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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