Institute of Pacific Relations

Chronological Chart of Far Eastern History by Edwin O. ReischauerReview by: Willys R. PeckFar Eastern Survey, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Jan. 14, 1948), p. 11Published by: Institute of Pacific RelationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3024667 .

Accessed: 15/06/2014 16:21

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

Institute of Pacific Relations is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to FarEastern Survey.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.46 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 16:21:22 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Russia's exports to Japan constituted slightly over two

percent of Russia's total exports in the late nineteen

twenties and 1931; during the middle nineteen thirties

exports to Japan dropped to 1.7 percent of total exports and were less than one percent after 1936.24 Imports from Japan formed less than one percent of total Rus?

sian imports until 1930 when they started to rise to a

peak of 4.6 percent of total imports in 1936. They fell

again to 1.2 percent in 1938.25

Trade with Russia was a minor part of total Japanese

trade, exports ranging from .5 percent in 1927 to a high of two percent in 1930, and down to .2 percent in 1938.

Imports from Russia were 1.3 percent of total imports in 1927, rose to 2.8 percent in 1931, and fell to .3 per? cent in 1937.26

With Russia's declaration of war on Japan in August

1945, "normal" trade between the two countries came, of course, to an end and will be resumed only after a

peace treaty with Japan has been signed. It is likely that Japan will seek to resume trade relations for im?

ports of needed raw materials, both for industrial needs

and food requirements. On the other hand, the Soviet

Union may find some trade with a defeated and power- less Japan to her advantage in her program of economic

development of the Russian Far Eastern Provinces

where Japanese products could be useful, recalling that, with exception of the late nineteen thirties, the bulk of

Japanese exports to the USSR was sent to Asiatic Rus?

sia.27 There remains, therefore, for the future, the pos?

sibility of some peaceful export-import trade between

the two countries.28

B O O K S ON THE PACIFIC AREA

REPORT OF THE CHINA-UNITED STATES AGRICUL- TURAL MISSION. Washington, D.G.: United States De-

partment of Agriculture, 1947. 265 pp. This report of 265 pages gives the record of the activities,

studies, and conclusions of the mission of eleven Americans and thirteen Chinese set up in 1946 by the President of the United States and the President of China. The mission was active for six months. It served in fourteen provinces of China and cov? ered more than 8,000 miles in that country.

It was commissioned to outline a program for agricultural development in China and to suggest the public services nec?

essary for its implementation. It was wisely agreed that this international mission should give special consideration to the

agricultural commodities which have long been important items in trade between China and the United States.

In his letter to President Chiang, President Truman states: "We are aware that our own agriculture is already indebted to your country for valuable agricultural material which has

been introduced into the United States. Moreover, we still have much to learn from Chinese agriculture." The commis?

sion, which included many of the ablest leaders of both coun?

tries, accomplished the various purposes for which it was estab? lished. The report is well worthy of close study, not only by the authorities of the two countries who are charged with

dealing with agricultural development and the institutions of

higher learning in China and America which serve the farm-

ing interests of the two countries, but also by students of the

humanities, the social sciences and the physical sciences in America who may be considering going to China in connection with their own studies, as well as by those who deal with

sending such scholars including especially all who have respon- sibility in connection with the implementing of the funds made available for interchange of personnel by the Fulbright Act.

Special studies are included, dealing with land tenure, rural

credits, agricultural education, marketing, which bear on every- thing related to agriculture in China. The wise limits given the mission have prevented its including special studies of any extensive kind related to some important agricultural products of China such as rice, wheat, millet, soy beans, kaoliang, citrus, and China's many other fruits, but there are very extensive studies related to tung oil, silk, tea, and wool.

This report throws invaluable light on the question as to the value of sending to China for one or two years' study and service men or women who have no command of the Chinese

language and who are not able to devote any considerable amount of time to learning the language. Two of the Amer-

icans on the mission have a good command of the language. The others do not possess that tool, but the report proves the value of the time spent in China by men who are already such masters in their field.

All will find encouragement in the achievements and present services carried on by and under the National Government of China in agricultural education and farm credits, and one

may add that the National Government is also rendering similar service in the fields of medicine and engineering.

The report presents a picture which includes much need and which calls for great service and progress, but shows there is a good foundation on which to build.

California College in China w. b. pettus

CHRONOLOGIGAL CHART OF FAR EASTERN HIS? TORY. Compiled by Edwin O. Reischauer. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1947. Single sheet. $.30. Reischauer's Chronological Chart of Far Eastern History

will give the average reader of books on that subject far

greater pleasure and profit from his studies than he derived from them when he was solely dependent on texts, no matter how brilliant they were in exposition. In an ingenious manner the chart presents clearly to the eye the geographical, as well as the chronological, relationship between dynasties and eras in south and north China, the border lands, Korea and Japan. It is also a highly useful reference list of oustanding historical names and dates. willys r. peck

24 D. D. Mishustin, Vneshniaia Torgovlia i Industrialisatsia SSSR (Foreign Trade and Industrialization of USSR), Mos- cow, 1938, p. 125; and A. M. Baykov, loc. cit.

25 A. M. Baykov, loc. cit. 26 Author's calculation on the basis of export and import

statistics in Japan Year Book 1937, 1939-1940, 1940-1941. Fig? ures refer only to exports and imports of Japan Proper includ?

ing, however, Karafuto. 27 Japan Year Book, loc. cit. Ghapters on Foreign Trade. 28 As a matter of fact, conversations directed toward re-

opening Russo-Japanese trade are reported to have been begun recently (New York Times, May 13, 1947).

JANUARY 14, I 948 II

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.46 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 16:21:22 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions