The earliest Japanese history, like that of all other nations, is a
mass of myths and legends. But out of this one solid fact has been
evolved: the Japanese were a race who invaded the island kingdom by way
of Korea, much as the Saxons and other Teutonic tribes invaded Britain.
They therefore used the sea at a very early period of their history.
They found aboriginal tribes when they came, and of these the Ainu
still exist in the north, a race as distinct as our Celts in the north
of Scotland. The immigrant race are always spoken of and accepted as
Mongolians, though in Japanese legend the invaders had, as in similar
Western myths, a divine origin. Incidentally, it is interesting to
note that a Japanese, with kindred tastes to those Western _savants_
who have found the cradle of the human race in Lapland or in Central
Africa, has built a theory by which ancient Egypt was the early home of
the Japanese. To support this theory numerous small similarities were
brought forward; but it does not seem to have made headway in Japan, or
to be known in the Western world. It is, as regards plausibility, about
on a par with the Anglo-Israelite theory that had once quite a vogue in
this country, and is by no means without disciples to-day.
Whence they came, however, is a matter of no moment here. Japanese
national history begins with the expedition led by the Emperor Jimmu,
at a date which a loose chronology fixes at 660 B.C. This is the
earliest over-sea operation unconnected with deities and myths.
Jimmu, who, according to the legends, was the grandson of the Sea
Deity’s daughter, led an expedition eastward from Mount Takachiho,
and eventually found himself on the shores of the Inland Sea, and
here built a fleet, by means of which he reached Naniwa (Osaka), and
consolidated the empire.
For the next seven or eight centuries the nation was forming; but
beyond a legend, suggestive of the story of Jonah, nothing is heard
of ships or boats till 202 A.D., when the Empress Jingo equipped a
great fleet for the invasion of Korea. As an early instance of the
use of “sea-power,” this expedition has laid great hold on Japanese
imagination; but since the transportation of the flagship by legions
of fishes, with which the Empress has made an alliance, is the central
point of the story, its nautical details can hardly be seriously
considered. What is of more moment is the undoubted fact that the
expedition took place, that it was a complete success for Japan, and
laid the foundations of that Japanese interest in Korea which is to-day
so potent a factor in the Far Eastern problem.
[Illustration: MAP OF JAPAN.]
Korea paid tribute without question for some three hundred years. About
the year 520, however, the Emperor Keitai Tenno collected a fleet, and
conducted some operations against the Koreans that served to tighten
Japan’s hold on her over-sea possessions. From this time onward for the
next two or three hundred years Japan grew as a trading nation, and
intercourse with both Korea and China became common. As in those days
every merchant ship became a warship when required, Japan must have
ranked as a considerable naval power.
As for the ships, these may have been either mere boats or small
coasting junks, probably differing very little from the boats and junks
of the present day.
About the year 650 Japanese garrisons were driven out of Korea by
hostile tribes, assisted by the Chinese, and with the expelled Japanese
came many Koreans, an immigration that continued for some considerable
period.
In the middle of the ninth century the Samaurii, or military caste,
whose descendants to-day provide the bulk of naval officers, first
began to arise. The Shoguns, afterwards to become such a power, were
originally generals, there being one in command of each of the four
military districts into which the Emperor Sujin had divided Japan. A
Shogun with any special powers did not arise till the year 1200 or so,
when Yoshinaka made himself _Sei-i-Shogun_ (Chief Shogun).
As he was driven to suicide soon afterwards in the civil war then
desolating the empire, the post did not convey any great advantage to
him; but Yaritomo whose troops had defeated him, became after a time
_Sei-i-tai-Shogun_ (great barbarian compelling Shogun). This civil
war—between the Taira and the Minamoto clans—culminated in a naval
battle. The former are credited with 500 junks, which, in addition to
the soldiers, were crowded with women and children and the fugitive
emperor. At Dan-no-ura, on the Inland Sea, these were overtaken by
the Minamoto with 700 vessels, and the smaller fleet was annihilated.
This decisive action ended the civil war, but it created the system of
Shogun rule, whereby all the governing of the country was in the hands
of Yoritomo, the Emperor being a mere figure-head and puppet in his
hands.
The descendants of Yaritomo, as Shoguns _de jure_, did not exercise
much power _de facto_, for regents (the Hojo) acted for them. In time,
too, tutors came to act for the regents, and under this condition of
government, plunged into a species of anarchy, Japan faced the great
Chinese invasion of 1281.
Having resolved on the capture of Japan, the Chinese sent envoys
demanding its surrender. These, after being sent from pillar to post in
a search for the real governing power, were eventually killed by the
populace. The Chinese then prepared a fleet of 300 of their own and
Korean ships, added the Japanese sun to the consuming dragon on the
Chinese flag, and invaded to consummate the capture. On the water they
encountered no opposition, but on landing they were met and defeated by
the Japanese, united in the presence of a common danger. A great storm
at the same time destroyed the hostile fleet, and the invasion was at
an end.
It was followed by more internal strife, till in 1333 the Hojo were
finally put down. Shortly afterwards the chief power came into the
hands of the Shoguns.
Despite the civil warfare, Japan still made headway as a maritime
State. Trade and piracy were conducted not only with Korea and China,
but Japanese vessels sailed regularly to the distant shores of Siam.
In 1542 the Portuguese first came into touch with Japan. Three cannon
were presented to the Shogun, and a little later Pinto arrived on the
scene, and taught the manufacture of gunpowder. Jesuits followed, and
made such headway that in the next civil war the Christian Japanese, to
the number of 600,000 or more, were a strong political factor.
In 1587 Hideyoshi the _Taikio_, the _de facto_ ruler of Japan, issued
an edict against the Christians, many missionaries were expelled, and
the ports open to foreign vessels were finally limited to one only,
Nagasaki, as at that time the suspicion first began that soldiers would
presently follow the missionaries.
About the same period Hideyoshi, who had designs upon China and Korea,
began to prepare warships. He also endeavoured to create a fleet of
European-built ships, but the traders whom he approached on the matter
refused to sell their vessels. He had, therefore, to content himself
with a junk navy, which was raised much as fleets were raised in
England at the same period, by levies upon the coast districts. The
princes of these districts were required to furnish sailors to man the
ships that they provided.
The invasion of Korea was carried out by two divisions, the first of
which, under Konishi, reached Fusan on April 13, 1592. The town, which
had for some two hundred years been used as a Japanese trading port,
was easily captured, and the army then marched to the capital. The
fleet lay inactive at Fusan for some time, but Konishi, in the midst of
a victorious career on land, presently conceived the idea of using his
fleet also. It was, therefore, sent round to the westward, where it met
a Korean fleet.
The Koreans, whose ships were constructionally superior, made out to
sea, and the Japanese following, sustained a defeat that caused them to
retire to Fusan again.
After this Chinese troops appeared in large numbers, and, though the
invaders won a few battles, they were checked, and compelled to fall
back.
Peace negotiations were opened in 1596, but these fell through, and in
1597 130,000 fresh Japanese troops were sent to Korea.
In the latter part of this same year the Korean fleet attempted to
signally defeated by the Japanese vessels. Most of the attacking fleet
were destroyed. No headway was, however, made by the Japanese land
force, and in 1598 the expedition withdrew.
In the year 1600 William Adams, an Englishman, reached Japan, and,
though for a time imprisoned at the instigation of the Jesuits, he
eventually gained liberty and consideration from Ieyasu, the Shogun.
He built for the Shogun, first a small 18-tonner, and then, in 1609,
a ship of 120 tons. In this ship some Spaniards who had been wrecked
on the east coast of Japan were sent to Acapulco. They appear to have
navigated themselves, and the vessel was kept, but a much larger ship
was sent to the Shogun as a present in return for his kindness.
In 1611, owing to Adams’s partiality for the Dutch, these secured from
the Shogun permission to trade with any port in the country. A little
later the British East India Company secured the same advantages, but,
owing to the outbreak of war between England and Holland, a good deal
of isolated fighting took place between the traders, till it ended in
the withdrawal or destruction of the English.
In 1614 the Japanese ruler began to be thoroughly alarmed at the
progress of Christianity, and the expected advent of Portuguese
soldiers to take possession of the land. All foreign Christians were
ordered to leave the country, all native ones to renounce their creed.
In 1616 the majority of Christians who still held to their faith were
disposed of by the same means that in Europe were used to ensure
conversion to Christianity.
In 1637 a revolution broke out amongst some of the Samaurai, or soldier
class, who had been compelled to become farmers. Such Christians as had
survived the massacres joined these.
After some defeats, the rebels were shut up in a large deserted castle
at Hara, where 160,000 men besieged them. A tremendous defence was
made, and the besiegers, failing to make much headway, applied for
and secured aid from the Dutch factory at Hivado. Guns were lent, and
finally a Dutch warship, the de Ryp, 20 guns, bombarded the castle from
the bay, without, however, effecting its reduction. Eventually the
castle was taken, and practically the whole garrison executed.
In 1640 the rivalry between the Dutch and Portuguese, of which the
Dutch assistance against the rebellious Jesuit converts was probably an
incident, came to a head. It ended in the expulsion of the Portuguese,
and the establishment of the Dutch at Nagasaki as the sole Western
nation having dealings with Japan.
Here for two hundred years the Dutch traded unmolested. The civil
commotion quieted down, and with her seclusion from the outside world
Japan entered upon an era of domestic peace. There were no more great
civil wars, and, save for the conflicts of the Samaurai against each
other, the nation grew ignorant of the art of war.
As these Samaurai were the ancestors of modern Japanese naval officers,
some account of their methods of training may be worthy of study, for
to them it is undoubtedly due that Japan exists as one of the great
Powers to-day. Otherwise she would assuredly have sunk to the Chinese
level of an ultra-high civilisation in which courage has no place,
and in which the military profession is lower than the meanest civil
calling. From all this the Samaurai saved Japan.
The country was then under a feudal system. The Emperor, the nominal
head of the State, was a mere figure-head, too sacred to concern
himself with mundane affairs—a condition of mind which generations of
clever tutelage at the hands of various Shoguns had produced. More
often than not the Shogun’s rule was of a similar nature, a regent
being the real head of the State. Under the Shogun or his regent were
the governors of provinces; under these the great feudal lords, each of
whom maintained his Samaurai, or fighting men. The soldier-ant is the
nearest natural equivalent to these Samaurai, who only very partially
resembled our knights of the Middle Ages. Below the Samaurai, and
cordially despised by them, were the lower classes, engaged in trade
and agriculture. The exact social equivalent of the Samaurai in our
society system does not exist, but probably the old “squireens,” a now
almost extinct class of small country gentry, would most nearly occupy
the same social status. The Samaurai might be richer or poorer than
the working class, but in all cases they cordially despised them, and
were in turn respected or feared.
These Samaurai lived in a constant state of killing and being killed.
If one of them left his house, he took his life in his hand from that
moment. Duels were frequent, murders common, and the fearful form of
suicide known as hari-kari was performed by them without a shudder at
the slightest hint of an insult that could not be avenged. Vendettas,
too, were everlasting, so that altogether the Samaurai were by heredity
inured to a callous disregard of life and suffering. In all their
crimes and vices they cultivated the grand Spartan virtues, and Japan
will yet, perhaps, reap the benefit of those centuries of training.