Japan

choi

Michael Auslin, Asia's Core Conflict Began in 1868 Japan; Samurai rule was usurped by reformers torn between modernity and tradition. Wall Street Journal, Dec 30, 3017.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/asi ... 68-japan-1514567908
http://www.cetusnews.com/life/As ... apan.rkAnjeNXM.html

Quote:

"Young samurai warriors, frustrated by social and political immobility, first broke the bonds of japan's past 150 years ago this week. On Jan 3, 1868 [this is the timing of this Auslin's essay], they overthrew the Tokugawa samurai family, which had loosely controlled Japan for more than 250 years in the name of emperors. The rebels announced the 'restoration' 大政奉還/ 王政復古 (討幕派 wanted 王政復古; 幕府 complied and turned power over 大政奉還; both Japanese terms seem to share the same English word Restoration] of ancient imperial rule, naming the new era 'Meiji' (Enlightened Rule).

"These idealists were as much reactionaries as they were reformists. They were fired by shame at the steady encroachment on Japan by Western powers * * * Far from embracing the West, the rebels wanted to drive the foreign barbarians out of Japan's divine land. To do so, though, meant abolishing Japan's two-century-old restrictions on engagement with the outside world -- so they could search for the sources of Western strength.

"The new government tried to find a balance between the imperial court and the 200-odd samurai domains, but it was inexorably pulled to further centralize power. It soon issued a landmark Charter Oath 御誓文, promising deliberative assemblies, socioeconomic freedom and the seeking of knowledge throughout the world. Within a decade, Japan's traditional social system was transformed, the samurai caste abolished, and merchants and farmers achieving de facto equality with the former warriors [prior to that: 士農工商, in that order from high to low stature]. In another decade, a formal constitution [大日本帝国憲法; informally 明治憲法; 1889年,1890年施行] was set, based on English and Prussian models. (However, suffrage was limited to about 1% of the male population, and no political parties were allowed.) The Meiji emperor, like generation before him, remained largely a figure-head -- only now cast in European terms as a constitutional monarch, whose ministers governed for him.

"The Meiji modernizers soon became trapped in a seemingly unsolvable dilemma. . They claim to be returning Japan to a golden era, but the experiment of learning from the West led to a much broader rethinking of economics, gender equality, education, medicine, technology, politics and war. Political ideas from classical liberalism to socialism battled each other as politicians, intellectuals and activists struggled over new way to govern and organize society.

"A growing consumer class expected greater freedom and political participation. To such observers US president Theodore Roosevelt * * * Meiji-era Japan was proof positive of the inherent superiority of Western models.

"Japan's dizzying unpredictable experiment in remaking itself would serve as a powerful influence for the modernization of half the world, perhaps most significantly in China. There, defeat by Great Britain in the Opium Wars had forced China to open trade on favorable terms to the foreigners, spurring Chinese intellectual elite to attempt to reform the sclerotic Qing Dynasty. The Qing resisted attempts at real change even amid domestic upheaval.

choi

(e) "A growing consumer class expected greater freedom and political participation. To such observers US president Theodore Roosevelt * * * Meiji-era Japan was proof positive of the inherent superiority of Western models."
(i) Yukiko Koshiro, Trans-Pacific Racisms and the US Occupation of Japan. Columbia University Press, 1999, at pages 9
https://books.google.com/books?i ... %20west&f=false
("Since the success of Commodore Perry's expedition, there had been innocent belief among Americans that the Japanese had more of an aptitude for acquiring the civilization of the West than any other Oriental peoples, and the US government bestowed an honorable racial label on the Japanese through diplomatic protocol. Alfred Thayer Mahan, naval historian and strategist, who steadfastly advocated Anglo-American cooperation based on a belief in shared racial superiority, respected only the Japanese among Orientals because they were 'repeating the experience of our Teutonic ancestors.' Theodore Roosevelt, who justified the Chinese exclusion laws because he perceived the Chinese as weak and passive, distinguished between Chinese and Japanese.  The Japanese earned his admiration especially after their victory against the Russians. In his annual message in December 1905, he placed the Japanese in the same rank as 'Englishman or Irishman, Frenchman or German, Italian, Scandinavian, Slav, or Magyar,' and warned that discrimination against them was not in the good old American tradition") (footnote omitted).
(A) Magyar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magyar
(Magyar tribes [马扎尔人], the fundamental political units in which the Hungarians lived during the time they still occupied the Tarim Basin and later the Ural Mountains, prior to the establishment of the Principality of Hungary)
(B) Magyar
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Magyar
(pronunciation)
(ii) James Bradley, Diplomacy That Will Live in Infamy. New York Times, Dec 6, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/opinion/06bradley.html
(on Russo-Japanese War: "The Japanese * * * were 'a wonderful and civilized people,' Roosevelt wrote, 'entitled to stand on an absolute equality with all the other peoples of the civilized world.' * * * [on the eve of that war]President Roosevelt said publicly that he would 'maintain the strictest neutrality,' but privately he wrote, 'The sympathies of the United States are entirely on Japan's side.' * * * In a secret presidential cable to Tokyo, in July 1905, Roosevelt approved the Japanese annexation of Korea and agreed to an 'understanding or alliance' among Japan, the United States and Britain 'as if the United States were under treaty obligations' ")

choi

(c) Emperor Meiji 明治天皇 (1852 – 1912; reign Feb 3, 1867- 1912).  His predecessor, his father Emperor Kōmei 孝明天皇, died suddenly on Jan 30, 1867 (age 36, despite good health). The son ascended to the throne on Feb 3, 1867, retaining the father's 年号 慶応 (a practice common in Japan). On Apr 6, 1868, the son swore Charter Oath to god ("明治天皇が天地神明に誓約する形式で、公卿や諸侯などに示した明治政府の基本方針である": ja.wikipedia.org). On Sept 12, 1868 the son was formally enthroned 即位の礼, and a month later 年号 changed to 明治.  (I do not use en.wikipedia.org for Charter Oath, because it erroneously said Apr 7 (sic, not 6), the son was formally enthroned.

(d) "The creative destruction that led to Japan's strengthening soon manifested a darker side and spilled over the country's borders. Those who had once feared colonization became colonizers themselves. Empire building began in Formosa (now Taiwan) in 1874, followed by Okinawa."
(i) Japanese invasion of Taiwan (1874)  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_invasion_of_Taiwan_(1874)
(Japanese: 台湾出兵; Chinese: 牡丹社事件)

Quote: "Diplomatically, Japan's embroilment with China in 1874 was eventually resolved by a British arbitration under which Qing China agreed to compensate Japan for property damage. Some ambiguous wording in the agreed terms were later argued by Japan to be confirmation of Chinese renunciation of suzerainty 宗主权 over the Ryukyu Islands, paving the way for de facto Japanese incorporation of Ryukyu in 1879.

(ii) What "ambiguous wording" in the preceding Wiki quotation?  The following two items are text of the agreement.
(A) Agreement Between the High Commissioner Plenipotentiary of Japan and the Chinese Ministers of Foreign Affairs.* Signed at Peking on Oct 31, 1874
http://www.chinaforeignrelations.net/node/175

The asterisk is unexplained. My guess is the name is assigned by the web owners, rather than official (see (B)).

Throughout the document, neither Ryukyu or Okinawa was used. Instead it used "Certain Japanese subjects."

In the home page, the website China's External Relations -- a History ("This website is a compilation of materials used in the teaching, in Japan in the 1990s, of two courses on China's external relations, one relating primarily to the Qing Dynasty and the other to the People's Republic of China").  In the home page, click "Contact," and two names appear: Neil Burton and Brian Smallshaw.
(B) Here is the official version from Great Britain.

(Inclosure.) -- Prince of Kung [恭亲王 (奕䜣)] to Mr Wade. In Great Britain Foreign Office (compiler), British and Foreign State Papers. 1874-1875. Volume 66.  London: William Ridgway, 1882, at pages 424-426
https://books.google.com/books?i ... +savages+on+Formosa,+the+Government+of+Japan,+regarding+these+savages+as+responsible&source=bl&ots=1tdfwwWlyb&sig=S6lsL1T0js9RhA8XurVggNs0_eM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjX4uqZ0bzYAhUlheAKHVV9C7cQ6AEIKTAB#v=onepage&q=Certain%20Japanese%20subjects%20having%20been%20wantonly%20murdered%20by%20the%20unreclaimed%20savages%20on%20Formosa%2C%20the%20Government%20of%20Japan%2C%20regarding%20these%20savages%20as%20responsible&f=false

The "inclosure" (or enclosure) is the agreement.

Thomas Francis Wade  威妥玛
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Francis_Wade
(created Wade-Giles romanization system for Mandarin Chinese in 1892)
(iii) In fact, Japan was irritated when Ryukyu Kingdom (historical English name: Lewchew, Luchu, and Loochoo: en.wikipedia.org) signed treaties as if it were a sovereignty, but US was unmoved by Japan's protests. See
A Guide to the United States’ History of Recognition, Diplomatic, and Consular Relations, by Country, since 1776: Lew Chew (Loochoo). Office of The Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs, US Department of State, undated.
https://history.state.gov/countries/lew-chew

choi

My comment:
(a) This essay is so succinct (without explanation) and unconventional (to me), that I do not have much to say (speechless).
(b) Regarding quotation 1. The last shōgun (幕府) 征夷大将軍 [夷 referred to 蝦夷, an obsolete erm for Ainu people] 徳川 慶喜 in November 1867, without a fight, announced restoration (returning power to emperor) 大政奉還 and resigned. On Jan 3, 1868, the emperor, while still in Kyoto, abolished shogunate. 慶喜 launched a military campaign to attack Kyoto (because 薩摩藩・長州藩 military (army and navy) was there and in nearby Osaka), starting 戊辰戦争 (Jan 27, 1868 - June 27, 1869; 戊辰 was year of 戊辰 (roughly 1868) in lunar calendar, which Japan abolished in 1873 in adoption of Gregorian calendar); 慶喜 ended up being defeated militarily, by feudal lords who championed the emperor.

About quotation 2, and why the last shogun attacked the imperial court in Kyoto.
(i) Louis G Perez, Boshin Civil War, Causes. In Louis G Perez (ed), Japan at War; An encyclopedia. at pages 33-35
https://books.google.com/books?i ... 20belli&f=false
("After a series of struggles with the rebellious Western han 藩 (plural without adding s], the Tokugawa bakufu 幕府 seemed poised for war. The Tokugawa bakufu were caught between the proverbial immovable object and the irresistible force [ie, a rock and a hard place] in the 1860s. On the one had, the foreign powers (primarily Great Britain and the United States) demanded more concessions from the bakufu to facilitate international trade. On the other hand, most Japanese were solidly against allowing any further concessions. In fact, most of this latter group were already angry with the bakufu because they had signed treaties with the foreigners without imperial consent. The bakufu had tried to silence their critics in the so-called Ansei Purge [安政の大獄; 安政 is 孝明天皇's 年号]. In 1860, many of the critics had been arrested and some even executed. Now, many took out their frustrations through 'direct action' against the few and vulnerable foreigners in the country. The bakufu, being merely the head of a feudal coalition of semi-independent warlords, could not  control the anti-foreign terrorists of the sonnō-jōi 尊王攘夷 ('Revere the Emperor -- Expel the Barbarians') movement. The attacks on foreigners by these firebrands elicited demands by the foreign powers that the bakufu punish thee perpetrators. the bakufu often had absolutely no idea who the attackers were, much less how to punish them.  Because the Tokugawa were in no position to meet foreign demands, the foreigners took matters into their hands. The bakufu had been beset by the foreign powers because of the Tokugawa failure to punish samurai who had attacked Western citizens. Chōshū [長州(藩)] had taken the Emperor Kōmei's 孝明 March 1863 'Order to Expel Barbarians [攘夷勅命]' seriously and had attacked the British legation and fired on Western ships as they sailed through the Shimonoseki Straits. A small florilla of mixed foreign ships banded together to bobard the Chōshū batteries there, just as they had bombarded the Satsuma [薩摩(藩)] capital of Kagoshima [鹿児島(市)] a year earlier in response to the assassination of the British civilian Charles [middle name Lennox] Richardson. Of course, the bakufu were now criticized by the sonnō-jōi for not protecting Japan from these foreign vigilante actions.  The bakufu mounted two successive campaigns against Chōshū, the first ended inconclusively, and the second was saved from a complete Tokugawa fiasco by the death of the shōgun Iemochi [(徳川)家茂; died at 20; immediate predecessor -- but not father -- of 徳川慶喜]. A succession dispute turned the Tokugawa attention from the fractious western han for a while.  Satsuma and Chōshū had been purchasing Western arms with the help of the Scottish merchant Thomas Blake Glover in Nagasaki. Both domains [English for 藩] had begun to train their samurai with the new weapons. Chōshū had gone so far as to include non-samurai in that training, an effort that came to fruition during the second bakufu campaign. The samurai-led peasant soldiers proved to be both effective and trustworthy. At this time the junior samurai leaders of both Satsuma and Chōshū managed to forge a peaceful coalition with the help of the Tosa [土佐(藩)] rōnin Sakamoto Ryōma [坂本 龍馬]. Both han had made preliminary negotiation attempts with the British diplomat Ernest Satow.  the bakufu had also been preparing for battle for a number of years. With the technical assistance of the French, they had trained a regiment of samurai with modern weapons and had acquired eight Western-style warships. Despite such preparations, the new shogun Yoshinobu (also known as Hito[t]subashi [一ツ橋; a bramch of Tokugawa clan] Keiki [Chinese pronunciation of 慶喜, whose japanese pronunciation was Yoshinobu) had no taste for war. The son of the Mito [水戸(藩)] firebrand Tokugawa Nariak [徳川斉昭] (who had been arrested in the Ansei Purge). Yoshinobu feared that a Japanese civil war would allow the French and British to gain advantage against whichever side ultimately won. The British, for example, had previously used such crises to gain power in India and Africa. The Tokugawa had long been warned of such tactics by the Dutch as well as by the martyr Yoshida Shōin [吉田松陰], who had been executed in the Ansei Purge.  In 1867, Emperor komei died, which brought the new emperor Meiji to the throne at age 13. Within his entourage, a number of 'modernists' nobles sought to use this crisis to restore power to the imperial house. Led by Iwakura Tomomi [岩倉 具視], the 'modernists' managed to elicit a second order on Nov 9, 1867, in the name of the new emperor calling upon 'loyal subjects' to 'slaughter the traitorous subject Yoshinobu.' Four han (Satsuma, Tosa, Hizen [肥前(藩), alternate name for 佐賀藩], andChōshū) responded to the call and began to march on Edo. In the meanwhile, Yoshinobu had tried to avoid the war by resigning his position and 'restore' power to the emperor.  Saigō Takamori [西郷 隆盛], the young leader of Satsuma forces, reasoned that if the Tokugawa were allowed to quietly resign, they might retain considerable influence in the new government by virtue of their extensive land holdings (approximately 30 percent) throughout the country. There had been considerable talk of replacing the bakufu with a national parliament consisting of proportional representation according to population. If that happened, the Tokugawa would still predominate. Saigō sought to avoid that possibility at virtually any cost. He engineered a series of provocations that forced the Tokugawa to fight. He hired some adherents of the sonnō-jōi movement to attack Edo castle and other Tokugawa sites. Naturally, the Tokugawa samurai responded. Saigō managed to have the entire Tokugawa regime branded as rebels and enemies of the emperor. Once Saigō had his casus belli, he was free to mount a full attack on the bakufu from all sides

Kanmon Straits  関門海峡
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanmon_Straits
(or the Straits of Shimonoseki)