JAPANESE COOLIES FOLLOWING THE ARMY.
CAUSES OF THE WAR BETWEEN JAPAN AND CHINA.
Inception Must be Sought Far Back in History—Old Time Animosity Between the two Nations Chiefly Responsible—Formal Recognition of Corean Independence by Japan—The Riots of 1882 and Their Result—Return of the Corean Embassy from a Trip Around the World—Advance of American Ideas and Influence—Plots of the Progressionists—The Coup d'Etat and Its Fatal Results—Flight of the Conspirators to Japan and America—Decoying of Kim-ok-Kiun to Shanghai—Assassination of Kim—Rebellion in Northern Corea—Aid Asked From China—China Sends Troops—Violation of Treaty with Japan—Army from Japan Arrives—Japanese in the Capital—Scheme of Reform Proposed by Japan and Rejected by China—A Diplomatic Campaign.
In its broadest sense no war between nations can be ascribed to a single cause, defined by exact limits of time and place. A cause of war always suggests the question as to what has made it such; and so we find that for an intelligent understanding of the present war we have to go back, beyond the Corean rebellions of the early spring of 1894, and take in the whole range of the relations of China and Japan to Corea and to each other. An understanding of the history of the three nations is necessary to a proper understanding of the war.
The first formal recognition of Corean independence is found in the earliest treaty between Japan and Corea, that of 1876, by which the Coreans agreed to pay indemnity for an unwarranted attack which had been made upon a Japanese vessel, and to open several ports to Japanese traders. It was through this treaty that Corea was first introduced to the comity of nations. One of the professed objects of Japan during the war, has, therefore, been to establish the independence of Corea, which she has recognized in her treaties, against the Chinese claim of suzerainty. Sooner or later a war between Japan and China was inevitable. The hereditary animosities between the two nations have been aggravated by the marked differences which have arisen of late years between their civilizations; by the impatience under which Japan has struggled against an anomalous position among the powers, forced upon her by foreign treaties, while she has beheld her mediæval rival holding precedence and predominance; and by the jealousy and fanatic contempt with which the subjects of the “Son of Heaven” have watched the growing political aspirations of Japan, her conciliatory attitude towards foreigners, and her apostate abandonment of the manners and customs of oriental life.
For years, moreover, an excuse for a collision has been developing in the relations of the two states to Corea. In spite of the liberal sympathies of the Corean king himself, the ascendant force in the government has long been the Ming faction, to which family the queen belongs, which is pro-Chinese in its sympathies, foe to everything savoring of western liberal progress. Under the sway of this faction, which has monopolized the highest magistracies, government in Corea has been nothing more nor less than systematic plunder of the masses, for the benefit of a few privileged nobles. The admitted misgovernment of the country, which has always jeopardized the lives and property of aliens; the suzerain claims of China; the vast commercial interests of Japan in the peninsula and her large colonies; and finally the complicated treaty arrangements which have grown up between Tokio and Peking with regard to the “Hermit Kingdom”—these have long constituted a source of friction, in the knowledge of which the present conflict between the mandarins and the daimios is more readily understood. It is significant that while China has never formally given up her claim to lordship over Corea, she has refused to stand by her vassal on certain occasions, and has encouraged the latter to conduct negotiations on her own account. This was indeed the action of China in 1876, when the treaty with Japan was made, and the latter seized the opportunity to recognize the king of Corea as an independent sovereign prince. The immediate cause of the war is centered around the disputed question of the right of both parties to keep troops on Corean soil, a right which both have exercised more than once. It is the origin of this right and the complications that have arisen from it, that we must now trace with reference to the outbreak of the war.
