JAPAN DEFEATS RUSSIA 1905

JAPAN DEFEATS RUSSIA

The First Asiatic Nation to Become a World Power

When Commodore Perry issued his ultimatum to Japan in 1853 demanding that she should grant trading rights, his main objective was the acquisition of bunkering stations for America’s new steam ships. He was not to know that by impressing the Japanese with a show of strength, he was to all intents and purposes unleashing on Asia a force of energy which has ever since troubled all that vast continent, and created in the American Pacific sphere of interest a powerful counterpoise to Washington’s Oriental policies.

In the chapter dealing with Commodore Perry’s mission, a hint has been given of the extraordinary transformation that came over Japan once she had digested what trading could do for her; a transformation which is without doubt the greatest miracle in the political field during the last century. The Americans could not, naturally, keep Japan to themselves, and before very long all the great European trading powers were in contact with Japan; and from these contacts Japan learned how the world of power or­ganized itself, and was determined to participate.

The treaties signed with the United States, France and England in 1858 provoked the last-ditch stand of the old order to delay the initiation of the new. The way in which this opposition was sup­pressed by the great powers led directly to a diminution of the powers of the shogun, for the great barons, the Satsuma and Chosu daimio, impressed by the foreign actions began to press for a policy of Westernization. So intensive was the pressure of these powerful lords that by degrees the shogunate was deprived of its former autocratic authority. Indeed, the shogun’s powers were so whittled away that in 1867 the ruling shogun, who had not long succeeded his father, resigned.

In the first month of the following year direct imperial rule was re-established, the young Emperor Meiji, backed by the southern great barons, at once beginning a programme of almost total reform. How restricted had been Japanese life under the old feudal system may be gathered from one or two of the immediate changes that were effected. The road barriers were removed and freedom of movement assured; the farmer was now allowed to plant what crops he wished; the samurai, the warrior class, lost the right of vendetta; the class system instituted by the last great family of shoguns, the Tokugawa, were eliminated, and all Japanese were divided into three classes: Kazoku (the nobility), comprising the daimio and court nobles; Shizoku (the gentry), comprising the samurai above the very lowest rank; Heimin (the commoners), consisting of low-ranking samurai and all others.

Though this concession to pride of class was made, all were guaranteed equality before the law. The abolition of the former military class, the samurai, made it necessary for Meiji to develop his own armed forces, and in 1873 conscription on the German model was introduced, by which all males over twenty were liable to three years’ service. The French military mission which had been sent to advise on the organization of forces was now replaced by German experts. At the same time a small navy was commissioned under the guidance of the English.

A public educational system was also introduced, and this was organized on the French system. Every child was obliged to have at least three years’ schooling, but some years passed before all eligible children were actually attending. A university system was inaugurated in 1871; the initiative was not left entirely to the State, several privately founded institutions being set up between 1875 and 1882.

As we have seen in the chapter on Commodore Perry, a new religion was also evolved, State Shintoism. The tenets of this religion are set out in that earlier chapter, but attention is once more drawn to that tenet which held that it was Japan’s divine mission to bring “the whole world under one roof”, a tenet which was the basis of all Japan’s activities in the international field from 1880 on.

In the field of revenue, the greatest reform was the replacement of the traditional rice tax by a land tax collected in money. In 1872 the government issued certificates of ownership to those they could prove held cultivation rights. A value was set on each parcel of land, and a three per cent tax on this value was levied.

This change created much dissatisfaction among the agrarian population, for in effect the new tax took as much as 30 to 40 per cent of a farmer’s crop value, which put the tax burden much higher than it had ever been under the shogunate. As a result a series of peasant rebellions broke out in the early 1870s, but petered out as the decade advanced.

Nor were the farmers the only section to be restive. Many of the samurai were beginning to feel that there was little place for them in the new order. Some of them had been absorbed into the growing bureaucracy, and some had even been prepared to launch themselves into business careers. But many could not make the change, and longed for a return to the time when the samurai would be valued once more.

These varying approaches to the new life split the samurai into two groups, of about equal numbers and strength, but the votes of the two court nobles who were prominent in the government generally gave support to the group which held that the samurai must accept a new role. The overall balance, however, was disturbed when a group of the progressive samurai went on a mission abroad to learn as much as they could about Western technology and institutions. While they were away the reactionary group decided that something must be done to restore the samurai to their rightful position in the nation, and that this something obviously must be war. The victim was to be Korea, which had rejected Japanese advances for treaties, though the ultimate goal was to be China. Fortunately, the reactionaries were restrained, but not until an armed uprising in Saga led the government to follow a policy of appeasement by organizing an expedition against Formosa on the pretext that the Formosans had murdered some Okinawan sailors. This created difficulties with China, but these were overcome by China eventually recognizing the propriety of Japan’s actions.

The peace lasted only a few years, however, and in the autumn of 1876 samurai revolts broke out in Kumamoto, Fukuoka and Yamaguchi, and a really serious rebellion in southern Kyushu. Fortunately the central government met these tests with firmness and within a few months all was quiet again.

In 1874 political parties began to emerge, initially as political societies. This move was accompanied by demands for a representative assembly, which also had the seeds in it of trouble for the central government. By firmness on the one hand and concessions on the other, once more the government met the challenge. Although measures were introduced which effectively suppressed political agitation, the government did realize the need to establish a political structure, and a constitution was promised.

This had, in fact, been under discussion for some time. One of the leading members of the government, Okuma, was in favour of a system based on the English system, and in 1881 submitted his recommendations to the Emperor, which included the calling of a parliament in 1883. When the other members of the government heard the nature of Okuma’s recommendations they were at once up in arms, and nothing might have come of the proposals had not another issue broken at the same time.

The government had decided to sell to an Osaka syndicate the enterprises which had been established in Hokkaido to aid economic development. Okuma leaked this information to the Press, and when the public discovered that the purchase price was only a small fraction of that which the government had initially laid out, serious disturbances broke out with the slogan that the government was corrupt and that a parliament was necessary to keep it in order.

On the night of 11 October, 1881, the Emperor presided over a full meeting of the government, with the exception of Okuma, and the sale was cancelled. Next day an imperial rescript promised a parliament by 1890. The task of preparing the constitution was given to Ito Hirobumi, who spent 1881 to 1883 in Europe studying Western constitutions. Upon his return to Japan he at once began to introduce preliminary changes in the structure of the government. In 1884 a peerage was created on the English system; in 1885 the central administration was reorganized and a cabinet on the German model introduced, with Ito as first Prime Minister. By 1888 a draft constitution was ready, and this, after some minor changes had been made by a Privy Council set up to study it, was promulgated on 11 February, 1889.

The main provisions of this constitution, known as the Meiji Constitution, were these: the emperor combined in his person all executive, legislative and judicial powers, but never exercised these powers except on advice; his primary advisers were the Prime Minister and Cabinet; the emperor’s signature on a political document was not valid unless the Cabinet countersigned; the emperor chose the Prime Minister after taking the advice of the Elder Statesmen; once the Prime Minister had been appointed, the emperor accepted his recommendations for the other ministers, who had at their command all the emperor’s political powers.

Certain restraints were created upon the use of these powers. A Diet was established consisting of a House of Peers and a House of Representatives. Princes and marquises sat in the Upper House for life, lower orders for seven-year periods on election by their fellow-peers. The House of Representatives was elected by popular ballot based on property qualifications. The best weapon the Diet had against the government was the right of interpellation, which might be used to take up almost any matter, but the Diet never did succeed in establishing the principle of ministerial responsibility, The new system began to operate on 1 July, 1890.

While these changes were being made industrial development had Been going on at a miraculous pace, and soon Japan was aware of her new strength. With this awareness came the realization of the duty to implement the “under one roof” tenet of State Shintoism.

Shortly after the Formosan expedition of 1874, Japan began the implementation of this tenet by annexing the Riukiu Islands. She then turned her attention to Korea, which was nominally subject to Chinese suzerainty, and in which most of the European powers were also interested. Conflicting Chinese and Japanese policies over Korea and Manchuria led to the Sino-Japanese war of 1894, with Japan emerging victorious from her first major conflict. She won Formosa, a substantial war indemnity and the recognition of Korean independence by China. She had also hoped to secure the lease of the Liautung Peninsula, but this was prevented by Russian action, aided and abetted by Germany and France. In 1898 Russia herself secured part of the Peninsula.

During the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900, Japan sent a contingent to co-operate with the other treaty powers in the relief of the Peking legations, although she watched the progressive occupation of South Manchuria by Russia with the greatest anxiety, which was further increased by Russia’s refusal to withdraw when the Boxer Rebellion had been suppressed. She now realized that before she could expand in Korea and South Manchuria she must first defeat Russia. Over the next three years she laid plans for the accomplishment of this aim.

Unfortunately there is no space here to do more than record that from the very first moment that the Russian-Japanese War broke out in 1904, Japan had the mastery. Exactly nineteen months later, Russia sued for terms. Japan’s demands were humiliating, but Russia accepted them. Japan received the Russian base of Port Arthur, and took over Russia’s extensive rights in South Manchuria.

By this complete defeat of a major European power, Japan automatically placed herself in the comity of great world powers. This she had done within fifty years of emerging from medieval feudalism. At the same time she had changed herself into a modern industrial state, able, because of limitless cheap labour, to undercut all her rivals. By 1905 the stage was already set for Pearl Harbour