Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852’1912 (188 page)

30
. See, for example,
Ō
e Shinobu,
Higashi Ajia shi toshite no nisshin sens
ō
, p. 282. He compared the Tonghak rebellion (a term he avoided) with the Wat Tyler revolt in England, the peasant war in Bohemia associated with Jan Hus, and the T’ai P’ing revolt in China.

31
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, p. 428.

32
. Mutsu,
Kenkenroku
, p. 8.

33
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, p. 427.

34
. Hayashi,
Ato wa mukashi
, p. 69.

35
. Mutsu,
Kenkenroku
, p. 15. See also
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, pp. 433–34.

36
. Mutsu,
Kenkenroku
, p. 20.

37
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, p. 437.

38
. Ibid., 8, p. 437.

39
. Mutsu,
Kenkenroku
, p. 24. See also
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, pp. 441–42.

40
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, p. 446.

41
. Ibid., 8, p. 452.

42
. Ibid., 8, p. 456.

43
. Ibid., 8, p. 449.

44
. For an account of the final negotiations to end extraterritoriality and the text of the draft treaty prepared by Mutsu Munemitsu, see Louis G. Perez,
Japan Comes of Age
.

45
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, p. 464.

46
. Ibid., 8, p. 466.

47
. Ibid., 8, p. 467. For the opinion of Dr. T. E. Holland, a leading English authority on international law, who concluded that the Japanese had behaved properly and that “no apology is due to our government” see Mutsu,
Kenkenroku
, pp. 89–90.

48
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, p. 473.

49
.
Fukuzawa Yukichi zensh
ū
, 14, p. 500. See also Donald Keene, “The Sino-Japanese War of 1894–95 and Japanese Culture,” p. 263.

50
.
Uchimura Kanz
ō
zensh
ū
, 16, p. 27.

51
. Ibid., p. 35. See also Keene, “The Sino-Japanese War,” pp. 263–64.

52
. It was later discovered that this identification had been mistaken and that the bugler was not Shirakami but Kiguchi Kohei. Kiguchi’s name soon replaced Shirakami’s and acquired a legendary character; he became the symbol of the virtue of loyalty. “Kiguchi Kohei died with the bugle pressed to his lips” was featured in elementary-school textbooks as the perfect example of loyalty (Keene, “Sino-Japanese War,” pp. 278–79).

53
.
Chuzan sonk
ō
, 2, p. 309. See also Keene, “Sino-Japanese War,” p. 278.

54
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, p. 481.

55
. Keene, “Sino-Japanese War,” p. 266.

Chapter 45

1
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, p. 486. Mutsu Munemitsu dismissed these different proposals as being “nothing more than private thoughts whispered among a few individuals” (
Kenkenroku
, trans. Gordon Mark Berger, p. 29). He added, “In my view, the reforms in Korea should focus primarily on Japan’s national interests; and there should thus be no cause for hardship or sacrifice for the sake of reform.” See also Fujimura Michio,
Nisshin sens
ō
, p. 106.

2
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, pp. 487, 488.

3
. Shirai Hisaya,
Meiji kokka to Nisshin sens
ō
, pp. 81–82.

4
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, p. 497. It
ō
participated in military as well as political decisions. He stressed particularly the need to win a quick victory before the great powers could intervene, and the emperor frequently consulted with him on wartime policy (Shirai,
Meiji kokka
, p. 82).

5
. On August 25 Mutsu reported to the emperor that the negotiations in London by Aoki Sh
ū
z
ō
, initiated in December of the previous year, had been successful despite many obstacles. He felt confident that similar treaties would gradually be concluded with other allied countries. He now had the “joyful duty” of informing the emperor that the revised treaty had been signed by Queen Victoria. The new treaty of commerce and navigation was publicly announced on August 27 (
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, p. 493).

6
. Fujimura Michio suggested that It
ō
’s real reason for advocating the move of Dai-hon’ei was to demonstrate to the people that the war was being fought under the leadership of the emperor and to unite them in support of the war (
Nisshin sens
ō
, p. 112).

7
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, p. 505.

8
. Ibid., 8, p. 510.

9
. It stood on the site of Hiroshima Castle, erected in 1589 by M
ō
ri Terumoto, one of Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s generals. At the time when Meiji resided in Hiroshima, all that was left of the castle was the five-story keep.

10
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, p. 511. Viscount Hijikata Hisamoto recalled that the emperor’s private quarters consisted of two rooms, one of eight mats and the other of ten mats. He used one for sleeping and the other for state business. It was extremely cramped: “In such crude surroundings His Majesty lived, read telegrams that arrived from the front in a steady stream, and gave endless audiences to officers about to go overseas. He was extremely busy, but showed no sign of weariness” (“Eimei kurabenaki daik
ō
tei,” p. 70).

11
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, p. 512.

12
. Shirai,
Meiji kokka
, p. 83.

13
. Ibid., p. 516.

14
. Some prints depicting Harada in action are reproduced in Shumpei Okamoto,
Impressions of the Front
, p. 24. See also Henry D. Smith,
Kiyochika
, p. 86.

15
. Donald Keene,
Nihonjin no biishiki
, pp. 149–50.

16
. Donald Keene, “The Sino-Japanese War of 1894–95 and Japanese Culture,” p. 280; Muneta Hiroshi,
Heitai hyakunen
, pp. 109–14.

17
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, p. 517.

18
. Although the tonnage of the Japanese and Chinese ships was small by modern standards, for their time these ships were by no means inconsequential, as one can gather from the account in
L’Illustration
for August 11, 1894, which anticipated: “Une lutte dans laquelle tous les engins les plus puissants et les plus perfectionnés de la science moderne seront, pour la première fois, mis aux mains de deux nations, non pas certes barbares, mais d’une civilisation complètement différente de la n
ō
tre” (“
Iryusutorashion” Nihon kankei kiji sh
ū
, 2, p. 166).

19
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, pp. 518–20. Ten
nishikie
depicting the battle of the Yellow Sea (also known as the battle off Takushan and as the battle of Hai-yang-tao) are given in Okamoto,
Impressions
, pp. 25–30.

20
. Keene, “Sino-Japanese War,” p. 280. A
nishikie
by Kobayashi Kiyochika depicting the dying sailor is reproduced in Okamoto,
Impressions
, p. 28.

21
. The noted journalist Tokutomi Soh
ō
stated that the Sino-Japanese War had caused not only the military but the entire people to draw closer to the imperial household (Shirai,
Meiji kokka
, pp. 89–91).

22
. Hinonishi Sukehiro,
Meiji tenn
ō
no go-nichij
ō
, p. 44. Hinonishi described himself as
futsutsuka
, an incompetent.

23
. Hinonishi Sukehiro,
Meiji tenn
ō
no go-nichij
ō
, p. 27.

24
. The collection
Shinsh
ū
Meiji tenn
ō
gy
ō
sh
ū
(1, p. 252) contains only two
tanka
that allude to the war. However,
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, pp. 528–29, includes a war song (
gunka
) not in the collection and mentions two others (on the victories on the Yellow Sea and at Pyongyang).

25
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, p. 529.

26
. Horiuchi Keiz
ō
related how Kat
ō
, on hearing the story of Shirakami Genjir
ō
’s bravery, was immediately inspired to write a poem and set it to music (
Ongaku goj
ū
nen shi
, pp. 155–56). He first tried blowing the tune on a clarinet, but his breath gave out. Next he tried a baritone trumpet, but again his breath failed. Finally, he scribbled the words on a blackboard. Still in this white-hot fury of creativity, but with the help of another musician, he completed music and words in half an hour.

27
. I have unfortunately been unable to examine this work. See
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, p. 529, where mention is also made of the
gunka
(war song) on the victory at Pyongyang composed by the empress (at the emperor’s request) when she visited him in Hiroshima. Sakurai also supplied the music for the empress’s poem.

28
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, pp. 524–25, 549.

29
. Ibid., 8, p. 568. The n
ō
plays performed were suitably martial in tone—
Ō
eyama
and
Eboshiori
. The
ky
ō
gen
was
Utsubosaru
(p. 569).

30
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, p. 571.

31
. Mutsu,
Kenkenroku
, p. 138. See also
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, p. 576.

32
. Mutsu,
Kenkenroku
, p. 139.

33
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, pp. 577.

34
.
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
gives “more than 10,000” (8, p. 589), but Shirai gives a figure of 15,000 (
Meiji kokka
, p. 141).

35
. Shirai,
Meiji kokka
, p. 143. For an eyewitness account of the battle, see Kamei Koreaki,
Nisshin sens
ō
j
ū
gun shashinch
ō
, pp. 172–77. Kamei, the first Japanese war photographer, kept an extremely detailed war diary that included information from other sources. He quotes the report of the battle by an observer, a foreign officer who accompanied the Second Army on pp. 172–73.

36
. Mutsu,
Kenkenroku
, p. 140. See also
Meiji tenn
ō
ki
, 8, p. 594.

37
. Inoue Haruki,
Ryojun gyakusatsu jiken
, pp. 25–26. I owe much of the following to Inoue’s brilliant, scholarly book. The British “rear admiral” was probably Vice Admiral Sir Edmond Robert Fremantle, the commander in chief of the China station. He went ashore in Port Arthur on November 25, soon after the Japanese victory (p. 127).

38
. Inoue,
Ryojun
, pp. 26–27. On November 24 Kamei Koreaki photographed coolies digging a hole in which to bury the Chinese corpses shown in the foreground of the picture. His description of the piles of corpses littering the streets is even more horrible than Cowen’s, but he clung to the explanation that every male in Port Arthur over fifteen had been ordered to resist the Japanese army and that it was impossible to distinguish civilians from soldiers (Kamei,
Nisshin sens
ō
, pp. 197–99).

39
. Inoue described how Central News, a Japanese-owned news agency, fed “information” to newspapers abroad (
Ryojun
, p. 29). For example, in response to Cowen’s first article, it stated that not one Chinese had been killed except for those lawfully killed in warfare.