"In September 1996, members of the right-wing Japan Youth Federation repaired a lighthouse on one of the Diaoyu (J. Senkaku) Islands, a small group of uninhabited islets north of Taiwan in the Liuqiu (J. Ryukyu) chain, known today as Okinawa. For months, outraged ethnic Chinese in Hong Kong and Taiwan protested Japan's presence in the islands, and violent confrontations between protesters and the Japanese Marine Self-Defense Force resulted." "Sovereign Rights and Territorial Space in Sino-Japanese Relations is an investigation of the highly topical issues involved in the Diaoyu/Senkaku confrontation. It begins by addressing the issue of the historical development of the dispute." "This volume contains much of interest for historians of modern China and Japan as well as for political scientists looking for new insights into international relations and Sino-Japanese interactions."--Jacket.

Introduction: Irredentism, the Diaoyu Islands, and Sino-Japanese Relations --1 -- 1. International Law and the Diaoyu Islands -- 19 -- 2. Historical Documents of the Diaoyu Islands: A Cross-Time Analysis -- 42 -- 3. Critics of the Irredentism Debate over the Diaoyu Islands -- 101 -- 4. From Irredentism to Modern Geopolitics: The Diaoyu Islands during the Twentieth Century -- 116 -- Conclusion: Historical Justification and Chinese Hegemony -- 152 -- Appendix Diaoyu Islands: Maps and Historical Evidence -- 163.