Japan
Overview
Japan - An Introduction
During the nineteenth century Japan was one of a number of traditional societies in Africa and Asia confronted with the military power of the industrialized and imperial powers of the West. These powers, including China, the Ottoman empire, and the Russian empire, each struggled to respond to the economic and military challenges presented by these Western powers.
Learning Objectives
- Explain the reactions to Western ideas and foreign aggression in Tokugawa Japan in the nineteenth century, particularly within the context of the responses of other tradition, preindustrial societies to impositions by the industrialized West.
- Identify the main reforms and their significance during the Meiji Restoration, including within the context of other conservative and traditional societies’ efforts to modernize during the nineteenth century.
- Explain the emergence of Japan as a world power by the early 20th century, including within the context of the emergence of other world powers.
Key Terms / Key Concepts
Tokugawa shogunate: the last feudal Japanese military government, ruling from 1603 to 1867, the end of which paved the way for the Meiji Restoration and the modernization of Japan
From the late sixteenth century until 1868 Japan had a feudal political structure and was ruled by a military government that resisted change. This government, the Tokugawa Shogunate, was the third of three feudal shogunates that had ruled Japan from the twelfth century. Toward the end preventing changes that would endanger traditional Japanese culture and society the Tokugawa Shogunate had banned Christianity, outlawed firearms, criminalized any violations and even disrespect of the nation’s hierarchical structure, and ignored the growing role of merchants in the economy, as well as the developing urban culture in cities such as Edo (Tokyo). The Tokugawa also required respect for the emperor as a divine presence, only recognized the indigenous religion of Shintoism, and continued to embrace the traditional weapons and tactics of warfare.
During the nineteenth century Japan had to determine how to respond to the power of the new industrialized imperial powers, as did other traditional African and Asian societies, such as the Zulu in southern Africa, China in east Asia, Russia in Eurasia, and the Ottoman empire in Africa and Eurasia. Of these traditional societies, Japan’s response was the most successful.
After being confronted with foreign powers and enduring a civil war over how to respond, Japan by the late nineteenth century had embarked on a path of selective modernization and Westernization that would propel the nation into the ranks of the major world powers by the First World War. Among traditional Asian societies which attempted to modernize during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including China and the Ottoman and Russian empires, Japan came closest to matching the Western imperial powers. However, facing discrimination and hostility from established Western industrialized imperial powers in reaction to Japanese imperial accomplishments, particularly in wars against China and Russia, Japan became alienated from them. Following the First World War authoritarian, militaristic, and nationally chauvinistic Japanese leaders exploited this feeling of alienation and took the Japanese empire down a self-destructive path that ultimately led to its dissolution.
Meiji Restoration
While China struggled with modernization during the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century, Japan embraced it with the Meiji Restoration. As a result, within half a century, Japan had evolved from a conservative, preindustrial society cut off from the outside world, to a modern, industrializing world power that had taken control of its own destiny.
At the forefront of the Meiji Restoration was the new Japanese government, a combination of Japanese tradition, along with institutions and practices adapted from Western national governments, based on principles of representative and responsible government. The first principle of the new government, a part of Japanese tradition, was that the emperor and his ministers were at the center of the government, and that initiative lay with them. This principle defined the course of the Meiji Restoration and Japanese modernization.
Learning Objectives
- Explain the reactions to Western ideas and foreign aggression in Tokugawa Japan in the nineteenth century, particularly within the context of the responses of other tradition, preindustrial societies to impositions by the industrialized West.
- Identify the main reforms and their significance during the Meiji Restoration, including within the context of other conservative and traditional societies’ efforts to modernize during the nineteenth century.
- Explain the emergence of Japan as a world power by the early 20th century, including within the context of the emergence of other world powers.
Key Terms / Key Concepts
Tokugawa shogunate: the last feudal Japanese military government, ruling from 1603 to 1867, the end of which paved the way for the Meiji Restoration and the modernization of Japan
Iwakura Mission: 1871-3 Japanese diplomatic mission to the United States and Europe toward the end of furthering Japanese modernization
zaibatsu: industrial and financial business conglomerates in the Empire of Japan, emerging as part of the Meiji Restoration, and becoming influential players in Japan until the end of World War II
1890 Constitution - Japanese constitution promulgated as part of the Meiji Restoration, which provided for a conservative national government with select republican features and responsibility of government ministers to the emperor
Bakumatsu
The Tokugawa Shogunate came to an end during a period known as the Bakumatsu from 1853 to 1867, also known as the last years of the Edo period, when the Tokugawa shogunate ended. During this period Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy known as sakoku and changed from a feudal Tokugawa shogunate to the pre-modern empire of the Meiji government. In this transition from the Tokugawa Shogunate to the Meiji government pro-imperial nationalists called ishin shishi, who sought to end the Tokugawa Shogunate, triumphed over pro-Tokugawa forces, including elite shinsengumi swordsmen. Although these two groups were the most visible powers, many other factions attempted to use the chaos of Bakumatsu to seize power. There were two other main driving forces for dissent: growing resentment among outside feudal lords and growing anti-western sentiment following the arrival of Matthew C. Perry and the resulting end of isolationism. The feudal lords fought against Tokugawa forces at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 and had from that point on been excluded permanently from all powerful positions within the shogunate. The anti-Western sentiment was often expressed in the phrase sonnō jōi, or “revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians.”
During the last years of the Bakumatsu, the Tokugawa Shogunate took strong measures to try to reassert its dominance, although its involvement with modernization and foreign powers made it a target of anti-Western sentiment throughout the country. The Shogunate sent naval students to study in Western schools for several years, starting a tradition of foreign-educated future leaders. By the end of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1868, the Japanese navy already possessed eight western-style steam warships. In 1867 France established a military mission in Japan to help modernize the Shogunate armies. Japan sent a delegation to and participated in the 1867 World Fair in Paris.
Tokugawa Yoshinobu took over the position of shogun at the time of massive turmoil. The opening of Japan to uncontrolled foreign trade brought massive economic instability. While some entrepreneurs prospered, many others went bankrupt. Unemployment and inflation rose. Coincidentally, major famines increased the price of food drastically. Incidents occurred between brash foreigners, qualified as “the scum of the earth” by a contemporary diplomat, and the Japanese.
Boshin War
The last step in the demise of the Tokugawa Shogunate was the 1868-9 Boshin War, a civil war between factions in support of a more rapid of modernization through the Meiji Emperor and factions that favored a slower more conservative pace through the Tokugawa Shogunate. The last Tokugawa Shogun, Yoshinobu, accepted that the end of the shogunate was inevitable and imminent. By 1869 pro-Meiji forces, including the Chōshū, Satsuma, and Tosa domains, as well as court officials, had triumphed over pro-Tokugawa forces. While the triumph of pro-Meiji forces ended the Tokugawa Shogunate, the last uprising against the Meiji Restoration, the Satsuma Rebellion did not occur until 1877. The defeat of the Satsuma Rebellion marked the end of organized efforts to restore the Tokugawa Shogunate.
The Meiji Restoration and the resultant modernization of Japan influenced Japanese self-identity with respect to its Asian neighbors, as Japan became the first Asian state to modernize based on the European model, replacing the traditional Confucian hierarchical order that persisted previously under a dominant China with one based on modernity.
Meiji Restoration
The fall of Edo in 1868 marked the end of the Tokugawa shogunate, and a new era was proclaimed: Meiji. The first reform was the proclamation of the Charter Oath in 1868, a general statement of the aims of the Meiji leaders to boost morale and win financial support for the new government. Its main provisions included the establishment of assemblies, the involvement of all classes in carrying out state affairs, the revocation of class restrictions on employment, the introduction of the “just laws of nature,” and the search for international expertise to strengthen the foundations of imperial rule. Implicit in the Charter Oath was an end to exclusive political rule by the bakufu (a shogun’s direct administration including officers) and a move toward more democratic participation in government. To implement the Charter Oath, a short-lived constitution was drawn up in 1868. Besides providing for a new Council of State, legislative bodies, and systems of ranks for nobles and officials, it limited office tenure to four years, allowed public balloting, provided for a new taxation system, and ordered new local administrative rules.
The Meiji government assured the foreign powers that it would follow the old treaties negotiated by the bakufu and announced that it would act in accordance with international law. Mutsuhito, who was to reign until 1912, selected a new reign title—Meiji, or Enlightened Rule—to mark the beginning of a new era in Japanese history. To further dramatize the new order, the capital was relocated from Kyoto, where it had been situated since 794, to Tokyo (Eastern Capital), the new name for Edo.
In a move critical for the consolidation of the new regime, most daimyōs voluntarily surrendered their land and census records to the emperor in the abolition of the han (feudal domain) system, symbolizing that the land and people were under the emperor’s jurisdiction. Confirmed in their hereditary positions, the feudal lords became governors and the central government assumed their administrative expenses and paid samurai stipends. The han were replaced with prefectures in 1871 and authority continued to flow to the national government. Officials from the favored former han, such as Satsuma, Chōshū, Tosa, and Hizen, staffed the new ministries. Formerly old court nobles and lower-ranking but more radical samurai became a new ruling class.
New Imperial Government
After the Meiji restoration, the leaders of the samurai who overthrew the Tokugawa shogunate had no clear agenda or pre-developed plan on how to run Japan. Immediately after the resignation of Tokugawa Yoshinobu in 1867, with no official centralized government, the country was a collection of largely semi-independent feudal domains (the han system), held together by the prestige of the Imperial Court and the military strength of the Satchō Alliance (military alliance between the feudal domains of Satsuma and Chōshū formed in 1866 to combine their efforts to restore Imperial rule).
In 1868, with the outcome of the Boshin War still uncertain, the new Meiji government summoned delegates from all of the domains to Kyoto to establish a provisional consultative national assembly. The Charter Oath was promulgated, in which Emperor Meiji set out the broad general outlines for Japan’s development and modernization. The same year, an administrative code known as Seitaisho was decreed to establish the new administrative basis for the Meiji government. It was a mixture of western concepts, such as division of powers and a revival of ancient Japanese structures of bureaucracy.
Centralization: Abolition of Han System
In 1869, the central government led by Ōkubo Toshimichi of Satsuma felt strong enough to effect centralization. After merging the armies of Satsuma and Chōshū into a combined force, Ōkubo and Kido Takayoshi convinced the feudal lords (daimyō) of Satsuma—Chōshū, Hizen, and Tosa—to surrender their domains to the emperor. Other daimyō were forced to do the same and all were reappointed as governors to their respective domains, now treated as sub-divisions of the central government.
In 1871, Ōkubo and several other leaders held a secret meeting and decided to completely abolish the han domains. Eventually, all of the ex-daimyō were summoned to the emperor, who issued a decree converting the domains to prefectures headed by a bureaucratic appointee from the central government. The daimyō were generously pensioned into retirement and their castles became the local administrative centers for the central government. By the end of 1871, Japan was a fully centralized state. The transition was made gradually to avoid disruption to the lives of the common people and outbreaks of resistance or violence. The central government absorbed all of the debts and obligations of the domains and many former officials found new employment with the central government.
In 1871, after the han domains were abolished, the central government supported the creation of consultative assemblies at the town, village, and county levels. The membership of the prefectural assemblies was drawn from these local assemblies. As the local assemblies only had the power of debate and not legislation, they provided an important safety valve without the ability to challenge the authority of the central government.
The Meiji Constitution
The Meiji Constitution, proclaimed in 1889, enacted in 1890, and known as the 1890 Constitution, established a mixed constitutional and absolute monarchy, with the emperor as head of state and the prime minister as head of government, creating tensions between opposing groups favoring a democratic or authoritarian government.
Prior to the Meiji Restoration, Japan had no written constitution, and the idea of one became a subject of heated debate. The conservative Meiji oligarchy viewed anything resembling democracy or republicanism with suspicion. The Freedom and People’s Rights Movement demanded the immediate establishment of an elected national assembly and the promulgation of a constitution. In 1881, Itō Hirobumi was appointed to chair a government bureau to research various forms of constitutional government and in 1882, Itō led an overseas mission to observe and study various systems first-hand. The United States Constitution was rejected as too liberal. The French and Spanish models were rejected as tending toward despotism. The Reichstag and legal structures of the German Empire, particularly that of Prussia, proved to be of the most interest to the Constitutional Study Mission. Influence was also drawn from the British Westminster system, although it was considered being unwieldy and granting too much power to Parliament.
The Council of State was replaced in 1885 with a cabinet headed by Itō as Prime Minister. The draft committee included Japanese officials along with a number of foreign advisers, in particular some German legal scholars. The central issue was the balance between sovereignty vested in the person of the emperor and an elected representative legislature with powers that would limit or restrict the power of the sovereign. The final version, drafted without public debate, was submitted to Emperor Meiji in 1888.
The new constitution was promulgated by Emperor Meiji on February 11, 1889 (the National Foundation Day of Japan in 660 BC), coming into effect in 1890. The first National Diet of Japan, a new representative assembly, convened on the day the Meiji Constitution came into force. The organizational structure of the Diet reflected both Prussian and British influences, most notably in the inclusion of the House of Representatives as the lower house and the House of Peers as the upper house. The second chapter of the constitution, detailing the rights of citizens, bore a resemblance to similar articles in both European and North American constitutions of the day.
The Meiji Constitution established clear limits on the power of the executive branch and the emperor. It also created an independent judiciary. Civil rights and civil liberties were guaranteed, although in many cases they were subject to limitation by law. Unlike its modern successor, the Meiji Constitution was founded on the principle that sovereignty resided in person of the emperor, by virtue of his divine ancestry “unbroken for ages eternal,” rather than in the people. The emperor had the right to exercise executive authority and to appoint and dismiss all government officials. He also had the sole rights to declare war, make peace, conclude treaties, dissolve the lower house of Diet, and issue Imperial ordinances in place of laws when the Diet was not in session. Most importantly, command over the Imperial Japanese Army and Imperial Japanese Navy was directly held by the emperor and not the Diet. The Cabinet consisted of Ministers of State who answered to the emperor rather than the Diet. The Privy Council, an advisory council to the Emperor of Japan, was also established. Not mentioned in the Constitution were the genrō, an inner circle of advisers to the emperor, who wielded considerable influence.
The Privy Council consisted of a chairman, a vice chairman (non-voting), 12 (later expanded to 24) councilors, a chief secretary, and three additional secretaries. All privy councilors were appointed by the emperor for life, on the advice of the prime minister and the cabinet. In addition to the 24 voting privy counselors, the prime minister and the other ministers of state were ex officio members of the council.
The Meiji Constitution was ambiguous in wording and in many places self-contradictory. The leaders of the government and the political parties were left to interpret whether the Meiji Constitution could be used to justify authoritarian or liberal-democratic rule. It was the struggle between these tendencies that dominated the government of the Empire of Japan.
Following Japan’s defeat in World War II, the Meiji Constitution was replaced by a new document, the postwar Constitution of Japan. This document—officially an amendment to the Meiji Constitution—replaced imperial rule with a form of Western-style liberal democracy.
Japan’s Industrial Revolution
The rapid industrialization of Japan during the Meiji period resulted from a carefully engineered transfer of Western technology, modernization trends, and education led by the government in partnership with the private sector.
Iwakura Mission
The Industrial Revolution in Japan began about 1870 when Meiji period leaders decided to catch up with the West. In 1871, a group of Japanese statesmen and scholars known as the Iwakura Mission embarked upon a voyage across Europe and the United States. The mission is the most well-known and possibly most significant in terms of its impact on the modernization of Japan after a long period of isolation from the West. It was first proposed by the influential Dutch missionary and engineer Guido Verbeck, based to some degree on the model of the Grand Embassy of Peter I. The aim of the mission was threefold: to gain recognition for the newly reinstated imperial dynasty under the emperor Meiji, to begin preliminary renegotiation of the unequal treaties with the dominant world powers, and to explore modern Western industrial, political, military, and educational systems and structures.
The mission was named after and headed by Iwakura Tomomi in the role of extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador, assisted by four vice-ambassadors. It also included a number of administrators and scholars, totaling 48 people. In addition to the mission staff, about 53 students and attendants joined. Several students were left behind to complete their education in the foreign countries, including five young women who stayed in the United States.
Of the initial goals of the mission, the aim of revision of the unequal treaties was not achieved, prolonging the mission by almost four months but also impressing the importance of the second goal on its members. The attempts to negotiate new treaties under better conditions with the foreign governments led to criticism that members of the mission were attempting to go beyond the mandate set by the Japanese government. The missionaries were nonetheless impressed by industrial modernization in America and Europe and the tour provided them with a strong impetus to lead similar modernization initiatives.
Industrialization in Japan
Japan’s Industrial Revolution first appeared in textiles, including cotton and especially silk, traditionally made in home workshops in rural areas. By the 1890s, Japanese textiles dominated the home markets and competed successfully with British products in China and India. Japanese shippers competed with European traders to carry these goods across Asia and even in Europe. As in the West, the textile mills employed mainly women, half of them younger than age 20. They were sent by and gave their wages to their fathers. Japan largely skipped water power and moved straight to steam-powered mills, which were more productive. That in turn created a demand for coal.
To promote industrialization, the government decided that while it should help private business to allocate resources and to plan, the private sector was best equipped to stimulate economic growth. The greatest role of government was to help provide the economic conditions in which business could flourish. In the early Meiji period, the government-built factories and shipyards were sold to entrepreneurs at a fraction of their values. Many of these businesses grew rapidly into larger conglomerates. The government emerged as chief promoter of private enterprise, enacting a series of pro-business policies. The government also provided infrastructure, : building railroads, improving roads, and inaugurating a land reform program to prepare the country for further development.
Social Changes
Important social changes supported by the government also fueled industrialization. One of the biggest economic impacts of the period was the end of the feudal system. With a relatively loose social structure, the Japanese were able to advance through the ranks of society more easily than before by inventing and selling their own wares. The Japanese people also now had greater access to education. The Meiji period leaders inaugurated a new Western-based education system for all young people, sent thousands of students to the United States and Europe, and hired more than 3,000 Westerners to teach modern science, mathematics, technology, and foreign languages in Japan. With a more educated population, Japan’s industrial sector grew significantly.
Tsuda Umeko, who left Japan to study in the US at the age of 7, returned to Japan in 1900 and founded Tsuda College. It remains one of the most prestigious women’s institutes of higher education in Japan. Although Tsuda strongly desired social reform for women, she did not advocate feminist values and opposed the women’s suffrage movement. Her activities were based on her philosophy that education should focus on developing individual intelligence and personality.
Government vs. Private Sector
The government initially was involved in economic modernization, providing a number of “model factories” to facilitate the transition to the modern period. Economic reforms included a unified modern currency based on the yen, banking, commercial and tax laws, stock exchanges, and a communications network. Establishment of a modern institutional framework conducive to an advanced capitalist economy took time, but it was completed by the 1890s. By this time, the government had largely relinquished direct control of the modernization process, primarily for budgetary reasons.
From the onset, the Meiji rulers embraced the concept of a market economy and adopted British and North American forms of free enterprise capitalism. The private sector—in a nation with an abundance of aggressive entrepreneurs—welcomed such change. Hand in hand, industrial and financial business conglomerates known as zaibatsu and government guided the nation, borrowing technology from the West. Many of the former feudal lords, whose pensions had been paid in a lump sum, benefited greatly through investments they made in emerging industries. Those who had been informally involved in foreign trade before the Meiji Restoration also flourished. Old firms that clung to their traditional ways failed in the new business environment. After the first twenty years of the Meiji period, the industrial economy expanded rapidly with inputs of advanced Western technology and large private investments.
Implementing the Western ideal of capitalism into the development of technology and applying it to their military helped make Japan into both a militaristic and economic powerhouse by the beginning of the 20th century. Stimulated by wars and through cautious economic planning, Japan emerged from World War I as a major industrial nation. Japan gradually took control of much of Asia’s market for manufactured goods. The economic structure became very mercantilistic, importing raw materials and exporting finished products—a reflection of Japan’s relative poverty in raw materials.
Consequences
The phenomenal industrial growth sparked rapid urbanization. The proportion of the population working in agriculture shrank from 75 percent in 1872 to 50 percent by 1920. Japan enjoyed solid economic growth during the Meiji period and most people lived longer and healthier lives. The population rose from 34 million in 1872 to 52 million in 1915. Like in other rapidly industrializing countries, poor working conditions in factories led to growing labor unrest, and many workers and intellectuals came to embrace socialist ideas. The Meiji government responded with harsh suppression of dissent. Radical socialists plotted to assassinate the Emperor in the High Treason Incident of 1910, after which the Tokkō secret police force was established to root out left-wing agitators. The government also introduced social legislation in 1911, setting maximum work hours and a minimum age for employment. Taken together the changes in Japan in the Meiji period propelled the country into the ranks of the modern nations of the world, and the great powers.
Emergence of Japan as a World Power
As part of the Meiji Restoration, Japan emerged as a world power, with the acquisition of territories in northeast Asia and the western Pacific. This emergence included the formulation and pursuit of a new set of national goals as a world power, a reorientation of Japanese foreign policy, changes in relationships with imperial rivals and other world powers, and the modernization of Japanese military and naval forces. By the beginning of the First World War Japan’s development as a world power, along with discriminatory treatment by Russia and the European powers, would lay some of the foundations for Japanese participation as an Axis Power in the Second World War.
Learning Objectives
- Identify the main reforms and their significance during the Meiji Restoration, including within the context of other conservative and traditional societies’ efforts to modernize during the nineteenth century.
- Explain the emergence of Japan as a world power by the early 20th century, including within the context of the emergence of other world powers.
Key Terms / Key Concepts
Treaty of Kanagawa: 1854 treaty imposed by the U.S. on the Tokugawa Shogunate, which, along with similar treaties imposed by various European powers, paved the way for the transition from the Tokugawa Shogunate to the Meiji Restoration
Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Alliance: 1902 treaty between Japan and the United Kingdom that marked British recognition of Japan’s emergence as a world power
First Sino-Japanese War: 1894-5 war between China and Japan, primarily about influence over Korea, that Japan won, as part of its emergence as a world power
Treaty of Shimonoseki: 1895 treaty between Japan and China on Japanese terms, reflecting Japan's emergence as a regional power
Triple Intervention: a diplomatic intervention by Russia, Germany, and France in 1895 reversing a number of terms in the Treaty of Shimonoseki, toward the end of discounting Japan's emergence as a regional power
Russo-Japanese War: 1904-5 war between Russia and Japan, primarily about influence over Korea and Manchuria, that Japan won, as part of its emergence as a world power
Battle of Tsushima Strait - concluding naval battle of the Russo-Japanese War fought between the Japanese and Russian Pacific fleets on 27-28 May 1905 in the strait between Japan and Korea, in which the Japanese fleet sunk 21 Russian ships and captured five others, leading to peace on Japanese terms
1905 Treaty of Portsmouth - treaty that ended the Russo-Japanese War on Japanese terms in northeastern Asia and reflected Japan's growing strength as a world power
Japanese Militarization
The modernization of the Japanese military during the Meiji period was a response to the growing presence and threat of Western colonial powers. It followed Western European military models, ending the centuries-long dominance of the samurai class.
Meiji Militarization Efforts
In 1853 Commodore Matthew Perry inadvertently set off a chain of events leading to the Meiji Restoration and the rise of Japan as a world power with the visit of a U.S. naval squadron to Tokyo Bay. One of the purposes of his expedition was to open diplomatic relations with Japan. After Commodore Perry forced the signing of the Treaty of Kanagawa the next year, Japanese elites concluded that they needed to modernize the Japanese military and navy or risk further coercion from Western powers. The Tokugawa shogunate did not officially share this point of view, which was one factor in its downfall. But it was not until the beginning of the Meiji Era in 1868 that the Japanese government begin to modernize the military and the navy.
Modernization of the Japanese military and navy included technological modernization, the use of new industrial manufacturing capabilities, and the democratization of the army and the navy. Toward these ends in 1868, the Japanese government established the Tokyo Arsenal, in which small arms and associated ammunition were developed and manufactured. Also in 1868, Masujiro Omura established Japan’s first military academy in Kyoto. In 1870, another arsenal opened in Osaka. At that site, machine guns and ammunition were produced, and four gunpowder facilities were opened.
Under the new Meiji government, Omura—regarded today as the father of the modern Japanese army—was appointed to a post equivalent to vice minister of war. He was tasked with the creation of a national army along western lines and sought to introduce conscription and military training for commoners, rather than rely on a hereditary feudal force. He also strongly supported the abolition of the han system (feudal domains) and with it the numerous private armies maintained by the feudal lords, which he considered a drain on resources and a potential threat to security. Omura faced opposition from many of his peers, including most conservative samurai, who saw his ideas on modernizing and reforming the Japanese military as too radical, ending not only the livelihood of thousands of samurai but also their privileged position in society. In 1869, a group of ex-samurai assassinated Omura.
When the Emperor Meiji assumed all the powers of state, he ordered the formation of Imperial Guard to protect himself, the Japanese imperial family, and their properties. In 1867, the Imperial Guard was formed from loyal retainers and former samurai. This unit would go on to form the nucleus of the new Imperial Japanese Army. By the 1870s the Imperial Guard, which had been organized and trained along French military lines, consisted of 12,000 officers and men.
In 1873, the Conscription Law was passed, requiring every able-bodied male Japanese citizen, regardless of class, to serve a mandatory term of three years with the first reserves and two additional years with the second reserves. This monumental law, signifying the beginning of the end for the samurai class, initially met resistance from both the peasants and warriors. The peasant class interpreted the term used for military service—ketsu-eki (blood tax)—literally and attempted to avoid service by any means necessary, including self-mutilation, and protesting.
The Conscription Law was also a method of social control, placing the unruly samurai class back into their roles as warriors. The Meiji Restoration initially caused dissent among the samurai class and the conscription system was a way of stabilizing that dissent. The samurai were generally resentful of the new, western-style military and at first refused to stand in formation with the lowly peasant class. Some of the samurai, more disgruntled than the others, formed pockets of resistance to circumvent the mandatory military service. Many committed self-mutilation or openly rebelled.
The law also allowed the military to educate the enlisted, providing opportunities for both basic (e.g., learning how to read) and advanced education, as well as career advancement. The government realized that an educated soldier could be a more productive member of society, and education was seen as a path to the advancement of the state.
Military service also required a medical examination. Those unable to pass the exam were sent back to their families. While there was no material penalty for failing the exam, the practice created a division between those able to serve the country and those who were not. The latter were often marginalized by society.
In conjunction with the new law, the Japanese government began modeling their ground forces after the French military, and the new Japanese army used the same rank structure as the French. The French government contributed substantially to the training of Japanese officers. Many were employed at the military academy in Kyoto and many more were feverishly translating French field manuals for use in the Japanese ranks.
End of the Samurai Class
An imperial rescript of 1882 called for unquestioning loyalty to the emperor by the new armed forces and asserted that commands from superior officers were equivalent to commands from the emperor himself. Thenceforth, the military existed in an intimate and privileged relationship with the imperial institution. Top-ranking military leaders were given direct access to the emperor and the authority to transmit his pronouncements directly to the troops.
The sympathetic relationship between conscripts and officers, particularly junior officers who were drawn mostly from the peasantry, tended to bring the military closer to the people, and contribute to the militarization of Japanese society from the Meiji Restoration to the Second World War. In time, most people came to look for guidance in national matters from military commanders rather than from political leaders. From the Meiji Restoration to the 1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria Japanese military leaders gradually came to disregard then usurp the civilian government. An early such instance occurred in 1871 when a Ryukyuan ship shipwrecked on Taiwan, and the crew was massacred. In 1874, using the incident as a pretext, Japan sent a military expedition to Taiwan meant to assert its claims to the Ryukyu Islands. The expedition featured the first instance of the Japanese military ignoring the orders of the civilian government, as the expedition set sail after being ordered to postpone.
At home, the decisive test for the new army came in 1877 when Saigō Takamori led the Satsuma Rebellion—the last samurai rebellion. Its name comes from Satsuma Domain, which became home to unemployed samurai after military reforms rendered their status increasingly obsolete. Kumamoto castle was the site of the first major engagement when garrisoned forces fired on Saigō’s army, as they attempted to force their way into the castle. Two days later, Saigō’s rebels, while attempting to block a mountain pass, encountered advanced elements of the national army en route to reinforce Kumamoto castle. After a short battle, both sides withdrew to reconstitute their forces. A few weeks later the national army engaged Saigō’s rebels in a frontal assault at what now is called the Battle of Tabaruzuka. During this eight-day battle, Saigō’s nearly 10,000-strong army battled hand-to-hand with the equally matched national army. Both sides suffered nearly 4,000 casualties. Due to conscription, however, the Japanese army was able to reconstitute its forces, while Saigō’s was not. Later, forces loyal to the emperor broke through rebel lines and managed to end the siege on Kumamoto castle after 54 days. Saigō’s troops fled north and were pursued by the national army. The national army caught up with Saigō at Mt. Enodake. Saigō’s army was outnumbered seven-to-one, prompting a mass surrender of many samurai. The rebellion ended following the final engagement with Imperial forces, which resulted in the deaths of the remaining 40 samurai including Saigō, who was honorably beheaded by his retainer after suffering a fatal bullet wound. The national army’s victory validated the modernization of the Japanese army and ended the era of the samurai.
Financially, crushing the Satsuma Rebellion cost the government greatly, forcing Japan off the gold standard and causing the government to print paper currency. The rebellion also effectively ended the samurai class, along with the concept of an explicit warrior caste in this new Japanese society, as the new Imperial Japanese Army built of conscripts without regard to social class had proven itself in battle.
Foreign Policy in the Meiji Period
Meiji Japan’s foreign policy was defined from the outset by the vision of gaining recognition as not only a major Asian power, but also a major world power in an international order dominated by the West. Toward the end of achieving this vision the principal foreign policy goals of the Meiji period (1868 – 1912) included securing the integrity and independence of Japan against Western domination and winning equal status with the leading nations of the West by reversing the unequal treaties they forced on Japan. Because fear of Western military power was the chief concern for the Meiji leaders, their highest priority was building up the military. With such power Japan would be able to wrest the respect of the Western powers and achieve equal status with them in the international community, even if the Western powers did not explicitly admit such status.
The unequal treaties first imposed on Japan by the Western Powers when they forcefully reopened Japan symbolized Japan’s unequal status during the 1850s, before the Meiji Restoration. The treaties were objectionable to the Japanese not only because they imposed low fixed tariffs on foreign imports, and thus handicapped domestic industries, but also because their provisions gave a virtual monopoly of external trade to foreigners and granted extraterritorial status to foreign nationals in Japan, exempting them from Japanese jurisdiction and placing Japan in the inferior category of nations incapable of determining their own laws. Many of the social and institutional reforms of the Meiji period were designed to remove the stigma of backwardness and inferiority represented by the unequal treaties, and a major task of Meiji diplomacy was to press for the revision of the treaties.
Overseas Expansion
The Meiji government used the newly created military to extend Japanese power overseas. Meiji leaders believed national security depended on territorial expansion and not merely a strong defense. In 1873 and 1874, friction came about between China and Japan over Taiwan, particularly when the Japanese launched the previously referenced punitive expedition into Taiwan after several Okinawans were killed by Taiwanese aborigines. Later, after Japan’s victory in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894 – 95), the peace treaty ceded the island to Japan. The Japanese realized that its home islands could only support a limited resource base and hoped that Taiwan, with its fertile farmlands, would provide additional resources for further imperial expansion. By 1905, Taiwan was producing significant amounts of rice and sugar. Perhaps more importantly, Japan gained enormous prestige by being the first non-Western country to operate a modern colony, in which Japan installed a police state.
The Korean Peninsula, a strategically located feature critical to the defense of the Japanese archipelago, occupied Japan’s attention in the late nineteenth century. Earlier tension over Korea had been settled temporarily through the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876, which opened Korean ports to Japan, as well as through the Tianjin Convention in 1885, which provided for the removal from Korea of both Chinese and Japanese troops sent to support contending factions in the Korean court. In effect, the convention made Korea a co-protectorate of China and Japan at a time when Russian, British, and American interests in the peninsula were also increasing.
As a result of their intensifying competition over Korea, China and Japan went to war in 1894, a conflict that came to be known as the First Sino-Japanese War. After nine months of fighting, China and Japan agreed to a cease-fire and initiated peace talks. The resulting Treaty of Shimonoseki provided for the recognition of Korean independence, the cessation of Korean tribute to China, a 200 million tael indemnity to Korea from China (the equivalent in 1895 of $150 million US), the opening of Chang Jiang (Yangtze River) ports to Japanese trade, and the cession to Japan of Taiwan, the Penghu Islands, and the Liaodong Peninsula. It also assured Japanese rights to engage in industrial enterprises in China. Ironically, a decade after the Treaty of Shimonoseki forced China to recognize Korean independence, Japan, in the wake of the Russo-Japanese War, effectively forced Korea to sign the Eulsa Protective Treaty, which made it a protectorate of Japan. In 1910, Korea was formally annexed to the Japanese empire, beginning a period of Japanese colonial rule of Korea that would not end until 1945.
Western Response
Immediately after the terms of the treaty became public, Russia—with its own designs on and sphere of influence in China—expressed concern about the Japanese acquisition of the Liaodong Peninsula and the possible impact of the terms of the treaty on the stability of China, not to mention Russian interests in northeast Asia. Russia persuaded France and Germany to apply diplomatic pressure on Japan for return of the territory to China in exchange for a larger indemnity (Triple Intervention). Threatened with a tripartite naval attack by these three powers in Korean waters, Japan decided to give back Liaodong in return for a larger indemnity from China. Russia moved to fill the void by securing from China a 25-year lease of Dalian (Dairen in Japanese, also known as Port Arthur) and rights to the South Manchurian Railway Company, a semi-official Japanese company, to construct a railroad. Russia also wanted to lease more Manchurian territory, and although Japan was loath to confront Russia over this issue, it did move to use Korea as a bargaining chip. Japan would recognize Russian leaseholds in southern Manchuria if Russia would leave Korean affairs to Japan. The Russians only agreed not to impede the work of Japanese advisers in Korea, but Japan was able to use diplomatic initiatives to keep Russia from leasing Korean territory in 1899. At the same time, Japan was able to wrest a concession from China that the coastal areas of Fujian Province, across the strait from Taiwan, were within Japan’s sphere of influence and could not be leased to other powers.
Japan also succeeded in attracting a Western ally to its cause. Japan and Britain, both of whom wanted to keep Russia out of Manchuria, signed the Anglo-Japanese Alliance Treaty in 1902, which stayed in effect until 1921 when the two signed the Four Power Treaty on Insular Possessions, taking effect in 1923. The British recognized Japanese interests in Korea and assured Japan they would remain neutral in case of a Russo-Japanese war but would become more actively involved if another power (an allusion to France) entered the war as a Russian ally. In the face of this joint threat, Russia became more conciliatory toward Japan and agreed to withdraw its troops from Manchuria in 1903. The new balance of power in Korea favored Japan and allowed Britain to concentrate its interests elsewhere in Asia. Hence, the Japanese government moved to gain influence over Korean banks, opened its own financial institutions in Korea, and began constructing railroads and obstructing Russian and French undertakings on the peninsula
In response to the alliance, Russia sought to form alliances with France and Germany, which Germany declined. In 1902, a mutual pact was signed between France and Russia, which would have unrelated repercussions for Germany in the First World War. China and the United States strongly opposed the alliance. Nevertheless, the nature of the Anglo-Japanese alliance meant that France was unable to come to Russia’s aid in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904, as this would mean war with Britain.
Russo-Japanese War
When Russia failed to withdraw its troops from Manchuria by an appointed date, Japan issued a protest. Russia replied that it would agree to a partition of Korea at the 39th parallel, with a Japanese sphere to the south and a neutral zone to the north; however, Manchuria was to be outside Japan’s sphere, and Russia would not guarantee the evacuation of its troops. The Russo-Japanese War broke out in 1904 with Japanese surprise attacks on Russian warships at Dalian and Chemulpo (in Korea, now called Incheon). With tremendous loss of life on both sides, the Japanese won a series of land battles and then decisively defeated Russia’s Baltic Sea Fleet (renamed the Second Pacific Squadron) at the Battle of Tsushima Strait in 1905. At a U.S.-mediated peace conference in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Japanese and Russian representatives negotiated the 1905 Treaty of Portsmouth, marked by terms favorable to Japanese imperial interests in northeast Asia. Russia acknowledged Japan’s paramount interests in Korea and agreed to avoid “military measures” in Manchuria and Korea. Both sides agreed to restore the occupied areas to China and evacuate Manchuria, except for the Guandong Territory (a leasehold on the Liaodong Peninsula). Russia transferred its lease on Dalian and adjacent territories and railroads to Japan, ceded the southern half of Sakhalin to Japan, and granted Japan fishing rights in the Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Sea. This treaty, which implicitly recognized Japan’s limited victory in this war, was another grudging acknowledgement of Japan’s emergence as a world power and a major power in northeast Asia.
From the Meiji Restoration in 1868 to the beginning of the First World War, Japan expanded into a major regional empire in east Asia, acquiring a succession of territories and fighting two successful limited wars against the Chinese and the Russian empires for territories and influence across east Asia and the western Pacific Ocean. Victories over China and Russia, an alliance with Britain, and annexation of Korea marked Japan’s emergence as a world power, but not the recognition of this emergence by the imperial powers of Europe, the United States, or Russia. Regardless of this slight, or, in part, because of it, Meiji Japan went on to become a leader in East Asia and a highly respected military power among the most influential countries in the world.
Primary Source: Mitsuhito, Emperor of Japan Letter from Meiji Emperor to U.S. President Grant
In 1871, the fledgling Meiji government dispatched a mission of almost fifty high officials and scholars to travel around the world, including extended tours of the United States, Western Europe, Scandinavia, and Russia. The Iwakura Mission (named after its leader, Iwakura Tomomi, 1825-1883) spent almost two years studying the political, economic, social, legal, and educational systems of the developed world as potential models for the modernization of Japan. The leaders of the mission also attempted to begin the renegotiation of the "unequal treaties" — the exploitative diplomatic and economic agreements imposed by the Western powers on Japan in the 1850s, although governments in America and Europe were not yet willing to relax any of their privileges in Japan. This letter from the Emperor Meiji (Mutsuhito, 1852-1912; r. 1867-1912) was presented to U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) when the Iwakura Mission visited Washington, D.C.
“Letter from Meiji Emperor to U.S. President Grant” [Abridged]
Mitsuhito, Emperor of Japan (1871)
Mitsuhito, Emperor of Japan, etc., to the President of the United States of America, our good brother and faithful friend, greeting:
Mr. President: Whereas since our accession by the blessing of heaven to the sacred throne on which our ancestors reigned from time immemorial, we have not dispatched any embassy to the Courts and Governments of friendly countries. We have thought fit to select our trusted and honored minister, Iwakura Tomomi, the Junior Prime Minister (udaijin), as Ambassador Extraordinary … and invested [him] with full powers to proceed to the Government of the United States, as well as to other Governments, in order to declare our cordial friendship, and to place the peaceful relations between our respective nations on a firmer and broader basis. The period for revising the treaties now existing between ourselves and the United States is less than one year distant. We expect and intend to reform and improve the same so as to stand upon a similar footing with the most enlightened nations, and to attain the full development of public rights and interest. The civilization and institutions of Japan are so different from those of other countries that we cannot expect to reach the declared end at once. It is our purpose to select from the various institutions prevailing among enlightened nations such as are best suited to our present conditions, and adapt them in gradual reforms and improvements of our policy and customs so as to be upon an equality with them. With this object we desire to fully disclose to the United States Government the constitution of affairs in our Empire, and to consult upon the means of giving greater efficiency to our institutions at present and in the future, and as soon as the said Embassy returns home we will consider the revision of the treaties and accomplish what we have expected and intended.…
Your affectionate brother and friend,
Signed Mutsuhito
CountersignedSanjō Sanetomi, Prime Minister
From Asia for Educators, Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
This text was adopted from the official translation as reproduced in The New York Times, March 15, 1872.
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Title Image - Illustration of a Steam Locomotive Running on the Takanawa Railroad in Tokyo (Tōkyō takanawa tetsudō jōkisha sōkō no zu). Attribution: Utagawa Kuniteru, Public domain, via Metropolitan Museum of Art. Provided by: Metropolitan Museum of Art. Location: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/55340. License: Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal.
Boundless World History
"From the Edo Period to Meiji Restoration in Japan"
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