Japan

by Walter G. Dickson

In 1861 the foreign ministers, up to that time resident in Yedo, retired to Yokohama, and pressed one demand after another upon the Japanese government, already sufficiently occupied with complications arising from intestine difficulties. The Cabinet was worried by requests for interviews upon questions of land, of residences, of money exchanges, of matters of etiquette in interviews with the Shiogoon, and other matters which might seem trivial in comparison with the crisis through which the country was passing in the face of an internal revolution. These foreign ministers were now, somewhat unreasonably, all demanding that residences should be built for them by the Japanese government, and insisting that these residences should (in the face of an article of the treaty to the contrary) be fortified and furnished with guns. The recreation ground of the people of Yedo, Go teng yama, was demanded and given up for this purpose by Ando, then Prime Minister, and a large building was erected by the Japanese government upon this site; but the feelings of the people at this unjust appropriation of a piece of ground which had been set apart for their use were so much excited that another local émeute was threatened at Yedo. This was allayed by the burning of the new building, and by the attempted assassination of the Prime Minister, who narrowly escaped with the loss of an ear.

By these annoyances occurring in the neighborhood of Yedo, and through the presence of foreigners, a strong party was drawn over to the views of the Emperor, and the nation began to see that he had all along been in the right in opposing the admission of foreigners as detrimental to the quiet of the country. Satsuma and Choshiu built each a large new residence in Miako. The Emperor called on twelve of the wealthiest among the Daimios to keep each a sufficient body of troops in the city for his protection. The young Shiogoon was invited or called upon to pay a visit to Miako when Stotsbashi was intriguing against him. He accordingly went with Kanso, the retired prince of Hizen, while Higo was appointed Shugo shoku, or guardian of the palace. This meeting of the Emperor and the Shiogoon seems to have opened the eyes of both to the power and intelligence of foreigners, of which the Emperor and his court seem to have been ignorant. Some of the Miako nobility went out on a trip with the Shiogoon in his steamer, and were astonished and converted; and Anega Koji was assassinated for expressing too plainly and openly his opinions as to the power and energy of foreigners.

The intercourse between the two heads of the empire seems to have consolidated the power of the government, and promised to bring forth fruit in a mutual good understanding and co-operation. Stotsbashi sneaked away to Yedo in disgrace, and had to run the gantlet of an attack on his way back, when his chief secretary was assassinated on the highroad at Saka no shta. Shimadzu and Choshiu retired from Miako in disgrace to their respective provincial residences, where they brooded over their own position and that of the empire. They could not but feel that it was the loyalty of their views which had entailed on them their present disgrace, and the prime cause of this was the foreigners. They knew well that the feeling of every one of their countrymen was with them, and they seem to have at last determined to throw themselves into the breach by bringing about a quarrel between the government and some foreign nation. Shimadzu, the father of the Daimio, then a minor, determined to carry out the laws of the country irrespective of any exterritoriality clauses. On leaving Yedo, on September 14, 1862, he gave out that he would cut down any foreigners he might chance to meet upon the road; when, as he approached Kanagawa, meeting three gentlemen and a lady, he ordered his retainers to cut them down, and Mr. Richardson, wounded and unable to ride away more than two hundred yards, was set upon, fainting from loss of blood, and brutally murdered. Justice was asked from the Shiogoon’s government and the punishment of the offender, who was well known to all Japan. The murder of a merchant by a lord like Satsuma was treated with contempt, and the matter was referred by the British Minister to H.M. government. The subsequent necessary delay of many months, before instructions came out to demand an indemnity and the punishment of the offender, raised the courage of the party opposed to foreigners, and Choshiu determined on his part to carry out the laws of the country according to his instructions. He held a commission from the Emperor as guardian of the Straits of Simo no seki, the narrow western entrance to the “inner sea.” He had thereby a right to overhaul all vessels passing through this strait. There is no other sea quite analogous: it resembles, but is much narrower than, the Dardanelles, the Sound, the Straits of Dover, or Tarifa, at all of which places some recognition of the power of the nation to defend a vulnerable point of her territories has been allowed in the exercise of certain surveillance over passing vessels. Choshiu fired upon some foreign vessels passing through this strait. The consequence of this was a combined attack by English, French and Dutch, by which he or one of his relatives (by error) suffered severely in men, ammunition and prestige. The Shiogoon disavowed his proceedings, and to satisfy foreign demands proposed to punish the rebel This, however, he found to be no easy matter, as the whole troops and populace were in favor of Choshiu and his patriotic attempt, and the Shiogoon was at last obliged to make terms with the Daimio.

Choshiu had presented the following memorial to the government upon the position of Japan in its internal and external relations at this juncture:

“Allow me, notwithstanding your political discussions [with the Mikado’s envoys], to give you my opinion respecting the troubles which foreigners have given us of late years in asking all kinds of concessions, in addition to the unexpected troubles which exist in our own country. This combination of difficulties within and without, occurring at the same time, and bringing us to a point when our prosperity or misfortune is decided, keeps my heart day and night in anxiety, and induces me to give you in confidence my own feelings upon these subjects.

“I have long thought that union and concord between the Shiogoon and Mikado, and obedience to the Mikado’s orders, are highly necessary in keeping up an intercourse with foreign nations, as I have already said very often.

“But every one knows that since the great council of officers, the Shiogoon and Mikado are disunited, which has occasioned a conflict of parties, and brought with it discord and trouble.

“I think the reason of this is, that although the signing of the treaties was forced upon us by urgent circumstances and pressing events, there are some who maintain that the reopening of relations with foreigners has occasioned a degradation of the people, who were so brave and constant ten years ago, to the state of quiescence and cowardice to which they are now reduced by their fear of war and of the foreign powers. These persons who are of this opinion are therefore in opposition to the acts of the Shiogoon, and say that they will themselves undertake to set aside the treaties and prepare the country for war, declaring that the Mikado still maintains the old laws of our country, which direct the expulsion of foreigners.

“Other persons accept, on the contrary, the reopening of the country, and praise the foreigners, and thus destroy all confidence in ourselves. They say that the foreigners have large forces, and that they have great knowledge of arts and sciences.

“These conflicting opinions trouble the minds of the people. Unity is force and strength, and discord is weakness; therefore it would be imprudent to go to war against powerful and brave enemies with discord in our minds.