of fleet of cars
3. Lives protected by company
5. Surpassed Japanese growth rates in 1980s
1. automobiles, cheap consumer goods, steel, technology
6. Industrialized changes
1. Population soared – highest pop. densities in world – 40 million in Indiana
2. Urban areas – air pollution
3. Per capita income increased a ton, but still lower than Japan
4. Huge fortunes next to extreme poverty
2. Advances in Taiwan and the City-States
1. Republic of China – Taiwan – agriculture/industrial rapid development
1. Could focus on economics – military aspirations declined – US support
2. Money poured into education, literacy
3. Traditional medicine blends w/ western medicine
4. Land reform
5. Host of new concerns
1. US recognized People’s Republic of China in 1978
2. Made contacts w/ regional gov’ts
1. Japan – purchased food, textiles, chemicals
2. Informal links with Beijing
6. Son of Chiang Kai-shek kept authoritarian rule
2. The greatest country in the world – Singapore – My Singapura
1. Lee Kuan Yew took over in 1965 – three decades
1. Controlled citizens
1. sexual behavior, economic corruption
2. local regulation, economic planning
3. Unusual discipline = low crime rates
4. Impossibility of political protest
1. People’s Action Party suppressed opposition
2. Economic success made political control OK
1. Government control + entrepreneurs
2. Port + banking + manufacturing
3. 1980s – second highest per capita income in Asia
3. Educational levels and health conditions rose
4. Plus, it has a cool island named Sentosa
1. Merlion blows water from its mouth
2. You can road louge down to the beach
3. Wading in the water off Sentosa a risky choice
4. Buying illegal CDs in Malaysia is bad
3. Hong Kong
1. Major world port + strong banking industry
2. Why successful?
1. High speed technology + low wages/long hours for employees
3. Prosperous middle class grows
4. Becomes part of China, free market economic system respected
3. Common Themes and New Problems
1. Stressed group loyalty
1. Devalued protest/individualism
2. Confucian morality
2. Reliance on government planning
3. Dynamism spread to “Little Tigers” – Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand
4. But, what are the weaknesses…
1. Growth faltered, unemployment rose, currencies took a hit
1. Problem of gov’t/company link
2. Should be more of a free market
1. West believes only their model works
2. But…by 1999, growth started to pick up again…a few bad years ain’t bad

V. Mao’s China and Beyond
A. Introduction
a. Chiang Kai-shek vs. the Communist – 1930s
i. Chiang focused on communists, Japanese took advantage – invaded
1. Eventually forced to align w/ communists to fight Japanese
ii. Communists took advantage of Japanese invasion

1. Took coastal areas – banks and business backing of Nationalists
2. Nationalist forces destroyed by superior Japanese
1. Looked bad to people
2. Forced to retreat, ask for help from landlords and US
3. Communist guerilla warfare more successful
1. Pushed Nationalists to northern cities
2. Mao takes advantage of propaganda
1. Ensuing civil war – communists won
1. Some shifted allegiance
2. Communist soldiers treated better
3. Chiang/armies retreat to Formosa – Taiwan
4. Mao proclaims People’s Republic of China

vi. Why Mao successful? The info below is quite debatable…

1. Land reform programs, access to education, improved health care
2. Mao’s armies protected peasantry vs. Chaing’s abusive army
3. Guerilla warfare better chance for success
4. Convinced peasants they had programs to make life better
5. The Communists Come to Power
1. Communist party – strong military and political connection
1. People’s Liberation Army – administered local politics
1. Repressed secessionist movements – Tibet and Inner Mongolia
2. Fought US out of N. Korea
3. Helped liberation struggle in Vietnam
2. Eventually relationship with USSR falls apart
1. China wants border lands Russia seized from Qin dynasty
2. Chinese refused to be subordinate to Russians
3. Stalin died – Mao leader of communist world
4. China looks more powerful – defeats India and develops nuclear bomb
6. Planning for Economic Growth and Social Justice
1. Tried to complete social revolution in rural areas
1. Landlords dispossessed/purged – 3 million executed
2. Redistributed land to peasants – nation of peasant smallholders
2. But…then focus turned to industrialization
1. Needed to focus money on urban areas
2. Became more centralized gov’t
3. urban based – wealthy technocrats emerged
3. New method of industrialization
1. Hated Lenin’s version of revolution by small number of elites
1. Distrusted intellectuals
2. Believed peasants solution to everything
3. Wanted to avoid urban elitist population
2. Turned to option B – Mass Line approach
1. Farming collectives for 90% of China’s peasant
1. No longer peasant owners, land turned over to state    
3. “Let a hundred flowers bloom” – encouraged protest/criticism
1. Once critics out – demotions, prison sentences, banishment
7. The Great Leap Backward
1. Great Leap Forward – 1958
1. Industrialization not in factories, but at farms
2. Use communes extra resources for building tractors, cement for irrigation
3. “Backyard furnaces” make steel in backyard without machines
4. All aspects of lives regulated on communes
5. Mao believed this was good – helped peasants, didn’t create bureaucracy

b. But…within months…total failure
i. Peasants resisted collectivization, commune leaders, backyard factories
ii. Horrible drought
iii. China resorted to importing grain
c. Plus…huge birth rate…solution?
i. Family planning – urban couples 2 kids – rural couples 1
ii. 1980s reduced to one child per family
1. Led to infanticide, abortions, or shipping kids underground
iii. But…base is so huge that #s are out of control
d. By 1960, total failure
i. Mao lost position as state chairman – remained head of Central Committee
ii. Pragmatists come to power – Zhou Enlai, Liu Shaoqui, Deng Xiaoping
F. “Women Hold Up Half of the Heavens”
a. Revolutionary strategy – involve women
i. Tradition – part of Taiping Rebellion and Boxer Rebellion
ii. May Fourth intellectuals pushed for women’s rights
1. footbinding, education, career opportunities
iii. Nationalists try to reverse gains – return to traditional China
1. Chiang Kai Shek’s wife helps out
a. Says immoral to criticize husband
b. virtue more important than learning
iv. But with the Chinese, women had a larger role
1. Teachers, nurses, spies, truck driver, laborers
2. Even became soldiers
a. Some became cadre leaders
b. Victory in revolution brought equality
i. Choose marriage partners
ii. Expected to work outside home
iii. Cadre positions at lower, mid level
1. Except for Jiang Qing – wife of Mao – has power
a. Tried to rule when he died
G. Mao’s Last Campaign and the Fall of the Gang of Four
a. Mao tries to regain power
i. Criticizes efforts of successors
ii. Pushes for support of students, peasants, and military
iii Cultural Revolution aimed at attacking “capitalist-roaders”
1. Student “Red Guard” criticized Mao’s rivals
2. Professors, plant managers, children of elite “confess”
a. Either imprisoned, killed or sent to farms
b. Learn realities of peasant life
3. Centralized state being taken over by people
4. Nation plunging back to chaos
iv. Eventually military and opponents fought Mao and his followers
1. Gang of Four vs. Mao – pragmatists vs. ideologoues
2. In 1976 – Zhou Enlai and Mao die
a. Gang of Four + Jiang Qing arrested – sentenced to life
b. Since Mao’s death pragmatists taken over
i. Opened up China to the West
ii. Private peasant production encouraged, communes ended
c. Achievements of communist regime
i. redistribute wealth of the country
ii. education, health care, housing, working conditions, food > better off
iii. Better standard of living than other developing nations
iv. higher rates of industrial/agricultural growth than India – w/out aid
d. Failures of communist regime
i. economic setbacks
ii. political turmoil
iii. low level of political reform
e. Challenge – continue growth/living conditions
i. But also deal w/ social injustice/economic inequities
VI. Colonialism and Revolution in Vietnam
A. French control of Vietnam
a. Interested since 17th century – failed to take Japan
i. Missionaries attracted to civil wars/Confucian elite – good place for religion
ii. French need to protect missionaries plus French merchants
b. In late 18th century, French supported Nguyen Anh
i. Northern Trinh and Southern Nguyen dynasty toppled by peasants
ii. This new Nguyen Anh united Vietnam – gave special positions to French
iii. Unfortunately he created city in Confucian vision of Beijing
a. French a little frustrated
c. Eventually took over Vietnam and Laos and Cambodia
i. Took advantage of infighting
ii. Control Vietnam, take advantage of trading
iii. But agriculture falls apart and taxes super high
iv. Vietnam major rice producing exporters in world, but…
a. People starving to death
b. Forced to buy opium and alcohol from France
B. Vietnamese Nationalism: Bourgeois Dead Ends and Communist Survival
a. Nguyen family, old bureaucrats lost credibility
i. Unable to push out French
ii. Confucianism also pushed out, failed
b. New middle class, western trained
i. French educated, French lifestyles joined nationalistic organizations
a. First priority – ending racism/discrimination
b. Second priority – improving their personal opportunities
c. French stopped attempts at peaceful resistance
i. Violent resistance only option – Vietnamese Nationalist Party
a. French respond w/ imprisonment, repression, execution
ii. Communist party of Vietnam – lone nationalist party
a. Led by Ho Chi Minh – ignored at WWI Paris Peace Conference
b. Tried to foment revolution – but hard w/ only peasants
c. Forced underground, but gained support from Comintern
C. The War of Liberation Against the French
a. Viet Minh take over
i. Help push out Japanese in WWII
ii. Encouraged land reform and mass education
iii. Used guerilla tactics under Vo Nguyen Giap to defeat French
a. Took control of North – August 1945
b. But…French control South
i. Vietnamese communists fighting wealthy bureaucrats
b. Dien Bien Phu – French forces totally embarrassed
i. At Geneva Peace Conference 1954 – Democratic Republic of Vietnam
ii. Two years elections for united Vietnam
D. The War of Liberation Against the United States
a. US #1 priority – don’t let South Vietnam fall to the communists
i. Even though they worked with Viet Minh against Japan
b. US puts Ngo Dinh Diem into power
i. Not a popular dude – Catholic, US puppet, fled Vietnam during WWII
ii. Set up rigged elections, eliminated political rivals
iii. Viet Cong – southern communists Vietnamese fighting for recognition
a. Eventually supported by Viet Minh
iv. War between Diem’s military and Viet Cong – US supports Diem
a. Diem fails, Buddhists burn themselves, US overthrows him
b. US takes over military operations
c. But…w/ 500,000 men, 60,000 deaths, US can’t beat Vietnamese communists
i. US just another imperialist aggressor
ii. Guerilla warfare vs. US technological advantage
a. More tonnage of bombs than in all WWII combined
d. 1975 ceasefire, South Vietnam gov’t falls apart, Vietnam becomes communist
E. After Victory: The Struggle to Rebuild Vietnam
a. Why has Vietnam struggled?
i. US pressured world not to help
ii. Border clashes with China
iii. Dictatorial regime early on to persecute old enemies
iv. Maintain centralized command economy
a. Different than China’s cadre, regional organization
b. Left Vietnamese impoverished
b. 1980s switched to liberalizing, expanding markets
i. US and other nations now invest in Vietnam
a. Vietnamese and US working together to resolve war issues – POW
c. But…free education gone and sweatshop labor prevalent

VII. Global Connections
A. Radical changes in China and Vietnam
a. Monarchies/autocratic rule replaced w/ communism – power to the peasants
i. Social classes of landlords eliminated
ii. Women improved legal status, position in family, job opportunities
iii. Marxism + Westernization replaces Confucianism
b. But…still both fear commercial class
c. Both still stress secular, social harmony, life in this world
d. Usually traditions of old blend w/ new
e. Japan and Pacific Rim changes not as severe
B. Asia becoming key player in world affairs
a. 21st century belongs to East Asia?
b. Asia more active in world affairs
c. They’re products and pop culture now spread around world