From Enemies to Experts: Japanese “Technical Specialists” in Postwar China

Date(s)： 2026/05/28

Time： 14:30~16:30

Venue： Archives 3rd Conference Hall

Host： Prof. Lin Chih-hung（Associate research fellow, IMH, AS）

Speaker：Prof. Daqing Yang（History and International Affairs, George Washington University）

Organizer： History of Knowledge Research Group

Abstract,
After Japan’s surrender in 1945, while the vast majority of Japanese military and civilians in China were sent home, a significant number of Japanese remained. Among them were tens of thousands of technical and experts in a wide variety of fields that were retained by the ROC government and the Communists. Although the last group was sent home by the PRC government in the mid-1950s, some of these Japanese specialists return to China in the 1980s to take part in its economic modernization. This study places this episode both in the long span of modern Chinese-Japanese relations as well as in comparison with the uses of German scientists by the Allies after World War II.