Review on a New Book on Sino-Japanese Relations

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Benjamin Shull, Battling for the Upper Hand. In 1894, China declared war on Japan, a country of 'dwarf pirates.' In 2004, a Japanese lawmaker compared China to an eight-headed dragon. Wall Street Journal, July 15, 2016
http://www.wsj.com/articles/batt ... per-hand-1468537684
(book review on June Teufel Dreyer, Middle Kingdom and Empire of the Rising Sun. Sino-Japanese relations, past and present. Oxford University Press, 2016)

Note:
(a) "She [Dreyer] also unearths some eye-opening insults traded over the years: China's declaration of war against Japan in 1894 referred to its adversaries as 'dwarf pirates,' while in 2004 a member of the Japanese Diet called China 'a yamataoorochi,' which is, as Ms. Dreyer explains, 'a mythical eight-headed, eight-tailed dragon who was reputed to attack a village each year to eat one of its female children.' "
(i) To be fair, 光緒 宣戰諭旨 on 1894年8月1日 (光緒二十年七月初一) does not use 倭寇. Rather it used 倭人 and 倭国.
(ii) Yamata no Orochi  八岐の大蛇
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamata_no_Orochi
(A) The "ya" and "mata" are represented by kanji 八 and 岐, respectively.
(B) The "ya" is Japanese pronunciation for 八.
(C) The "mata" is 岐's nanori (commonly not considered Japanese pronunciation, though it originally might have been). See nanori  名乗り
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanori
(kanji character readings (pronunciations) found almost exclusively in Japanese names)
(D) In Japan, 岐 has the same ordinary meanings as in China.
http://sakuradict.com/kanji/%E5%B2%90
(kanji examples: 岐路 (pronounced "kiro"); 分岐 ("bunki") )
(E) So 八岐 here mean eight heads, eight tails.

(b) Japanese-English dictionary:
* da-i-ja / orochi [Chinese and Japanese pronunciations, respectively] 大蛇 【だいじゃ; おろち】 (n): "big snake; serpent"