A Summary of the Research Reviews of East Asia Tongwen Academy of Japan

East Asia Tongwen Academy was the largest and oldest institute of culture & education opened in foreign countries in the Modern history of Japan, and many scholars have done researches into this special school. This paper summaries most of the scholars’ study achievements so far obtainable, which are classified into three types, namely, comprehensive studies, studies of the graduation expedition and other special topic studies. Based on the researches, the author points out three issues that could be further researched into: 1) The real nature of the academy; 2) The historical study of China in modern times; and 3) Japan’s tradition of learning from foreign cultures.


Special Feature of the Academy: Graduation Expedition
The most special feature of the Academy was its intensive focus on grass-root field research in addition to their textbook knowledge.During the 46 years of its existence in China, they trained nearly 5000 graduates, all of whom were required to do practical works (the same as the current study tour in the Japanese educational system) in their final semester or the final year of their school life.
The students covered nearly every part of China excluding Tibet, researching into every aspect of China's local politics, economy, commerce, history, geography, culture, transportation, customs, etc.They gathered and compiled their research reports and submitted them to the Japanese political and military circles, Open Journal of Social Sciences which later served as the most important resource of intelligence for Japanese aggression against China.Most of the graduates from the Academy were later directly or indirectly involved in the Aggressive War against China.After moving to Shanghai, the Academy changed its campus for several times, first in Tuisheng Road (August of 1900-April of 1901), later in Guishu School at Gaochang Temple Street (May of 1901-July of 1913), and finally in Hongqiao Road of Xujiahui for nearly 20 years (April of 1917-Sept. of 1937).After the August-13 War in Shanghai broke out in 1937, the Hongqiao campus was burned into ashes and the Academy had to move to a campus in Nagasaki in Japan for some time.During the Anti-Japanese War (1937)(1938)(1939)(1940)(1941)(1942)(1943)(1944)(1945), the Shanghai Jiaotong University moved to the inland city of Chongqing [2], the Academy took the opportunity and occupied this campus for its own use, and continued running the school (April of 1938-Sept. of 1945) until Japanese surrender in 1945, and the Academy was forced to a close in China [3].

"Extension" of the Academy-Inherited by Aichi University in Japan
After the shut-down of the Academy in China, with the active work of its alumni and the support from East Asia Association, the former staff and teachers of the Academy, along with the students who once studied overseas, co-established the current Aichi University in Toyohash of Aichi Prefecture in November of 1946.
In 1947, the University accepted the 30,000 books once stored in the Academy, which literally functioned as the main part of the University Library.In addition to this, the former students' school records and other original files of the Academy were secretly sent back to Japan and housed in the Library of Aichi University.All this offered a very good reason for Aichi University to take the Academy as its "biological parents", and this conspicuously indicates that Aichi University is basically the extension and development of the Academy on the Japanese land.That Aichi University stands out in Japan as the key academic center of Chinese studies is inseparable from this part of history of the East Asia Tongwen Academy.

Researches into East Asia Tongwen Academy in Recent Years, the References as well as an Analysis
In recent years, many scholars from both China and Japan are researching into the Academy, and the writer of this paper, on the basis of the content of the researches, classified their productions into the following three categories (see Table 1).Summary of the Major Research Results related to East Asia Tongwen Academy, chronologically made in Dec. of 2014.

Researches into the Overall History of the Academy
Major publications include: Introduction to Shanghai East Asia Tongwen Academy, a paper by Su Zhiliang (Archives and History, 1995.5), the references

X
. Y. Zhang, Y. R. Liu DOI: 10.4236/jss.2018.61200555 Open Journal of Social Sciences establishing schools, learning Chinese language and culture, better understanding of China's actual conditions and reserving personnel for their potential plan to invade China [1].In May of 1900, a Tongwen Academy, initiated by KonoeAtsumaro, the then president of the House of Peers in Japan, was established in Nanjing by an UGO so-called East Asia Common Culture Association.The Academy was originally named as Nanjing Tongwen Academy, with the purpose of "learning and understanding the national conditions of China, China's politics, economy and culture, and strengthening Sino-Japan trade and communication."In August of that year, due to the impact from the Boxer Movement, the Academy was forced to move to Shanghai and renamed as East Asia Tongwen Academy.The East Asia Common Culture Association, the Academy's administrative, was originally formed by merging two associations in November of 1898, one was East Asia Association and the other is Common Culture (Tongwen) Association.Since 1899, the East Asia Common Culture Association got its annual fund of 40,000 yen in the name of secret service expenses from Japanese Ministry of Foreign affairs to keep school routines.The key members of the Association then included the important politicians in Japan like, Inukai Tsuyoshi, Kishida Yin Hong, Ko-noeAtsumaro, Konoe Fumimaro, OuchiChozo, etc., most of whom later held important positions in the Academy.The Academy mainly focused on China's national conditions, and the courses offered then included Chinese history, geography, literature, mathematics, physics, chemistry, covering nearly all the subjects in the art and science fields.From 1900 to 1920, the Academy only recruited students from different prefectures in Japan, and the annual enrolment was from 50 to 100 students, whom were assigned to study at three departments, namely politics, commerce and agriculture & industry and were offered three-year courses all related to China's economy and commerce.From Sept. of 1920, the Academy started to recruit Chinese students in the Commerce Department, offering them 4-year courses, which terminated in 1931 when the Anti-Japanese War broke out.In 1939, with the approval from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, the Academy was ungraded into a university.

Table 1 .
Summary of the major research results related to East Asia Tongwen Academy, chronologically made in Dec. of 2014.(items in the-above table will not be listed in the references of the article.)Records of the Graduation Expedition by Students from Shanghai East Asia Tongwen Academy, a monograph edited and published by Japanese Shanghai Friends Association in 2000; Investigation into the Graduation Expedition in China by Students from Shanghai East Asia Tongwen Academy, a paper by Feng Tianyu, a Chinese scholar, published in Chinese Literature and History, a Chinese journal in 2000; Selected Translation of the Students' Investigation Results about China from East Asia Tongwen Academy (Volume I, II and III), a monograph published by Social Sciences Academic Press (China) in Nov. 2012; A Study of the Graduation Expedition in Asia Tongwen Academy , written by Yoshiyuki U, a Japanese student studying in China and published by The Commercial Press in 2000, in which the author introduced the specific conditions about the investigations done the students in their graduation expeditions and offered some evaluations (see Table 1 for details, No. 6-No.10).

. Researches into a Certain Aspect Related to the Academy The
aspects that have already been researched into cover the following, historical background of the Academy, nature of the school, final home and value of its books and archives, compiling the selected materials related, research centers in memory of the Academy, etc. Major research results include: East Asia Tongwen Academy in Shanghai and Okinawa, a paper written by MarikiyoMatayoshi, a Japanese scholar, translated into Chinese by Chen Jun, and published in Journal of Hebei Normal University (Educational Science Edition) in Sept. of 2009; Shanghai East Asia Common Culture College and Modern Japan's Aggression against China, a paper by Zhao Wenyuan published in Journal of Historical Science in Sept. 2002; The study on East Asia Institute Collections in Nanjing Library, a paper by Su Wei published in a journal named Scientific Information Development and Economy in 2011 (27 th edition), referencing the 100,000-odd books of the Academy that are now housed in Nanjing Library; The Discovery and Value of the Archives of East Asia Tongwen Academy, a paper by Fang Jianchang, published in a journal named Archives and History in May of 1998, referencing the school documents and materials related to the graduation expedition of the Academy, which are now housed in The Bailin Temple Branch of the National Library of China for Ancient Books; Selected Materials about the Relations between Shanghai Jiaotong University and Xiasha Association, Its Consortium Juridical Person, a non-official publication, referencing the admin- istrative archives, newspaper digests, interviews of the alumni that are now housed in the Archives of Shanghai Jiaotong University and collected by the University History Research Group; Memorial Center of East Asia Tongwen Academy at Aichi University, which is an organization, located in the campus of Aichi University, Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture, that specializes in studying the history of the Academy, and mainly exhibits and studies the original archives and documents of the Academy housed in Aichi University [6] (seeTable 1 for details No. 11-No.17).