Recent Japanese Studies of Modern China's Political History

Abstract

The objective of this article is to introduce and review recent Japanese studies of modern Chinese political history from the 1911 Revolution to the founding of the People's Republic of China. The works reviewed were published between 1969 and 1977, and are treated here under these headings: (1) the 1911 Revolution, (2) warlord politics and the May Fourth Movement, (3) history of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), (4) history of the Guomindang, and (5) mass movements. It should be noted at the outset that, partly because of limited space and partly because of my desire to emphasize internal history, many important works had to be excluded, including general histories, works on international relations, and studies on Manchuria and Taiwan. A brief look at the works published during this period reveals that research has been based on a variety of different senses of the problems to be addressed. Consequently, it is impossible to evaluate them with a single standard. Thus the works will be examined largely in terms of the following five standards.