A few months ago, Kelly Hammond , Assistant Professor of East Asian history at the University of Arkansas, published a book, “China Muslims and Japan’s Empire,” that coincides with the current world-wide news about Chinese Muslims in Xingjian in western China, and the world-wide pressure on the Communist government of China to end its suppression of those Muslims and stop the establishment of concentration camps for them as well as the cruel brain-washing to which they have been subjected in an effort to convert them from Islam to Communism.
Hammond has been interested in the Chinese Muslims since her undergraduate years which were followed by her Ph.D. in history from Georgetown University in Washington, DC.
Thanks to her interest in both Chinese and Japanese histories, and the languages of the two nations, the book handles the problem of the Chinese Muslims from a different prospective: the two countries’ historical fight over them. Not only was she faced with the complicated non-western languages of the two countries, but, also with each country’s interpretation of the others’ language, in addition to translations of the two languages from Western, Arabic and Turkish sources.
These are some of the book’s contents:
- Islam and Japan’s Conquest for Empire.
- From Meiji to Manchukuo.
- Japan’s Interest in China’s Muslims.
- On a Bamboo Fence: China Muslims in Between.
- Japanese occupation of China.
- China and Japan Exploiting Islam.
- Fascist Entanglements.
- Fascist Legacy of the Cold War.
The book contains a few historical photos such as: Chinese Muslims in Japan, 1935; Girls of Islamic school in Tokyo praying for the Japanese and German alliance against Communist Russia, 1936; Anti-Communist slogans in Chinese and Arabic produced by Japanese Muslims, 1939; Pilipino Muslim students, studying in Japan, 1941; and, Japan-sponsored Hajj delegation, 1938.
In the book’s introduction, the author says that “scholarship in English has not yet explored this dimension of Japanese imperialism, yet it is clear that the Japanese Empire made concentrated and coordinated efforts to win the support of Muslims from China, in order foster broad and far-reaching connections to Muslims, from Damascus to Detroit.”
The book reveals the little-known story of the Japanese interest in Islam during its occupation of China, and how they were able to defeat the Chinese in winning the hearts and minds of “the vital minority” of China’s Muslims.
Interestingly enough, the Japanese presented themselves as protectors of Islam, and for more than one reason:
First, to exploit Muslims for the purpose of expanding its empire.
Second, to create new Muslim consumer markets for Japanese products.
Third, to subvert the Western capitalism’s world dominance.
Fourth, to destabilize the Soviet Union by gaining the support of its Muslim republics in Central Asia.
Connecting the past with the present, the book details how Japan’s efforts, although short in duration, helped the establishment of the ethno-religious identity of the Chinese Muslims and their connections to the outside world, particularly to the global Islamic network. The present-day unrest of the Chinese Muslims has been one of those efforts by Japan, or, rather, by Japanese and Chinese competition over them.
The Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) marked the beginning of World War II in Asia, although the conflict started in 1931 when Japan invaded and occupied Manchuria. Ironically, both Russia and the US sent help to the Chinese, because of earlier wars between Russia and Japan, and because of the Japanese attack on the American military base in Pearl Harbor that started a heavy armed and strongly determined military campaign against Japan until its surrender in 1945.
The Chinese-Japanese war was the largest Asian war in the 20th century, with between 10 and 25 million Chinese civilians and over 4 million Chinese and Japanese military personnel missing or dying, causing some historians to call it “the Asian Holocaust”
The book contains a 1940 Chinese document that warned about “Japan’s Near East Conspiracy” to win the support of Muslims around the world. What was called Japanese propaganda claimed that “Japan is the sun and Islam is the moon. Both emanate brightness to shine from East Asia throughout the entire world.”
The book added that the Japanese goal was to “create a cadre of Muslims who supported their anti-Western and anti-Communist agenda, and who were loyal to the Japanese Empire.”
Ironically, while Japan used the Chinese Muslims to strengthen its relations with other Muslims, particularly in the Middle East, Japan suppressed, arrested and killed thousands of the Chinese Muslims. It used what was referred to as a "killing policy” in addition to destroying what some sources said were about 220 mosques. Then there was the “humiliating policy” of smearing mosques with pork fat, forcing Muslim butchers to slaughter pigs to feed the Japanese soldiers, and recruiting Muslim girls to supposedly train them as geishas and singers but in fact make them serve as sex slaves.
The book shows that the cruel treatment by both Imperial Japan and Communist China have not been able to beak the faith and the will of the Chinese Muslims and confirmed that the Chinese Muslims “who had been in China for hundreds of years, are influenced by Chinese culture, yet, they maintain distinct religious and cultural practices with their Islamic religious believes.”
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Book: “China Muslims and Japan’s Empire: Centering Islam in World War II”
Author: Kelly Hammond
Publisher, University of North Carolina Press
Print Pages: 314
Price: $21.44
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