116 JAPAN RUSHES AHEAD December 27, 1932 IT is long since I wrote to you about Japan. Over five months ago I told you (in letter 81) of the strange way in which this country shut herself up in the seventeenth century. From 1641, for over 200 years, the people of Japan lived cut off from the rest of the world. These 200 years saw great changes in Europe and Asia and America, and even in Africa. Of some of the stirring events that took place during this period I have already told you. But no news of them reached this secluded nation; no breath from outside came to disturb the old-world feudal air of Japan. Almost it seemed as if the march of time and change had been stayed, and the mid-seventeenth century held captive. For though time rolled on, the picture seemed to remain the same. It was feudal Japan, with the landowning class in power. The Emperor had little power; the real ruler was the Shogun, the head of a great clan. Like the Kshattriyas in India, there was a warrior class called the Samurai. The feudal lords and the Samurai were the ruling class. Often different lords and clans quarrelled with each other. But all of them joined in oppressing and exploiting the peasantry and all others. Still, Japan had peace. After the long civil wars which had exhausted the country this peace was very welcome. Some of the great warring nobles—the Daimyos—were suppressed. Slowly Japan began to recover from the ravages of civil war. People's minds turned more to industry and art and literature and religion. Christianity had been suppressed; Buddhism revived, and later Shinto, which is a typical Japanese worship of ancestors. Confucius, the sage of China, became the ideal to be looked up to in matters of social behaviour and morals. Art flourished in the circles of the Court and the nobility. In some ways the picture was similar to that of the Middle Ages of Europe. But it is not so easy to keep out change, and though outside contacts were stopped, inside Japan itself change worked, though more slowly than it might otherwise have done. As in other countries, the feudal order moved towards economic collapse. Discontent grew, and the Shogun, being at the head of affairs, became the target for this. The growth of Shinto-worship made people look more to the Emperor, who was supposed to be the direct descendant of the Sun. Thus a spirit of nationalism grew out of the prevailing discontents, and this spirit, based as it was on an economic breakdown, would have inevitably led to a change and the opening of Japan to the world. Many attempts had been made by foreign Powers to open up Japan, but they had all failed. About the middle of the nineteenth 454 century the United States of America became especially interested in this. They had just spread out to the west in California, and San Francisco was becoming an important port. The newly opened trade with China was inviting, but the journey across the Pacific was a long one. So they wanted to call at a Japanese port to break this long journey and take supplies. This was the reason for Americas repeated attempts to open up Japan. In 1853 an American squadron came to Japan with a letter from the American President. These were the first steamships seen in Japan. A year later the Shogun agreed to open two ports. The British, Russians and Dutch, learning of this, came soon after and also made similar treaties with the Shogun. So Japan was open again to the world after 213 years. But there was trouble ahead. The Shogun had posed as the Emperor before the foreign Powers. He was no longer popular, and a great agitation rose against him and his foreign treaties. Some foreigners were also killed, and this resulted in a naval attack by the foreign Powers. The position became more and more difficult, and ultimately the Shogun was prevailed upon to resign his office in 1867. Thus ended the Tokugawa Shogunate which, you may or may not remember, began with Iyeyasu in 1603. Not only that, but the whole system of the Shogunate, which had lasted for nearly 700 years came to an end. The new Emperor now came into his own. He was a boy of fourteen who had just succeeded to the throne as the Emperor "Mutsihito. For forty-five years he reigned, from 1867 to 1912, and this period is known as the Meiji (or " enlightened rule ") era. It was during his reign that Japan forged ahead, and, copying western nations, became their equal in many respects. This vast change brought about in a generation is remarkable and without parallel in history. Japan became a great industrial nation and, after the manner of the western Powers, an imperialistic and predatory nation. She bore all the outward signs of progress. In industry she even advanced beyond her teachers. Her population increased rapidly. Her ships went round the globe. She became a great Power whose voice was heard with respect in inter-national affairs. And yet all this mighty change did not go very deep down into the heart of the nation. It would be wrong to call the changes superficial, for they were far more than that. But the outlook of the rulers still remained feudal, and they sought to combine radical reform with this feudal shell. They seemed to succeed to a large extent. The people who were responsible for these great changes in Japan were a band of far-seeing men of the nobility—the " Elder Statesmen " they were called. When the anti-foreign riots in Japan were followed by bombardment by the foreign warships, the Japanese saw their helplessness and felt bitterly humiliated. Instead of cursing their fate and tearing their hair, they decided to learn a lesson from this defeat and degradation. The Elder Statesmen chalked out a programme of reform and they adhered to it. 455 The old feudal Daimios were abolished. The capital of the Emperor was taken from Kyoto to Yedo, which was now renamed Tokyo. A new constitution was announced with two Houses of Parliament, of which the lower House was elected, the upper nominated. There were changes in education, law, industry, and in almost everything. Factories grew up, and a modern army and navy were formed. Experts were sent for from foreign countries, and Japanese students were Bent to Europe and America, not to become barristers and the like, as Indians have done in the past, but to become scientists and technical experts. All this was done by the Elder Statesmen in the name of the 456 Emperor, who in spite of the new Parliament and all else, remained in law the absolute ruler of the Japanese Empire. And at the same time as they pushed ahead these reforms, they spread the cult of emperor-worship. It was a strange combination: factories and modern industry and a semblance of parliamentary government on the one side, and a medieval worship of the divine Emperor on the other. It is difficult to understand how the two could go together even for a short while. Yet they did march together, and even to-day they have not separated. The Elder Statesmen utilized this great feeling of reverence for the Emperor in two ways. They forced the reforms on the conservative and feudal classes who would otherwise have resisted them but were cowed down by the prestige of the Emperor's name; and they held back the more progressive elements who wanted to go faster and get rid of all feudalism. The contrast between China and Japan during this last half of the nineteenth century is remarkable. Japan rapidly westernized herself; China, as we have seen and shall see even more later on, got involved in the most extraordinary difficulties. Why did this happen? The very vastness of China, her great population and area, made change difficult. India also suffers from this seeming source of strength—huge area and population. China's government also was not sufficiently centralized—that is to say, each part of the country had a great deal of selfgovernment. It was thus not easy for the central government to interfere and bring about big changes as had been done in Japan. Then again, China's great civilization had grown up in thousands of years and was too closely interwoven with her life to be easily discarded. Again we can compare India to China. Japan, on the other hand, had borrowed Chinese civilization and could more easily replace it. Another reason for China's difficulties was the continual interference of European Powers. China- was a great continental country. She could not shut herself up, as the islands of Japan had done. Russia touched her territories to the north and northwest; the British Empire in the south-west; France was creeping up in the south. These European Powers had managed to extort important privileges from China and had developed great commercial interests. These interests gave them plenty of excuses for interference. So Japan shot ahead, while China was still blindly struggling on and trying, with little success, to adapt herself to the new conditions. And yet there is another strange fact worth noticing. Japan took to western machinery and industry and, with a modern army and navy, put on the garb of an advanced industrialized Power. But she did not take so readily to the new thought and ideas of Europe; to notions of individual and social freedom; to a scientific outlook on life and society. At heart she remained feudal and authoritarian and tied up to a strange emperor-worship which the rest of the world had long outgrown. The passionate and self-sacrificing patriotism of the Japanese was closely allied to this loyalty to the Emperor. Nationalism and the cult of the divine 457 Emperor went side by side. China, on the other hand, did not take readily to big machinery and industry; but the Chinese, or at any rate modern China, welcomed western thought and ideas and the scientific outlook. These were not so far removed from their own. Thus we see that although modern China entered more into the spirit of western civilization, Japan outstripped her because she put on the armour of it, ignoring the spirit. And all Europe praised Japan because she was strong in this armour, and they made her one of their fellowship. But China was weak and unprovided with Maxim guns and the like. So they insulted her and preached to her and exploited her, caring little for her thought and ideas. Japan not only followed Europe in industrial methods, but also in imperialistic aggression. She was more than a faithful pupil of the European Powers : she often improved on them. Her real difficulty was the discordance between the new industrialism and the old feudalism. In her attempts to carry on with both she could not establish economic equilibrium. Taxation was very heavy, and people grumbled. To prevent trouble at home she had recourse to an old device— distracting attention by war and imperialistic adventures abroad. Her new industries also forced her to look to other countries for raw materials and markets, just as the Industrial Revolution had forced England, and later other western European Powers, to look abroad and. conquer. Production increased and there was a rapid growth of population. More and more food and raw materials were required. Where was she to get them? Her nearest neighbours were China and Korea. China offered opportunities for trade, but she was a thickly populated country. In Manchuria, however, which formed the north-eastern provinces of the Chinese Empire, there was plenty of elbow-room for development and colonization. So to Korea and Manchuria, Japan looked hungrily. Japan also saw with concern the western Powers getting all manner of privileges from China, and even trying to get territory. She did not like this at all. If these Powers became well established on the mainland opposite to her, her safety might be imperilled and, at any rate, her growth on the continent would be checked. In less than twenty years after her opening to the outer world, Japan began to be aggressive towards China. A petty dispute about some fishermen, who had been shipwrecked and were murdered, gave Japan an opportunity to demand compensation from China. China refused at first, but then, threatened with war and occupied at the time with the French in Annam, she gave in to Japan. This was in 1874. Japan was elated by this triumph and immediately looked round for further conquests. Korea seemed inviting and, picking a quarrel with her for some petty reason, Japan invaded her and forced her to pay a sum of money and to open some ports for Japanese trade. Korea had long been a vassal State of China. She looked to China for support, but China was unable to help. The Chinese Government, fearing that Japan might acquire too much influence, 458 advised Korea to give in for the moment and also to make treaties with the western Powers to checkmate Japan. So Korea was thrown open to the world by 1882. But Japan was not going to be satisfied with this. Taking advantage of China's difficulties, she again raised the Korean question and made China agree to a joint protectorate over Korea.—that is, poor Korea became a vassal State of both. This was obviously a most unsatisfactory state of affairs for all concerned. There was bound to be trouble. Japan, indeed, wanted trouble, and in 1894 she forced a war on China. The Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95 was a runaway affair for Japan. Her army and navy were up to date; the Chinese were still old-fashioned and inefficient. Japan won all along the line, and forced a treaty on China which put her on the same level as the western treaty Powers. Korea was declared independent, but this was only a veil for Japanese control. China was also forced to give to Japan the Liaotung peninsula in Manchuria, with Port Arthur, as well as Formosa and some other islands. This crushing defeat of China by little Japan surprised the world The western Powers were by no means pleased at this rise of a powerful country in the Far East. Even during the Sino-Japanese War, when Japan was seen to be winning, she was warned by these Powers that they would not consent to Japan annexing any part of China's mainland. In spite of this warning she took the Liaotung peninsula with an important port—Port Arthur. But she was not allowed to keep this. Three great Powers—Russia, Germany and France—insisted on her giving it up, and, much to her annoyance and anger, she had to do so. She was not strong enough to face these three. But Japan remembered this slight upon her. It rankled and made her prepare for a greater struggle. Nine years later this struggle came with Russia. Meanwhile Japan, by her victory over China, had established her position as the strongest nation of the Far East. China had appeared in all her weakness, and all fear of her vanished from the western Powers. They swooped down on her like vultures on a dead or dying body, and tried to get as much as possible for themselves. France, Russia, England, and Germany—all scrambled for seaports on the China coast and for privileges. There was an unholy and a most unseemly battle for concessions. Every little thing was made an excuse for claiming additional privileges or concessions. Because two missionaries were killed, Germany seized by force Kiauchau in the Shantung peninsula in the east. Because Germany took this, the other Powers insisted on their share of the booty. Russia took Port Arthur, of which she had deprived Japan three years previously. England took Wei-hai-wei to set off Russia's possession of Port Arthur. France took a port and territory in Annam. Russia also got permission to build a railway across North Manchuria, an extension of the Trans-Siberian railway. It was extraordinary—this shameless scramble. Of course China did not enjoy parting with territory or granting concessions 459 She was forced to agree on every occasion by displays of naval force and threats of bombardment. What shall we call this scandalous behaviour ? Highway robbery ? Brigandage ? It is the way of imperialism. Sometimes it works in secret; sometimes it covers its evil deeds under a cloak of pious sentiment and hypocritical pretence of doing good to others. But in China in 1898 there was no cloak or covering. The naked thing stood out in all its ugliness. jawaharlal_nehru_glimpses_of_world_history (1) http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/bender4/eall131/EAHReadings/module02/m02japanese.html