Paying for war

While reading Ken Pyle’s Japan Rising: The Resurgence of Japanese Power And Purpose I came across some interesting info about the second world war reparations for Taiwan and China that I had not heard before.

First of all, after the war under the terms of the Treaty of San Francisco Japan paid a number of South Asian countries their reparations (totalling ¥380b) during the 1950s. They were also required to paid out a hefty sum to the Red Cross to indemnify allied POWs. Japan agreed to settle the reparations claims with other Asian nations through bilateral treaties. This guy’s site is a little dodgy, but some more indepth country by country figures for reparations can be found here.

Issues regarding reparations on the Korean peninsula are still unsettled. Relations with South Korea were normalized in 1965 and payment of reparations ($500m) was made due to US pressure. When Korea became democratic the issue of apologies was brought up again, in addition to calls for more money. Payments have yet to be made to North Korea pending the normalization of relations, which Japan has linked to the abductions issue.

The interesting case to me is that of Taiwan and China. According to Pyle (pp. 324) Taiwan “explicitly renounced the right to demand reparations.” Japan was in such economic turmoil and vulnerable to the Communists that Chiang Kai-shek reasoned any move Taiwan made to “enfeeble Japan would be counterproductive.” Ah, good old cold war strategic thinking.

Then in 1972, relations with People’s Republic of China were normalized and the Japanese argued that since Taiwan, which represented China at the time, had renounced the right to reparations the PRC had no legal right to reparations either (ouch!). In the end better relations with Japan and America took priority and Mao agreed to waive the right for reparations.

Of course both Taiwan and China claimed the assets of Imperial Japan within their own countries which was quite a bundle. Additionally China has received about $30b in official development aid, two-thirds of which are grants. Some Japanese politicians consider this enough. Still, the original Lawyer Ball tactics hasn’t made Sino-Japanese relations that much easier politically.

POSTSCRIPT: I apologize for the lack of posting recently. I have been deeply immersed in my masters thesis which is due for submission in two weeks. After a lengthy extension and then having to change supervisors last November (which basically meant a rewrite) I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.