Outposts of Civilization by Joseph M. Henning

Author:Joseph M. Henning [Henning, Joseph M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, International Relations, General, Social Science, Discrimination
ISBN: 9780814736050
Google: awHs8_HDuJQC
Publisher: NYU Press
Published: 2000-06-15T05:23:24+00:00

The failures of Inoue and kuma to regain Japanese judicial autonomy had been a blessing in disguise; the treaties signed in 1894 were much more favorable to Japan than the 1887 and 1889 proposals. Opposition protests blocked piecemeal revision and, in so doing, helped ensure that Japan regained full judicial sovereignty before the end of the nineteenth century. Boissonade and Tani had served as the leading edge of the opposition to the earlier proposals, while People’s Rights activists and party leaders provided its bulk. Adversaries of Inoue and kuma, both inside and outside the government, prevented Japan from prematurely accepting a partial abolition of extraterritoriality.

The opposition to partial revision was part of the mid-Meiji shift toward conservatism and away from westernization. This emerging nationalism elevated Japanese tradition and the imperial throne and rejected the blind assimilation of things Western. The intransigence of the powers on treaty revision catalyzed antiforeign sentiment in Japan and fueled the assertion of national confidence. These trends were the political and social counterparts of the cultural philosophy of art critic Okakura Kakuz, who had criticized Western materialism. From these conservative and nationalist quarters came the “dancing cabinet” epithet.

Even as conservatives and the opposition parties castigated government leaders for pandering to foreign powers, the government adopted an effective strategy for promoting treaty revision. It had to persuade the powers that Japan had escaped from Asia before they would consider Japan progressive and civilized enough to merit revision. The Constitution and Diet were significant factors in convincing Americans that Japan had discarded Oriental backwardness and permanently triumphed over its past. The growing strategic influence of Russia tipped the scales for revision by Great Britain, but the Constitution and Diet provided other necessary weight. Thus we can see that, over the long run, foreign ministers and their opponents were not working at cross-purposes on the problem of treaty revision. Inoue, kuma, and Mutsu worked to convince the powers that Japan deserved revision; at the same time, widespread opposition to partial revision served as evidence to those powers that the Japanese would not tolerate the unequal treaties indefinitely.

To abolish extraterritoriality, Japanese leaders were compelled to adopt the institutions of civilization and progress championed by the powers. Political equality, however, was not full equality. Treaty revision, when finally accomplished, represented the statutory acceptance of Japan as a sovereign and political equal of the Western powers. Acceptance as a religious and racial equal, however, was another matter entirely.

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