HISTORY (NEW JAPAN)
OUTLINE OF TOPICS: Birth of New Japan.—Nineteenth Century Japan;
calendars; six periods: (I) Period of Seclusion, chronology and
description; (II) Period of Treaty-making, chronology and description;
(III) Period of Civil Commotions, chronology and description; (IV)
Period of Reconstruction, chronology and description, especially the
“Charter Oath”; (V) Period of Internal Development, chronology and
description; (VI) Period of Constitutional Government, chronology and
description; summary of general progress.—Bibliography.
July 14, 1853, was the birthday of New Japan. It was the day when
Commodore Perry and his suite first landed on the shore of Yedo Bay
at Kurihama, near Uraga, and when Japanese authorities received, in
contravention of their own laws, an official communication from Millard
Fillmore, President of the United States.
It may be true that, even if Perry had not come, Japan would have been
eventually opened, because internal public opinion was shaping itself
against the policy of seclusion; but we care little for what “might
have been.” It is, of course, true that Perry did not fully carry
out the purpose of his expedition until the following year, when he
negotiated a treaty of friendship; but the reception of the President’s
letter was the crucial point; it was the beginning of the end of
old Japan. The rest followed in due course of time. When Japanese
authorities broke their own laws, the downfall of the old system was
inevitable. Mark those words in the receipt—“in opposition to the
Japanese law.” That was a clear confession that the old policy of
seclusion and its prohibitions could no longer be strictly maintained.
A precedent was thus established, of which other nations were not at
all slow to avail themselves.
But although New Japan was not born until the second half of the
nineteenth century, it suits the purpose of this book a little better,
even at the expense of possible repetition, to take a survey in this
chapter of that entire century, in order that the real progress of
Japan may thereby be more clearly revealed in all its marvellous
strides.
Of course, the employment of the Gregorian calendar in Japan is of
comparatively recent occurrence, so that it would be quite proper
to divide up the century according to the old Japanese custom of
periods, or eras,[82] of varying length. This system was introduced
from China and has prevailed since 645 A. D. A new era was always
chosen “whenever it was deemed necessary to commemorate an auspicious
or ward off a malign event.” It is interesting, by the way, to notice
that, immediately after Commodore Perry’s arrival (1853), the name
of the period was changed for a good omen! Hereafter these eras will
correspond with the reigns of the emperors.
But it is really more intelligible to divide the history of the
century into six periods of well-determined duration. Each one of
these periods, moreover, may be accurately named in accord with the
distinguishing characteristic of that period. It must, however, be
clearly understood that these distinctions are not all absolute, but
rather relative. It is also possible, without an undue stretch of
the imagination, to trace, in the order of the periods, the general
progress that has marked the history of New Japan. These periods are as
follows:—
I. Seclusion (1801-1853).
II. Treaty-making (1854-1858).
III. Civil Commotions (1858-1868).
IV. Reconstruction (1868-1878).
V. Internal Development (1879-1889).
VI. Constitutional Government (1889-1900).[83]
It is of special interest for Americans to notice that the third and
fourth periods are almost contemporaneous with the periods of Civil War
and Reconstruction in the United States.
We now take up each period in detail.
I. _Period of Seclusion_ (1801-1853).
CHRONOLOGY.
1804. Resanoff, Russian Embassy.
1807. The “Eclipse” of Boston at Nagasaki.
1808. The British frigate “Phaethon” at Nagasaki.
1811-1813. Golownin’s captivity in Yezo.
1818. Captain Gordon (British) in Yedo Bay.
1825-1829. Dr. Von Siebold (Dutch) in Yedo.
1827. Beechey (British) in “Blossom” at Loo Choo Islands.
1837. The “Morrison” Expedition in Yedo Bay.
1844. Letter[84] from King William II. of Holland.
1845. American whaler “Mercator” in Yedo Bay.
British frigate “Saramang” at Nagasaki.
1846. Dr. Bettelheim in Loo Choo Islands.
Wreck of American whaler “Lawrence” on Kurile Islands.
(United States) Commodore Biddle’s Expedition in Yedo Bay.
1848. Wreck of American whaler “Ladoga” off Matsumai, Yezo.
Ronald McDonald landed in Japan.
1849. United States “Preble” in Nagasaki harbor.
British “Mariner” in Yedo Bay.
1853. Shōgun Iyeyoshi died.
Commodore Perry in Yedo Bay.
It needs only a few words to summarize this period which includes the
final days of the two-edged policy of exclusion and inclusion, which
forbade not only foreigners to enter, but also Japanese to leave, the
country. It would not even allow Japanese ship-wrecked on other shores
to be brought back to their native land, as several futile attempts
mentioned above attest. Nagasaki was the only place where foreign trade
was allowed, and there only in a slight degree with Chinese and Dutch.
The events of this period are almost all vain attempts to open Japan.
Two important events concern the Loo Choo Islands, then independent,
and later visited also by Commodore Perry on his way from China to
Japan. Ronald McDonald was an Oregon boy, who, “voluntarily left
adrift, got into Yezo, and thence to Nagasaki.” He is reported to have
puzzled the Japanese authorities by stating that in America “the people
are king and the source of authority”! This period of seclusion came
to an end on July 14, 1853, when the Japanese, _contrary to their own
laws_, received from Commodore Perry the letter from President Fillmore
to the Emperor of Japan.[85]
II. _Period of Treaty-Making_ (1854-1858).
CHRONOLOGY.
1854. Perry’s treaty of peace and amity.
British treaty of peace and amity.
1855. Russian treaty of peace and amity.
Terrible earthquake.
1856. Fire in Yedo; 100,000 lives lost.
Dutch treaty of peace and amity.
Townsend Harris, United States Consul, arrived.
1857. Harris in audience with the Shōgun.
1858. Harris treaty of trade and commerce.
Elgin treaty of trade and commerce.
[Illustration: PERRY MONUMENT, NEAR URAGA]
This is the era which was opened by Commodore Perry, and was almost
entirely devoted to the persevering attempts of Perry, Harris, Curtius,
Lord Elgin, and others to negotiate treaties, first of friendship
and amity, and afterwards of trade and commerce, with Japan. It is
rather interesting that the only events chronicled above, besides
treaty-making, are terrible catastrophes, which the superstitious
conservatives believed to have been visited upon their country as a
punishment for treating with the barbarians! It is again a matter of
peculiar pride to Americans that the first treaty of friendship and
amity was negotiated by Perry; that the first foreign flag raised
officially in Japan was the Stars and Stripes, hoisted at Shimoda by
Harris on September 4, 1856; that Harris was the first accredited
diplomatic agent from a foreign country to Japan; that he also had
the honor of the first audience of a foreign representative with the
Shōgun, then supposed to be the Emperor; and that he negotiated the
first treaty of trade and commerce.
III. _Period of Civil Commotions_ (1858-1868).
CHRONOLOGY.
1859. Yokohama, Nagasaki, Hakodate opened.
First Christian missionaries.
1860. Assassination of Ii, Prime Minister of the Shōgun.
1861. Frequent attacks on foreigners.
1862. First foreign embassy. Richardson affair.
1863. Bombardment of Kagoshima.
1864. Bombardment of Shimonoseki.
1865. Imperial sanction of treaties. Tariff convention.
1866. Shōgun Iyemochi died; succeeded by Keiki.
1867. Emperor Kōmei died; succeeded by Mutsuhito.
Keiki resigned. Reorganization of the Government.
1868. Restoration, or Revolution.
This era has been so named because it was marked by commotions, not
merely between different factions among the Japanese, but also between
Japanese and foreigners. The anti-foreign spirit that manifested itself
in numerous assaults and conspiracies was so involved with internal
dissensions that it is quite difficult to distinguish them. The
assassination of Ii, the Shōgun’s Prime Minister, who had the courage
and the foresight to sign the treaties, was the natural sequence of the
opening of three ports to foreign commerce. The conservative spirit,
moreover, was still so strong that the Shōgun had to send an embassy,
the first one ever sent abroad officially by Japan, to petition the
treaty-powers to permit the postponement of the opening of other ports.
The murder of Richardson, an Englishman who rudely interrupted the
progress of the retinue of the Prince of Satsuma, was the pretext for
the bombardment of Kagoshima; and the firing on an American vessel
that was passing through the Straits of Shimonoseki was the excuse for
the bombardment of Shimonoseki. About the middle of this period the
Imperial sanction of the treaties was obtained, and a tariff convention
was negotiated.
The civil dissensions, however, continued; the great clan of Chōshiu
became engaged in actual warfare against the Shōgun’s troops in
Kyōto and were proclaimed “rebels,” against whom an Imperial army
was despatched; the young Shōgun, Iyemochi, died and was succeeded
by Keiki; and the Emperor Kōmei also died and was succeeded by his
young son, Mutsuhito, the present Emperor. Finally, the new Shōgun,
observing the drift of political affairs and the need of the times for
a more centralized and unified administration, resigned his position;
and the system of government was re-formed with the Emperor in direct
control. The new Emperor declared in a manifesto: “Henceforward we
shall exercise supreme authority, both in the internal and [the]
external affairs of the country. Consequently the title of Emperor
should be substituted for that of Tycoon [Shōgun], which has hitherto
been employed in the treaties.” Of this manifesto, one writer says:
“Appended were the seal of Dai Nippon, and the signature, Mutsuhito,
this being the first occasion in Japanese history on which the name of
an Emperor had appeared during his lifetime.”[86]
But the effect of the reorganization of the government seemed to the
adherents of the former Shōgun to work so much injustice to them that
they rose in arms against the Sat-Chō [Satsuma-Chōshiu] combination
which was then influential at court. This led, in 1867, to a civil war,
which, after a severe struggle, culminated in 1868 in the complete
triumph of the Imperialists. This event is what is called by some “the
Restoration,” and by others “the Revolution.” This was, in fact, the
climax of all the civil commotions of the period; the anti-foreign
spirit and policy were only secondary to the prime purpose of
overthrowing the usurpation of the Tokugawa Shōgunate and restoring the
one legal Emperor to his lawful authority. And thus fell, not only the
Tokugawa Dynasty, as had fallen other dynasties, of Shōguns, but also
the whole system of a Shōgunate; and thus the Emperor of Japan became,
not ruler in name and fame only, but sovereign in act and fact. From
1868 to the middle of 1912 Mutsuhito was Emperor both _de jure_ and _de
facto_.
IV. _Period of Reconstruction_ (1868-1878).
CHRONOLOGY.
1868. Opening of Hyōgo (Kōbe) and Ōsaka.
Emperor’s audience of foreign ministers.
Yedo named Tōkyō and made capital.
1869. Opening of Yedo and Niigata.
The “Charter Oath” of Japan.
1870. Light-houses, telegraphs.
1871. Postal system, mint, and dock.
Feudalism abolished.
_Eta_ and _hinin_ (outcasts) admitted to citizenship.
Colonization in Yezo [Hokkaidō].
1872. First railway, newspaper, church, and Missionary Conference.
Imperial University in Tōkyō.
Iwakura Embassy to America and Europe.
1873. Adoption of Gregorian calendar.
Removal of anti-Christian edicts.
Empress gave audience to foreign ladies.
1874. Saga Rebellion. Formosan Expedition.
1875. Assembly of Governors. Senate.
Sakhalin traded off for Kurile Islands.
1876. Treaty with Korea.
1877. Satsuma Rebellion.
First National Exhibition in Tōkyō.
1878. Bimetallism.
Promise to establish Prefectural Assemblies.
This period was one of laying the foundations of a New Japan, to be
constructed out of the old, and was one of such kaleidoscopic changes
and marvellous transformations in society, business, and administration
that it is almost blinding to the eye to attempt to watch the work of
reconstruction. There were abortive but costly attempts, like the Saga
and the Satsuma rebellions, to check the progressive policy. It was
the great period of “firsts,” of beginnings: the first audiences of
foreign ministers by the Emperor and of foreign ladies by the Empress;
the first telegraph, mint, dock, railroad, postal system, newspaper,
exhibition, church, etc.; an assembly of provincial governors to confer
together upon general policy, and a Senate.
The “Charter Oath” of Japan was not obtained by coercion, but
voluntarily taken: it is such an important document that at least a
summary may be given:[87]—
“1. A deliberative assembly should be formed, and all measures be
decided by public opinion.
“2. The principles of social and political economics should be
diligently studied by both the superior and [the] inferior classes of
our people.
“3. Every one in the community shall be assisted to persevere in
carrying out his will for all good purposes.
“4. All the old absurd usages of former times should be disregarded,
and the impartiality and justice displayed in the workings of nature
be adopted as a basis of action.
“5. Wisdom and ability should be sought after in all quarters of the
world for the purpose of firmly establishing the foundations of the
empire.”
Two years later feudalism was abolished by the following laconic
decree: “The clans are abolished, and prefectures are established
in their places.” In the same year the outcast _eta_ and _hi-nin_
(not-human) were recognized as common people. Then followed the
despatch of the Iwakura Embassy to America and Europe, where, although
they failed in their prime purpose of securing a revision of the
treaties on more nearly equal terms, they learned most valuable
lessons. Two immediate results thereof were seen in the removal of the
anti-Christian edicts and the adoption of the Gregorian, or Christian,
calendar. And finally came the promise to establish prefectural
assemblies as training schools in local self-government.
V. _Period of Internal Development_ (1879-1889).
CHRONOLOGY.
1879. Annexation of the Loo Choo Islands.
Visit of General U. S. Grant.
1880. Promulgation of Penal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure.
Establishment of prefectural assemblies.
1881. Announcement of Constitutional Government.
1882. Organization of political parties.
Bank of Japan (_Nippon Ginkō_).
1883. Missionary Conference, Ōsaka.
1884. New orders of nobility in European fashion.
English introduced into school curricula.
1885. Japan Mail Steamship Company (_Nippon Yūsen Kwaisha_).
Cabinet reconstruction, known as “The Great Earthquake”
(political).
1886. Dissatisfaction of Radicals.
1887. “Peace Preservation Act.”
1888. Establishment of Privy Council.
Eruption of Mount Bandai.
1889. Promulgation of the Constitution (February 11).
Establishment of local self-government.
Prince Haru proclaimed Crown Prince.
This period is not marked, perhaps, by so many unusual events as the
preceding one; but it was a period of rapid, though somewhat quiet,
internal development. We note in financial affairs the organization
of the Bank of Japan, which has ever since been a most important
agent in maintaining an economic equilibrium; in business circles
the organization of the Japan Mail Steamship Company, which has been
instrumental in expanding Japanese trade and commerce; in society the
reorganization of the nobility; and in legal matters the promulgation
of new codes. Several political events are noted in the chronology;
but they were mostly preparatory to the next period. The promise to
establish prefectural assemblies was fulfilled, and these became
preparatory schools in political science; and another promise, that of
a constitution, was made. The Cabinet was reconstructed, and political
parties were organized. The Radicals, however, became dissatisfied
with the slowness of political progress, and made such an agitation
that, in 1887, many were expelled from Tōkyō by the so-called “Peace
Preservation Act,” and those who refused to obey were imprisoned.
But finally, in 1889, as the climax of the internal development and
political preparations, came the establishment of local self-government
and the promulgation of the Constitution, which ushered in the next
period.
VI. _Period of Constitutional Government_ (1889-1900).
CHRONOLOGY.
1889. Anti-foreign reaction.
1890. First National Election. First Imperial Diet.
Promulgation of Civil and Commercial Codes.
1891. Attack on the Czarowitz, now Emperor of Russia.
Gifu earthquake.
1892. Dispute between the two Houses of Diet.
1893. Dispute between the Diet and the Government.
1894. War with China.
1895. War with China. Acquisition of Formosa.
1896. Alliance between the Government and Liberals.
Tidal wave on northeastern coast of main island.
1897. Revised tariff. Gold standard.
Freedom of press and public meeting.
1898. Revised Civil Code. First “Party Cabinet.”
1899. New treaties on terms of equality—Japan wide open.
1900. Wedding of Crown Prince Haru.
Extension of electoral franchise.
War with China—Japan allied with Christendom.
General Missionary Conference, Tōkyō.
This period included wars and other calamities, but also some very
fortunate events. It opened, strange to say, with the “anti-foreign
reaction” at its height. This reaction was the natural result of the
rapid Occidentalizing that had been going on, and was strengthened by
the refusal of Western nations to revise the treaties which kept Japan
in thraldom. But the period closed with “treaty revision” accomplished,
and Japan admitted, on terms of equality, to alliance with Western
nations.[88] And in quelling the “Boxer” disturbances in China and
particularly in raising the Siege of Peking, Japan played a most
important part. This period was chiefly occupied with the experimental
stage in constitutional government, when the relations between the
two Houses of the Diet, between the Diet and the Cabinet, between the
Cabinet and political parties, were being defined. This was also the
period during which new civil, commercial, and criminal codes were
put into operation; the gold standard was adopted; the restrictions
on the freedom of the press and of public meeting were almost
entirely removed; the tariff was revised in the interests of Japan;
and the electoral franchise in elections for members of the House of
Representatives was largely extended.
It has already been suggested that the very order of these periods
indicates in general the progress of Japan during those hundred
years. The century dawns, nay, even the second half of the century
opens, with Japan in seclusion. But Commodore Perry breaks down that
isolation; and Japan enters, first merely into amity, but afterwards
into commercial intercourse, with foreign nations. The break up of the
old foreign policy accelerates the break up of the old national policy
of government, and civil commotions culminate in the restoration of
the Emperor to his lawful authority. Japan is then reconstructed on
new lines; and a tremendous internal development prepares the Japanese
to be admitted by their generous Emperor into a share of his inherited
prerogatives. And the century sets with Japan among the great nations
of Christendom, and with the Japanese enjoying a constitutional
government, representative institutions, local self-government, freedom
of the press and of public meeting, and religious liberty. If this is
the record of Nineteenth Century Japan, what of Twentieth Century Japan?
[Illustration: STATESMEN OF NEW JAPAN
PRINCE SANJŌ AND COUNT KATSU]
It certainly has a good start, in formal alliance with Great Britain to
maintain peace and justice in the Far East.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
The same as the preceding chapter, with the addition of “The
Intercourse between the United States and Japan” (Nitobe); “Matthew
Calbraith Perry,” “Townsend Harris,” and “Verbeck of Japan” (all by
Griffis); “Advance Japan” (Morris); and Perry’s Expedition (official
report).
On the early history of New Japan there are many valuable works
by Alcock, Black, Dickson, Dixon (W. G.), House, Lanman, Mounsey,
Mossman, and others. See also Satow’s translation of “Kinse
Shiriaku.” On the war with China (1894, 1895), see “Heroic Japan”
(Eastlake and Yamada); and on the lessons and results of that war,
see “The New Far East” (Diosy). “The Awakening of Japan” (Okakura),
“The White Peril in the Far East” (Gulick), and “Young Japan”
(Scherer) trace thoughtfully the development of New Japan. “Dai
Nippon” (Dyer), chaps, ii. and iv., may be read with profit. “The
Progress of Japan, 1853-1871” (Gubbins), covers thoroughly part of
this period.