Chapter 10 06. The Duality of Japanese Imperialism in China

Mr Reagan's view that "keeping the peace" in the Sea of ​​Japan required a well-armed Japan recalled Japan's military expansion half a century ago.Fortunately, a country that has smelted bayonets into cars clearly does not want to revive Japanese militarism.The rise of Japan in modern times, whether military or industrial, will give us inspiration.Why is it that a poor island nation whose natural resources are so far behind ours is now almost ahead of us in material technology?This question is clearly worth pondering.The answer is clearly immaterial drives. This dynamic is demonstrated in two autobiographical books by two leaders with different experiences—one as a cabinet member, the other as a participant in the revolution.Both works were written in self-defense when the authors were attacked.Mutsu Munemitsu was foreign minister during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, and Miyazaki Toten was Sun Yat-sen's most famous Japanese supporter at the turn of the century.Both Mutsu and Miyazaki believe that Japan has a mission to promote the Westernization of East Asia. In the 19th century, after 40 years of contact with the West, changes had put Japan on the world stage as a powerful country, its sense of mission was still simple and innocent, and it seemed full of hope for the future.Its main desire is to transform China.Indeed, the 1911 Revolution of 1911, which made Sun Yat-sen famous, was largely conceived in Japan—partly inspired by the Japanese model, partly supported by Japan's "noble-minded" Pan-Asianists (who were trying to find a risky business).

Miyazaki Toten (1870-1922) was a tall, bearded, hideous-looking man, full of exaggerated thoughts, bent on contributing to the great cause of altruism, if he could find it in his sanity .His self-image of "noble purpose" is evidence of the decline of Japanese feudalism.The samurai class in Japan is still keen on pure devotion, they value force and put themselves above the honest working commoners, but it is not easy to find a place for them in society. If they can find their counterparts in the west, it must be A medieval knight-errant or a Hollywood private eye. Miyazaki's "Thirty-Three Years of Falling Flowers Dream" was serialized and published in 1902. According to the Japanese calculation, he was 33 years old at the time. In 1900, in Huizhou, near Hong Kong, he shipped a large amount of weapons for Sun Yat-sen's uprising, which caused him public outrage and notoriety.One can speculate that the author confessed everything to the public in order to clean up his taint, and that his life was filled with good intentions, making it impossible to engage in a systematic trafficking operation, let alone an organized revolutionary movement.All in all, a candid and very engaging autobiography that reveals him as a romantic and broad-spirited man, who craved and chased prostitutes in his everyday life, devoted his affections to rebel causes, accomplices, drinking buddies and One-time hooker friends (he lists 285 of them in the book).He is impulsive and likes to put on a high profile rather than being practical.He's the kind of guy who rushes to Hong Kong just to make sure the boat can anchor in 5 places during the 18 days en route.With such supporters as Miyazaki Toten, Sun Yat-sen's plan would perish without the need for the enemy to destroy it. Twenty-two years later, Miyazaki died before Sun Yat-sen finally got the support of the Third International and the Soviet Union, but the Soviets' weapons did arrive in time.

Collaborators across the Pacific, Professors Jansen and Eto, have done a good job of annotating and translating Miyazaki's famous and widely circulated works.In their introduction, they see Miyazaki as a brave, selfless and riding idealist.Although Miyazaki was born a rebel, for a while he was seen as an agent of the Japanese government.He worked hard to maintain unity and cooperation among the leaders of the Chinese underground. In 1898, he escorted the ousted reformer Kang Youwei from Hong Kong to Japan and attempted to bring Kang and Sun Yat-sen together in a revolutionary movement to unify China.All of this was unsuccessful.Despite this bravery, the appeal of Miyazaki's book lies primarily in the vivid description of his adventures and romantic ideals.Miyazaki left his mother, wife and son in dire poverty to live on the dole.He spent most of his life in the dream world. "I pictured myself entering mainland China, standing in front of a large crowd of Chinese, as a general on a white horse...I cheered and bolstered my spirits with wine. At other times,...the general died by the daggers of enemy assassins Next...I ended up in a geisha parlor...that general was just a phantom of my great ambitions...I haven't realized that half my life is made up of booze and sex...how can I restore my humanity Are you determined to correct this behavior?"

Mutsu Munemitsu does not have this kind of problem.In fact, he contracted tuberculosis and died of tuberculosis during his two years as foreign secretary.His birth in the feudal domain of Tosa, according to the translator Golden Mark Berger, prompted him to participate in the siege operated by the Satsuma and Choshu clans, and to be able to recognize the objective reality of oligarchy as an outsider.He joined the new government, but served five years "in 1878 for his involvement in a Tosa plot to overthrow the regime".Nevertheless, the oligarchy enlisted him in their ranks—mainly for his talents, but also for reconciliation with the Mutsu-united popular rights movement.He served as Japan's minister in Washington for two years, and in 1892 became foreign minister in Ito Hirobumi's first cabinet under the new regime.

Mutsu's realistic policies in 1894 and 1895 were more effective than Miyazaki's monstrous dreams.In just 12 months, Japan took control of Korea and spectacularly defeated China's army and navy while freeing Japan from the unequal treaties that privileged Western powers and continued to damage China Sovereignty for half a century).Mutsu prevented the continued efforts of Western powers to interfere in China and completely disrupted the power relations in East Asia.The Japanese forced Chinese leader Li Hongzhang to sign the Treaty of Shimonoseki, occupying Taiwan and the Liaodong Peninsula in southern Manchuria.In just a few days, the Russians, French and Germans intervened triple, demanding that Japan return Liaodong to China. Japan was forced to agree, but the Japanese Empire was born.Britain and Japan signed an alliance in 1902 (until 1922). In 1905, Japan defeated Russia in Manchuria and rose in East Asia.

At the center of these achievements was Mutsu, who launched a diplomatic offensive through talented diplomats stationed in London, St. Petersburg and other capitals.He gradually influenced Ito, persuaded the oligarchic rulers in the cabinet, and took advantage of the aggressive clamor of Japanese public opinion.In North Korea, he has intimidated China with both force and subterfuge, all while keeping an eye on the subtleties of international law and the special interests of Western powers.He and his envoys negotiated new treaties of equality during the war, which threatened the interests of the Great Powers. On April 17, 1895, he drafted and ratified the Treaty of Shimonoseki, although part of the treaty was canceled on April 23 under the interference of the three countries. (On May 4, Japan accepted the intervention of the three countries. On May 8, the ratification of the Sino-Japanese peace treaty was exchanged. On May 10, after the imperial edict was issued, Liaodong was returned to China.) Such diplomatic progress is rare.Elizabethan Britain never managed to get across this thin ice.

After all this was accomplished, Mutsu stepped down. On June 5, 1895, Gongwang Xiyuanji took over the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs.The Japanese aggressors and opposition politicians, who were intoxicated with glory, were optimistic about the opportunity and strongly opposed the return of Liaodong to China. Mutsu wrote an annual work report for the purpose of self-defense.However, this report, which he called "Self-improvement", revealed too much inside information. Prime Minister Ito considered this report "worrying and disturbing", so it was not made public until 1929.

In addition to the editorial approach, Mr. Berger's translations and annotations are exemplary.The title "Self-improvement" is of course meaningful to those who are familiar with the Japanese pronunciation of obscure Chinese phrases.Others may have been told it meant "a record of hard work."But this striking translation raises the question of whether Princeton University Press is more esoteric than intelligible.Based on this consideration, many Chinese printed in Japanese, Korean and Roman scripts are cited in the bibliographic abstract and notes.Of course, for an intelligent layman who wants to understand this book, an English translation must be added under this title.Perhaps he or she will have some kind of interest in the original material used.Mutsu pointed out the rationale for Japan's policy at each stage of the aggression, showing that he had much in common with John Foster Dulles and his brother Allen Dulles.First of all, Japan sent troops to Korea in 1894 to support the power there to contend with China. "We are determined to let the Chinese become aggressors." But when the Chinese and Japanese troops arrived, "we couldn't even find any plausible excuses for some reason, and there was no reason to go to war... The key now is to change this situation Instead, formulate several sets of diplomatic strategies.” As a result, Japan demanded reform of the antiquated North Korean government, which was unacceptable to the equally antiquated Chinese government.The Chinese wisely point out: "Oben apparently has no right to interfere because she recognizes North Korea's independence." This stubborn attempt to "limit our sphere of influence," Mutsu writes, shows how the Chinese have become "self-important prisoner of the order".

The Japanese seized the king of Joseon and appointed an elderly man to power.Daewon-kun is a Confucian who curses all modern things.Mutsu went on to explain bluntly why reform was impossible in North Korea at the time and, therefore, there was no reason for Japan to be stationed in North Korea.Mutsu, a shrewd and practical realist, "didn't see any need for any reform under the guise of national chivalry... I never felt that North Korea's internal reform was very important in itself".This is indeed a very suitable excuse.We finally understand why "Stay Strong" was kept hidden for 34 years.

The critical moment came when Ito and Mutsu imposed the peace agreement on Li Hongzhang in Shimonoseki.They destroyed Li's land and navy and refused to cease fighting, leaving the seventy-two-year-old Li Hongzhang in a dilemma—either accept the Japanese agreement immediately or see the war burn ever closer to Beijing.But four days after negotiations began on March 20, 1895, Lee was shot in the eye by an assassin who claimed to be Japanese.Suddenly, all Japan was deeply ashamed of treating a guest like this, and the queen prepared bandages.Ito and Mutsu worried that if Li Hongzhang returned home due to illness, foreign powers might eventually interfere and Japan would lose control of the situation.They finally persuaded the cabinet to agree to a ceasefire, so that Li Hongzhang, wrapped in bandages, continued negotiations in his bedroom.When the Three Kingdoms Intervention occurs, Ito and Mutsu will be able to deal with it.

During that rattling spring of 1895, the Emperor lived in the Imperial Palace while the Cabinet and the New Diet met in Hiroshima, exactly 50 years after Hiroshima was destroyed.Mutsu's realistic approach and Miyazaki's monstrous romantic adventures have long since been inherited by the expansionists of Imperial Japan.We can still see this realist approach and romantic adventure at work in a more constructive form today as we face the development of Sonys, Mitsubishis, Nissans, and other Japanese products infiltrating American life. This review is Mutsu Munemitsu's "Self-improvement: Diplomatic Reports on the Sino-Japanese War, 1894-1895", edited by Gordon Mark Berger (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1982; Tokyo, University of Tokyo Publishing House, 1982) and Miyazaki Toten's Thirty-Three-Year Falling Flower Dream: Memoirs of Miyazaki Toten, translated by Maurice Jensen and Shinkichi Eto (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1982), published New York Review of Books, April 13, 1983, entitled "True Historical Sources."

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