UCLA Asia Institute
Today in Asian History
June 12
1922 Admiral KATO Tomosaburo (b. 1861) took over as Japanese prime minister. Kato's government was one of several brief ones following the assassination, in 1921, of HARA Kei (Hara Takashi) who was the first party prime minister in Japan (1918-1921). Kato is best known in the West as the leader of the Japanese delegation to the 1921-22 Washington naval armament limitation talks. Kato died in 1923. Click here to see a picture of Kato.
1959 The United States State Department announced it would issue visas to any bonafide athletes from China to participate in the Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California. China and the US did not restore diplomatic relations until 1979 and Beijing's delegation replaced Taipei's on the International Olympic Committee the same year. Socialist China did not send a delegation to an Olympics until the 1984 summer games held in Los Angeles.
The Chinese Olympic Committee website offers a page summarizing PRC participation in the games.
1967 The Chinese government announced that the People's Liberation Army had shot down a pilotless US reconnaissance plane in Guangxi province.
1968 Chinese Vice Premier Chen Yi declared Chinese opposition to the UN General Assembly resolution "peddling the so-called treaty on non-proliferation of nuclear weapons."
China joined the nuclear club in 1964 and detonated a hydrogen bomb in 1967. The Chinese government argued that various test bans (e.g., 1963) and non-proliferation treaties (e.g., 1968) were efforts by the Soviet Union and the United States to keep China from developing such weapons and, therefore, keep it vulnerable to superpower pressure.
Despite its opposition to the non-proliferation treaty, China announced that it did not intend to assist other nations in developing nuclear weapons. In 1992 it formally signed the non-proliferation treaty.
The Center for Nonproliferation Studies of the Monterey Institute of International Studies offers many resources on China's nonproliferation history and organizational structure. Zhu Mingquan, of Fudan University (Shanghai), published a 1997 article in the Center's The Nonproliferation Review tracing the history of China's non-proliferation policy. The US State Department website offers the text of the non-proliferation treaty. By 1997, 185 nations had acceded to the treaty. China's position on arms control is laid out in the Chinese (ArmsControlC-) and English (ArmsControlE-) versions of a governmental white paper.
1980 Japanese Prime Minister OHIRA Masayoshi (b. 1910 in Kagawa prefecture) died during the parliamentary campaign. He had served as prime minister since 1978. A foundation created to honor him gives a prize each year recognizing outstanding social science publications dealing with the Asia-Pacific region.
The Kagawa prefectural website includes Ohira among its famous natives, noting that during his prime ministership Japan established diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China.
The AI "Today in Asian History" page was compiled by Clayton Dube. He welcomes your comments and suggestions. Send them to <cdube@isop.ucla.edu>.
Search
