Download Tim Bearden History 102N Prof. Kyu Kim January 10, 2011 Weekly

Tim Bearden
History 102N
Prof. Kyu Kim
January 10, 2011
Weekly Assignment #1
The late 19th century saw the evolution of Japan from a feudal state into a modern
world Empire. On the force of gunboat diplomacy Commodore Matthew Perry opened up
Japan to the rest of the world, and to exploitation via the treaty port system. Japan’s
response was to change the identity and makeup of the nation, prompting a full-scale
transition into a modern imperialist state. While some see imperialism as the only way
Japan could modernize, this is not the case. Japan’s imperial ambitions were the result of
their desire to become major players in world politics, not because it was requisite for their
modernization efforts. Modernization was required to become a major world player, and
imperialism was the inevitable result of these efforts.
Japan’s evolution into a large East Asian Empire was the inevitable result of their
ambitions to modernize. The events of Commodore Perry’s excursion to Japan, and the
treaty port system installed by Europeans and Americans throughout East Asia, influenced
Japanese thought regarding modernization and what is required to attain it. The ultimate
path that Japan chose involved emulating the West. Japan’s preoccupation with taking an
important place in the Western mode of domination was the cause of their eventual
imperial ambitions.
The treaty port system that the British installed throughout East Asia, and that the
United States installed in Japan, had a huge effect on Japan and their concepts of
modernization. In order to better understand the effect that the treaty port system had on
Japan, we will explore its workings.
The treaty port system was a series of treaties between the British and the Chinese
that gave British merchants essentially unfettered access to Chinese ports. The treaties,
enforced by gunboat diplomacy, were unbalanced in favor of the British, and gave Britain
unreciprocated powers over China. The successive treaties opened up several ports to
Britain, and established consular courts to try British citizens convicted of crimes in China,
according to British law (Beasley 1987, 15-16). Many other Western countries soon signed
similar treaties, granting Western powers incredible influence over China.
Encouraged by the successful efforts of Britain, the United States attempted to
recreate their success with Japan by sending Commodore Perry to open their ports to the
US. Under threat of force, the Japanese opened up the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to
the US, and established a consular court in Shimoda (Beasley 1987, 23-24). This first
agreement focused more on naval rights rather than trade policy, however successive
treaties took care of these matters in favor of the US, and opened up further ports. Through
these methods, Western nations effectively gained considerable power over the affairs of
China and Japan, not to mention other East Asian nations.
The treaty port system installed by Western powers did several things for the
direction and identity of Japan at the time. First, and most importantly, it gave them the
determination not to let anything like that happen again. This meant that many schools of
thought proliferated around this time that were focused primarily on how to restore Japan
to glory. Second, it gave them considerably more exposure to the West than they had in
centuries. Third, it forced them to question why they were on the receiving end of
America’s domination.
It was clear to the Japanese people that the West was stronger, and there was
agreement that something needed to be done to counteract it. Disagreements arose about
how to go about this, but the eventual direction that was chosen was to emulate the West
and work through their models of modernization. Emphasizing this direction was
Fukuzawa Yukichi. Yukichi stressed that Japan needed to find the “spirit of the West.” This
included it’s commitment to individualism and rationality, and that doing so would result
in Japan reaching a stage of “enlightenment,” and the only way to do this was to identify
with the west and “escape Asia (Beasley 1987, 30-31).” This hierarchical view of nations
and status would be an important framework that Japan would eventually use in their
eventual imperialism .
Tokutomi Soho took his thoughts a step further than Yukichi, stressing that gaining
the respect of the West was paramount to overcoming the unequal treaties that bound
Japan. The only way to do this, he argued, was to prove that they were civilized by
establishing an East Asian empire of their own (Beasley 1987, 31-32). This would be the
eventual path that the Japanese would take, using Western-styled motivations and
justifications for building their empire.
That Japan had begun to follow these doctrines and work through Western models
of dominance was clear by their hierarchical views of nations, and their notions of
“civilized” and “uncivilized.” This was evidenced by media around the time of Japan’s
Taiwan Expedition in 1874. Media depictions of Taiwanese people at this time were
incredibly negative, depicting Taiwanese as cannibalistic barbarians, though these
depictions were unfounded (Eskildsen 2002, 400-402). This served to make a clear
distinction between Japanese people and Taiwanese, an effort to move Japan up in the
hierarchy of nations based on Western models. Furthermore, Japan, under the advice of
former American consul Charles LeGendre, used these depictions as a Western-style
justification for their foray into Taiwan. They argued that since no nation exercised
jurisdiction over eastern Taiwan, it was up for grabs to whatever nation decided to civilize
it (Eskildsen 2002, 395). These are clear examples of Japan beginning to use a Western
framework for their decision making processes; these Western frameworks were what
caused Japan to begin their imperial missions.
Due to the effect that the port treaty system had on Japan, elevating Japan to a status
of glory became a top priority for Japanese policymakers and thinkers. Because Western
nations dominated the world at the time, Japan ended up working through the framework
of the West in order to move up in their version of the hierarchy of nations. However,
though imperialism was an consequence of Japan’s determination to modernize, imperial
ambitions were not required for Japan to modernize.
Schools of thought in opposition to Tokutomi Soho’s line of reasoning showed that
there were alternative ways to the imperialism that Japan eventually followed. Okakura
Kakuzo emphasized a unity with other Asian nations, in opposition to the West (Beasley
1987, 33). Others took more moderate views. Fukuzawa Yukichi advocated an escape
from the stagnation of Asia to adopt the successful policies of the West, however he did not
identify emulation of the West and imperialism as tantamount. He believed that Western
strength lay in the institutions that promoted science and industry (Beasley 1987, 30-31).
It was still possible to emulate the West and not establish an empire.
Many would argue that Yukichi did not capture the whole picture, and that
imperialism fueled Japan’s modernization efforts over the next few decades. The reality,
however, is that this does not fit with the historical timeline, and Japan’s imperial victories
during this era were scant and weak. It was not possible for Japanese imperial efforts at
this time to have a strong effect on their fast modernization.
The order of events does not add up to imperialism being a prerequisite for
modernization. The Meiji period, Japan’s major modernization era, began in 1868. The two
major events that vaulted Japan onto the world scene and established them as an imperial
power were the Sino-Japanese War ending in 1895, and the Russo-Japanese War ending in
1906. By 1894, Japan had already acquired a modern shipping fleet with 28 steam vessels
(Beasley 1987, 36). In terms of institutions and governance, Japan had a Western style
Constitution by 1889, and had rearranged the military to emulate French and German
militaries before then (Beasley 1987, 32 & 36). There is a long gap in between when Japan
began to modernize and when they seriously began pursuing imperial ambitions.
Furthermore, Japan’s supremacy over East Asia at this time was not entirely evident.
Their first attempt at colonization, the Taiwan Expedition, was a failure. Fear of war with
China prompted Japan to halt it’s plans to colonize eastern Taiwan (Eskildsen 2002, 398).
Even Japanese influence over Korea was not as strong as it may seem now. Japan began to
exert influence over Korea with the 1876 Treaty of Kanghwa, which attempted to recreate
a treaty port system in Korea for Japan. Though the treaty did technically open up ports to
Japan, in reality it was not so simple, and as Kirk Larsen states, “Korean officials utilized
every available stratagem to resist and delay implementation of the treaty provisions
(Larsen 2008, 65).” It took several years after the treaty was signed for certain ports to
open to Japanese merchants. Even after they were opened, Korean officials continued to
pay tribute to the Qing dynasty in China, showing that Japanese influence was not
particularly dominant at this time. Even after Japan won the Sino-Japanese War, Chinese
merchants maintained considerable influence in Korea. Up until 1906, China still
accounted for 40% of Korea’s total trade (Larsen 2008, 256). Despite having already gone
through an intense modernization process, Japan’s colonial acquisitions by the SinoJapanese War, and even by the Russo-Japanese War, were not significant. This shows that
Japan did not need to exert control over their Asian neighbors in order to go through the
modernization process that they did.
By the end of the Meiji period, Japan had gone through an amazing period of
modernization, and begun to build their empire through acquisitions of Korea, Taiwan, and
Northeast China. After the embarrassment of Commodore Perry’s expedition to Japan, the
Japanese remained firmly committed to restoring national glory. The path they chose was
to follow the West. Due to their interpretation of Western models of modernization, which
they viewed as synonymous with imperialism, their quest to modernize and gain rank in
the hierarchy of nations led them to colonize other East Asian nations. Though their
ambitions to restore national glory inevitably led to imperialism, their quest for
modernization did not require imperialism to succeed. It was the rapid modernization
process that allowed them the opportunity to colonize other nations. Japan’s steadfast
determination to modernize and gain rank among European powers led them to become a
vast empire.
Bibliography
Beasley, William. Japanese Imperialism, 1895-1945. Oxford University/Claredon Press,
1987: 15-16, 23-24, 30-33, 36
Eskildsen, Robert. “Of Civlization and Savages: The Mimetic Imperialism of Japan’s 1874
Expedition to Taiwan.” American Historical Review. (April 2002): 395, 398, 400402
Larsen, Kirk W. Tradition, Treaties, and Trade: Qing Imperialism and Choson Korea, 18501910. Harvard University Press, 2008: 65, 256