It was at Kinmen, during the Battle of Guningtou in October 1949, that the Kuomintang were finally able to stem the tide of losses. During the Chinese Civil War, the Chinese Communists relentlessly pushed the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalists) further and further south. It was historically known as a gateway for Chinese migrating overseas to Japan and Southeast Asia and produced many officials for the imperial Chinese bureaucracy. Together with the surrounding islands, Kinmen only covers an area of 150 square kilometers. Kinmen is located within viewing distance right across from Fujian Province’s city of Xiamen. Occupied by Japan during the Sino-Japanese War, Kinmen had previously attracted little attention. The Japanese media reported daily on events surrounding Kinmen, and the conflict was widely discussed in the Diet. In later stages, the ROC retaliated by bombing the recently opened Xiamen Railway Station in Fujian Province. In this “war,” Kinmen Island, controlled by the Republic of China (Taiwan), was constantly shelled by the communist People’s Republic of China. The most serious armed conflict that took place around Japan at the time was the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis of 1958. Along with general antiwar sentiment, it seems that many in Japan were anxious about the nation being “drawn into” or “entrapped” in conflict in East Asia as the consequence of a strengthened US-Japan alliance. This new treaty would increase Japan’s own burden and mutuality with the United States, but precipitated strong opposition and protests in Japan. Kishi sought to revise the 1951 US-Japan Security Treaty and replace it with one that gave Japan more independence. While Japan was responsible for initiating regional conflict in 1930s, following its surrender in 1945, it consciously avoided direct involvement in regional conflicts due to its self-identification as a “peace nation.” Nevertheless, the Japanese people and politicians contemplated the possibility of Japan being involved in one of these hot wars during the Kishi administration. The Cold War in East Asia was in fact characterized by a series of hot wars only after they ceased did the region as a whole begin to enjoy economic prosperity. After the Japanese military staged the Manchurian Incident in 1931, armed conflict raged on through World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, finishing with the Sino-Vietnamese War in 1979. ![]() ![]() ![]() War was a constant in East Asia for almost 50 years beginning in the 1930s. The Cold War, “Hot Wars” in Asia, and Japan During the early Cold War, the Taiwan Strait and in particular Kinmen Island were the focus of the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis that in turn influenced debate surrounding the revision of the US-Japan Mutual Security Treaty during the Kishi Nobusuke administration (1957–60). The increased likelihood of a “Taiwan contingency” or conflict has garnered increased attention in Japan recently and influenced security discussions and reforms.
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