Masao Shimojo The Senkaku Islands Were No Man’s Land

The “Basic Facts on Diaoyu Dao” states as the basis for claiming the islands as Chinese territory that “China had jurisdiction over the islands for several hundred years.” However, Taiwan and the Pescadores Islands were affiliate islands of the Ryukyu Kingdom, according to the Da Ming yitong zhi, and were alien lands according to the Dili zhi in Mingshi, an official history of the Ming. [...] Through the cabinet decision, the islands came under the valid control of Japan, except for a period following Japan’s defeat in the Pacific War when the islands were put under the military administration of the United States. [...] 3 Japan Review Vol.4 No.2 Winter 2021 The Senkaku Islands Were No Man’s Land The governments of China and Taiwan began to show interest in the Senkaku Islands because the Okinawa Reversion Agreement (officially known as the Agreement between Japan and the United States of America concerning the Ryukyu Islands and the Daito Islands) of June 1971 included the Senkaku Islands in the territories to be. [...] Taiwan was not Ming territory in the fifteenth century What are the grounds for the Chinese territorial claim on the Senkaku Islands? According to the “Basic Facts on Diaoyu Dao,” “China had jurisdiction over the islands for several hundred years.” Let us analyze this claim by reviewing the history of the Ming Dynasty. [...] Later documents such as the Huang-chao xu wen-xian-tong-kao (Encyclopedia of the historical records of the Imperial Dynasty) of 1912 and the Qingshigao (Draft to a history of the Qing) of 1927 (16th Year of the Republic of China) also show that the Senkaku Islands were not territory of the Republic of China.