The Columbia Anthology of Modern Japanese Literature: From Restoration to Occupation, 1868-1945: vol. 1 (Modern Asian Literature Series)

by J. Thomas Rimer

  “As a diplomatic strategy of the English, there is always a sword hidden in their talks and smiles to you, and there is always poison stirred in the glass of wine they offer you. Therefore, the English are as cruel and greedy as wolves and should never be counted as friends. If you are ever taken in and tricked by their sweet words, such as ‘all people of the four seas are brothers and should exchange our surpluses and deficits’ and start free trade with them, that trade will inevitably lead to English interference in your affairs. As we can see in countries like Turkey, India, Egypt, and others, this interference in turn will lead to a gradual decrease of the population in your country and an exhaustion of your national strength. When that happens, even if your country still remains independent in name, you will lack the strength of genuine independence. At that time, your trade with England will become more and more out of balance every year, and gold will flow out of your country as a result. It is true that the gold flowing to England is not actually labeled as such, but it differs very little from a tribute, a tribute that has really been squeezed out of the flesh and blood of your people.

  “Despite this, however, without realizing it, many people in the world are obsessed by the empty theory of England and become a victim of its tricks. This is truly lamentable. Someone said that the monarch of England is kindhearted and benevolent. Now since the ascension of Queen Victoria to the throne, as many as five million people have died of hunger in the English colony of India! . . . England has invaded Japan twice and attacked China three times. While threatening the Chinese with its military power, England also has sold opium to China. As a result, the people who have died of opium poisoning in China number in the tens of millions! Who should be held responsible for this? The strangest thing about it all is that both England’s monarch and its ministers can still preach unblushingly that ‘we must love even those who treat us as an enemy, and because all the people from the four seas should be brothers, we must forever share with them what God gives us.’

  “Judging from this, we have to say that Christian countries, the countries that take pride in their civilization and enlightenment and preach benevolence, are not to be trusted at all. . . .

  “Regarding it as his own obligation to rescue Ireland from its decline, my father distributed his land to poor people and offered his fortune to the cause. He became a comrade with many patriotic heroes and made plans with them to win Ireland’s independence. Unfortunately, however, just as their plans were going smoothly and victory was in sight, a traitor revealed their secret to the enemy. My father was immediately jailed. Indignant and constantly worried, he fell ill in prison and eventually died there.

  “I was still young at the time. With the properties of my family confiscated and my relatives in prison, I was left alone and helpless in the world.

  “At the time, the undersecretary of Ireland was Thomas Henry Burke, who later was assassinated in a park in 1882. Although Irish himself, Burke had no moral integrity. By being servile to Queen Victoria, he became powerful and prosperous in Ireland. Then, taking advantage of my being young and without support, he tempted me with sweet words and money and tried to take me as his concubine. Overwhelmed by grief and outrage, I burst into a condemnation of Burke’s disloyalty to Ireland and his betrayal of it, and sharply cursed his dirty desire for me. Shamed into fury, Burke filed a false charge against me and prohibited me from living in Ireland. I was banished from my own motherland. Hatred and indignation sank into my bones. When leaving Ireland, I swore I would never be an English subject again and would fight for Irish independence in answering vile English tyranny. After drifting about in Europe in hiding, I finally arrived in America, waiting for the right time to win Ireland’s independence. By sheer accident, I ran into Ms. Yūran one day, and we soon became close friends. . . .”

  Every story Sanshi heard from them filled his heart with sadness and indignation. Suppressing tears and saying nothing, Sanshi only sighed deeply, bemoaning the hardships of life.

  Seeing this, Yūran apologized: “Please forgive me for turning a happy spring day into a bleak and sad occasion. It is my fault to have made you sad.

  “Now that your country has reformed its government, by taking from Europe and America what is good and useful and rejecting what is bad and superficial, it is increasing month by month in wealth and strength, and your culture achieves more every day. The eyes and ears of the world are astonished by your success. As the sun climbs in the eastern skies, so your country is rising in the east. Your august emperor has granted political freedom to the people, and the people have sworn to follow his imperial leadership. So the time has come when, domestic strife having ceased, all classes will be happy in their occupations. Korea will send envoys, and the Ryūkyū Islands will submit to your governance. Then the occasion will arise for great enterprises in East Asia. Japan will hold the ears of the bull and preside over a confederation of Asia. The peoples of the east will no longer be in danger. In the west, you will restrain the aggression of England and France. In the south you will check the corruption of China. In the north you will thwart the designs of Russia. You will resist the policy of the European states, which is to treat Asian peoples with contempt, to interfere with their domestic affairs, and to reduce them to servitude. Thus it is Japan and no other country that can bring the taste of self-government and independence for the first time into the life of millions and so spread the light of civilization.

  “Come to think of it, you may have read all the classics from both the East and the West and be familiar with the morals of successes and failures from ancient times and today. However, you probably have never experienced the horror of war, the hardships of battlefields, the misery of exile, and the grief of imprisonment. After suffering ten thousand kinds of hardships and ordeals, we ended up living in this foreign country in exile. But awake or asleep, we constantly think of our own homeland and never for a moment forget it. That is why when telling our sad stories, we failed, without realizing it, to observe the courtesy of receiving you properly. Now you are someone who has come to America to pursue advanced knowledge. Born in a promising country in the first place, you now are guided by wise teachers and surrounded by worthy people. Still in the prime of your age, you can already see the day when you are established. Oh, things happy and auspicious keep rushing to you while things sad and lamentable keep haunting us. Probably good luck and bad luck, chance and disaster are destined, and there is nothing human beings can do about it. How sad it is that fortune or misfortune should be predestined! Nevertheless, why is it, then, that you, Tōkai Sanshi, should be so touched by our stories and cannot unfurrow your brow?”

  At first, Sanshi was attracted to Yūran only by her beauty and her graceful bearing. He didn’t expect that she would be an ardent patriot with such a strong sense of moral principle. After hearing what Yūran said, his love for her became deeper and deeper, and his admiration for her, stronger and stronger. Staring into Yūran’s eyes, Sanshi said: “What day is today, I wonder? Our encounter here is truly a once-in-a-millennium event. The loyalty and patriotic enthusiasm you, Kōren, and Hankei2 demonstrated would turn an insatiably avaricious person into an honorable one and inspire a coward to courage and achievement, let alone people who read books and know the basic principles of things. Please forgive me for shedding tears like a woman when listening to your stories.

  “As a matter of fact, however, Sanshi also is a surviving subject of a perished domain. At one time I was running amid a shower of bullets and the smoke of cannon fire; my life was stolen from an isolated castle encircled by the enemy. I have tasted the bitterness of someone whose domain was conquered and whose loved ones were lost. I dare say that I have suffered no fewer hardships than any of you. But who would have expected that I would meet all of you whose experiences of hardships and difficulties are almost the same as mine? When I listen to your stories, I relive my past experiences; current world affairs worry me; and all sorts of emotions swirl around in my mind so that I
cannot help but shed the tears that have inadvertently wet your dress.”

  Before Sanshi could finish, Yūran, Kōren and Hankei burst out in amazement: “Is what you said true? If that is really the case, then our meeting here is truly marvelous and miraculous. We would like to ask you to tell us about your story, if we may.”

  Sighing deeply, Sanshi began:

  “I was born into a respectable samurai family in Japan. Twenty years ago, when my country signed treaties with European countries and America to open its door to them, the slogan of ‘revering the emperor and expelling the barbarians’ was spreading rapidly. Angry at the shōgunate, which was imperious and despotic, and at the bureaucrats, who were intent only on seeking temporary ease and comfort, patriots called on the people to devote themselves to the future of their country, even at the cost of their lives. At the time, people with ulterior motives held grudges against the shōgunate and wanted to stir up turmoil in the country. Taking advantage of the situation, they roused the people and lured the courtiers into acting recklessly. Unaware of the general world trend, and with neither foresight nor careful planning, they attacked foreign embassies at night, looted them, and set them on fire. In so doing, they tried to expel European and American soldiers, fighting in the manner of a praying mantis. They also murdered innocent foreigners in broad daylight to demonstrate their foolhardiness in the name of avenging the humiliation imposed on Japan, the land of the divine. I cannot bear even to speak of their cowardice, recklessness, and cruelty.

  “As a result, Ii Naosuke was murdered first, then Ando Nobumasa was attacked and wounded. Anyone who consented to the opening of Japan’s port cities would be viewed as a Qin Hui, the most infamous traitor in Chinese history. Whoever insisted on secluding the country from the outside world would liken himself to be a Yue Fei or Han Xin and boast of his patriotism. Thereafter, the angry foreigners retaliated with military force. They attacked our coast areas and destroyed our defense lines. Our national sovereignty was violated, and our national defenses were overpowered. As the imperious and despotic foreigners went on a rampage, the future of the divine land of Japan became as precarious as a thousand-pound weight hanging by a single hair. All of this, however, resulted as much from the failure of the shōgunate to deal with the situation properly as from the foolhardiness of the self-appointed patriot-radicals. The damage to our country is deep, and the humiliation of our nation has yet to be cleansed. This is what true patriots are still lamenting today.

  “At the time, the lord of my home domain was appointed as the military commissioner of Kyoto and enjoyed special favor from the late emperor. Adopting the suggestions of such famous thinkers as Sakuma Shōzan and Yokoi Shōnan, he counseled the emperor and the shōgunate on the foolishness of ‘expelling the barbarians’ and warned against the reckless actions of the radicals. But his efforts only incited the anger of the courtiers, who accused him of disobeying the imperial order, and the whole nation began to regard our domain as a traitor to the nation. . . . ‘It is now a life-or-death time for our nation. At such a time, how can I worry about my own honor or disgrace, success or failure?’ The lord of my home domain therefore determined to push ahead with his plan, fully prepared to die in Kyoto. At the highest level, he tried to reconcile the differences between the court and the shōgunate; at the lowest level, he tried to eliminate the roots of civil war. Despite his efforts, however, the weight was too heavy for him to carry. The Japanese had much valor but not enough strategy. It is regrettable that things did not work out in the way the lord of my domain desired. His single-minded loyalty, bent on reconciling the court and the shōgunate, only made him the laughingstock of the world.

  “It happened that the late emperor died shortly afterward, and the fourteenth shōgun, Iemochi, also died. Tokugawa Yoshinobu was a talented hero who tried to tackle the difficulties faced by Japan. When he succeeded Iemochi and became the last Tokugawa shōgun, he intended to persuade the daimyō of different domains to forget their old grudges against one another, to reform politics and thereby to achieve the great goal of restoring Japan’s national rights. But because the disease of the country was beyond cure, no one could turn it around. Eventually, imperial rule was restored. Subsequently, my lord lost his public position and left Kyoto. People across the nation accused us of protecting the shōgunate and impeding the imperial enterprise of the Meiji Restoration. Similarly, the courtiers accused us of disobeying imperial orders and harboring secret plots. We tried every means to show that we had been wrongly accused, but nothing could stop the large army of the Meiji government from moving east against Aizu domain. At the time, there were one or two evil domains in the government army that plundered our properties, humiliated our women, and slaughtered people who had already surrendered. They were not worthy the name of the Imperial army whose duty it was to protect the people. Therefore, our whole domain, from the lord down to the samurai, came to the conclusion that what had happened to Aizu was nothing more than vengeance aimed at Aizu carried out by one or two big domains in the name of supporting the young emperor.

  “The entire Aizu domain was mobilized to defend the castle. From spring to autumn, the domain soldiers alone fought the government troops until their swords were broken and their arrows ran out. Finally, the enemy advanced to the foot of the castle. In the ensuing battle, countless domain officers and soldiers were killed, and their bodies were piled on top of one another. The injured soldiers continued fighting the enemy with their bare hands, and those whose arms or legs were broken still tried to block its advance. Even when their heads or legs were separated from their bodies and so much blood was shed that it could carry a club in its flow, our men, without exception, were still positioned as if still fighting the enemy.

  “There was a unit of young soldiers called Byakkotai, or the White Tigers Unit. The White Tigers Unit consisted of boys of about sixteen to seventeen years of age from good samurai families. This was their first time in real combat, and they faced a formidable foe. Outnumbered, they suffered heavy losses, and only sixteen of them survived. These surviving soldiers then ran to the top of a hill to a resting place to clean the bloodstains from their bodies and to bind up their wounds. Soon they caught sight of the castle town shrouded in black smoke and the donjon of the castle in flames. Convinced that the castle had fallen into the hands of the enemy, they bowed their heads to the west, avowing that with swords broken and arrows used up, they had done everything they could. They swore that they would rather die than surrender. After bidding farewell to one another, they all committed suicide with their own swords. How sad it was!

  “If a real man should be prepared to die in the battlefield at any time, as General Fu Bo of the Han dynasty said, it was unbearable to see or hear how countless number of women died for the domain. Whenever I think about the way they died so heroically, I found myself lost in another world and tears would gush out in spite of myself.”

  At this point, Kōren couldn’t help but ask in a sad voice: “Was your own family spared from tragedy?”

  Thereupon Sanshi tried several times to continue his tale, but each time he choked on his own tears and could not continue until he was finally able to wipe away his tears and gain some control of himself. Then he resumed his tale.

  “On August 22 of that year under the lunar calendar, the news reached us that the domain soldiers had been defeated at Mount Shōgun, a strategic point twenty miles east of the domain, and enemy forces had pushed to the foot of our castle.

  “At the time, I had three older brothers and one younger brother. When the news reached us, my mother, in tears, sent my younger brother with a servant to a place far away to ensure that someone would carry on our family name if the worst should happen. My oldest brother was an officer. At the time the Meiji government troops moved against Aizu, he was wounded while fighting in Echigo. My second oldest brother was killed in a battle in Shimotsuke; my youngest older brother was leading soldiers in an attempt to block the enemy’s advance at the fr
ont line. My father tried to set an example for the exhausted domain soldiers but was wounded near the castle gate; my uncle joined the fight leading a unit of soldiers from another domain. Despite being wounded, my uncle had his wounds bandaged and went on fighting. In that battle, the sun lost its brilliance in the morning drizzle, and the roaring boom of cannon fires shook the ground.

  “Young as I still was at the time, I also wanted to at least shoot my arrow at the enemy before I died. But when I kneeled down on the floor to bid farewell to my family, I could not help but feel very sad.

  “Seeing my color change, my mother reprimanded me: ‘Young as you are, you are the son of a samurai family. You had better go to the battlefield and kill an enemy officer or two as the son of a samurai family should. Never disgrace our family name!’