The Thriving Japanese Diaspora in 17th-Century Southeast Asia

Research Article by Riza Afita Surya from Universitas JemberPublished: Dec 2021.

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the Japanese diaspora in the 17th Century in Southeast Asia. This article critically discusses the Japanese diaspora’s motives, processes, and effects in Southeast Asia. Japanese history regarding migration abroad is an exciting issue among scholars who studied migration, anthropology, and minority studies over the decades. The Edo period in Japan is one of the most studied fields for many scholars for Japanese studies since it shaped the character of Japanese culture until today. Japanese trade has been a significant part of its economic development since the pre-modern era. In the 17th Century, Japan established a solid trade network with the Southeast Asia region, namely Siam, Malacca, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Manila. The emergence of maritime trade with Southeast Asia encouraged Japanese merchants to travel and create settlements in some regions. The so-called vermillion seal urged the Japanese diaspora, which allowed them to journey overseas and settle in some places, eventually increasing the number of Japanese merchants in Southeast Asia. However, after the Sakoku policy, there was a restriction on trade relations that prohibited overseas maritime trade, except with China and the Dutch. The Sakoku policy caused Japanese merchants who stayed overseas to only return to Japan for a few years. Shortly afterward, they resettled as Japanese communities known as Nihon Machi in some Southeast Asian countries. The history of early modern Japan between the 16th and 19th centuries provides a broader narrative of global history as it was surrounded by intense global interaction.

Introduction

Japan is considered one of the most developed countries, both in the sense of the Asian region and global context. Japanese history, which started in the Jomon period, displays the country’s experiences from time to time to establish it as modern and prosperous cs now. It obtains a harmonious culture mixed between traditional and contemporary features, elegant classics, and immense technology development. Japan persistently shows itself as one of the most prominent countries in the world. Japan, also known as Nihon, is considered the 11th most densely populated country and a member of the United Nations and other worldwide organizations such as the Organization for Economic and Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Trade is a remarkable feature of the Japanese economy after World War II due to the significant development in sales. Since the 1960s, Japan has obtained a trade surplus mostly every year, with the surplus number sometimes being the largest in the world. Japan is also the fourth largest importer and exporter of goods, and international trade contributes 36.8% of GDP. Hence, foreign trade is a significant element of the Japanese economy.

However, Japan’s trade throughout history has been a dynamic process. The country was originally deeply rooted in rigid social mobility and traditional philosophies such as Neo-Confucianism, Buddhism, and feudalism. The arrival of the Portuguese in Japan in 1543 established a new stage in Japan’s history. Portuguese arrival directed Japanese society to the outside world. Portuguese accidentally harbored in Japan after being blown away by a storm in Kyushu. Portuguese were initially headed toward China and then were blown off to Japan. Portuguese merchants brought Christianity as well as weapons to be sold. Slowly, Spain, Dutch, England, and Italy also came to Japan before the 18th century. This interaction with the West introduced pumpkins, corn, sweet potatoes, and tobacco commodities into Japan.

Historically, during the reign of the Muromachi Shogunate in 1336, Japan started to experience important economic prosperity that prompted cross-cultural trade to become more vibrant than before. After the downfall of Muromachi, the Sengoku and Azuchi-Mamoyama era encouraged a more intensive international trade network. From the Muromachi period until the 16th century, famous pirate groups along the South Sea consisted of most Japanese and some Chinese pirates called Wako. The Wako also established a somehow sizable trade network by trading an island off the Chinese coast or regions between Kyushu and reacted by force against the Ming government.

The trade network created by Japanese merchants eventually reached Southeast Asia, and their dynamic represented Japanese pirate/bandits Wako and the arrival of Portuguese Europeans. Portuguese appearance in the late 16th century highlighted the start of trade between Nagasaki and Macau. Achieving its peak under Ashikaga Shogunate (1336-1573), Wako played their part-piratical, part-legitimate trade without Japanese regulation. Eventually, this changed after the unification of the archipelago by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, as foreign trade was performed based on government-regulated Goshuin or the red seal trade. In addition, as pointed out by Arano Yasunori, in the 17th century, the activities of “Japanese pirates’ was fading, and the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate in Japan began.

Due to trade opportunities, the Japanese have spread slowly across the Asian continent, especially the East and Southeast Asia regions. The relationship between Japan and Southeast Asia began in the 16th century based on historical records. Japanese officials encouraged the daimyo to trade with the Portuguese in the South China Sea. Daimyo were the leaders of some areas (similar to provinces) who became feudal lords. Consequently, Japanese merchants encountered Malacca, Macau, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Most traders of Japan come from Nagasaki or Kyoto and Sakai, Osaka.

In the 17th Century, Japan established a more solid trade network within Southeast Asia. After all, seaborne trade in Southeast Asia in the 15th to 17th century flowed significantly more than before. Asian natives from regions such as Japanese, Chinese, Indians, and Indonesians became dominant in trade, while European arrival made a partial contribution. The 17th century also experienced changes in trade between Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia. East Asian and Southeast Asian trade was worked jointly by Japan, Ming, the Choson, and European Portuguese.

Japanese history regarding migration abroad is an exciting issue among scholars who studied migration, anthropology, and minority studies over the decades. Several types and waves of migration influenced how the Japanese diaspora has been formed for more than a hundred years. Japanese have been emigrating from their homeland for more than a century and have dispersed globally mainly for economic background. Therefore, the  Japanese movement is categorized as an economic or labor diaspora. In addition, even though Japan is an insular country, Japanese maritime history has rarely been examined in Japanese history due to its economic history widely perceived as a history of agricultural history since most Japanese were peasants until the end of World War 2.

Migration itself is a must precondition for diaspora emergence, yet not a sufficient one. Diaspora needs more than a social minority concentrating on one place for speaking diaspora as a particular mode of existence and way of life. The study of diaspora commonly investigates the lives of a minority group who were displaced but preserving a connection to a ‘prior home.’ Current historians have shown how the transnational ties of Japanese immigrants to their homeland, whether material or psychological, have served as crucial resources for their daily struggles.

Japanese Foreign Trade Policy in the 17th century

International trade has been a prominent element of the long-term economic development of world history. Japanese involvement in international trade eventually laid the critical foundation for economic growth since the 14th century. The commercial economy improved significantly during Japan’s unification process between the middle 16th the early 17th century. This improvement is due to the agricultural production revolution. Productivity and yields also increased, as well as fertilizers, resulting in farm tools development and new strains of seed being constructed. There was also reclamation and large-scale irrigation project constructed mainly by daimyo to expand the tax revenue within their domains.

Japan’s first cross-cultural trade dates back to the late part of the Jomon Age (14.000-300 BCE), as there were found some entrepôts within the coastline of the Japanese Sea. Japanese, during this period, traded with some foreign merchants, namely Russia, China, and Korea. Japan Sea was considered prominent upon the Asian network route. Initially, Japanese international trade was assumed to be salt merchants. They occupied the inland sea between Shikoku and Chugoku (Setonai- kai modern day). In the 12th century, the coastline of the Japanese sea was connected by ships. Hence, the primary goods were exchanged by maritime trade.

In the late 16th century, Japan experienced deterioration due to a civil war between daimyo. The central power weakness was directed to the appearance of a warrior society along with the military and commercial power in western Japan, especially in Kyushu. Kyushu was known as the place where Wako gathered and recruited members to do piracy on the coasts of Korea and China. The arrival of Portuguese Jesuits in Southern Kyushu led to the establishment of trade between Macau and Nagasaki.

During Tokugawa’s reign, Japan was divided into more than 230 competitive states, many of which were expected to reduce the domination of the shogun economy. Hence, in the 17th Century in Japan, the economy was based on warrior/samurai service and was typical of a political economy centered on the daimyo and samurai groups. The ‘economy service’ resulted in crises such as deforestation, land degradation, and the increased corrupt tax levies that led to uneasy feelings towards the government. Therefore, the lower classes were inspired to form a mercantilist protection strategy within the commercial economy.

The Edo period in the 17th century was the early stage of Japanese history in which businessmen came into their own. The Japanese merchants established small businesses with very limited powerful merchants. Japan is under Tokugawa’s reign with domestic peace after unification before 1615, political integration by the system of alternate attendance required for the daimyo, urbanization, and the withdrawal of most samurai to the cities, also a clear separation between warriors-bureaucrats-aristocrats, farmers, artisans, and merchants. This social stratification is known as shi-nou-kou-shou.

Tokugawa officials and their representatives managed the trade and political contacts. Tokugawa government controlled the silk imports and required some qualified merchants from Sakai, Kyoto, as well as Nagasaki during the early 17th century to create a trade union that was accompanied by Osaka and Edo merchants afterward. Some qualified merchants later bought silk solely from Portuguese as well as Chinese brokers in considerable volume for prior fixed prices before distributing it to domestic traders. Since there was an incline of trade with some countries and the witnessing of some commercial activities, later, Japanese maritime trade turned standardized, and trade was performed by Tokugawa Shogunate in the early 17th Century. The most compelling shift in abroad trade in the 17th century was the exported goods and the volume being exchanged as the government was concerned about the copper, silver, and gold sent to China. The government also recommended import-substitution regulations, the most important of all being local sericulture. Furthermore, the Chinese had long constructed themselves as middlemen between Europeans, Arabs, and Japanese merchants.

Tokugawa Shogunate also began to maintain more flexible thoughts upon overseas trade since the government had to control the trade monopoly. The most significant regulation generated by Tokugawa officials is establishing the vermillion-seal passport shoujo. This system was first introduced by Hideyoshi. Hideyoshi reunited Japan in 1590 and introduced the Shuinsen (ships used for foreign trade) with a formal permit from a Japanese official. As time went on, the official entirely managed the profitable overseas trade.

Entering 1640, the Tokugawa policy limited foreign affairs but kept a commercial network with various non-official actors. Tokugawa’s Sakoku did not imply reducing trade as it peaked in 1661. Sakoku is an isolation policy that prohibited foreign contact and closed Japan to the outside world. There was increased commercial agriculture and intense activities by farmers, which blurred the line between handicraft industries, trade, and farming. Between 1600 and 1867, the economy of Tokugawa became highly monetized and commercialized, farming moved from subsistence to market-oriented cropping patterns, and a new production system and distribution were established. In addition, in the 17th Century, Kyoto and Osaka were the main foci of commercial centers. Osaka was also the rice market center. The Kinki region also surrounded the imperial capital of Kyoto and Osaka. It had long been the center of the Japanese economy and industrial handicraft production.

In 1616, all ships to Japan (except Ming Chinese) were allowed to sail to Nagasaki. However, in 1624 Japanese officials banned the Spanish from entering the Japan Sea. Several years later, Portuguese ships were also restricted from entering Japan. Finally, in 1640 the Sakoku was implemented with full force with the adjustment to exclude a Dutch mercantile house to Dejima.

Japanese trade is a trade bolstered by the ample supply of silver in the first sixty years of the 17th century, followed by progressive contraction, especially after 1715. Sakoku policy did not intend to reduce the volume of trade nor lower the ceilings to trade. Japanese did imports that generated the encouragement for promoting trade. Silk was the primary commodity that local production pinched in both quantity and quality. For foreign trade, the Japanese lure was silver as the money supply in most countries.

Japanese trade with foreign merchants slowly encouraged emigration toward the Southeast Asian region. In the late 16th century, the Portuguese began to create a trade network between Macau and Nagasaki. Afterward, the considerable silver of Japan flowed towards Guangdong by the East China Sea along with American silver, which moved to the Pacific Ocean to Fujian through Manila. Later, overseas trade carried out by Japanese traders who visited Luzon eventually expanded. The commercial business among Southeast Asia, Japan, and China is an intricate issue as it has few historical records. Hence, trade with foreign merchants had become a very appealing subject to be studied.

Japanese diaspora in the 17th century

Trade in world history is an action that is commonly performed naturally to fulfill needs by exchanging goods and obtaining profit. The movement of products is indirectly assumed to deliver the of professional traders. Trade activities do not only bring goods but also communities and insights. International trade occurs in a context where traders work through politic/diplomacy. Economic opportunities in Southeast Asia mainly promoted the Japanese diaspora in the 17th century.

Before the arrival of Europeans, the Japanese traditionally used to think that the world consisted of three countries, namely Japan, China, and India. Japan knew China as its neighbor country as they had obtained quite an intimate relationship since antiquity. India was less known than China before Buddhism came and was recognized as Lord Buddha’s country. Japanese assumed India was the ideal country located in far-western land. Some Japanese Buddhists tried to visit India, yet they had little success. However, this changed after the Japanese encountered Europeans and Southeast Asia countries, especially in the 16th Century when Japanese activities in the South Seas peaked.

Silver was the most important commodity in the global market. Japan, along with South America and European countries, produced silver considerably as it flowed all over the world. In addition, Japan obtained silver, and Japanese coins also had a large proportion of the valuable metal. Japanese merchants initially contributed to a more extensive commercial network by trading silver globally. Japan could connect to other Asian countries, also influenced by the Japanese merchants’ network known as Kaimin.

Commercial motives encouraged Japanese merchants to visit and settle in some place and eventually created the Japanese diaspora. Diaspora is a term that illustrates a clear unit of geographically spread people related in terms of sentiment, culture, and history. Diaspora term obtains a claim that means diasporic ideas could establish a required unit towards country-oriented history and, at the same time, acknowledges the historical construction of diaspora needs to be examined.

Japanese diasporic communities in the 17th Century in Southeast Asia are called as Nihon-Machi or Japantowns in many cities, Asian trading ports, and fortified European cities. These immigrants were the consequences of Japanese participation in the Shuinjo, or red seal trade under official passports given to selected merchants group, such as those occupied western Japanese ports such as Nagasaki and Hakata. The red seal trade system continued until 1636. In 1624, it permitted 179 seal voyages to Siam (35 ships), Vietnam (26 ships), Brunei (2 ships), Philippines (20 ships), Cambodia (23 ships), and Malacca (1 ship). Between 1604 to 1635, there were 356 vessels visited Southeast Asian ports. Until the Sakoku policy disappeared through assimilation into the host communities, Japanese communities were established in remote cities and ports, namely Macau, Manila, Batavia, Ayutthaya, Phnom Penh, and Hoi An in Vietnam. The Sakoku policy was officially ended after the Japan-US treaty of Peace and Amity, also known as The Convention of Kanagawa, was signed in 1854.

Ishizawa Yoshiaki argues that the quarters which developed in the 17th century were constructed due to three main reasons, namely 1) to provide support for Japanese emigrants, 2) to provide necessities of international commerce that significantly benefited from a settled establishment in the main ports abroad and 3) due to local officials used to develop certain places for foreigners to control their activities and movement. In addition, between the 14th and 17th centuries, maritime trade in the South China Sea and the East China Sea was more intense than before. Nonetheless, due to the Sakoku policy after the first half of the 17th century, trade also decreased between China, Japan, Java, and Thailand. Hence, the 17th century obtains paramount importance in embracing and understanding the history of East Asia and Southeast Asia.

Many Japanese who emigrated to Southeast Asia were Christians. Their presence increased considerably due to the high number of persecuted Christians by Japanese authorities. Japanese Christians fled, were expelled from Japan due to Christian Japanese peasants earlier, and obtained aid from Macau missionaries. Some of the emigrants were also warriors (samurai) after the Battle of Sekigahara (1600) and the blockade of Osaka in 1615. These warriors were ronin held and offered their talents as mercenaries in different areas and were respected by the elite of Southeast Asia due to their military skills and experience. Some events promoted Tokugawa Ieyasu’s reign and affected the increase of the Japanese emigrants’ community. The emigrants’ warriors acted as trade mercenaries in different authorities within Southeast Asia regions and also devoted themselves to regional trade.

Japanese Merchants in Southeast Asia in the 17th century

Between the 15th and the 17th Century, Japanese history is characterized by the extension of the commercial network to the coastline in Southeast Asia. Japan’s involvement with world trade was considered more significant than before. Japanese and foreign merchants brought goods and people back and forth between places and most coastal regions in Asia. Even some of the cargo went to Europe. Japanese-speaking communities lived in a few Nihon-Machi “Japan towns” in Southeast Asia.

Southeast Asia’s economic state had experienced a more development pattern than other regions with temperate conditions. On the surface, the Southeast Asia region has high temperatures and humidity. Initially, people occupied mountainous regions compared to delta areas. Delta regions in Southeast Asia were encouraged to make cross-cultural trade. Overseas demands for products distributed from the interior and the sizable income from profit from transit trade promoted people to travel and stay in the lower places. Thus, emporiums such as Gresik (Java), Palembang in Sumatra, and Ayutthaya in Thailand were constructed to provide maritime trade.

In the sense of historical events, Southeast Asia was involved with two types of sea trade. The first type was intra- Asian. This type occurred more than two thousand years. Southeast Asia is in the middle of China and India, so these two regions played superior economic strength. Thus, Southeast Asia trade grew along with Asian countries’ trade through intra-regional trade. Therefore, in the 15th century, international maritime trade truly improved globally, and Southeast Asia’s economy also experienced changes. The growth of Southeast Asian maritime trade between the 15th and 17th Centuries promoted the appearance of more substantial, centralized states drawing most of their revenues from trade.

Japanese ships sailed to Southeast Asia regions at different times. Despite the Portuguese and Chinese trade, Japanese merchants also traveled to Luzon and Vietnam and carried saltpeter commodities from Cambodia and Thailand. The time when the Japanese started to sail into Southeast Asia was considered in the 16th century, according to historical sources. Japan vessels for the first time traveled to Luzon (Philippines) in the half of the 16th century. They took the route from Southern Kyushu across the Ryukyu islands (present-day Okinawa). They ended up on a Filipino island as it was considered convenient and was part of the standard route of Japanese ships. During the 1500s and 1600’s century, Japanese and Southeast Asian merchants were exclusively dependent on trade networks managed by the Ryukyu kingdom. Japan merchants usually visited Southeast Asian regions, such as Luzon, Siam, and Ayutthaya, to trade.

The vermillion seal trade Shuinjo was initially released in the late 16th century and managed by Hideyoshi officials to manage Japanese merchants for overseas trade as they had become intensively active with Southeast Asia. In the following Century, Japanese merchant groups created communities known as Nihon- Machi. Later, Nihon Machi was defined as Japanese streets or towns scattered in some Southeast Asia regions, namely Oudong (Cambodia), Phnom Penh, Manila, and Ayutthaya. Nihon Machi successfully collected at least 10.000 Japanese merchants. As time went on, Japanese merchants turned into brokers for both Japanese and Southeast Asian merchants as well. They also played important trade with Vietnam and Thailand, despite their involvement being less significant than Chinese traders. In Vietnam, several Japanese merchants performed trade in the Southern region under Nguyen’s regulation as it obtained more active international trade. Below is a brief explaining the existence of Japanese settlements in the Southeast Asia regions.

Japanese merchants also traveled to Annam and Cochin, China or Nguyen region as 84 Japanese with vermillion seal trade obtained the permit to make the journey to Southeast Asia regions. The vermillion seal trade, or Shuinjo, was effective from 1604 to 1635. In the 17th Century, Japanese merchants’ communities were also found in Hoi-an as the most important trading port in the Nguyen area. Japanese communities in Vietnam were mostly Christians, more significant than those in Thailand. (Cho, 2000).

Regarding Japan-Thai relations, the Japanese started coming with a considerable number to Siam at the end of the 16th century. It was well-known that during the reigns of Phracahao Songtham and his successors, several Japanese settlements were occupied outside the city of Ayutthaya in a present-day place called ban Jipun “Japanese quarters.” According to translated documentary, Japanese relations with Siam (Shamuro) in the 17th century show Japanese merchants’ commercial expeditions into Southeast Asia and a place called Nanban (Southern barbarian). It also explains the trade with European traders that Ieyasu mainly controlled. Japanese government needed gunpowder and saltpeter, which were unavailable in Japan. Obviously, Siam held a good market opportunity in Japan, while Japanese silver was in high demand in Southeast Asia. Thus, the government decided to perform imports from Siam and other reports in Southeast Asia.

Japanese government sealed the vermillion trade license between Siam and Japan between 1604 and 1605. The Japanese merchants were intensively trading hide and other local goods. The most prominent feature of Japanese settlements in Thailand was their role in local affairs, whether in Thailand or the Thai-Japanese commercial network until the 1630s. The study regarding Japanese and Siam relations could be investigated with Tsuko Ichiran (lists of navigations), a collection of diplomatic documents of the Shogunate.

Japanese merchants’ group in Siam (Ayutthaya) was a significant component of the relations between Japan and Siam. Japanese merchants in Ayutthaya were mainly under the Shogun’s mercenary troops, yet there was a solid commercial element within the Japanese community. Japanese in Ayutthaya, and later Japanese mestizos, were possibly very active in gaining and producing deerskins for export. This trade was a role between Ayutthaya and Nagasaki trade. Officials also sent letters and gifts between the Kings of Ekathotsarot, Songtam of Siam, and Tokugawa shoguns.

In the Philippines, Japanese merchants were also engaged in a maritime trade network through Spain. Several historical sources indicate that native Filipinos carried overseas trade under Spanish rule. Filipino merchants exchanged goods with foreign traders from East Asia for some commodities, namely gold, wax, and deerskin. Laura Lee Junker’s research shows that between the 15th and 16th centuries, many Filipino chiefs were intensively active in maritime trade. It was assumed that the very first Japanese merchants to do trade were in Cagayan and Pangasinan. Both areas were well located and economically potential. Japanese merchants formed settlements in both Cagayan and Pangasinan (northern Luzon) with at least 600 people. As the Shuinjo was released, the pattern of Japanese merchants in the Philippines also changed.

Due to intense trade between Japan and the Philippines, they also agreed. Ieyasu and the Manila Governor agreed in the 17th century regarding the regular trade between Japan, Luzon, and New Spain. This agreement was part of the institutionalism of overseas trade, which promoted the more intense trade between Japanese with Filipino traders. Japanese merchants whose being granted vermillion seal trade benefited from catering to the luxury needs back home and providing the daily demands of the Spanish community. In the first decade of the 17th century, there was an increase in Japanese settlers in Manila.

Under the Tokugawa government, Japan also started relations with Cambodia, which was considered later compared to China. The relationship initially began in the post-Angkor period as Japanese merchants’ groups came from Kumamoto prefecture, exchanged goods with Khmers, and traveled to Angkor temples. What time precisely could not be confirmed, yet several historical Japanese records were found at the Angkor Wat wall. The script illustrates that the Japanese visited and exchanged goods with Cambodia and carried gold to build a castle back in Kumamoto, part of Kyushu Island. Another record regarding Tokugawa-Khmer states that it started in 1603 and continued until the collapse of the Khmer kingdom in the mid of 17th century. Cambodia ships were also found to sail to Nagasaki.

Another relation was also found in Malaya (Malacca). Before the Japanese applied the Sakoku policy, the early contact between Japan and Malaya was unobtrusive and inconsequential. Japan’s trade with Malaya was performed by Japanese brokers from Ryukyu Island who came to Malacca each year to sell Japanese goods and China for souvenirs in the cosmopolitan port. It has been known that in the 17th Century, Japan saw intensive overseas trade, and there was direct and legal relation with the peninsula, yet this was limited to an annual visit by Shuisen to Malacca. However, Japanese settlements were only found in Malaya, compared to Luzon, Siam, and Vietnam.

On the contrary, there was a growing Japanese community in Malaya after the Meiji Restoration. In the late 19th century, the Japanese population reached more than 4.000 people. Therefore, Japanese settlement history in Malaya obtained an unfavored beginning.

Conclusion

The history of the Japanese diaspora is a complex subject to be examined thoroughly. The Japanese diaspora in the past was motivated by several factors, one of which is the international trade network. International trade was encouraged by silver commodities that were the most sought-after in the global market, and Japan produced those in large quantities. Japanese merchants were deeply engaged with their compatriots in Southeast Asia. Hence, eventually, they encountered many other Asian countries. They settled in some countries within the region, namely Burma (Myanmar), Cochin-China, Cambodia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Celebes, as well as in Java. Those areas were the main cities and ports where Japanese merchants in the 17th century established settlements. Japanese merchants stayed and dedicated themselves to building commercial networks with other nations. As silver production declined, Japan under Tokugawa stopped the export activities, and after Sakoku was implemented, Japanese officials were still engaged with the rice standard.

The history of early modern Japan between the 16th and 19th centuries provides a broader narrative of global history as it was surrounded by intense global interaction. Japan appeared with a new major role in world trade along with China’s Ming Dynasty. In the 15th Century, Japanese merchants began to sail into Southeast Asia ports and settled trading ports in several places, namely Siam, Cambodia, Philippines, and Malacca. Eventually, Japan actively held a dominant position in commerce and diplomacy.

This article has been shortened and modified.