The War in the East: Japan, China, and Corea

by Trumbull White

One of the first acts of the mikado after the restoration, was to assemble the kuges and daimios and make oath before them “that a deliberative assembly should be formed, and all measures be decided upon by public opinion; that impartiality and justice should form the basis of his action; and that intellect and learning should be sought for throughout the world in order to establish the foundations of the empire.” In the mid-summer of 1868, the mikado, recognizing Yeddo as really the center of the nation’s life, made it the capital[capital] of the empire and transferred his court thither; but the name Yeddo, being distasteful on account of its associations with the shogunate, was abolished, and the city renamed Tokio, or “Eastern Capital.” At the same time the ancient capital Kioto, received the new name of Saikio or “Western Capital.” For the creation of a central administration, however, more was necessary than the abolition of the shogunate and the establishment of the mikado’s authority. The great fabric of feudalism still remained intact. Within his own territory each daimio was practically an independent sovereign, taxing his subjects as he saw fit, often issuing his own currency, and sometimes even granting passports so as to control intercourse with neighboring provinces. Here was a formidable barrier to the consolidation of the empire. But the reformers had the courage and the tact necessary to remove it.

The first step towards the above revolution was taken in 1869, when the daimios of Satsuma, Choshiu, Hizen, and Tosa addressed a memorial to the mikado requesting his authorization for the resignation of their fiefs into his hands. Other nobles followed their example, and the consequence was the acceptance by the mikado of control over the land and revenues of the different provinces, the names of the clans however being still preserved, and the daimios allowed to remain over them as governors, each with one-tenth of the former assessment of his territory as rental. By this arrangement the evil of too suddenly terminating the relation between the clans and their lords was sought to be avoided, but it was only temporary; in 1871 the clan system was totally abolished, and the country redivided for administrative purposes, with officers chosen irrespectively of hereditary rank or clan connection.

But the payment of hereditary pensions and allowances of the ex-daimios and ex-samurai proved such a drain upon the national resources that in 1876 the reformed government found it necessary to compulsorily convert them into capital sums. The rate of commutation varied from five years’ purchase in the case of the largest pensions, to fourteen years’ in that of the smallest. The number of the pensioners with whom they had thus to deal was three hundred and eighteen thousand four hundred and twenty-eight. The act of the daimios in thus suppressing themselves looks at first sight like a grand act of self-sacrifice, as we are not accustomed to see landed proprietors manifesting such disinterestedness for the patriotic object of advancing their country’s good. But the vast majority of daimios had come to be mere idlers, as the greater mikado had been. Their territories were governed by the more able and energetic of their retainers, and it was a number of these men that had most influence in bringing about the restoration of the mikado’s authority. Intense patriots, they saw that the advancement of their country could not be realized without its unification, and at the same time they cannot but have preferred a larger scope for their talents, which service immediately under the mikado would give them. From being ministers of their provincial governments, they aspired to be ministers of the imperial government. They were successful; and their lords, who had all along been accustomed to yield to their advice quite cheerfully, acquiesced when asked for the good of the empire to give up their fiefs to the mikado. One result of this is that while most of the ex-daimios have retired into private life, the country is now governed almost exclusively by ex-samurai. Such sweeping changes were not to be accomplished without rousing opposition and even rebellion. The government incurred much risk in interfering with the ancient privileges of the samurai. It is not surprising that several rebellions had to be put down during the years immediately succeeding 1868.

Dr. William Elliot Griffis, in his exhaustive and interesting work, “The Mikado’s Empire,” discusses at length the change of Japan from feudalism to its present condition, the abolition of the shogunate, and the rebellions that followed that event. He declares that popular impression to be wrong which suggests that the immediate cause of the fall of the shogun’s government, the restoration of the mikado to supreme power, and the abolition of the dual and feudal systems, was the presence of foreigners on the soil of Japan. The foreigners and their ideas were the occasion, not the cause, of the destruction of the dual system of government. Their presence served merely to hasten what was already inevitable.

The history of Japan from the abolition of feudalism in 1871 up to the present time, is a record of advance in all the arts of western civilization. The mikado, Mutsuhito, has shown himself to be much more than a petty divinity, a real man. He has taken a firm stand in advocacy of the introduction of western customs, wherever they were improvements. The imperial navy, dockyards, and machine shops have been a pride to him. He has withdrawn himself from mediæval seclusion and assumed divinity, and has made himself accessible and visible to his subjects. He has placed the empress in a position like to that occupied by the consorts of European monarchs, and with her he has adopted European attire. In the latter part of June, 1872, the mikado left Tokio in the flagship of Admiral Akamatsu, and made a tour throughout the south and west of his empire. For the first time in twelve centuries the emperor of Japan moved freely and unveiled among his subjects.

CHINESE COOLIE.

Again in the same year Japan challenged the admiration of Christendom. The coolie trade, carried on by Portuguese at Macao, in China, between the local kidnappers and Peru and Cuba, had long existed in defiance of the Chinese government. Thousands of ignorant Chinese were yearly decoyed from Macao and shipped in sweltering shipholds, under the name of “passengers.” In Cuba and Peru their contracts were often broken, they were cruelly treated, and only a small portion of them returned alive to tell their wrongs. The Japanese government had with a fierce jealousy watched the beginning of such a traffic on their own shores. In the last days of the shogunate, coolie traders came to Japan to ship irresponsible hordes of Japanese coolies and women to the United States. To their everlasting shame, be it said some were Americans. Among the first things done by the mikado’s government after the restoration, was the sending of an official who effected the joyful delivery of these people and their return to their homes.

So the Japanese set to work to destroy this nefarious traffic. The Peruvian ship Maria Luz, loaded with Chinese, entered the port of Yokohama. Two fugitive coolies in succession swam to the English war ship Iron Duke. Hearing the piteous story of their wrongs, Mr. Watson, the British chargé d’affaires, called the attention of the Japanese authorities to these illegal acts in their waters. A protracted enquiry was instituted and the coolies landed. The Japanese refused to force them on board against their will, and later shipped them to China, a favor which was gratefully acknowledged by the Chinese government. This act of a pagan nation achieved a grand moral victory for the world and humanity. Within four years the coolie traffic, which was but another name for the slave trade, was abolished from the face of the earth, and the coolie prisons of Macao were in ruins. Yet the act of freeing the Chinese coolies in 1872 was done in the face of clamor and opposition, and a rain of protests from the foreign consuls, ministers, and a part of the press. Abuse and threats and diplomatic pressure were in vain. The Japanese never wavered, but marched straight to the duty before them, the liberation of the slaves. The British chargé and the American consul, Colonel Charles O. Shepherd, alone gave hearty support and unwavering sympathy to the right side.