Although
the claims that the both governments make sound like that the islands have been
theirs since the time immemorial, I must point out the notion of territorial
sovereignty is not universal. I would like to think it as an invention of the
modern times and associate it with a series of events from Christopher Columbus
taking possession of San Salvador to Neil Armstrong planting an American flag
on the moon. The notion is historically recent. The way it is used today has
clearly been linked with the emergence and establishment of nation states.
Japanese
Foreign Ministry states that “from 1885, surveys of the Senkaku Islands had been
thoroughly conducted by the Government of Japan. Through these surveys, it was
confirmed that the Senkaku Islands showed no trace of having been under the
control of China. Based on this confirmation, the Government of Japan made a
Cabinet Decision in January 1895 to formally incorporate the Senkaku Islands
into the territory of Japan…. These measures were carried out in accordance
with the ways of duly acquiring territorial sovereignty under international
law.”
(http://www.mofa.go.jp/region/asia-paci/senkaku/index.html, accessed on
31/12/12)
The principle used was that “if nobody else makes a claim, the land is
yours.” From 1492 on, this presumption was used to legitimize “discoveries”
that allowed colonial powers to curve up the globe and expand their empires. Intriguing is the date of
incorporation. 1895 was the year when Japan took Taiwan as booty for winning
the war with China. In that event, the sovereignty of the islands should have
returned to China when Taiwan ceased to be Japanese colony in 1945. And if, as
Tokyo claims, that the islands originally belonged to the Kingdom of Ryukyu,
which was taken over by Japan by force only two decades before the
Sino-Japanese war, does it prove that the islands have inherently been Japan’s?
For ages,
people migrated from islands to islands. If there were people who tried their
luck in inhabiting on those inhospitable islands, they could probably have come
either from other southern Ryukyu Islands, or from Taiwan, because of their
geographical proximity. Large ships from other nations may have found a haven
there during a typhoon season. As far as I know, however, there is no record of
human settlements prior to 1895 when Japan’s Government sent workers to build a
factory to make dried fish.
The point
I wish to make is that not every piece of land (with or without underground
natural resources) on earth is meant to be possessed by somebody. Greed,
whether personal, national, or corporate, is not omnipotent. Practices of “commons”
were not uncommon and can still be utilized.
