Emperor of Japan

by Donald Keene

  Chapter 49

  1. Meiji tennō ki, 9, pp. 360–61.

  2. Ibid., 9, p. 363.

  3. Ibid., 9, p. 364.

  4. Ibid., 9, p. 370.

  5. Ibid., 9, pp. 371–72.

  6. Ibid., 9, pp. 384–85.

  7. The Yamashita Club was a faction that favored industrial interests. It did not have a strong party organization and was dissolved at the time of the sixth general election.

  8. Meiji tennō ki, 9, p. 425.

  9. Ibid., 9, p. 445.

  10. Ibid., 9, p. 451.

  11. Presumably he cited Spain and Greece as examples of countries torn by internal warfare.

  12. Meiji tennō ki, 9, p. 454.

  13. Ibid., 9, p. 455.

  14. Ibid., 9, pp. 457–58.

  15. This probably refers to an incident in December 1887. Various secret matters were leaked to the press and stirred up agitation among sōshi who demanded a reduction of taxes, freedom of speech and assembly, and a recovery from the errors of foreign policy. Their anger had been aroused in particular by Inoue Kaoru’s plan to allow foreign judges to sit in Japanese courts and to allow foreigners to live in the interior. Yamagata, the interior minister in the first Itō cabinet, issued security regulations in seven articles prohibiting secret associations, outdoor assemblies, disturbance of the peace, and so on. Ozaki Yukio was one of more than 570 persons who were banished from Tokyo because of their participation in the agitation (Meiji tennō ki, 6, pp. 856–58).

  16. Meiji tennō ki, 9, p. 460. The emperor is said to have been heartened at this time by a long attack on democracy if democracy meant that a nation’s sole raison d’être was private interests and private benefits. The attack was made by Nomura Yasushi, a member of several cabinets, who believed that party politics were incompatible with the monarchy.

  17. Meiji tennō ki, 9, p. 467.

  18. Ibid., 9, p. 474.

  19. Ibid., 9, p. 475. Although harshly appraised in these words, Hamao Arata was in fact a distinguished educator who twice served as president of Tokyo University.

  20. Meiji tennō ki, 9, p. 489.

  21. Ibid., 9, p. 491.

  22. Ibid., 9, p. 492.

  23. Ibid., 9, p. 514.

  24. Shimba Eiji, Itagaki Taisuke, p. 296. Shimba wrote that Itagaki’s philosophy of freedom and people’s rights had completely “faded.”

  25. Shimba, Itagaki, p. 297. Shimba believed that the plot against Ozaki was ultimately the work of Hoshi TMru. Hoshi, who had been dismissed in 1892 from his post as chairman of the Shūgiin, was at this time minister to the United States but, hearing of the formation of a coalition cabinet under Ōkuma and Itahaki, had rushed back to Japan without permission, eager to be close to the action.

  26. Meiji tennō ki, 9, p. 517.

  27. Ibid., 9, p. 527.

  28. Ibid., 9, p. 531.

  29. Ibid., 9, p. 540.

  30. Ibid., 9, p. 441. For mentions of worry over the crown prince’s health, see pp. 393, 412, 414, 418, 544.

  31. Ibid., 9, p. 405.

  32. Ibid., 9, p. 537.

  33. He was given a physical examination on November 11. The doctor reported that there was no change in the moist rale in his left chest, that his gastroenteritis was improving, and that his appetite was better (Meiji tennō ki, 9, p. 544).

  34. Meiji tennō ki, 9, p. 548.

  35. Shinshū Meiji tennō gyoshū, 1, p. 318.

  Chapter 50

  1. Meiji tennō ki, 11, p 586.

  2. Meiji tennō ki, 9, pp. 595–96. The source seems to be a recorded conversation with Tanaka Mitsuaki.

  3. Hinonishi Sukehiro, Meiji tennō no go-nichijō, p. 53. This anecdote appears in various forms in the different accounts based on Hinonishi’s conversations. The version quoted is from the 1976 (Shingakusha kyōyūkan) edition. Another version appears in the 1953 (Sokokusha) edition, pp. 54–55. Morita Seigo suggested, giving amusing examples, that newspapers were much freer at this time to carry gossip about the emperor than in later years (Meijijin monogatari, pp. 37–54).

  4. Shinshū Meiji tennō gyoshū, 2, p. 719. The word niibumi is a “pure” Yamato pronunciation of shimbun.

  5. They included the dinner offered on July 26, 1905, to William Howard Taft, the heaviest man ever to become president of the United States (Tennō-ke no kyōen, pp. 84–85).

  6. Meiji tennō ki, 9, pp. 613–14. A kōshaku, sometimes translated as “duke” or “prince,” ranked above a marquis. Many of the kōshaku were former daimyos.

  7. It was attended by Tokudaiji Sanetsune, Hijikata Hisamoto, Tanaka Mitsuaki, Kagawa Keizō, and Kawaguchi Takesada.

  8. One physician, Oka Genkei, was sure that Sachiko was suffering from tuberculosis and intemperately attacked the proposed marriage. Years later, when the crown prince, married to another woman, had his second son, Oka went to congratulate the emperor. He commented that if the crown prince had married his original fiancée, there wouldn’t have been such a celebration. The emperor interrupted him angrily, saying that Sachiko’s failure to have a child even after a year of marriage was not necessarily her fault (Meiji tennō ki, 9, p. 615).

  9. Meiji tennō ki, 9, p. 751. When Sasaki Takayuki at this time (January 1900) asked the emperor’s permission to have the princesses taught French, the emperor refused, saying it was too early. Perhaps his refusal was occasioned by irritation with the crown prince’s fondness for that language.

  10. These and other European decorations were awarded to the crown prince between December 1897 and March 1900, presumably in connection with his coming of age. In October 1900 he also received a royal decoration from Siam. The Japanese frequently bestowed decorations on foreigners, even those with minimal connections with Japan. For example, Europeans who had been kind to members of Japanese royalty when they traveled abroad often received first-class decorations. Decorations were also bestowed on foreign monarchs; for example, the dowager empress of China was awarded the kun ittō hōkanshō (Meiji tennō ki, 9, p. 652). Again, after the crown prince received the Order of the Elephant, one of the most distinguished in Europe, the emperor responded by giving the Prince Waldemar of Denmark, who had brought the decoration to Japan, the daikun’i kikka daijushō.

  11. James E. Hoare, “Extraterritoriality in Japan,” p. 97.

  12. Meiji tennō ki, 9, pp. 694, 761.

  13. Erwin Baelz, Awakening Japan, trans. Eden Paul and Cedar Paul, pp. 119–20. See also Meiji tennō ki, 9, p. 758.

  14. Katō Hitoshi, “Meiji tennō o-tsubone go-rakuin den,” p. 67.

  15. Taishō referred to his mother as nii, her rank after he became emperor. When there were leftovers from the palace table, he would often say, “Nii ni yare” (give them to Nii) (Katō, “Meiji,” p. 66).

  16. Meiji tennō ki, 9, p. 811.

  17. Ibid., 9, pp. 813–14.

  18. Ibid., 9, p. 823.

  19. So called because many of the insurgents practiced boxing and other martial sports before participating in the fighting.

  20. In addition to the foreign troops who suppressed the Boxers, about 170,000 Russian troops invaded Manchuria at this time.

  21. On June 19 the Chinese government declared war on the allies, who, however, continued to insist that they were not fighting a war but were engaged solely in a mission to rescue their nationals.

  22. The Boxers had roots going back to the eighteenth century when the Eight Diagram Sect was formed as a secret religious and martial organization. The purpose of this secret society (and similar ones) was the overthrow of the Ch’ing (Manchu) dynasty and the restoration of the Ming. For a description of the study of the origins of the Boxer sect by Lao Nai-hsüan, see Chester C. Tan, The Boxer Catastrophe, pp. 43–44.

  23. Kobayashi Kazumi, Giwadan sensō to Meiji kokka, p. 55. He gives these figures for those killed: 188 Protestant missionaries, 5,000 Chinese Protestants, 5 Catholic bishops, 48 Catholic priests, and 18,000 Chinese Catholics. He claims, however, that many were killed not by the Boxers but by Chinese troops a
fter the Manchu government joined with the Boxers in the summer of 1900. In addition, several German and Japanese diplomats were killed in the early stages of the rebellion.

  24. This sect gained notoriety for the sexual promiscuity it encouraged, but scholars who are favorably inclined toward the nineteenth-century rebellions in China have interpreted even such sexual excesses as having prepared the ground for the liberation of women from the feudal restraints of Confucianism (Kobayashi, Giwadan, pp. 7–8).

  25. The first such instance in Shantung seems to have occurred in 1886 when a French priest, with the aid of Chinese Christian converts, destroyed a Taoist shrine (Kobayashi, Giwadan, p. 66).

  26. For the disruption of village life, see Kobayashi, Giwadan, pp. 36–38, 43–44. Kobayashi mentions in particular the loss of tradition—the locally worshiped gods, heroes, public-spirited men, legendary men of super ability—and the loss of the beliefs, rites, and votive theatricals that accompanied these traditions (p. 43).

  27. Kobayashi, Giwadan, pp. 50, 58. Ōyama Azusa describes the red turbans and red sashes worn into battle by believers; the sashes carried such inscriptions as “The Justice and Peace Sacred Band will raise the Ch’ing and destroy the foreigners” (Pekin rōjō, Pekin rōjō nikki, p. v).

  28. Sakane Yoshihisa, ed., Aoki Shūzō jiden, p. 325.

  29. Prince Tuan Chün, the father of the crown prince, had secret connections with the Boxers and was even known as their “chief patron” (Tan, Boxer Catastrophe, p. 137; Ōyama, “Kaisetsu,” in Pekin rōjō, p. iv).

  30. Kobayashi, Giwadan, p. 90.

  31.Lyama, “Kaisetsu,” in Pekin rōjō, pp. iii–iv. For Tei’s service as an interpreter at the time of the Soejima mission to China, see chapter 24.

  32. Meiji tennō ki, 9, pp. 836–37.

  33. The “allies” consisted of Japan, England, France, Germany, Russia, Italy, Austria, and the United States. The degree of participation in the war varied greatly.

  34. Ōyama, ed., Pekin rōjō, pp. 244, 16.

  35. Meiji tennō ki, 9, p. 843.

  36. Ibid., 9, p. 844.

  37. Absorbing accounts of the siege are in Lyama, ed., Pekin rōjō. It consists mainly of lectures delivered on his experiences by Colonel Shiba Gorō (a younger brother of Shiba Shirō, who had been active in Korea), and the diary kept by Professor Hattori Unokichi, a student in Peking when hostilities broke out.

  38. Meiji tennō ki, 9, p. 851. Mention of a confrontation between East and West brings to mind the “Yellow Peril” doctrine of the German kaiser.

  39. Meiji tennō ki, 9, pp. 852–53.

  40. Ibid., 9, p. 854. The source of this incident is the diary of Tokudaiji Sanetsune.

  41. Meiji tennō ki, 9, pp. 862–63.

  42. His actual words were “You will be fighting against a well-armed power, but at the same time you must avenge the death not only of the envoy but of many other Germans and Europeans. When you come before the enemy, you must defeat him, pardon will not be given, prisoners will not be taken. Whoever falls into your hands will fall to your sword. Just as a thousand years ago the Huns under King Attila made a name for themselves for ferocity which tradition still recalls; so may the name of Germany become known in China in such a way that no Chinaman will ever again dare to look a German in the eye even with a squint” (quoted in John C. G. Röhl, The Kaiser and His Court, pp. 13–14). See also the drawing made by the kaiser showing the nations of Europe as goddesses being led into battle by the Archangel Michael against the “Yellow Peril” (represented by an image of Buddha) (p. 203).

  43. Meiji tennō ki, 9, pp. 872–73.

  44. Ibid., 9, p. 878. Looting by Japanese soldiers was at first dismissed as minor, but it was later revealed that high-ranking officers had stolen quantities of silver bullion. The officers were subsequently dismissed (Meiji tennō ki, 10, pp. 228–29, 239).

  Chapter 51

  1. Meiji tennō ki, 9, p. 895.

  2. Ibid., 9, pp. 890–91.

  3. A literal translation would be Constitutional Party of Friends of Government. It was normally referred to in Japanese simply as Seiyūkai, and it will be so called here.

  4. Meiji tennō ki, 9, p. 891.

  5. Ibid., 9, p. 913. Katsura again requested permission to resign on November 14, and the emperor finally consented on December 23 (pp. 923–25).

  6. Meiji tennō ki, 10, p. 26.

  7. Ibid., 10, pp. 29–30.

  8. Ibid., 10, p. 30.

  9. For the text of Konoe’s note agreeing to follow the wishes of the emperor, see ibid., 10, p. 31.

  10. Ibid., 10, pp. 40–42.

  11. Ibid., 10, p. 54.

  12. Ibid., 10, pp. 54–57.

  13. Ibid., 10, pp. 53, 57.

  14. The characters were chosen because they appeared in auspicious passages in Chinese classics. The tradition of using words found in the Chinese classics for the names of members of the imperial family (and nengō) has not been abandoned, even today.

  15. Meiji tennō ki, 10, pp. 58–59.

  16. Ibid., 10, p. 68.

  17. Biographical details are drawn from Ariizumi Sadao, Hoshi Tōru, pp. 3–15. The terrible experiences of his sister in the brothel may have inspired his resolve never (in the manner of most Meiji men) to seek pleasure with prostitutes. He was faithful to his wife (p. 9).

  18. As part of the contract of adoption, Hoshi’s family was required to pay a “dowry” of 50 ryō. The family proved unable to provide the money, and the adoption into the Koizumi family was annulled after one year (Ariizumi, Hoshi, p. 13).

  19. Ga was the descendant of a refugee from Ming China. Well known for his ability in English and his knowledge of the West, he was a member of the Iwakura mission. He was later appointed by the emperor to the House of Peers. Maejima and Mutsu Munemitsu were pupils of Ga.

  20. Suzuki Takeshi, Hoshi Tōru, p. 22.

  21. Ibid., p. 33.

  22. He is said to have read again and again Jeremy Bentham’s An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (Ariizumi, Hoshi, p. 49).

  23. This was the Fukushima incident. The governor, Mishima Michitsune, decided to build a road, the costs to be borne by the people of the prefecture. He ignored the resolution against the road passed by the Prefectural Assembly and went ahead with the construction. Farmers who could not give either money or labor for the road were told that their property would be put up for public auction. Several Jiyū-tō members were arrested for protesting, whereupon a thousand people attacked the Kitakata police station where the arrested men were held. This, in turn, led to the arrest and trial of some fifty Jiyū-tō members.

  24. Nakamura Kikuo, Hoshi Tōru, pp. 50–54.

  25. Suzuki, Hoshi, pp. 59–61.

  26. Ibid., pp. 79–80.

  27. He believed Japan should possess a fleet that was at least as strong as the British East Asian Fleet (Nakamura, Hoshi, p. 86).

  28. Suzuki, Hoshi, p. 91; Nakamura, Hoshi, pp. 85–89. In the same speech, Hoshi urged that a new policy be adopted toward China to protect it from British or Russian aggression. He also stated that in view of the unlikelihood of obtaining both the end of extraterritoriality and the end of foreign control of tariffs, the latter was of greater urgency.

  29. Nakamura, Hoshi, p. 104. Nakamura quotes part of Hoshi’s greeting on taking office as House president. He declared that he would act not as a member of the Jiyū-tō but impartially, as befitted someone entrusted with a public duty. He urged members to correct him if they thought he was mistaken and promised to change if they were right.

  30. For an account of the charges leveled against Hoshi in the Diet, see Nakamura, Hoshi, pp. 116–17. See also Meiji tennō ki, 8, pp. 328–29.

  31. Nakamura, Hoshi, p. 156.

  32. Hoshi testified before a Senate subcommittee on the probable adverse effects of a tariff increase on silk. He spoke to such good effect that the tariff was actually lowered (Nakamura, Hoshi, pp. 163–64). Ōkuma was so impressed that he bestowed on Hoshi the Order of the R
ising Sun, Third Class.

  33. The text of his proposal is in Nakamura, Hoshi, pp. 175–77.

  34. Ibid., p. 182.

  35. Suzuki, Hoshi, pp. 150–51.

  36. For an account of the assassination of Hoshi, see Nagao Kazuo, Ansatsusha, pp. 135–59. The verdict handed down after Iba was tried for the murder recognized that he had acted out of a sense of moral justice and sentenced him to life imprisonment rather than execution (p. 159).

  37. For further details of the funeral, see Nagao, Ansatsusha, p. 158. There is a photograph of the funeral procession in Suzuki, Hoshi, p. 191.

  38. Meiji tennō ki, 10, pp. 80–81. This account mentions the scandal that was created by the exposure in the previous year of Hoshi’s taking bribes but does not explain why (if this report was true) such a man was favored by the emperor.

  39. Meiji tennō ki, 10, p. 89.

  40. Erwin Baelz, Awakening Japan, trans. Eden Paul and Cedar Paul, p. 144.

  41. Meiji tennō ki, 10, p. 98.

  42. In August 1901 Inoue Kaoru urged Itō, who was about to leave for America and Europe, to visit Russia. Inoue had become convinced that an entente with Russia was the best way of solving the question of Korea. Katsura Tarō, the prime minister, believed that an alliance with either Britain or Russia would achieve this goal. Itō had come to feel that an alliance with England would serve no useful purpose and would antagonize Russia and France. When Hayashi Tadasu met Itō in Paris in November, Itō (who was unaware of the progress of negotiations with England) expressed the opinion that an agreement with Russia was essential to end tension over Manchuria and Korea (Hayashi Tadasu, Ato wa mukashi no ki, pp. 343–45).

  43. Hayashi, Ato wa mukashi, pp. 328–29.

  44. Ibid., pp. 306–7.

  45. For what the author terms “the first voices” in favor of an Anglo-Japanese alliance, see Kurobane Shigeru, Nichiei dōmei no kiseki, 1, p. 21. The conversation between Chamberlain and the Japanese minister, Katō Takaaki, took place on March 17, 1898.