Customer Reviews

The Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895: Perceptions, Power, and Primacy

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Paine's book shows how Japan used Westernizing reforms and the emerging International System to defeat China and become the dominant Great Power in East Asia. Almost immediately, the perception of Japan as a poor and weak island nation changed. The European powers and the United States began to treat Japan as an equal. Within ten years, Japan went on to defeat Imperial Russia, the first time an Asian power had beaten a Western nation since the Mongol invasion.

In this well-research and provocative book, Paine shows how Japan's victories were not so much due to her own strengths--which were considerable--but to her enemy's weaknesses; this led Japan to misjudge American power during World War II. Today, China strives to undo the consequences of the Sino-Japanese War by challenging Japan and reinserting itself on the top of the Asian pyramid. The big question is whether it will do so economically or militarily. Either way, the Asian status quo introduced after the Sino-Japanese War is likely to change.

Although designed for a general audience, specialists in Asian history could easily cut the introductory chapters and head straight for the "meat." The concluding chapters, in particular, provide an excellent summary of how and why Japan successfully modernized, as well as a highly relevant discussion of why China was--until recently that is--unable to do so. This book is required reading for all students of Asian history.

First I would say that this is a highly readable history of the Sino-Japanese War and Paine has obviously done her research. I have even bought my own copy because I find the middle section, in which she discusses the progress of the war itself, to be one of the most detailed, if not the most detailed, accounts available in English. As Paine justly points out, there is a dearth of studies in western languages on the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. Perhaps this would not have been the case had it not been superceded by the Russo-Japanese War (a war in my mind far less significant than the Sino-Japanese War in terms of consequences, the Russo-Japanese War simply put the period on a sentence already formed: Japanese hegemony in Northeast Asia), and then by a half century of far more bloody conflict. Yet the Sino-Japanese War is significant because it forms one bookend to the following half-century that would end in Tokyo Bay aboard the USS Missouri. It is significant because it marked the clear emergence of Japan as a "modern" and "civilized" (I'll leave the definitions to others) nation and the eclipse of China, and more importantly the traditional China-centered world order of East Asia. It also marked the beginning of the end for hapless Korea, though she was not perhaps as hapless as some would posit.
Paine's study is readable and informative. It also makes some good points, and argues against the study of Stewart Lone ("Japan's First Modern War") that the Sino-Japanese War was a failure for Japan despite its ostensible victory. Paine sees the war as a significant step in Japan's long term goal of imperial aggrandizement, and though Japan may have "lost the peace" of 1895, in the long run the war was a major step in Japan's progress towards regional hegemon.
A word of warning however. Paine calls her work a study of secondary sources (namely the western press of the period) of the war, something that is not at all reflected in the book's title. Paine relies almost wholly on accounts of the war from period newspapers, most signficantly the Japan Weekly Mail and the North China Herald as well as a handful of other prominent western journals and periodicals. Not consulted are military or diplomatic records or to any significant degree other secondary scholarly studies. As the Japan Weekly Mail was pretty securely in the pocket of the Japanese government and there were a plethora of petty rivalries undedrmining the reporting of the western press, such a firm reliance on the western newspapers is problematical, even if fascinating.
In the end I recommend this book with reservations. It's scholarship is admirable and welcome.

Before the Sino-Japanese War China was thought of as the Middle Kingdom. Even the European powers respected it up to a point. And before the war Japan...well, Japan wasn't even a blip on the radar. After the war China was nothing but a corpse to be sliced up and Japan had become THE Asian nation to respect.
The book explains, in great detail, how Europe, America and Asia reacted to the war - how it not only changed perceptions but also foreign policy.
But did Japan win the war or was it China who lost the war? Would Japan learn all the WRONG lessons and how would such nations as Russia, Germany, and England respond to a non-European power in the Far East?
The book allowed me to understand the history of events that helped bring about the Russo-Japanese War and also made me feel sorry for Korea.

Paine's history of the Sino-Japanese war is a well argued, clearly written account of what she terms "a seminal event in world history." Paine is able to put this event into the context of its time and shows the clear impact this conflict had on subsequent events and perceptions in the world. Her detailed descriptions of the events are largely derived from daily newspapers that were reporting on events as they unfolded. The book is heavily footnoted showing Paine's commendable effort in developing an objective and accurate narrative.

The book is separated into three clear sections. The first section covers the pre-war period and looks at events China, Korea, Japan and Russia that led to the conflict. Paine draws a distinction between the former two and the latter two arguing that while Japan and Russia were modernizers, China and Korea were corrupt, ineffectively run states that were generally antagonistic towards foreign influence and modernization in general. Paine shows clearly that Manchu's at the time feared the rise in strength of any Han dominated military force as they feared the Han Chinese would want to overthrow them and therefore never developed a strong national defensive structure. This, along with the general level of corruption and disorganization contributed to Chinese weakness in the face of a modern Japanese military. Paine also spends time describing the politics and the intrigues of in Korea and the difficulties the Japanese had in encouraging Korea to modernize against the wishes of China, their "protector".

Paine also explores the modernization in Japan (Meiji Restoration) at the time and also looks at Russia and the collective expansionist goals both countries had. Paine argues that the Sino-Japanese war was instigated by the Japanese to prevent growing Russian influence in East Asia. The announcement of the development of the trans-Siberian railway line was in fact the catalyst for the war. Paine shows without doubt the Japanese were the aggressors and argues successfully that they were increasingly interested in empire building too.

The second section goes into some detail on the four major battles (and some minor ones) of the Sino-Japanese war: The Battle for Pyonyang, the Battle of Yalu River, the Battle of Port Arthur and the Battle of Weihaiwei. Paine looks at the reasons for the rapid Japanese success and argues the best strategy for the Chinese to have employed was to attack the Japanese troop carriers at seas. Manchu military orders also prevented the Chinese from destroying military supplies and thereby, when they retreated, left supplies for the Japanese to consume. Paine argues the Japanese logistic lines were severely stretched and if the Chinese had not been so generous the Japanese would have had more difficulties in resupplying their front line forces. Throughout the progress of the battles Paine is careful to follow the diplomatic discourse in each country and also notes the rising strength of the Japanese military over their diplomatic corp. Paine is also quick to show how Japan wanted to show their best to the foreign powers and were quick to assimilate criticisms of their behavior.

The final section focuses on the consequences of the war (both long term and short term). Of course the Treaty of Shimoneski and the triple intervention by France, Russia and Germany gets significant coverage, but Paine also makes a concerted effort to show the effect the war had on events in the 20th century. Paine's main contention is that the war altered the balance of power in the east and the perception of both foreigners, China and Japan. For example Paine argues that Japan did not win her wars against Japan and Russia, rather, Paine argues, Japan and Russia lost their respective wars. Paine argues this created the wrong perceptions in Japan and gave them self-belief to attack America in 1941. Paine also notes that this war was the beginning of Korea's "20th century nightmare" and marks the rise of Japan as the first successful developing nation.

Paine makes a concerted (and much appreciated) effort to understanding the cultural underpinnings of the main protagonists. She dedicates a whole chapter at the end to the underlying culture of both the Chinese and the Japanese and contrasts this with Western culture to try to help readers understand why foreigners at the time simply did not grasp the cultural undercurrents that were being played out. Not only that, she explores the distinctions between Japanese and Chinese culture, which although have some similarities, are worlds apart in other ways. Throughout the book Paine constantly refers to the shadow games of keeping and losing "face" and takes the time to explain why the foreigners did not fully perceive what was going on.

There is much too commend this book. The detail and depth of Paine's understanding is commendable as is her compassion for some of the main protagonists such as China's military leader in the war Li Hong Zhang (who is heavily criticized despite being the only one in China to understand the need of the Chinese to modernize). Paine's book is a good starting point for any study of 20th century East Asian history. The Sino-Japanese war led to the rise of Japan, the fall of Manchu dynasty, conflict between Russia and Japan, the eventual second Sino-Japanese war and the split of Korea and the Taiwan question. The massacre of Port Arthur was also a tragic harbinger of what was to come four decades later in Nanking. As someone who has lived in Taiwan and East Asia for more than a decade, I really enjoyed and appreciated this book as it sheds light on many of today's pressing questions.

I learned a great deal from this book, and enjoyed reading it. The coverage of the war was somewhat brief, but it wasn't much of a war. The explanation of why it happened, why the Japanese won so easily, and the discussion of its effect on world affairs were excellent. I highly recommend it.

S.C.M. Paine does an admirable job at writing a very enjoyable history of one of the most important conflicts of the nineteenth century. Paine's work is not intended to be a simple chronological examination of the events that constitute the story of the war. Rather, her work is intended to be a reflection of how the challenges of a changing world, the political crises and events leading to the war and the war's surprising result were perceived by late-nineteenth century Asian and European political leaders and elites. Hence, Paine relies heavily, almost entirely, on press articles from various Western newspapers published in Asia, as well as some European newspapers. She adroitly leads the reader to understand how contemporaries understood the Sino-Japanese War was a seminal conflict and how that event compelled European contemporaries to understand that Japan, and not China, was the sole Asian power that could stand among the ranks of the Great Powers at the end of the nineteenth century. The Chinese and Korean political elites' failures to adapt to the changing world are contrasted with the Japanese elite's willingness to adapt to the Industrial Revolution and the revolution in global transportation and commerce. In particular, her last chapter cogently and brilliantly describes how fundamental cultural, social, philosophical, religious and historical differences between the West and Asia and between and among Chinese, Koreans and Japanese, caused many otherwise intelligent and able Asian leaders to perceive, resist or adapt to the fundamental political, economic and social changes marking the era in ways that Western contemporaries at times found "unfathomable". Additionally, the publisher's practice of citing foreign language sources by their native language titles with English translations was very helpful and professional. Far too many of the best historical works merely provide an English language phonetic romanization of the title, often a romanization that makes locating and reviewing such a source needlessly difficult. For those who speak and read Russian, Chinese or Japanese that can be frustrating at times and I, for one, applaud the use of the Cyrillic alphabet and original Chinese, Korean and Japanese characters for the sources' titles. The only reason that I do not give this work a five star rating is that the work is not as comprehensive a treatment of the war as I would have liked. That said, the book is worth every penny!!

Paine has done an excellent job on a topic that is important yet almost arcane. Using numerous newspaper accounts as no other sources are available does not weaken the work, but strengthens it insofar as it provides perspectives from multiple observers, especially Russia, France, England and the US none of whom were strictly speaking participating in the conflict. Anyone who wants to understand the emergence of Japan as a power in the Far East should read this. There are few other available books in English on this. The extensive bibliography attests to the scholarship of this work.

This is an unusually good political-military account of an important and complex series of events often simply hidden under the name, the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95. Based on solid primary sources, written in a lucid yet very detailed manner, the author unravels the intermixed and cross-currents of interests, perceptions, and actions that make up the further decline of Qing China and the rise of Japan to great power status.