The Origins of Contemporary Sino-Japanese Relations: Zhou Enlai and Japan: 2015

In this book, Mayumi Itoh presents a comprehensive and in-depth examination of China's first Premier Zhou Enlai's youth in Japan, where he received his enlightenment in Marxism from the Japanese scholar Kawakami Hajime. Itoh analyzes primary sources including diaries and letters to reveal the innermost thoughts of young Zhou about how to save China from total destruction by imperial powers, and demonstrate how Zhou's time in Japan gave him a profound understanding of the Japanese people and society. These formative experiences would become the foundation for post-World War II Chinese foreign policy toward Japan and the origins of contemporary Sino-Japanese relations. Mayumi Itoh is a former Professor of Political Science at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA. She has also taught at Princeton University, USA, and Queens College, CUNY, USA. She is the author of numerous books, including Globalization of Japan: Japanese Sakoku Mentality and U.S. Efforts to Open Japan and The Hatoyama Dynasty: Japanese Political Leadership Through the Generations.