Page "Chiang Kai-shek" Paragraph 78

In 1971, shortly after he had switched his country's diplomatic recognition from the Republic of China to the People's Republic of China, the Australian Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, visited Japan.

After meeting with the Japanese Prime Minister, Eisaku Sato, Whitlam observed that the reason Japan at that time was hesitant to withdraw recognition from the Nationalist government was " the presence of a treaty between the Japanese government and that of Chiang Kai-shek ".

Sato explained that the continued recognition of Japan towards the Nationalist government was due largely to the personal relationship that various members of the Japanese government felt towards Chiang.

This relationship was rooted largely in the generous and lenient treatment of Japanese POWs by the Nationalist government in the years immediately following the Japanese surrender in 1945, and was felt especially strongly as a bond of personal obligation by the most senior members then in power .< ref name =" Journal1 "> Gillin, Donald G. and Etter, Charles.

" Staying On: Japanese Soldiers and Civilians in China, 1945 – 1949.

" The Journal of Asian Studies.

Vol.

42, No. 3, May, 1983. p. 516.

Retrieved at: < http :// www. jstor. org / stable / 2055515 >.

February 23, 2011 .</ ref >