The Apathy of Australian Tourists in China in 1932
By Felicity Sleeman
As an employee of the Bank of New South Wales, James Johns had been stationed in Salamaua, Papua New Guinea in the early 1930s. After this, it appears that he was given leave which he used to travel around parts of Asia, including China and Japan.[1] That is where this story begins.
From on board a Japanese ship called N.Y.K Line Johns writes about his experiences of both China and Japan.[2] As a tourist, he explores the bustling streets of Chinese cities from behind the lens of a camera. He moulds this story through letters and photographs which now reside in the University of Melbourne archives, ingraining them within the bounds of history.
However, the nature and accuracy of the story that Johns tells should be questioned. Without any analysis or contextualising, it appears that Johns is simply on holiday in an interesting new country with incredible sites. He is ignorant to many of the social, political and economic issues faced by China in 1932.
From 1895 and throughout the 1930s, relations between China and Japan were continuously tumultuous. In the early 1900s there was much communication of policies on behalf of the conflicting Chinese and Japanese governments in the English language.[3] Nish suggests that this was reflective of the desire held by both Japan and China to capitalise on the influence of “third parties” like the British in China.[4] Manchuria was a significant point of conflict for the Japanese and Chinese after World War I, as there was long-standing disagreement between who held the rights to this territory.[5] In 1931 the Japanese invaded Manchuria, and subsequently used the area as a base to plan an invasion of the rest of China.[6]
Johns travels between China and Japan with seeming ease on a Japanese ship called N.Y.K Line, observing that “the Japs can build a boat”.[7] As he travels along the outskirts of China and towards Japan, Johns appears to ignore the inherent political connotations of such a journey in the letters he sends to his parents.[8] With Japan planning an invasion of China, the existence of a boat built by the Japanese in Chinese waters is significant. It allows for a deeper understanding of the way western powers like Australia and Britain regarded the conflict between China and Japan in 1932. Johns observes two nations, China and Japan, embroiled in social and political conflict but can only speak about the dinners he has had, the tourist sites he has seen, the weather and workings of the boat he travels on.[9] Perhaps it is a result of the fact that these letters are addressed to his parents, but Johns leaves many things unsaid in regards to the political conflict between Japan and China in the observations he makes in his letters. This leads to an inherent undertone of apathy, or perhaps simply ignorance, in the story of western involvement in both China and Japan in 1932. It can subsequently be concluded that there was either little information given to the Australian public and about the situation in China or that many of them, Johns being a prime example, simply didn’t care.
Johns mentions visiting Shanghai in Figure 1 and captures the photograph shown in Figure 3 in Shanghai.[10] In 1932 Shanghai was divided into three distinct political spheres. There was the International Settlement, the French Concession, a colony ruled by a Governor General appointed by Paris and what is referred to as Greater Shanghai, an area administered by the Chinese central government, surrounded by the two foreign enclaves.[11] Jordan refers to the International Settlement as a “do-or-die competitive environment” made up of Japanese and westerners eager to make a profit by any means necessary. [12]
Johns plays the part of the western onlooker in the story he tells. Western countries like Britain and Australia played a prominent role in the conception of Shanghai as the centre of international economic and political life in the 1930s.[13] Britain, America and France all had significant trade ties with Shanghai from the 1840s and through to 1932.[14] By the 1930s Shanghai was the most economically prosperous area of China, largely due to tourism and international influences.[15] Meanwhile, as of 1927 the rest of China was embroiled in Civil War between the Kuomintang’s nationalist government and the Communist Party of China.[16] Knowing this, Johns’ role as an Australian tourist in Shanghai in 1932 can be placed within a wider trend of apathy towards violence and political turmoil amongst westerners in China in 1932. It is also reflective of Jordan’s suggestion that many westerners in China were there for purely economic benefit.
Figure 3 depicts the scene of public executions occurring on what Johns describes as a “Shanghai street”.[17]. Johns photographs public executions of kidnappers in Shanghai, but fails to acknowledge the socio-political circumstances these events are embroiled in. Whilst he describes the people being executed as “kidnappers”, it is important to consider that there was conflict between the Communists, nationalists and warlord factions in China at this time. While the International Settlement in Shanghai was largely removed from this conflict, Greater Shanghai was not. The story of Johns’ holiday in China subsequently becomes far more layered, as we begin to see the way in which Johns was removed from the international political conflict in Shanghai in 1932, a position which is representative of a broader sense of apathy shown by Western people in Shanghai throughout the 1930s.
White suggests that this narrative form of discourse in history is merely “a medium for the message” and that it has “no more truth-value or informational content than any other form structure”.[18] This then suggests that in historical studies there is an inherent necessity for interpretation and reading beyond the face-value of documents. This idea is supported by Hunt who argues that Historical truth is “two-tiered”, with facts and the straightforward narrative being in the first tier, and interpretations of these facts in the second.[19]
It is in this narrative of James Johns and his voyage of leisure throughout China that the nature of narrative in history can be further understood. Taking the letters and images used in the telling of James Johns’ story at face value, it is easy to see a simple story of an Australian man on holiday in China in the 1930s. But when you take into consideration the political situation in China, and the ongoing conflict between Chinese and Japanese people in 1932, a broader story becomes evident. It is, therefore, in the silences of Johns’ narration where a true story can be found.
[1] Correspondence from James Johns to his parents from on board N.Y.K Line, 28th November, 1932, Item 1/54, Box 1, JOHNS, JAMES HAROLD WESLEY, University of Melbourne Archives, Brunswick, Victoria, Australia.
[2] Correspondence from James Johns to his parents from on board N.Y.K Line, 29th November 1932.
[3] Ian Nish, “An Overview of Relations Between China And Japan 1895-1945.”, The China Quarterly 124, (1990), 601.
[4] Nish, “An Overview of Relations between China and Japan 1895-1945.”, 601.
[5] Quincy Wright, “The Manchurian Crisis”, The American Political Science Review 26, no. 1 (1932), doi:10.2307/1946441.
[6] Sandra Wilson, The Manchurian Crisis and Japanese Society, 1931 – 33, 1st ed. (New York: Routledge, 2002), 15.
[7] Correspondence from James Johns to his parents from on board N.Y.K Line, 29th November 1932.
[8] Correspondence from James Johns to his parents from Kobe Japan, 8th December, 1932, Item 1/55. Box 1, JOHNS, JAMES HAROLD WESLEY, University of Melbourne Archives, Brunswick, Victoria, Australia.
[9] Correspondence from James Johns to his parents from on board N.Y.K Line, 29th November 1932.
[10] Correspondence from James Johns to his parents from on board N.Y.K Line, 29th November 1932: Photograph of public executions in Shanghai, China, November 1932, Photo no. 163, Box 1, James Johns’ photographic collection, University of Melbourne Archives, Brunswick, Victoria, Australia.
[11] Donald A. Jordan, China’s Trial by Fire: The Shanghai War Of 1932, 1st ed. (United States of America: The University of Michigan Press, 2001), 1.
[12] Jordan, China’s Trial by Fire: The Shanghai War Of 1932, 1.
[13] Jordan, China’s Trial by Fire: The Shanghai War Of 1932, 1.
[14] Hsing-Yuan Huang, The study of the development of Shanghai Tourism in 1930s, 1.
[15] Hsing Yuan Huang, The study of the development of Shanghai Tourism in 1930s, 1.
[16] Nish, “An Overview Of Relations Between China And Japan, 1895 – 1945.”, The China Quarterly 124 (1990), 607.
[17] Photograph of public executions in Shanghai, China, November 1932, Photo no. 163, Box 1, James Johns’ photographic collection, University of Melbourne Archives, Brunswick, Victoria, Australia.
[18] Hayden V. White, ‘The Burden of History’, Tropics of Discourse: Essays in Cultural Criticism. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985: 18.
[19] Lynn Hunt. History: Why It Matters. (Cambridge: Polity, 2018) Ch. 2, ‘Truth in History’: 30.