Transcript Achievements of the Meiji Restoration

To what extent were changes in
Japanese society between 1868 and
1889 reflected in the Meiji
Constitution?
Building a new nation
Assessment of the achievements of the Meiji
era
Charter Oath 1868
• Put into place what would be the guding
features of the new policies
• Greater representation of the people
• Reduction of class distinctions
Restoration of
Rule by the Emperor
Political
Structure
War and Politics
Meiji
era
Economy
Social Changes
and introduction
Of westernization
Education
Socio Economic Changes
In Nara style politics land owned by the Emperor
Daimyo of Choshu, Satsuma , Tosa and Hizen persuaded by SatCho to return
territories
Prefectures created : 72 later reduced to 48
Why did the Daimyo accept?
Financial Compensation including debts and stipends to the Samurai
Moral pressure
Intimidation
Land reforms followed by financial reform
Introduction by Matsukata Masayoshi of the fixed land tax
This guaranteed a fixed income for the government
Ownership of land confirmed with the person who traditionally paid tax on the
harvest from it
In turn this raised the taxes, poorer farmers in bad years mortagaged or sold
off their lands to pay taxes
Led to revolts and rebellions by farmers
objection to ‘blood tax’ and the new land tax
and also increased urban migration
Socio economic changes 2
• Reform of class structure
Kazoku ( kozuku), Shizoku, Sotsu Heimin
• Equality of classes before the law
• Removal of restrictions on occupation
• Gradual but effective end of feudalism
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Conscription open to all
Samurai payments stopped and last stipend in 1876
According to Hatori Edict Samurai forbidden to carry two swords
Samurai to adopt western style uniforms
Westernization
• Elimination of Saigo removed the last barriers to an effective
programme
• Watch words and slogans
• Oitsuke Oiskose catch up and overtake
• Westernization in all walks of life
Education
Culture
Transport and communications
Demographic terms… urban migration and sprawl
Changes in thought patterns as reflected in literature
Influences of Social Darwinism
Education
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Parallel to military reform came mass education
However, Westernization created its own problems
The government was increasingly concerned by the self help
philosophy of the 1870’s
It wanted to control the people or else it would weaken the country and
make it vulnerable to foreign powers
Appeal to nationalism seemed to be the answer and a way to
perpetuate these ideas
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Slogans like sonno joi and kokugaku replaced
Fukuko kyohei …rich nation strong army
Oitsuke oikose
Risshishugi………….successism
Indoctrination of the people seemed to be the answer, while this was
practiced in other countries in Japan it took on a pro Emperor focus
Education was to provide the key. From 1890 Imperial Rescript
introduced
Western heroes and ideals replaced with Japanese and Confucian
virtues
Emphasis on Confucian and Shintoist values
Impact of Education reforms
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Government control on choice of texts
Morally uplifting songs and school assemblies
Displays of the Japanese flag
Contradiction between religious freedom of the Constitution and
‘state shintoism’
• To serve the Emperor was to be a true Japanese, not granted to
others, who therefore were lesser human beings
• In many ways this was a return to ancient Japanese texts which
glorified the Emperor. The ‘rescript’ formed one of Japan’s modern
myths
• In this way:the changes can be seen a a Restoration
Guided Economic
Development
• Japan’s advantages
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A large educated and obedient workforce
Surplus workers in the agricultural sector
Accumulated capital in the private sector ( merchants)
Some established business practices ….silk , textiles,
market gardens, manufacture
– Limitations on natural resources but sufficient quantities of
basics: wood water coal ironsands
• What it lacked was technology and entrepreneurs
• Japan was late to the Industrialisation process but
could benefit from the catch up
Motives: Eco and Military revival
of Japan
• Additional factors: Prevent further
rebellions and provide jobs for
unemployed samurai
• New slogan Increase production promote
industry
• Led to serious problems in the short term
but by 1890’s the efforts had clearly paid
off
Role of the government
• Encourage entrepreneurial spirit of lower ranking
samurai and the believers of the self help philosophy
• Determined to keep modernization in the hands of the
people
• Remove resistance to investment. Government took on
investment and entrepreneurial ventures
• The government took upon itself to provide incentive
and initiative for development
• Only two houses Mitsui and Sumitomo were initially
willing to invest in government ventures
Downside to economic
development
• Industrialization and its cost-benefit ratio
• Initial attempts were disastrous; imported
goods were cheaper, so Japan imported
more and exported less
• The Government tried to deal with the
problem and lay all the infrastructure to
create a modern economy
Government initiative
• Governments spent huge amounts of
money to prevent develop the domestic
economy, prevent drainage of funds
• Recognized the necessity for state
intervention
• Government efforts to create
infrastructure
Mitsui
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One of the traditional business houses
Owned textile mills in Edo
Diversified in to banking activities
When it was clear that the government was diversifying into new
ventures
Established a Bank and then trading ventures and became the
leading centre for foreign commerce
Handled military contracts during the Satsuma rebellion
In 1881 it bought up the coal mines
So from the beginnings in textile under the Tokugawa this group
diversified into big business
Entreprenurial spirit
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Two people played a key role in economic development the founder of
Mitsubishi and Shibusawa. Business rivals with differing views on the economy
but convinced of the need for economic development
Iwatasaki the founder of Mitsubishi
Shibusawa Eiichi: a major philanthropist
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However, these did not pave the way for private ventures
Most enterprises were undertaken and maintained by the government
In the first 20 years the governments faced serious economic problems
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Opened the Osaka Spinning mills
Founded schools
Homes for the elderly
Showed the way, profit making could have a human side and removed the stigma of
‘trade’
Rebellions in the early years
Compensatory payments
Payments on foreign advisors
These problems led to serious inflation
Rice prices doubled between 1877 and 1880
Deflation in the 1880’s made the government sell off in a public auction non
military ventures to people at low prices
Zaibatsu
• Beneficiaries of the government sales
• Concentrated much of Japan’s industry in the hands of a few
• These were men who realized the long term advantages of buying
off factories selling at low prices
• In time this group formed a financial clique, a small but influential
group that enjoyed a controlling position in the economy
• Zaibatsu dominated by the newer younger ex-samurai
• The exception were the founders of Mitsubishi and Shibusawa
Eiichi
War and politics
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Japan saw Korea as a ‘dagger pointed at Japan’s heart
By 1890’s the threat of colonozation had largely passed
Korea
– In 1873 Saigo’s proposal of invasion had been refused but Japan saw Korea as
a target
– By using gunboat diplomacy, it secured an unequal treaty ……Kanghwa
– This treaty led it to a direct showdown with China
– Matters came to a head in 1894 when the Korean king appealed for help to quell
the Tonghak rebellion,
– China and Japan sent troops. Neither wished to withdraw troops
– Japan started the war by sinking a Chinese troop ship
– Sino Japanese war on 1st August 1894
Sino Japanese War
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In this war, Japanese came out vitorioius
Demonstrated its superiority both on land and especially at sea
Chinese fleet crippled at the Yalu river
Chinese Port Arthur seized and by December at Weiwweihai, the Chinese fleet was destroyed
Treaty of Shimonoseki was humiliating for the Chinese. It lost its suzerainty over much its
outlying areas including Korea
This marked the 1step in Japan’s empire building in Asia
A week later Japan forced to give up most of its gains to the Tripartite Invention by Russia, Italy
and Germany
Three years later much to Japan’s indignation they did the same, grabbed areas of China
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For Japan this was a great moment
It had come of age. Just weeks before the war it had overturned its unequal treaty
Japanese success in war actually added more instability to domestic politics
The age of the oligarchs was giving way to the younger generation
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Russo Japanese War
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Background
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Russian expansion in Asia alarmed Japan
During the Boxer Rebellion Russian and Japanese and 6 other nations help to quell the
Boxer Rebellion
Russian refusal to withdraw troops worried Japan and other nations
Ito wanted to get Japan to recognize Russian rights in Manchuria in return for Russian
recognition of Japan’s rights in Korea
Russians opposed this
War faction in Japan led by Yamagata and Katsura Tako wanted confrontation
This led to an alliance with Britain in 1902. it was an epoch making alliance , the first ever
military pact on EQUAL terms between a western and a non western nation
While the treaty did not guarantee British help in a war with Japan, it was an assurance that
other powers may not interfere in this conflict
Japan broke off diplomatic relations with Japan in 1904
Attacked Japanese ships and by 10th Fenruary officially declared war
The course of the Russo Japanese War
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Japanese advance up to the
Yalu River
Japanese forces took over
Nanshan and Dairen and laid
siege to Port Arthur in August
Fall of Port Arthur in Feb 1905
March 1905, after heaving
fighting around Mukden,
Japanese take control
May 1905 the Russian fleet is
sunk at the Tsushima Straits
Admiral Tojo secretly asked the
US to intervene
The treaty of Portsmouth
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The treaty of Portsmouth was successfully negotiatied by Theodore
Roosevelt
China got back Manchuria
Russia recognised Japan’s interest in Korea
It also gave Japan control of the South Manchuria railway
Japan was expecting an indemnity payment to repay the loans it took
from Britain and USA. It did not receive one
Japan also gained Southern Sakhalin
Japan earned the respect of the western powers for it had defeated
one of the largest although not the strongest western power
It was the first ever victory of a non western power over a western
power
Japan now was the coloniser instead of the colonised
It had taken Taiwan, obtained territory in Manchuria and South
Sakhalin, and to all effects and purposes a free hand in Korea
Annexation of Korea
• In November 1905 Korea became a protectorate of
Japan
• Japanese troops occupied the Royal capital
• Ito Hirobumi became the Resident General
• The Korean army was disbanded
• The world largely ignored Korea’s protests
• Close to 1400 protests by Koreans in 2 years
• 1909 Ito assassininated
• In 1910 Korea was annexed
Restoration of theEmperor or
Reinvention of the monarchy?
• Re-instate the Emperor
• Ownership of land returns to the Emperor rather than
the Shogun
• Domination of the Emperor remains Fujiwara family and
now Genro ( Satcho clique)
– Economy dominated by the Zaibatsu
• Emphasis on Shintoism but a difference: state Shinto
implied loyalty to the Emperor
• Imperial Rescript and the modern Japanese myth a
definite link
• War and emphasis on the military?
Re-invention
• Samurai disbanded
• Westernization in almost all spheres of life
• Growth and development of a modern
western style economy
• Empire building in Asia
Assessing the Meiji Restoration
• Traditional view: Praise for the leaders and the political changes
that they brought about.
• Basil Hall Chamberlain wrote in 1891:
He commented on the huge changes in Japan. He also pointed out
that this was a part of a broader change. It was a Japanese
variation of a global shift
• From 1920’s a marxist view emerged that the Meiji restoration had
created the exploitation of the masses by the Meiji Bourgeois
• In the immediate postwar years the Meiji leaders were criticised and
blamed for Japan’s imperial ambitions.
historiography
• Kenneth Henshall
– Japan’s modernisation was not smooth. More unplanned
developments, trial and error and role of chance than the
leaders would have liked. The leaders borrowed improvised
studied and planned as best as they could. They were helped
by good fortune and sheer determination to succeed. Not all of
the nation’s people were happy or proud but most were. If
success was to be measured in terms of being recognized as a
strong western style power with a colony or two then Japan had
succeeded. In just 50 years Japan went from being virtually
dismissed by the west as an obscure rather backward country to
being recognized as a major world power. It was a remarkable
achievement
Andrew Gordon
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In a decade if you consider any factor: economic political or social the changes
are breath taking and fully merit the term revolution.
The Meiji leaders inherited a hereditary organization and they replaced it with
ministries that had clearly defined responsibilities. They eventually succeeded
in giving the state greater legitimacy and power than it ever held in the past
If one accepts the sweeping changes of the French Revolution as a standard
then the Meiji Restoration was an incomplete or distorted revolution for it was
the Samurai class that dominated the revolution
The great changes of the Meiji Era was a revolution from above. Until 1868
many of these were disgruntled men. However to call them as revolutionaries
from above is misleading. It would imply that they gave up their privileges. In
reality it was their frustration with the systems that accounts for the
revolutionary fervour of the Meiji insurgents. This was a revolution of a
frustrated sub elite.
It also important to realise that this was an ongoing turbulent protest .Public
schools, the new tax system and military conscription were imposed on an
often defiant population.
It was a westernised independent nation at a time when many of the countries
were under western control
Marius B Jansen
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Evaluations of the Meiji leaders have changed over the years
Demonized in the early post war years for creating the imperial machine, that interpretation
has undergone a re evaluation
The achievements of the Meiji leaders was real although achieved at a high cost to the
Japanese and Asians
The Meiji leaders were a desperate and disparate group who agreed on the essentials
The Meiji travelled to find out and were determined to graft those new institutions in their
land yet cling tenaciously to their old traditions. No advisor from abroad found his
expectations of his own work fulfilled; the Germans expected the Peerage to provide a self
perpetuating hereditary elite assisting a powerful sovereign, the Americans an irreversible
march toward democratic individualism
Although politics was dominated by the SatCho clique who never allowed any one to
challenge their primacy, they also never hesitated to reach out to qualified advisors and
appoint men with experience who no longer posed a political threat
The Meiji leaders were pragmatists and the design of the Meiji state took form as it grew.
No Meiji leader wrote about his own accomplishments but credited it to the virtues of the
Emperor. Mutsohito was at the centre of the plans. Protected from the lower house but the
House of Peers and from the Cabinet by the Privy Council. AT every level there were
checks and balances designed his prerogatives. His Imperial rescripts were designed to
uphold morality and justice during his rule.
NO other Emperor experienced the changes that he did. Removed from obscurity to
become the symbol for authority and the focus of all that the Meiji leaders achieved. By
inclination he was more of a traditionalist. He preferred character building than modernism.
Preferred caution to adventure. Yet Japan’s foreign policy succcesses were attributed to
him. He became the face of Japan.