Japan Seizes Chinese Activists on Disputed Islands, China Protests

On August 15th 1945, Japan surrendered, finally ending WWII.

Japan’s empire was dismantled.

But Japan did not give up its claim to a group of uninhabited islands in the east China sea.

And on August 15th 2012 those islands became the epicenter of a fierce diplomatic spat between China and Japan.

Fourteen pro-China activists were arrested by Japan after some of them landed on the islands and planted the Chinese flag.

China is demanding their release.

The islands are thought to be rich in potential oil and gas reserves.

Anchor Marco Werman gets more from the World’s Beijing correspondent, Mary Kay Magistad.

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Marco Werman: Sixty seven years ago today, Japan surrendered, finally ending World War II. This was how the BBC delivered the news.

[Audio Clip]

BBC Radio Announcer: This is London. The Prime Minister, the right honourable C. R. Attlee.

Clement Attlee: Japan has today, surrendered. The last of our enemies is laid low.

[End Clip]

Werman: Japan’s empire was dismantled, but Japan did not give up its claim to a group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea. Now those islands are the epicenter of a fierce diplomatic spat between China and Japan. Fourteen pro-China activists were arrested today by Japan, after some of them landed on the islands and planted the Chinese flag. China is demanding their release; Mary Kay Magistad is The World’s Beijing correspondent. Mary Kay, first, a tricky question: who is in the right here? Japan or China?

Mary Kay Magistad: Well it depends who you ask; from the Japanese perspective the islands are Japan’s and they have been under Japanese control, pretty much consistently, since 1895, except immediately after World War II when actually they were administered by the United States. The US handed back administration of the islands to Japan in 1971. China, on the other hand, looks at the islands, which Japan calls the Senkaku Islands and China calls the Diaoyu Islands, as islands that are within China’s purview, and have been Chinese territory, Chinese say, since the fourteenth century, if not before. But China’s claim is based on the fact that these islands were mentioned in Chinese writings and literature as far back as the fourteenth century. You know, it comes down to the question of: just because you say something is yours does it mean that it really is? And if you say you’ve discovered these islands, does it mean that you really discovered them, or just that you happened to notice them and others in the area also did, and considered them either international territory or perhaps belonging to someone else?

Werman: So, as we pointed out, today marks the anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II. Did the Chinese activists land on these island because of that date? Is Japan trying to flex its muscle because of that date? What’s the connection?

Magistad: Well, I think Japan knows better than to try to flex its muscles on the day marking the anniversary of its surrender in World War II. Japan has gone to great lengths over the course of the last few decades to reach out to powers in the region, including China, to offer aid, to, more than once, to apologize for what happened in World War II; and both China and South Korea have said multiple times they don’t think Japan has done enough. I think in the case of the activists, it’s not the first time, by any means, that pro-China activists from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and mainland China have tried to plant a flag on these islands. It’s actually just five little islets or pieces of rock and a few extra pieces of rock in this area. It may well be that they decided that this was a particularly good time because of the anniversary.

Werman: Was it inevitable, though, that if pro-Chinese activists landed on these islets, planted a flag, they would be arrested by Japan?

Magistad: Yeah, Japan has said this will happen – these our ours, this isn’t even a dispute, we’re not willing to engage in this as a dispute, so if anyone comes within our territorial waters we will arrest them. And in fact, the activists said that while in the past, when the have tried to do this, Japanese Coast Guard ships have given them warnings when they were twenty or thirty nautical miles off shore from the islands, this time it was fifty nautical miles off shore. And the Japanese Coast Guard ships were even firing water cannons at them, but they managed to break through and make it to the islets anyway.

Werman: What is the deal with these activists? Could they have done this on their own without any approval, tacit or otherwise, of the Chinese authorities?

Magistad: That’s a really good question. I think the Chinese authorities like to maintain a certain amount of deniability; with this and with other sorts of situations, where they can just say, well these are just patriotic citizens who are asserting China’s right over this territory, and it’s a tragedy of history that we don’t control this outright at this point. But when you look at how China acts in, for instance, the South China Sea, which adjoins the East China Sea where this is happening, there are often Chinese fishing boats, and the Chinese government will say, well these are just ordinary fishermen. But when the fishing boats are captured by the Filipinos or the Vietnamese who claim those waters and, you know, whose actual shorelines are much closer to the point where the fishing boats are,you see a lot of equipment on board that suggest that these are not ordinary fishermen. That they, you know, had another mission in mind when they were in these waters to try to claim territory for China.

Werman: Is it just pride at stake here or are there any valuable minerals or oil reserves beneath these islets and the surrounding waters?

Magistad: There are believed to be considerable oil and gas reserves beneath and around these islets, which is one reason why China is particularly interested in asserting its claims to this area.

Werman: So how would you expect a diplomatic flareup to conclude? How serious could it get?

Magistad: Well, let’s look back a couple of years. Almost exactly two years ago a Chinese fishing boat collided with a Japanese Coast Guard boat, in fact the Japanese say that the Coast Guard boat was rammed. And the Japanese arrested the captain and the crew and took into its possession the trawler. And the Chinese were very bellicose in response. They made a number of threats, so it can get quite tense.

Werman: That was Mary Kay Magistad. Thank you so much.

Magistad: Thank you.

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