Santa Sede e Manciukuò (1932-1945), con appendice di documenti (review)

Abstract

Santa Sede e Manciukuo (1932-1945), con appendice di documenti. By Giovanni Coco. [Pontificio Comitato di Scienze Storiche:Atti e Documenti, no. 23.] (Vatican City:Libreria Editrice Vaticana. 2006. Pp. xxxvi, 470. euro45,00.) In recent years, the history of Manchukuo, the puppet state in Northeast China established by Japan and under its control between 1932 and 1945, has attracted increasing scholarly interest. Two studies, Rana Mitter's The Manchurian Myth: Nationalism, Resistance and Collaboration in Modern China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000) and Prasenjit Duara's Sovereignty and Authenticity: Manchukuo and the East Asian Modern (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003), in particular, have shown the importance of the Manchukuo's nation-building experiment not only to understand Japanese colonialism and militarism, but, even more prominently, Chinese nationalism. Giovanni Coco's Santa Sede e Manciukuo (The Holy See and Manchukuo), while potentially useful to historians interested in East Asian nationalism and modernity, focuses on a specific issue in diplomatic history, the vexata quaestto of the Holy see's presumed recognition of Manchukuo.To this day, Chinese authorities customarily mention this matter as an offense against the Chinese nation. Given the tension that has characterized Sino-Vatican relations since 1949, a clarification of this puzzle has implication far beyond historical circles. The book, enriched by historical photographs, is divided into two parts: an historical introduction in eleven short chapters (pp. 1-179), and a documentary appendix (pp. 181-468), including 168 documents in Italian, French, Latin, and English from the Vatican Archives and other ecclesiastical archives. The introduction details the complex diplomatic ballet that involved the Catholic Church on the one hand, and the Manchukuo, Japanese, and Chinese governments on the other. Within the Church, a fragmented front made up of several actors (the Congregation De Propaganda Fide, the Vatican Secretariat of State, the Pope, the Vicars Apostolic in Manchuria, and the Apostolic Delegates in China and Japan) tried to defend the Catholic missions and their educational institutions in the region, without offering state recognition for Manchukuo. This was a dangerous game that could offend the Japanese and bring about repercussions on Catholics in Japan and Manchuria. For that reason, the proJapanese Apostolic Delegate Paolo Marella in Tokyo always pushed for recognition as the best solution. …