How did the Japanese expand in The Journey to the West after Meiji Restoration?

Speaking of Japan, an island country, everyone can know a little. It can be said that I am familiar with the Japanese occupation of the Korean Peninsula, China and Southeast Asia, especially the burning, killing and looting, the appalling bloody case, and the heroic feat of China's military and civilians in 14. However, few people may know that Japan has been expanding northward in East Asia for 77 years.

1868, after the Meiji Restoration, Japan, which became a world power, began to expand everywhere, and its neighbors in East Asia suffered from aggression, which lasted for 77 years until it failed in World War II and was beaten back to its original shape.

Japan's expansion has three main directions: Ryukyu, Taiwan Province Province and Southeast Asia to the south, Korean Peninsula and Chinese mainland to the east, and the northward expansion is the earliest and longest expansion of the Japanese.

As we all know, Japan today consists of Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu. But most people don't quite understand that Japan's current territory is also obtained by continuous expansion. Early northern Japan did not belong to the territory of modern Japanese people's congresses and people, but the territory of the indigenous Xia Yi people in northern Japan. In fact, the name "Xiayi" bears the name of Yamato people's contempt for Xiayi people. Because the hair of the "Xia Yiren" ethnic group is very long, the Yamato ethnic group thinks it looks like a shrimp beard, so it is called it. They are now officially called Ainu people.

From13rd century to14th century, the Yamato people began to move northward on a large scale and invaded Ainu territory, and fierce conflicts broke out between the two sides. Unfortunately, Ainu people are a loose fishing and hunting people, and the well-organized Yamato people are rivals, and the territory of Ainu people is constantly being eroded. /kloc-in the 0/8th century, there were few Ainu people left on Honshu Island.

However, Xiayi people have not completely lost their land. In Hokkaido, where the weather is bad, Xia Yiren is still the master, but later she didn't keep this place.

At first, Hokkaido, the northernmost and coldest place, was not ruled by the Japanese government. During the Kamakura shogunate period from12nd century to14th century, the Yamato people called Hokkaido "the hometown of shrimp", but as early as Muromachi period, that is, from 1336 to 1573, the Yamato people went to the south of Hokkaido to make a living, and they worked with Ah.

As a result, the Ainu people waged many large-scale struggles against the Yamato people, including the Battle of Iman in 1457, the Battle of Xiangku in 1669, and the Battle of Kunasiminas in 1789. However, these struggles of the miserable Ainu people ended in failure. At this point, Daiwa people controlled Hokkaido, Ainu people began to integrate into Daiwa people's economic and social system, and the traditional Ainu society began to collapse.

However, the Japanese are very lax in the management of the whole Hokkaido. They only pay more attention to the Yamato people who mainly gather in the south of Hokkaido, but they are not so concerned about the activities of other Ainu people. It was not until the Meiji Restoration that the colonization of Hokkaido began to be formalized. 1869, the Meiji government sent pioneers to carry out large-scale development of Hokkaido, and named it "Beijia No.1 Road", which was later changed to Hokkaido. Since then, "Hokkaido" has replaced the "land of shrimp" and become the island name.

In the next 60 or 70 years, about 3 million Japanese moved to Hokkaido. Since then, Ainu people have become a "minority" in Hokkaido, and they are required to learn Japanese, take Japanese names and stop religious customs. Subsequently, they were colonized and assimilated, which led to the extinction of Ainu civilization. There are less than 20 thousand Ainu people in Japan.

However, the Japanese ambition is not just Hokkaido, but to continue northward. There are two directions from Hokkaido to the north, Sakhalin Island in the north and Kuril Islands in the east. The aborigines of the Kuril Islands are also Ainu people. Now the Japanese government claims that they knew these islands as early as 370 years ago. This is not all nonsense. At that time, the Japanese did know something about these places north of Hokkaido. 1644, the map drawn by the edo shogunate includes the Thousand Islands and Huatai Island (Sakhalin Island is called Huatai Island in Japan). During the Edo period, Matsumae of Japan claimed to own the Kuril Islands, but actually managed it very little.

The Russians began to expand eastward in 158 1 and arrived here almost at the same time as the Japanese. Russians arrived in the Sea of Okhotsk on 1636, and the Kuril Islands have been recorded in Russia since 1646. 1697, a Russian explorer named Vladimir Atlasov came here. Since then, Russian explorers have been exploring here, leaving a lot of precious historical materials.

In this way, the expansion of Russia from west to east and Japan from south to north meet here, and the conflict between the two countries is inevitable. First, the two sides kept detaining each other's explorers, and the two sides kept pestering and negotiating for this, so it was never the way to compromise with each other. So the two sides negotiated to carve up the place. 1855, the two countries adopted the Treaty of Friendship between Japan and Russia, stipulating that the south belongs to Japan and the north belongs to Russia, which also left a curse for the current "four northern islands issue".

For Sakhalin Island, which is due north, the two sides agreed to maintain the original state without setting up another national border.

In fact, Sakhalin Island was the territory of China at that time, but because the Qing government's dominant position here was very weak, it was constantly affected by Japanese and

/kloc-in the 0 th and 7 th centuries, the Japanese began to move in Sakhalin Island. Since 1635, Matsumae, the shogunate of Edo, Japan, has visited Sakhalin Island many times. 1644, Hokkaido and Sakhalin Island (Sakhalin Island is called Huatai Island in Japan) were first included in the Japanese territory when Matsumae drew the map to protect the empire. 18th century later, Russian explorers learned about Sakhalin Island from Ainu people. 1742, the Russians surveyed almost the entire east coast of Sakhalin Island.

So Japan and Russia will naturally have a dispute in sakhalin island.

1799, Russia established a Russian-American company to operate a vast area of the Ussuri River basin. And on June 1806 10 10, the Russian-American company's fleet raided the Japanese Matsumae Tax Bureau at the southern tip of sakhalin island, announcing that sakhalin island was owned by Russia.

How can I acknowledge this day? 1808, the edo shogunate issued an order to expel Russian ships to all coastal areas, demanding that Russian ships be expelled immediately if they are found in the future, and arrested or executed immediately if they dock. At the same time, a large number of surveyors were arranged to go to the island. 1809, the Japanese first confirmed that Sakhalin Island was an island, which was not connected with the mainland, and named it "Beixiayi".

1850 and 1853, Russians claimed sovereignty over Sakhalin twice and incorporated it into Russian territory. Of course, the Japanese don't agree with this, and their power in Sakhalin Island is not small, so the two sides are deadlocked and don't give in to each other, so they reached an agreement of "not drawing borders and maintaining the original state".

In fact, both sides are ready to fight again when there is an opportunity in the future. As a result, during the Second Opium War, Russia came to fish in troubled waters, seized the northeast of China and took control of Sakhalin Island, so the Japanese had to negotiate with the Russians again on this issue.

Because Russia was stronger and weaker at that time, Japan had to give in. 1On March 30th, 867, the two sides initialled the Pseudo-Regulations of Huatai Island, and Japan was forced to recognize Sakhalin Island as Russia. As compensation, Russia ceded four islands belonging to the Kuril Islands, such as Telford and Zhilibao, to Japan.

However, the Japanese government thought that this treaty suffered a great loss, so it refused to ratify it and told the Russian side that Sakhalin Island remained intact. This tough attitude of Japan has indeed made the Russians make great concessions. 1On May 7, 875, Japan and Russia signed the Kuril Islands Exchange Treaty, which stipulated that Japan would give up all claims to Sakhalin Island and Russia would allocate all the northern parts of the Kuril Islands to Japan.

However, taking advantage of the victory of the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, Japan occupied the whole island of Sakhalin on July 7 of the same year. On September 5th, Japan and Russia signed the Portsmouth Treaty, and Russia ceded the land south of 50 degrees north latitude of Sakhalin Island to Japan.

At this point, Japan has all the Kuril Islands and southern Sakhalin Island, and it is also the largest territory in northern Japan.

However, at the end of World War II, the three giants of the United States, the Soviet Union and Britain gathered in Yalta and decided to clean up Japan. 1In February 1945, the United States and Britain promised that the Soviet Union had sovereignty over South Sakhalin Island and the entire Kuril Islands on the condition that the Soviet Union sent troops to resist Japan. So,1August 8, 945, the Soviet army launched a massive attack on Japanese troops in northeast China and the Korean peninsula, and at the same time received the southern part of Sakhalin Island and the Thousand Islands. /kloc-in August of 0/5, Japan surrendered unconditionally. 1On February 2, 946, the Soviet Union claimed ownership of Sakhalin Island and Thousand Islands.

195 1 year, in the San Francisco Peace Treaty, Japan recognized the independence of North Korea and gave up the sovereignty of Taiwan Province Province, Penghu, Thousand Islands, southern Sakhalin Island, Nansha Islands and Xisha Islands, except Ryukyu, which was equivalent to losing all the fruits of aggression since 1868.

However, this matter is not over yet. The last article introduced the Kuril Islands. Before the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese had already expanded to this place. In addition, the San Francisco Peace Treaty does not specify the specific scope of the Kuril Islands. Because of this loophole, the Japanese said: The so-called "South Kuril Islands" by the Russians refers to "the extension of Hokkaido" and is called "the four northern islands", which are not part of the "Kuril Islands". From 1855, it was Japanese land, not the land occupied later, but should belong to Japan.

Naturally, Russians disdain the Japanese statement and don't admit it at all. Therefore, on the issue of "four northern islands", Japan and Russia still hold their own opinions, which leads to the unresolved issue of "four northern islands".