The Future Japan

The Future Japan

Tokutomi Soho in 1886, after his move from Kumamoto to Tokyo. (Courtesy of Mr. Miyake Masahiko.)

TOKUTOMI SOHO

The Future

Japan Translated and edited by

Vinh Sinh with co-editors

Matsuzawa Hiroaki Nicholas Wickenden

THE UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA PRESS 1989

First published by The University of Alberta Press Athabasca Hall Edmonton, Alberta Canada T6G 2E8 Copyright © The University of Alberta Press 1989 ISBN 0-88864-149-4

Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Tokutomi, Iichiro, 1863-1957. The future Japan Translation of: Shorai no Nihon. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0-88864-149-4 1. Japan—politics and government—1868-1912. 2. Democracy—Japan. 3. Japan—Civilization. I. Vinh, Sinh, 1944II. Matsuzawa, Hiroaki, 1930III. Wickenden, John Nicholas, 1935IV. Title. JC248.T6413 1989 320.952 C89-091082-0

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be produced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any forms or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

Printed by John Deyell Company, Lindsay, Ontario, Canada

To Nozomi

To my brothers and sisters and Kyoko

In memoriam Robert T.D. Wickenden

M.H.

v.s.

N.W.

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CONTENTS

Preface

ix

Acknowledgements

xi

Introduction

xiii

SHORAI NO NIHON—THE FUTURE JAPAN

1

[Dedication by the Author to his Parents]

3

Preface [by the Author]

5

Foreword to the second edition [by Taguchi Ukichi]

7

Foreword to the second edition [by Nakae Chomin]

9

Foreword to the third edition [by Niijima Jo]

11

I

A Deluge Followed by a Deluge: An Introduction

13

II

The Life of a Single Nation: A General Outline

23

III

The World of Might (Part I): Surrounding Conditions in the External World Viewed from the Surface

33

The World of Might (Part II): Surrounding Conditions in the External World Viewed from the Surface

48

The World of Peace (Part i): Surrounding Conditions in the External World Viewed from the Inside

57

IV V

vii

viii

VI

VII VIII IX X

XI XII XIII

XIV

XV

XVI

Contents

The World of Peace (Part II): Surrounding Conditions in the External World Viewed from the Inside

76

The World of Peace (PartIII):Surrounding Conditions in the External World Viewed from the Inside

84

The Movement of Democracy (Part I): In View of the Natural Trend of Societies

93

The Movement of Democracy (Part II): In View of the Natural Trend of Societies

101

The Movement of Democracy (Part III): In View of the Natural Trend of Societies

108

A Natural Commercial Nation: In View of Japan's Peculiar Conditions

115

Japan in Retrospect (Part I): In View of Japan's Present Circumstances

131

Japan in Retrospect (Part II): In View of Japan's Present Circumstances

144

The Japan of the Present Day (Part I): In View of Japan's Present Circumstances

155

The Japan of the Present Day (Part II): In View of Japan's Present Circumstances

167

The Future Japan: A Conclusion

179

Notes

185

Suggested Readings

215

Index

219

PREFACE

THE

PROJECT

OF

TRANSLATING

Tokutomi Soho's The Future Japan began more than ten years ago in Toronto when Vinh Sinh, while writing his doctoral dissertation on Soho, worked on it, in a casual fashion, with Robert O. Lee. In between their discussions on Japanese culture and history, they translated the first four chapters. As Lee embarked upon a career as a lawyer and Vinh was preoccupied with other commitments, the project was left untouched for some years. Vinh resumed the translation on his own in 1982 following his move to the University of Alberta. The visit of Matsuzawa Hiroaki to the University of Alberta as a Distinguished Visiting Professor in late 1984-early 1985 gave a decisive impetus to this project. It was through Matsuzawa's interest and encouragement that Vinh finished the first draft, and the friendship which had been established between him, Vinh, and Nicholas Wickenden gave rise to the idea of collaboration. In summer 1986 Vinh travelled to Japan to work with Matsuzawa on the revision of the draft and to meet with other scholars interested in Soho and to obtain further information. Vinh then worked with Wickenden on the English style of the translation and the identification of some of the allusions to Western names and events. We ix

x

Preface

found this transnational co-operation rewarding and most befitting to the cross-cultural nature of The Future Japan. Soho was a master of style, and his book is important for its literary brilliance as well as for the ideas that it presented. Many of the English sources Soho used were models of Victorian prose, and as his own work was written in an elegant literary idiom characteristic of late nineteenth-century Japan, it is desirable to reproduce something of the style of his time in an English version, at least to the extent of avoiding specifically twentieth-century locutions. We have endeavoured to do so, but we are aware that, inevitably, the unique qualities of expression in some passages can only be conveyed approximately in English. The order of Japanese and other East Asian names throughout this volume has been kept in accordance with the traditional East Asian practice, with the family name first and the personal name second. The Wade-Giles system of transliterating Chinese names has been retained. Something of the value of a project of this nature must lie in the identification of the sources used by the author. Wherever possible, such identification has been provided in footnotes. Some sources and allusions it has not been possible to trace; and in a few cases, it has been necessary to retranslate a passage into English from Soho's Japanese version. Additional information from readers would be welcomed and appreciated.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

WE SHOULD LIKE TO TAKE THIS OP-

portunity to express our thanks for the kind co-operation and assistance provided by Mr. Miyake Masahiko, Soho's grandson; Professors Kano Masanao, Sugii Mutsuro, Uchiyama Hideo, and Wada Mamoru; the Tokutomi Soho Shiryokan in Ninomiya and Mrs. Kono Shizuko; and the Ochanomizu Library. We should like also to acknowledge the support given by the Japan Foundation, which funded Vinh's visit to Japan in 1986, and the Hokkaido University International Exchange Fund, which assisted Matsuzawa to travel to Edmonton in 1987 to work on the revision of the draft and annotations. The hospitality of Hisako and Makoto Watanabe and Yuka and Hiroshi Otsuki extended to Vinh during his visits to Tokyo is warmly appreciated. This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. This work could not have been carried out without the help and co-operation of the staffs of the libraries in which we have worked: the University of Alberta Library, in particular its Inter-Library Loan Department; the Library of the University of Toronto; the xi

xii

Acknowledgements

Ochanomizu Library in Tokyo; the Soho Archive at Doshisha University; the Tokutomi Soho Shiryokan in Ninomiya; the British Library; and the Manchester Central Library. We should also like to express our appreciation of the support and encouragement of our colleagues at the University of Alberta and elsewhere. Our special thanks go to those responsible for the production of this book at the University of Alberta Press: Norma Gutteridge, director; Mary Mahoney-Robson, editor; and Joanne Poon, designer. Ms. Mahoney-Robson combines qualities of a firm critic and openness of a good friend, and it has been indeed a delight to work with her. Ms. Betty Hung and Ms. Debbie Reinhart of the University Computing Services have generously helped us in making effective use of the "Textform" typesetting programme. Finally, we gratefully make acknowledgement to the Indiana University Press for permission to quote a passage of Tu Fu's poem "Song of the War Chariot" from An Introduction to Chinese Literature

by Liu Wu-chi.

INTRODUCTION

AMONG THE JAPANESE PUBLICISTS

active during the century following the Meiji Restoration, Tokutomi Soho (1863-1957) was especially prominent and influential. As a journalist, historian, critic, and essayist, he wrote prolifically; it has been estimated that he produced as many as three hundred works during an active career that spanned more than seven decades, from the 1880s to the last years of his life. Among this astonishing output, Shorai no Nihon (The Future Japan; 1886) stands out as not only one of Soho's earliest, but also one of his most important works. It reflects his youthful optimism in charting the course upon which he believed Japan should embark. More than that, it captures the mood characteristic of the dynamic and challenging early decades of Japan's modern transformation, as evidenced by the enthusiastic reception given to it by the contemporary Japanese reading public. Addressed as it was to immediate practical concerns, with the passage of time it has now become a source of primary importance for the insight it affords into the development of Meiji thought. As such, though very different in its manner of presentation, it deserves to be read along with the Bummeiron no gairyaku (An Outline of a Theory of Civilization; 1875) by the leading educator and publicist Fukuzawa Yukichi1 and the Sansuijin keirin mondo (A Discourse by Three Drunkards on xiii

xiv

Introduction

The Tokutomi home in Kumamoto, where Soho lived until he left for Tokyo in 1886. (Courtesy of Mr. Miyake Masahiko.)

Government; 1887) by the champion of liberalism Nakae Chomin.2 Taken together, these works by temperamentally diverse authors help us to appreciate the mosaic of ideas which constituted the rationale for modern Japan's world outlook.

TOKUTOMI SOHO

Tokutomi Iichiro (to give Soho's real name) was born on February 23, 1863 into a gono, or wealthy peasant, family in the Tsumori village of Higo Province (now Kumamoto Prefecture). The gono, a class which Soho later likened to the English 'country gentlemen', were in a frustrating situation before the Meiji Restoration. They were by and large more prosperous and educated than the impoverished element among the samurai, yet their advancement in society was hindered by

Introduction

xv

the feudal class system. Their sense of frustration at the privileges of the samurai under the Tokugawa regime still colours Soho's views in The Future Japan.

The first son in the family, Soho grew up in comfort.3 His informal study began very early; he recalled in his autobiography that he learned passages of Chinese poems on his mother's knees. By 1873, when Soho was ten years old, he had made considerable progress in reading Chinese and Japanese classics. The texts he read at that time included the Four Books, the Five Classics of Confucianism, Ssu-ma

Ch'ien's Shih-chi (Records of Historians), Chu Hsi's Tung chien Kung-mu (Comprehensive Mirrors), and Rai San'yo's Nihon gaishi (Unofficial History of Japan).4 His early traditional education played an essential part in the development of Soho's intellectual outlook; its influence continued to be felt along with that of the Western-style education which he was soon to receive. His commanding knowledge of the East Asian classics is displayed in the ease, frequency, and familiarity with which he alluded to them in The Future Japan. In the same year, 1873, Soho was sent by his parents to Kumamoto Yogakko (Kumamoto School of Western Studies), founded by a nephew of Yokoi Shonan,5 a prominent leader of the jitsugaku (practical learning) movement in late Tokugawa Kumamoto. The instructor in English, world history, and science at this school was L. L. Janes, an American Captain of Artillery.6 The school administrators, however, placed a restriction on Janes's curriculum: Western religion was not to be included, and Confucian classics should be taught instead. Finding this restriction unacceptable, a group of thirty-five young pupils, including Soho, declared their abandonment of Confucian tradition and their willingness to help to disseminate Christianity in a famous ceremony held on Mount Hanaoka in January 1876. These rebellious youths were later known as the Kumamoto Band. As a result o : this incident, the school was closed. Thereafter, following brief study in Tokyo at the Tokyo Eigo Gakko (Tokyo English School), Soho went to Kyoto to study at Doshisha, a mission school founded in 1875 by Niijima Jo (1843-1890). In his later recollections, Soho showed genuine respect for Niijima, by whom he was baptized, and Dwight W. Learned, his instructor in economics

xvi

Introduction

Soho (centre of front row) and his classmates at Doshisha, Kyoto. (Courtesy of Mr. Miyake Masahiko.)

and politics. Through his association with Learned, Soho developed his interest in history, economics, and foreign affairs, was exposed to the ideas of Richard Cobden and John Bright of the Manchester school,7 and in due course subscribed to the New York magazine The Nation and absorbed its liberal ideas. Soho, however, displayed his disappointment at the environment of Doshisha as a school. In the spring of 1880, just before graduation, he left Doshisha, and the church as well. The impact of Christianity, nonetheless, can still be found in some of his writings, particularly in the frequent Biblical references and turns of phrase in The Future Japan. From a fairly early stage, Soho aspired to a career in journalism. "I do not remember when I first decided to become a journalist", he recalled. "I have had that aspiration since my days in Kumamoto and undoubtedly it was already established in 1877 when I was fifteen

Tntroduction

xvii

Through John Morley's biography of Richard Cobden, Soho became familiar with the liberal ideas of the "Manchester School".

years old."8 It was at this time that the Satsuma rebels entered his hometown, Kumamoto, and seized the castle. Soho spent a good deal of time at Doshisha following the news about the war. He was so fascinated by the war correspondence of Fukuchi Genichiro9of the Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun (Tokyo Daily News) that he copied Fukuchi's editorials as samples for writing practice. Following the Meiji government's victory, Fukuchi had an audience, in recognition of his work during the war, with Emperor Meiji; and Soho later recalled that the report of this occasion gave a strong impulse to his aspiration to become a journalist and his commitment to "writing in the service of the nation" (bunsho hokoku), a motto which he upheld for the rest of his life. Soho acknowledged that one of his keenest interests was in politics. "I like politics by nature," he once said, "it is my life."10 Nevertheless,

xviii

Introduction

he had no desire to become a politician. In taking up journalism instead, however, his goal was not merely to become a successful journalist, but to be "a script writer of actual politics".11 Apart from that, at times he avowed that history was his first love. He showed a strong sense of the continuity between the past and the present. In journalism, his passion for history combined with his fascination with politics. As he put it: "History is yesterday's journalism, and journalism is tomorrow's history."12 In addition, his opinions on contemporary policies were in many ways attempts to realize his historical interpretations. There is thus an overlap between his pursuits in writing the history of the past and in guiding the actual politics of the present and future. Journalism, then, to Soho, was a means to fulfil his interests in both politics and history. In May 1880 Soho went to Tokyo, hoping to obtain a position on Fukuchi's newspaper Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun. Without any success in this attempt, Soho took a part-time job in the Naigai Kosai Shinshi (Domestic and Foreign Affairs News) while attending a course in Chinese classics at a private school. He returned to Kumamoto in November 1880. In his home town, Soho took part in the local activities of the Freedom and Popular Rights Movement, which was beginning to gain popularity there as in other parts of the country. He also studied intensely, preparing himself for the future. An entry in his diary for February 1882 illustrates his single-minded sense of purpose: "The object of study: (1) history, (2) composition, (3) economics. This is fixed. The reading of unnecessary books is absolutely forbidden. Since poetry nurtures character, it can be read now and then. Since newspapers are a means of having a far-sighted view of the trend of the times, they should be read from time to time."13 In March 1882 Soho decided to open his own school to put into practice his educational convictions. He called it Oe Gijuku (Oe is the name of the village and Gijuku means a (private) "community school" in a sense reminiscent of the English 'public' school). Oe Gijuku was modelled after the Shoka Sonjuku, a famous private school founded by the late Tokugawa political activist Yoshida Shoin,14 at which a number of brilliant leaders of the Meiji Restoration, and later of the

Introduction

xix

Meiji government, had studied. In attempting to provide his students with a Western liberal education, Soho hoped that they would be "made into patriotic, loyal, and courageous people". The Oe Gijuku soon acquired a good reputation, and the number of regular students at its peak reached one hundred. Soho's lectures at his school were derived from the notes he had taken in Learned's classes at Doshisha and the books he read in the process of teaching, which included Guizot's15 General History of Civilization in Europe, Macaulay's16 History of England and Critical and Historical Essays, Tocqueville's17 Democracy in America, and Yoshida Shoin's Yiishitsu Bunko (Prison Manuscript). The Oe Gijuku, which remained in existence for four and a half years, gave Soho the opportunity to read widely and to gain confidence in formulating his own ideas. Teaching a wide range of subjects at the early age of nineteen, Soho admitted that rather than teaching the students, "I studied together with them." In fact, most of Soho's early writings— such as Meiji nijusannen go no seijika no shikaku o ronzu (On the Qualifications of Politicians After 1890; January 1884), Jiyu, dotoku oyobi jukyoshugi (Liberty, Morals, and Confucianism; December 1884), and Daijukyuseiki no seinen oyobi sono kyoiku (Youth of Japan in the Nineteenth Century and Their Education; June 1885)—were primarily drafted as his lecture notes at the Oe Gijuku. These works were all well received. On the Qualifications of Politicians After 1890, for example, received these comments from Taguchi,18 the editor of the Tokyo Keizai Zasshi: "When I met you [Soho] I thought that you were enthusiastic only in politics. I did not realize that you are also a leading figure (kyoheki) in the literary world. There have been few good writings since the Restoration. There is no writing which can rival yours . . . ."19 Youth of Japan was first published in June 1885; its ideas appeared so fresh that Inoue Kowashi, for example, an influential Meiji statesman and, like Soho, a native of Kumamoto, took a day off to read it through. It was following these successes that The Future Japan was written. Soho began to work on it in the latter half of 1885 and completed the manuscript in early 1886, after making three thorough revisions.20 Soho then set out for Tokyo to find a publishing company. Taguchi's

xx

Introduction

Thomas Babington Macaulay's works made a great impression on Soho, both for their view of history and for their literary style.

Soho's understanding of the United States was largely moulded by his reading of the Henry Reeve translation of Alexis de Tocqueville's De la Democratic en Amerique.

Tokyo Keizai Zasshi agreed to publish The Future Japan on the condition that financial responsibility would rest with Soho, should the book not sell. Feeling assured by his previous success, Soho not only accepted this condition but even decided to go back to Kumamoto to close the Oe Gijuku and move his family, and a dozen of his friends, to Tokyo. The success of The Future Japan was truly phenomenal, far beyond even Soho's expectation. Although it was published after Soho left for Kumamoto, the circulation of the book was so swift that on his way back to Tokyo, he already saw someone reading it on the boat. It had gone into its fifth edition as early as May 1888; from the second edition on it began to carry introductions by renowned intellectuals of

Introduction

xxi

the time such as Nakae Chomin, a champion of liberal rights, Taguchi, and Niijima. On the basis of the tremendous success of The Future Japan as a national best-seller, Soho started his own magazine, as he had thought of doing for some time. He named it Kokumin no tomo (The Nation's Friend) after the liberal American periodical The Nation which he had read regularly since his years at Doshisha. The Kokumin no tomo, published from 1887 to 1898, was a "Review of Politics, Society, Economics, and Literature". Among its contributors were influential intellectuals such as Nakae Chomin, Uchimura Kanzo, and Futabatei Shimei. The political principle advocated in The Future Japan and Soho's early writings in the Kokumin no tomo was what he called heiminshugi (from heimin, "commoner", and shugi, "doctrine"), a concept which he derived from his reading of current Western literature on liberal democracy. Heiminshugi advocated a fair share of opportunity for the ordinary people, "those who dwell in the cottage". While often it can be translated as "democracy", in some contexts its closest English equivalent is perhaps "populism". It did not, however, imply any derogation from the traditional position of a monarch, the Emperor, at the apex of society. Following his theme in The Future Japan, Soho, in the Kokumin no tomo, called for a "Second Spiritual Revolution" to fulfil what had not been accomplished by the Meiji Restoration. To Soho, the inaka shinshi (country gentlemen) were the only class equipped with necessary attributes of independence and self-reliance to be the leaders of the new Japan. Soho's basic notion about the inaka shinshi was borrowed from Macaulay's description of the English country squires or gentry, which was then transposed to a similar, identifiable element in the Japanese society. Soho envisaged that the rise of a middle class with the inaka shinshi at its core would lead to the resurrection of all Japan.21 People of the younger generation at the time found ideas of this kind particularly fresh and appealing, and accordingly the Kokumin no tomo became one of the most influential magazines in nineteenthcentury Japan. Kokumin no tomo, it may be noted, was Japan's first general-interest magazine (sogo zasshi), which according to a local

xxii

Introduction

English paper "inaugurated a fresh epoch in the history of Japanese journalism".22 At the turn of the 1890s, however, Soho began to lose faith in the Meiji youth and more specifically in the inaka shinshi as the core of the middle class upon which Japan's liberal reforms were to be based. Soho's views then gradually shifted toward militant nationalism and expansionism. This shift in attitude is evident already in "Dai Nihon bochoron" (On the Expansion of Greater Japan; December 1894), an article which Soho wrote after the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War (1894-95). It was confirmed psychologically by the humiliation Soho felt at the Triple Intervention following Japan's victory in the war, when Japan was "advised" by Russia, with the support of France and Germany, to return the territory she had acquired, the Liaotung Peninsula, to China. From this point on, his liberal inclinations were decisively outweighed by his desire for Japan to achieve imperial grandeur.23

SOURCES OF THE FUTURE JAPAN

The Future Japan was quite a bold project for a young man like Soho, who when he wrote it was twenty-three years old. Nonetheless, with the confidence acquired from his reading and teaching at Oe Gijuku; with the success of Youth of Japan in the Nineteenth Century and Their

Education published in the previous year; and with what must have been a strong sense of commitment to what he would later call "writing in the service of the nation", Soho was eager to enter the central arena of Japanese literary life. As he later recalled in his autobiography: "In this book not only did I intend to exhaust all the ideas, knowledge, and scholarship that I possessed at that time; I began with this determination and I ended with this determination. Relying mainly on Spencer's evolutionary theories, Mill's24 utilitarianism, the noninterventionism and the laissez-faire principle of Cobden and Bright's Manchester school, Yokoi Shonan's views of world peace, etc., I then established my own opinions."25

Introduction

xxiii

One is indeed amazed by the vast amount of materials—Western and Oriental, ancient and modern—interwoven cohesively by Soho into The Future Japan. These materials can be divided into two broad categories: those published in the West, on the whole reflecting current liberal ideas, and those written by Japanese and Chinese authors, most of which were classics commonly used as texts in traditional Japanese education at the time; it is striking and significant, however, that these Occidental and Oriental sources were for Soho not antithetical but comparable, and at times he drew on them interchangeably to support a single line of argument. Of the books used by Soho at the time when he was writing The Future Japan, a considerable number is known to have been preserved. Many of the Western books are located in the Seikido Collection in the Ochanomizu Library;26 the Soho copy of Tocqueville's Democracy in America, however, is to be found in the Kisui Collection in the Minamata Municipal Library. Some of the Chinese and Japanese books are housed in the Tokutomi Soho Shiryokan in Ninomiya. Specific information about the reading materials used by Soho during his years at Doshisha and Oe Gijuku is to be found in his autobiography; in his memoir of his reading, Dokusho kyujunen (Ninety Years of Reading); 27 and in the Doshisha Oe Gijuku Tokutomi Soho shirydshu.28

Of the books from which Soho drew ideas or expressions for use here and there throughout The Future Japan, the following seem to have been among the most important (those that he does not explicitly refer to are marked with an asterisk): Chinese Sources Anonymous Chan-kuo ts'e (Strategems of the Warring States; c. 1st century A.D.) Chaol Nien-er shih cha-chi (Notes on the Twenty-Two Dynastic Histories; 1799) Confucius Analects Mencius Works (c. 2nd century B.C.)

Soho's own copy of the Koshi kago (Family Analects of Confucius), with marginal notes in his handwriting. (Courtesy of the Tokutomi Soho Kinen Shiozaki Zaidan.)

Soho's own copy of Moshi rombun (Mencius's writings), with comments written by Soho. (Courtesy of the Tokutomi Soho Kinen Shiozaki Zaidan.)

Introduction

xxv

Ssu-ma Ch'ien Shih chi (Records of Historians) Sun Tzu The Art of War (c. 6th century B.C.) Toshisen (Selected T'ang Poetry) Japanese Sources Rai San'yo Nihon gaishi (Unofficial History of Japan; 1844) Nihon seiki (Political Account of Japan; 1845) Taguchi Ukichi Nihon kaika shoshi (A Short History of the Japanese Enlightenment; 1877-82) Western Sources The Bible *Walter Bagehot The English Constitution (1867) John Bright and James E. Thorold Rogers, eds. Speeches on Questions of Public Policy by Richard Cobden (1882) J. William Draper History of the Intellectual Development of Europe (1863) *Edward A. Freeman Growth of the English Constitution (1872) *John Richard Green Short History of the English People (1874) Thomas Babington Macaulay Critical and Historical Essays (1843) History of England (1849-61) John Stuart Mill Considerations on Representative Government (1861) John Morley The Life of Richard Cobden (1882) Michael G. Mulhall The Progress of the World (1880) Plutarch Lives (c. 105-115) (in the Dryden version)

xxvi Introduction

Herbert Spencer's Political Institutions and Taguchi Ukichi's Nihon kaika shoshi (A Short History of the Japanese Enlightenment) were the two sources to which Soho explicitly acknowledged a special indebtedness.

*William Robertson Life and Times of the Right Hon. John Bright (1883) James E. Thorold Rogers, ed. Public Addresses by John Bright, M.P. (1879) Adam Smith The Wealth of Nations (1776) *Goldwin Smith Three English Statesmen (1867) Herbert Spencer Political Institutions (Volume n of The Principles of Sociology; 1882) Alexis de Tocqueville Democracy in America (English translation by Henry Reeve of De la Democratic en Amerique, 1835-40)

Introduction

xxvii

Periodicals *Tokyo Keizai Zasshi Tokyo Yokohama Mainichi Shimbun

Among these sources, Soho mentioned specifically that The Future Japan was inspired by Taguchi's A Short History of the Japanese Enlightenment and by Spencer's Political Institutions.29 The latter was

unquestionably the single work which had the greatest influence upon the concepts and argument of The Future Japan. In The Principles of Sociology, Spencer presented the notion that there were two definite stages in the evolution of social structure, and maintained that throughout history there is an inevitable progress from the "militant" to the "industrial" type of society. These two types of society he contrasted with respect to centralized control vs. decentralized administration, subordination of the individual vs. defence of the individual by society, compulsory co-operation vs. voluntary cooperation, vertical ranking vs. functional role, and so on. On the basis of Spencer's social theory, Soho in The Future Japan identified three principal trends in his survey of the outside world: (1) from a world of violence to a world of peace, (2) from militarism (or 'militancy' as Spencer put it) to industrialism, and (3) from aristocratic society to democratic society. It should be remembered that Spencer's ideas were extremely popular in mid-Meiji lapan because, as has been aptly remarked, "he reduced the universe into a simple system and made a synthesis of all knowledge which could not but be attractive to a people just emerged from seclusion and faced with an extremely complicated existence."30

STRUCTURE AND IDEAS OF THE FUTURE JAPAN

The Future Japan consists of sixteen chapters, which follow a highly logical order. These sixteen chapters fall into three sections. The first section (chapters I and II) introduces two main principles assumed in the book. The first is the interrelation between the movement of one part and the movement of the body as a whole, and thus

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Introduction

Michael G. Mulhall's account of nineteenth-century world progress, with its Japanese translation by Ban Nao-no-suke (published in June 1882), a source from which Soho drew extensive statistical data to support his analysis of contemporary world trends.

the interrelation between the life of Japan as a single nation and the life of the outside world. As the book progresses, this notion is emphasized over and over again through expressions such as the inevitability of "the world trend" (sekai no taisei). The second principle is Spencer's distinction between two types of society: the militant and the industrial. The second section (chapters III-x) deals with the outside world. Chapters III-V concern "The World of Militancy", and chapters Vl-X "The World of Peace and Democracy", peace and democracy (heiminshugi) being viewed as natural consequences of the rise of an industrial type of society. This framework resembles, structurally and conceptually, that of the last three chapters of Spencer's Political

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xxix

Institutions, i.e., "The Militant Type of Society", "The Industrial Type of Society", and "Political Retrospect and Prospect". The last section (chapters Xl-XVI) follows a format similar to that of the previous one, except that its main focus is on Japan. Chapters XI-XIII deal with "Japan of the Past"; chapters XIV-XV with "Japan of the Present Day". Chapter XVI contains Soho's straightforward conclusion, that the future Japan will be and should be an industrial country, that as a consequence of "the inevitability of the industrial organ" she should also be a democratic country, and that in order to achieve these goals the great reforms which had been set in motion by the Meiji Restoration should be advanced further.31 Soho's assertion that democracy would be a necessary consequence of the development of an industrial type of society was based upon Spencer's argument that while in a military type of society the social structure was coercive and the distribution of wealth was unequal, in an industrial type of society authority was simply contractual and the distribution of wealth was natural. Another important assumption in Soho's book was that peace would be a natural result of the industrial type of society. In his view, derived from Spencer's ideas concerning "social organism", industrialism, as opposed to militancy, was a condition of society in which the highest aim is success in peaceful industries. To reinforce this point, Soho adopted the Manchester school's theory that free trade and a laissez-faire approach in economy would represent a major step towards world peace. In addition, Soho drew on Adam Smith's32 The Wealth of Nations to argue that unlike militarism, whose principle is to benefit oneself by injuring others, in commercialism both sides mutually benefit from the peaceful exchange of goods, and as such the national interests of a country would not go against those of any other country. It is worth noting that Soho, like many other Meiji intellectuals, paid the utmost attention to analysing the nature of Western civilization, devoting the first ten chapters of his book to a discussion of the leading trends in world history as exemplified in the development of Western societies. In so doing, he was attempting to identify and characterize the driving force behind the rise of the Western powers in the belief that it was the standard of reference for in-

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Introduction

John William Draper's account of European intellectual history was among the works which broadened Soho's outlook on Occidental culture.

Soho regarded Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations as an epoch-making book, owing to its explanation of the principles of trade.

terpreting the history of Japan itself. It appeared that these powers, particularly Britain, occupied the highest position on the ladder of wealth, power, and civilization. If Japan were to remain as an independent member of the international community, she must follow the path the Western nations had travelled. Accordingly it was only natural that for Soho, as for many other Meiji intellectuals, the explanations for the development of society offered by contemporary Western social theorists, especially Spencer who was called "the god of the time" in mid-Meiji Japan, should appear to provide the guidelines which Japan, a latecomer to the modern world, ought to follow.

Introduction

xxxi

Although Soho's interpretation of current Western social theories was not wholly congruent with their original form, the problems in his line of argument were closely related to the limitations inherent in these theories. Events toward the end of the nineteenth century, when the industrial powers engaged in a relentless struggle for colonial expansion, soon discredited, in particular, the idea that peace would be a natural result of the industrial type of society. One might suppose that it was the pragmatic concerns uppermost in the mind of Soho, among others, which had led him to find the social and ethical theories propounded by Spencer especially congenial. This kind of pragmatism, however, was not adapted to provide a rationale for upholding values irrespective of circumstances. It is possible, therefore, to infer that when the conduct of the Western powers demonstrated that peace and harmony were not invariably associated with modernity, it was not too drastic a change for Soho to advocate an imperial rather than a liberal policy for Japan.

THE INFLUENCE OF THE FUTURE JAPAN

Besides the vogue for Spencer's and other Western theories, there were also other reasons for the immediate and enormous popularity of The Future Japan.

First of all, The Future Japan appeared at the best moment. It perfectly suited the temper of the times and the mood of its readership. Although optimism had been the leading characteristic of the first two decades of Meiji Japan, by 1886, when The Future Japan came to the public, owing to a number of domestic and international developments this optimism was overshadowed by an increasingly urgent concern for Japan's future path. Within Japan, the Freedom and Popular Rights Movement which demanded a parliamentary system had lost its impetus, as many advocates of the movement contented themselves with the government's pledge to draft a constitution and establish a national assembly by 1890. Consequently, liberal-minded intellectuals were left with a sense of setback and frustration. The Western expansion into her neighbouring countries

xxxii

Introduction

Boeki biko (Commentaries on Trade), published by the Japanese Ministry of Finance's Bureau of Records in 1885, and Gaikoshi-ko (Draft Materials on Diplomatic History), published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1882, were among the sources drawn upon by Soho to support his interpretation of Japan's special conditions.

was another cause of great concern for Japan. News of the hostilities between China and France (1883-85) over Vietnam was closely watched by the Japanese, who were particularly alarmed when France's military might proved no match for China. To make the prospect look even gloomier, in Korea, the coup d'etat by Korean reformists with the aid of Japanese activists (1884) was foiled by Korean conservatives supported by the Chinese government, thus ending any hope for a league of Japan and a 'reformed' Korea and China to counter the Western expansion. What path should Japan now follow if she were to preserve her independence? Following an investigation of the international environment and Japan's domestic conditions, in The Future Japan Soho proposed a resolute course of action.33

Introduction

xxxiii

The second reason for the enthusiastic reception of The Future Japan was the hope and optimism about Japan's future that the book provided. Soho's message to his readers was crystal-clear. There were two means to preserve the livelihood of a country: either by the military organ or by the industrial organ. Although in Tsarist Russia and Bismarckian Germany the military organ flourished, wealth and democracy—the end-products of the industrial organ—were the predominant factors of the world of the nineteenth century; and Japan was equipped by both domestic and external conditions to advance toward a democratic and industrial society, should she recognize that her best interests were served by so doing. To support his arguments, throughout the book Soho made use of parallels among Japanese, Chinese, and Western histories. If a militant type of social order like that of Sparta, for example, was necessary during the 'militant' phase which Western society had gone through before arriving at the democracy of the present day, so Japan's 260 years under the Tokugawa military government—during which, in Soho's words, Japan was even more profoundly ]'militant' than Sparta —could be seen, positively, as an inevitable stage in the evolutionary process leading to Japan's industrialization and democratization. This Western notion of an inevitable unilinear process of social evolution was complemented by the Oriental idea of "heaven-given" times for action as propounded by the ancient strategist Sun Tzu. Thus to follow what Soho insisted was the inevitable trend implied no passive and involuntary acquiescence but, on the contrary, masterful and decisive action on the part of the Japanese. At the same time, the interweaving of Oriental ideas and allusions with Western lines of thought lent inescapable immediacy and persuasiveness to Soho's argument by bringing it directly into his readers' milieu. The third reason for The Future Japan's popularity was that it was written in an arresting style, characterized by both vitality and refined literary qualities. Soho's style was just as important to the success of his book as his ideas.

xxxiv

Introduction

THE STYLE AND LITERARY SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FUTURE JAPAN

Soho acknowledged that he was impressed by the style of both Western and Oriental writers, notably of Macaulay, Carlyle,34 Rai San'yo, Fukuchi Gen Ichiro, and Fukuzawa Yukichi. It is therefore not surprising that the style he adopted for The Future Japan reflected both traditions, being a Westernized form of kambun chokuyaku, the metaphrastic style derived from literary Chinese. At the time, the classical literary style, kambun, still retained its overwhelming prestige; but there were voices—such as those of the author and literary critic Tsubouchi Shoyo (1859-1935) and the lexicographer Mozume Takami (1849-1920)—calling for the unification of the written and spoken languages, gembun itchi. The kambun chokuyaku constituted an ideal compromise between such demands and linguistic traditionalism. It was a modernized form of kambun, which became very popular during the early Meiji years. For those of the young generation who had received a modern education in Meiji Japan, it was easier to comprehend the kambun chokuyaku style than the traditional kambun which had remained predominant until the end of the Tokugawa period. At the same time, for those who continued to cherish the unique aesthetic qualities of the age-old ideographic written language of the Orient, the kambun chokuyaku style possessed the merit of retaining, along with its simplicity, the kambun''s richness, vigour, and profundity. It was highly suitable for composing pithy political editorials, or writing emotion-charged appeals and memorials. For the same reason, important imperial ordinances at the time, such as the Charter Oath, were written in this style. Soho was keenly conscious of the value of elegant and effective writing. From his early years, he had studied the texts of the best Chinese and Japanese writers to enhance the artistry of his style, and copied out the writings of Fukuchi Gen Ichiro and Fukuzawa Yukichi as models of composition. He also acknowledged that he admired Macaulay's style in the same way that Rai San'yo had admired Su Tung-po's.35 The style adopted by Soho in The Future Japan employed a variant of the kambun chokuyaku, one Westernized by modelling some sentence patterns on those used in the Western languages

Introduction

xxxv

(which were in vogue in early-Meiji Japan), by differentiating subjects and objects, and by making distinctions between the singular and plural of persons and between the causative and passive forms of action, more frequently than in the ordinary kambun.36 He often used boten (small signs placed next to characters), the Japanese equivalent of underlining, a mark of sophistication in written Japanese at that time. Combining the effectiveness, aesthetic appeal, and prestige of the traditional kambun with a modernized and more readily comprehensible form of language, the Westernized metaphrastic style of kambun adopted by Soho in The Future Japan showed the author's sensitivity to the taste of the reading public. Full of vivid images and elegant turns of phrase, which read with a fluent rhythm hardly to be conveyed by a translation, the prose of The Future Japan made manifest the freshness and vitality of the insights that Soho had derived from current Western social theories. Soho's style reflected his dexterous use of rhetoric as understood in the Western as well as the Eastern tradition—"the art of using language so as to persuade or influence others", as one common definition puts it.37 While it is widely recognized that in the East rhetoric has never been treated as a separate subject of inquiry as elaborately as in the West, that Soho was using this art of persuasion quite consciously will become apparent to the reader of The Future Japan. Evidence for this is the recurrence of a variety of rhetorical devices throughout the book. The following are some instances of the use of these devices. —Metaphor and simile, particularly with relation to nature: . . . this present age is a hopeful age, like an ancient oak with sparse branches and a dead trunk which has withered and almost died and been shattered by storms, out of whose remaining roots a single shoot has yet burst forth unexpectedly, and, nourished by rain and dew, bathed in sunlight, stands loftily amidst clouds, and aspires to reach the heavens. (Chapter I.) —The use of sentences which are syntactically similar to one another (parallelism):

xxxvi

Introduction

Has the force of reason ever been weaker than it is today? Has the power of the strong ever predominated than it does today? Has might ever prospered more than it does today? (Chapter III.) (This passage also exemplifies Soho's deployment of 'rhetorical' questions (interrogatio) and repetition of a word or phrase to emphasize an argument (repetitio).) —Overstatement or exaggeration for the sake of effect (hyperbole): How difficult it must be today, then, to resist this world trend when the heavens have been ripped open, the earth has been shaken, the rushing deluge has spread all over the sky, and the waves of the boundless expanse of water are flying and dancing everywhere, regardless of mountains, rivers, castles, or cities. (Chapter XV.) —A collection of phrases or statements which point to essentially the same thing (congeries): . . . the democratic movement is about to change completely not only the political world, but also the religious, economic, cultural, and technological worlds, from social intercourse, sentiments, thoughts, contentions, to any other human phenomena whatever; in the same way that no place on the surface of the earth is not filled with air, wherever it goes, whatever it touches, everything is combined or crystallized with it. Whatever the angle from which one looks, either vertically or horizontally, there is nothing which is not a democratic phenomenon.. .. (Chapter X.) —Finally, experium, the citation of a statement from an authoritative source in the past to lend weight to an argument—a device perfectly familiar to such Western rhetoricians as Quintilian, but particularly favoured in East Asian literature, in which much emphasis was placed on association with accepted tradition, rather than espousal of conspicuous novelty, as an essential characteristic of persuasive presentation. Thus, for instance, Soho quoted lines written about a millennium earlier by the T'ang poet Ts'ao Sung38 in support of his argument against militarism:

Introduction

xxxvii

SO/JO'S own copy, with his notations, of Toshisen (Selected Tang Poetry). (Courtesy of the Tokutomi Soho Kinen Shiozaki Zaidan.)

Let us not talk about titles and promotions; for behind the fame of every general, ten thousand desiccated corpses lie in heaps. (Chapter III.)39 Throughout the book, the reader will often find similar uses of experium, characterized by the author's ability to draw at will on illustrations and expressions from both the Eastern and Western traditions to reinforce each other.40 Altogether, it will be apparent that Soho's skilful use of rhetorical devices enabled him to endow his arguments in The Future Japan with clarity, vivacity, and compelling force. Through the richness of its literary qualities, by turns dramatic, satirical, and passionate, as well as the vigour of its thought and the

xxxviii

Introduction

urgency of its appeal, Soho's book constitutes a fascinating reflection of many aspects of the extraordinary, dynamic, and trying years of Japan's modern transformation. As such, it will continue to be a valued source of insight for those interested in Japan, Japanese and foreigners alike.

THE TEXT

Shorai no Nihon was first published by Taguchi Ukichi's Tokyo Keizai Zasshi in October 1886. The popularity of the book was so immediate and enormous that the second edition appeared in February 1887, with prefaces by Nakae Chomin and Taguchi Ukichi; the third edition in April 1887, with a preface by Niijima Jo; the fourth edition in September 1887, with fifteen pages of reviews by well-known intellectuals, all unanimously commending the book for its lucid arguments and its elegant style; and the fifth edition in May 1888, with additional reviews. Each edition carried a new preface by Soho. The present translation is based on the text of Shorai no Nihon provided in Uete Michiari, ed., Tokutomi Soho shu (Tokyo: Chikuma Shobo, 1974). In addition to Soho's own preface to the first edition, the forewords contributed by others to the second and third editions have also been translated here.

The Future Shorai no Japan Nihon

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[DEDICATION BY THE

It is all through your education that I came to know that people's feelings must be respected, to know how to love myself, to love others, to love the country, to pursue truth, and to "be just and fear not. "41 It is precisely as a manifestation of the education received from you that I have written this booklet. I take this to be my first publication. I hope that it will somehow comfort you a little in your advanced age, and bring a smile to your face. Thus I should like affectionately to dedicate this booklet to my beloved and respected parents.

AUTHOR TO HIS PARENTS]

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PREFACE [by the Author]

THE

QUESTION

OF

THE

FUTURE

Japan has finally driven me to write this booklet. I have not discussed the question as a lofty and profound philosopher. Neither have I expounded it as an animated and grandiloquent politician. Simply as an honest and sincere citizen, I have just written unreservedly and fearlessly, expressing what springs to my mind. I am not one who wishes forcibly to adopt industrialism. But I realize that that is what the future environment of our country must irresistibly be. I am not a naive democrat. But I realize that once an industrial environment has emerged, our society must irresistibly change completely to become a democratic society. I am not an advocate of peace in all circumstances and at all costs. But I realize that once our society has become a democratic society, the movement of our society must irresistibly change diametrically to become a movement of peace. Naturally I am arguing with the interest and the happiness of Japan as a whole as the object in view. But the point of reference of my argument is solely those who dwell in the cottage. This is because if the interest and the happiness of these people could be advanced, it goes without saying that the interest and the happiness of all would be advanced. Although the gist of my argument has derived not a little from the ideas of Western scholars, I must, however, assume full responsibility 5

6

THE FUTURE JAPAN

insofar as their adaptation and extrapolation are concerned. Do not be surprised if there are flaws in my argument. I wrote this booklet in a desolate and remote region, where there were few friends to consult and a scarcity of reference materials. Above all, by taking up the smallest fragments from my busy schedule, I completed the writing in less than a month. That I was able to complete it that quickly is thanks to the help of my colleagues in taking over the troubles of copying and correcting the draft. I should like to take this opportunity here to express my appreciation for their labours. The future Japan will be full of events, indeed, and the discussion in this booklet is merely no more than an outline. It goes without saying that it is not a simple thing to discuss parliament, diplomacy, commerce, finance, armaments, local institutions, religions, scholarship, education, craftsmanship, manufacturing, etc. I certainly wish to extrapolate from my main argument in this booklet to elaborate upon these matters, should I have an opportunity in the future. I wrote this booklet solely to share with my friends and to solicit their comments. Their kind encouragement, however, has finally led me boldly to decide to leave its fate to current Japanese society. Alas! It would be fate should it be received by the public indifferently. It would be fate should it be received favourably. If it be fate, what more should I say? Tokyo, 10 October 1886

FOREWORD TO THE SECOND EDITION [by Taguchi Ukichi]

MR. TOKUTOMI

IICHIRO IS FROM

Kumamoto, Higo. Formerly, when political parties were emerging in various provinces, he was in Tokyo and visited prominent figures. One day, he came to my humble home and talked a great deal about current affairs, deplored them bitterly, and left. At the time, I was privately pleased with his disposition. I was not aware as yet of his literary talent. Upon his return to his home town in Western Japan, he corresponded with me from time to time. His letters were full of elegant ideas, unlike his previous loquacious and brash presence. Last spring, he wrote his first work, [Daijjukyu seiki no seinen oyobi sono kyoiku (Youth of the Nineteenth Century and Their Education). He distributed it among friends and students. The main gist of the book concerns the reasons why Western science is incompatible with Chinese morality. Its style is lively and its metaphors are ornate. Reading through the book once, one feels warm like a spring breeze; reading through it once again, one feels chilly like an autumn frost. Through it I realized for the first time that he was also a man of letters. Again, this summer he wrote this book [The Future Japan], and 7

8

THE FUTURE JAPAN

came to seek my counsel on its publication. I thereupon replied, saying: "You have done such a great thing by writing this beautiful work; where is the need for my counsel? Yet, since you ask, how is it possible for me not to say something? People of ancient times wished no very spectacular success in their first battle, fearing that they would be contented with a minor achievement. You are but twenty years old and yet your success is spectacular. I hope that in future you will not forget your original goal. When I first published the book I was a little concerned. Yet now as I jot down these clumsy lines I feel no shame. What you have to be concerned about is what is before you, and I wish you to be aware of it." You acquiesced smilingly. I thus recount these particulars as my foreword. Written by Taguchi Ukichi December, 1886

FOREWORD TO THE SECOND EDITION [by Nakae Chomin]

MR. TOKUTOMI IICHIRO OF KUMA-

moto recently wrote the book entitled The Future Japan. It was published and sold out shortly. When the second edition was about to be published, he came to ask for a foreword from me. I received the book and read it. It is based upon the theory of evolution of the great English scholar Herbert Spencer; there are, in addition, elements of originality and creativity. On that basis it discusses what the state of the institutions and culture of our country must become in the future. The discussion is eminently detailed, and the style is elegant. Unlike books with stiff and difficult passages, this book unexpectedly delights the reader. He is only twenty-four or twenty-five, but it is difficult even for well-established scholars and men of profound knowledge to match his erudition. This is indeed awesome. Generally speaking, those who write a foreword to someone's work should praise it honestly, and should provide evidence; otherwise they just take up their pens and chant hymns of praise indiscriminately, merely to fulfil their obligation. Among recent writers one often sees this. This is simply flattery, which is hardly my way. For this reason, I have generally refused when someone came to ask for a foreword 9

10

THE FUTURE JAPAN

from me. This time, however, after reading Mr. Tokutomi's work, I cannot help being filled with admiration. I ought to make an exception by saying a few words. I thus write this foreword on his behalf. Written in Kochi by Nakae Tokusuke Mid-January, 1887

FOREWORD TO THE THIRD EDITION [by Niijima Jo]

MY FRIEND MR. TOKUTOMI IICHIRO

recently wrote a booklet entitled The Future Japan, sent it to me and asked for a few words. Though being inept at writing, how can I leave his kindness unrequited, in view of our long acquaintance? I read the book, from Chapter I to Chapter XVI. I cannot help but feel every chapter is a new, delightful vista. Its argument is excellent, and its style is lucid. From time to time it made me pause from reading, unconsciously uttering cries of delight. In his book, Mr. Tokutomi broadly observes the world trends and closely considers them in the light of the changes from the past to the present. He explains that since Providence and all creatures will that sooner or later democracy shall rule the world, those opposing it will perish and those following it will survive, and every nation and every individual should neither resist nor turn against its force. He then touches upon the Japan of the past and the present, and finally ends the book by delineating and envisaging the course that the future Japan ought to follow. In brief, the course that he delineates is none other than that justice and righteousness must be the fundamental principles for our country, the militant organ must be diametrically changed into the industrial organ, the environment of oppression must be completely changed into the environment of freedom, aristocratic society must be 11

12

THE FUTURE JAPAN

entirely changed into democratic society. The idea of patriotism implied in the thrust of his argument is to love the entire country. To love the entire country is to consider that every individual in the nation ought to be able to enjoy his life and to acquire his rightful portion. In this respect, his insight is indeed great. His heartfelt indignation could not remain silent, but immediately aroused his passion and resulted in a piece of work. The book was first published in November of last year; within less than four months, the second edition came out, and now the third edition is about to appear. Why is it that so many people wish to purchase it instantly? Is it because his argument is outstanding? Or, is it because his style is lucid? I dare say as much. The argument that he puts forth is not vain argument. The writing that he writes is not vain writing. The reading done by all men of high ideals in society is not vain reading. It is simply because of the world trend. Ah! The world trend has now reached this point already! Written in Kyoto by Niijima Jo February, 1887

A Deluge Followed by a Deluge An Introduction

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C H A P T E R

I

A Deluge Followed by a Deluge: An Introduction

"APRES MOI LE DELUGE": SO SAID

Louis XV shortly before his death, in a pessimistic forecast concerning the future of France. Now the age of the deluge is already upon our country and we also are standing in the midst of turbulent events. If someone were to turn toward us and ask us about the future of Japan, what words are we to say in reply? In general, there can be nothing that people more fervently desire to know about than the future. Above all, in fact, there is nothing people would more like to know about than the future of Japan. This is because, if one wishes to compare it to all the historical periods within the memory of mankind—from the ancient civilization in which the heirs of Noah attempted to build a stone tower to the Heavens on the luxuriant plains of Babel, up to the modern civilization of the successors of the Northern Barbarians which is almost remaking the face of the earth by means of steel and electricity —the present time in Japan is an age of a weird and wonderful kind, delightful yet astonishing, so much so that one would have difficulty in finding its parallel. As change is indeed the great law of the universe, one must not doubt that Japan has completely changed her conditions of old times. Yet because the change has occurred so quickly, and moreover has proceeded in such unexpected directions, there can remain no one 15

16

THE FUTURE JAPAN

whom it has not taken by surprise. Persons such as Mr. Draper42 have said unsympathetically and irresponsibly that the fate of Oriental Civilization will simply be the graveyard. Yet although thirty years ago the civilization of Japan was gasping for breath and was headed on an extremely uncertain course toward the future, strangely enough she changed her direction with lightning speed, reversed her course, with a buoyant spirit set off in pursuit of Western Civilization, and produced a state of affairs in which it appeared as if she desired to compete with it. This is what we are wondering at, and yet congratulating ourselves. It is of course not without reason that this has attracted the attention of the people in the West. Suppose we were to take the people of Edo who died when the Tokugawa shogun Ienari43 was in his heyday, bring them back from the tomb, and let them stand in the Ginza today. Show them the houses lining the sides of the street, the goods displayed in the shop windows, the passers-by on the street, and the people chatting to each other. No matter what, they certainly could not comprehend even in their dreams that this is what was known to them as Edo. It would seem as if they were like the Dreamer who rode off aimlessly into the air on the wings of a kite and was cast down into Never-never-land.44 In fact, today's changes are not regressive changes, but they are progressive ones. Today's battlefields are not the final battlefields, but the battlefields of the first war. Today's departure is not a departure in desperation but a departure in hope. Behold! The downfall of our feudal society, reminiscent of the similar conditions of the Dark Ages in eleventh-century Europe, took place a mere ten years or so ago. Behold! The establishment of a parliament, which is expected to derive from nineteenth-century European parliamentary institutions, is already about to take place in four or five years. The slave-like commoners have suddenly risen in status, while their samurai masters have suddenly fallen in status. Already they are coming to meet on an equal footing. In the old days, people who did not have long swords at their side were not even regarded as human beings; nowadays you cannot see anyone bearing swords, except for soldiers or police. There have even appeared those who bend their knees to the Cross, as the symbol of the Christian religion, which was trampled

A Deluge Followed by a Deluge

17

under bare feet in the past. Think of it! From the argument for closed ports to that for the total abolition of import tariffs and for free trade; from the advocacy of "expelling barbarians" to that of "mixed residence". How many days and how many generations have elapsed? The more we think about it, it is like a dream or a fantasy, and it is not improper to say that it is just as if the phrase "this time of ours is like a great, confused dream"45 had been created to describe this era. Such rapid changes are not confined to politics, social activities, food, clothing, and shelter, things which we see and hear of in our daily life. In addition we should consider the spiritual plane. For example, everything in standards of morals, religion, human relations, honour, ideas, and so on, has been completely overturned. If we were to describe all these changes one by one, and if we tried to compare and contrast them with those of olden times, the result would be singular indeed. We simply have difficulty in observing all these matters fully, and even if we could, we should be unable to describe them adequately. Thus, for the old people who have lived through the period of the destruction of feudalism up to the Meiji period of today, even the dream of Lu Sheng on his magic pillow46 or the axe-handle of the hermit Wang Chih47 would be inadequate to evoke their feelings. In other words, this present age is a hopeful age, like an ancient oak with sparse branches and a dead trunk which has withered and almost died and been shattered by storms, out of whose remaining roots a single shoot has yet burst forth unexpectedly, and, nourished by rain and dew, bathed in sunlight, stands loftily amidst the clouds, and aspires to reach the heavens. For this reason, we should call this not the Transformation of Japan but rather, more appropriately, the Resurrection of Japan. For the old Japan has already died, and what exists in the present day is the new Japan. What will be, then, the future of Japan? What will be the Japan of the future? Politicians are worried about the future of Japanese politics; businessmen are anxious about their business prospects; and we must say that it is quite natural that those who are observing present-day trends, be they scholars or clergymen, should also inevitably wish to know about the future.

18

THE FUTURE JAPAN

Society, however, is not a crystal made up of a single molecule. In fact, it is a compound of molecules of multitudinous types. The more complex they become, the more their interrelations become intricate and involved. Thus, if we wished to take only one part and quickly predict the future of the whole, it would be extremely difficult. It is not possible to predict that future political life and future economic life will be the same, just because present-day political life is such and such, or just because present-day economic life is such and such. This is because future political life will not be conditioned simply by present political life, but will also be conditioned by the distribution of wealth and the distribution of knowledge and the like. Similarly, the economic life of the future will not be conditioned simply by the economic life of today, but will also be conditioned by the distribution of political power and the distribution of knowledge and the like. In this manner, the various elements of society mutually give rise to actions and reactions, causes and effects, primary causes and primary effects, and secondary causes and secondary effects. As multitudinous in variety as pebbles on a beach, yet their phenomena are connected together, and generate a uniform movement. Accordingly, if one wishes to know the movement of one part, one must know the movement of the body as a whole, because the movement of each part is controlled by the uniform movement of the whole, just as the movement of the whole is controlled by the co-ordinated movement of every part. Therefore those who wish to know the politics of the future Japan, and those who wish to know the economy of the future Japan, as well as those who wish to know about the future religion, scholarship, literature, etc., must all broaden the scope of their investigations to the whole. In other words, if we want to know about the future events which will take place in our society, whatever aspect we may wish to know about, our investigation must be directed toward what will become of Japan as a whole. This is the reason why everyone's thoughts tend to come back to this controversial central point. No doubt the Machiavellian politician in Berlin who does not wish to lose a profitable opportunity is paying attention to this question; the philosopher in London who is desirous of discovering new

A Deluge Followed by a Deluge

19

materials for sociological theories is following it; the religious thinker in New England who contemplates spreading the Christian religion to our heathen Oriental countries is considering it; the scholar who regards freedom as a unique possession of the Anglo-Saxons doubts whether it may be possible to extend the benefits of freedom among the Mongolian races;48 the noble-minded white people who proclaim themselves friends of the yellow races are anxious about whether or not it is possible that the Japan of the future will develop into an independent country; and there may be also in our country some out-of-office politicians thinking about the future, who are pondering this same question by solitary torches. There may be also young students who, while completely absorbed in their schoolwork, suddenly dream about the future of Japan while nodding at their desk. There may be also country gentry, claiming to be local politicians whose power surpasses even that of the village head, who, sitting with their comrades around the fireside, amazed by the spectacular changes of the present time, discuss what the future will be like. There may be also devout Christians who, kneeling in a room by themselves, pray quietly to God with all their heart for the future of our country. There may be also patriots who, unable to stop themselves from thinking over and over about the future of our country, pour forth tears of indignation in the silence of the late night when all of nature is sound asleep. Thus the future of Japan is a problem which necessarily and without exception presents itself to the mind of everyone; but it is a problem that everyone has great difficulty in resolving. How, then, can we attempt to seek a resolution for this perplexing problem? Although the past is far away, footprints left by our ancestors still remain. By relying on them, we can investigate the past. Although the present is confusing, there are things we see and hear. By relying on them, we can know about the present. But on looking to the future, people see only a vast curtain of darkness before their eyes. How is it possible for us to know about that? Moreover, how is it possible for us to know about the present situation of Japan? The present is an age of reform. If we ask people who live by a mountain about the shape of the mountain, or if we ask people in the midst of the current about the

20

THE FUTURE JAPAN

shape of the river, or if we ask people in a period of reform about the future of the reform, it is impossible to expect an appropriate answer, for the simple reason that they are in the midst of it. For this reason, even if someone were to direct this question to us, the only answer we could give would be to say simply that the future of the reform will be reform, and that after the deluge will come the deluge. It is possible to discuss the events of the past. It is possible to observe the events of the present. Concerning the events of the future, however, the only thing even persons of the keenest insight can do is to speculate. Yet it is by no means easy to speculate about the present situation of Japan. Even if we were to speculate and to give candid opinions about it, of what benefit would this be? Rather, emulating the defeated Egyptian General Arabi Pasha49 who was exiled to Ceylon, it may be better to accept with resignation that the Almighty alone knows the future of Japan. Naturally, it is not that we are unaware of this. Nevertheless, there is a reason why we want to speculate boldly on such a difficult question, so difficult that it may seem futile to expend our meagre power upon it. The fact is that for any of us the question of what will be the future of Japan necessarily includes another question, i.e., what is to be done for the future of Japan. The question of what will be Japan's future is not something within our comprehension. But the question of what is to be done for the future of Japan, since we are the people of Japan, cannot be forgotten for a moment, even if we wish to forget it. It stirs our thought incessantly. Indeed now we feel that we cannot remain silent any longer even if we so wish. That is why we venture to overcome our reluctance to express an opinion on those matters as far as we are able. We want to open our innermost mind and discuss them straightforwardly. Because these two questions are closely related, however, it is impossible to separate them. What is to be done for the future of our country? Naturally, we have many hopes concerning this. But what is the basis for these hopes? By and large, a hope is valid if it can be realized. If it cannot be realized, it is merely a vain hope. A billion vain hopes cannot be equal to a single one which can be realized.

A Deluge Followed by a Deluge

21

Every society has its own inevitable conditions. Even if we have a thousand hopes for the future, they cannot run counter to these conditions. If our hopes for the future deserve to be realized, they must necessarily be in accord with future conditions. But how can we know what future conditions will be? The answer comes back to the question of what ought to be the future. If we know that those hopes should not go against the conditions of the society, it is best not to resist these conditions in the first place. For that would be as futile as casting stones at Heaven. No matter how determined one is in throwing them, these stones will not go beyond the sky. If we throw once, the stone will fall once. If we throw a hundred times, a hundred times it will fall. If we cannot go against gravity, it is best to realize that we cannot. For this reason, we shall not have vain hopes concerning the future of our country. We shall only have those hopes which are feasible. What are the hopes which are feasible? That is to say, in accordance with its natural conditions, we wish to guide our society to our advantage.50 In other words, policy regarding what is to be done for the future of Japan should be determined solely by speculating about what Japan's future will be, supposing there are no interferences or hindrances to Japanese society from the outside. Thus there is a close relationship between the two questions of what ought to be the future of Japan, and what is to be done for the future of Japan. If we want to resolve the second question, naturally it may be necessary for us to speculate about the first question. However, the reason for our attention to, concern with, and eager speculation about these two questions is not limited to the above. This is because we take a step further and wish to establish the policy for the future of our country. The future of reform is reform, but what sort of reform will it be? What sort of reform should it be? After the deluge comes the deluge. But what sort of deluge will it be? What sort of deluge should it be? Time flies faster than electricity. To today, yesterday is already bygone. Day after day without ceasing, the future, which appears today in the remote distance, will soon become the present of another day. Thus it is inevitable that we should wish to discuss the future of Japan.

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The Life of a Single Nation A General Outline

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CHAPTER

II

The Life of a Single Nation: A General Outline

MANKIND MUST NOT HAVE COME

into this world simply for the purpose of making a living. Nevertheless, if asked what is the primary purpose of life, I myself and everyone, indeed even any small child, must have no alternative but unanimously to reply that it is none other than to make a living. There are a great many things that one may wish to do in one's life; but in general, as long as one is alive it is necessary to search for the means to live. Even Po Yi and Shu Ch'i had to pick the ferns from Mount Shouyang in order to preserve their lives,51 and Yen Hui lived in a mean dwelling on a bowlful of rice and a ladleful of water52 also for the purpose of preserving life. So too with the ancient Greek philosopher, Antisthenes,53 founder of the Cynic school: in spite of the fact that he often scorned life, holding that the opposition between spiritual and material pleasures prevented their reconciliation even for the briefest instant, nevertheless, when on the verge of death as the result of an illness, he turned to a disciple and asked pathetically, "Can you not relieve me from this pain?" His disciple held up his sword and replied, "Shall I save you with this?" Whereupon Antisthenes, taken aback, said, "No, no! I wish to be relieved of my pain, not of my life!"54 Life is what a man is. Indeed, it is only through living that all other desires arise. The purpose of the state is the same. Concerning the ultimate purpose of the state, even Montesquieu,55 Burke,56 Stein,57 and Spencer 25

26

THE FUTURE JAPAN

have been unable to provide a satisfactory answer. But as far as the primary purpose of the state is concerned—whether its organization is hardly less simple and unsophisticated than the society of termites or honey bees, as is the case with the savages in the Pacific archipelagoes; or whether its political institutions are as largely and finely developed as in the societies of Europe and America—in either case, even a semi-literate politician will readily affirm that as long as states exist, regardless of the differences among them, eventually it all comes back to the single point of preserving the existence of the state. As long as the life of the state exists, everything can be done accordingly. If it does not exist, how can you do anything at all, even if you wish to? Whoever wishes to discuss the future of Japan must, therefore, first begin with an inquiry into the problem of by what means the future life of our country may be preserved. In fact, there are two means of preserving the life of a nation. The first is the industrial organ, the second is the military organ.58 The industrial organ provides for basic domestic supplies, while the military organ defends against interference from without. This is what Confucius must have had in mind when he said that "sufficient food, sufficient armament"59 would be two crucial factors of a good government. These two types of organ were not necessarily differentiated in the beginning, rather it must be said that in the earliest stage of society they were mixed together. For example, the peasant in time of peace became a soldier in time of war. Civilians and soldiers were identical. They were called by different titles according to their different positions. In such a situation, there was no difference between the industrial organ and the military organ. The industrial was the military and the military was the industrial. We can find a concrete example of nondifferentiation of social functions in the history of Japan's direct imperial rule, which was described by Rai Jo as follows: "In the beginning when our country was founded, the political institutions were simple, the civil and the military were not separated, and everyone was a soldier. The Emperor was at the same time the Supreme Commander; the ministers were his military staff. As there

The Life of a Single Nation

27

was no separate provision at that time for military commanders, how would it have been possible, then, for a military class to emerge?"60 As society progressed, however, human affairs became diversified, and inevitably there appeared the division of labour. As a result, the distinction between the military and the industrial organs gradually took shape. Through periods of incessant warfare, the military organ was increasingly expanded, and the industrial organ was increasingly contracted. Rai Jo says, "In the reigns of Emperors Konin and Kamrnu, wars were frequent on the borders; during the Hoki era, the court decided to dispense with unnecessary soldiers. Those wealthy farmers who were proficient in archery and horsemanship were made to devote themselves to the practice of martial skill and subjected to military recruitment, and weak farmers were ordered to devote themselves to farming. Thus the military and the farmers were separated completely."61 These words point to the above truth. A trend toward the separation and expansion of the military organ, however, grows by leaps and bounds and does not stop simply with defence against external enemies. The nature of defence becomes offence and eventually the military organ comes to encroach even upon the industrial organ. In contrast, if a country remains at peace, the industrial organ will rapidly increase in power, and the military organ may be totally overwhelmed. In the case of Rome, for example, the entire population of the country was in the beginning both soldiers and farmers, and there was synergism between the military and industrial organs and no separation between them. As the famous Roman historian Pliny62 has said: "The fields were cultivated by the hands of generals, land was cleared by the tip of a plough decorated with honours of war. And those farmers who led the plough were also the soldiers who had distinguished themselves in war."63 We have also heard the story of Manlius Curius,64 the hero whose famous deeds resounded in all quarters but who was content to return to his farm, live in the cottage, and there to clear and cultivate by himself a small patch of land. He seemed to live quietly, and be contented with such a lot. One day, when he was bent over his stove cooking some turnips, he was

28

THE FUTURE JAPAN

approached by an emissary from an enemy country, who sought to tempt him with gold. He laughed and refused, saying: "I am satisfied with this evening meal. What need do I have of gold? Rather than putting this gold in my purse, I would take more pride in conquering the enemy country which has this gold in its purse."65 From this we can realize the conditions in which soldiers were peasants and peasants were soldiers. Nevertheless as the struggles for survival with neighbouring peoples became increasingly frequent and intense, all citizens began to devote themselves to warfare while farming was .left in the hands of slaves. From that time on the military organ gradually expanded and the idea of simply defending oneself against one's enemies was replaced with the idea of offensive warfare. No one under heaven could stand against the Roman army; Carthage was destroyed, Greece was conquered, Egypt, Syria, and Palestine were quickly overrun, until finally all the wealth of the world was gathered in Rome. This wealth, nonetheless, was not gathered because Rome was endowed with a centripetal economic force. It was rather plundered from each country by Roman military power. Although the grandeur of Roman cities was unsurpassed, Rome had no special products of its own. The Romans simply took the gold and silver which they plundered and exchanged it (if such can be called exchange) for products of the plundered countries. There is a Roman proverb to the effect that he who best wields iron can seize gold.66 Thus it was that by force of arms the Romans not only defended themselves from external attack and invaded their enemies in their turn, but also maintained their very livelihood with their spoils. In such circumstances, where could the industrial organ exist at all? The Phoenicians, in contrast, were just the opposite. Although their land was the poorest and their country the smallest, as their industrial organ enjoyed favourable conditions for development, its progress was indeed remarkable. The people of Tyre, in particular, were renowned throughout ancient history for their knowledge of navigation, their skill in manufacturing, and their commercial success. They made themselves kings of the Mediterranean and their enterprising temperament soon took them beyond the Pillars of Hercules to the British Isles and the Baltic Sea. Wherever they went they made the

The Life of a Single Nation

29

native peoples their customers and the new lands their home, ultimately establishing more than forty colonies around the coasts of the Mediterranean. The prosperity of Tyre is well-known from the Old Testament: And say unto Tyrus, O thou that art situate at the entry of the sea, which art a merchant of the people for many isles, Thus saith the Lord GOD; O Tyrus, thou hast said, I am of perfect beauty. Thy borders are in the the midst of the seas, thy builders have perfected thy beauty. They have made all thy ship boards of fir trees of Senir: they have taken cedars from Lebanon to make masts for thee. Of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars; the company of the Ashurites have made thy benches of ivory, brought out of the isles of Chittim. Fine linen with broidered work from Egypt was that which thou spreadest forth to be thy sail; blue and purple from the isles of Elishah was that which covered thee. The inhabitants of Zidon and Arvad were thy mariners: thy wise men, O Tyrus, that were in thee, were thy pilots. The ancients of Gebal and the wise men thereof were in thee thy calkers: all the ships of the sea with their mariners were in thee to occupy thy merchandise.67 It was indeed a prosperous city. If the area controlled by the Phoenicians by means of commerce were to be compared with that conquered by the Romans by means of military power, there would certainly be no possibility of the former not equalling the latter. If we can believe the examples noted above, then it is obvious that the military and industrial organs are incompatible, and that when the one prospers, the other declines; when the one falls down, the other rises up. In addition, although a person's occupation is influenced by his character, we should also realize that his character may also be determined by his occupation. Of course, it cannot be said that the goal of mankind is fully achieved when his occupation for a livelihood is completely fulfilled. But many noble goals can never be separated

30

THE FUTURE JAPAN

from ordinary occupations for a livelihood, and in fact the two are intimately related to each other. Human affairs are diverse, yet all of them can be likened to taking a ladder to climb a tower. To ascend one rung is to prepare to ascend another rung, to descend one rung is to prepare to descend one rung lower. All the rungs are connected to each other and all the parts are interrelated; not even one can move independently and separately. For this reason, to judge that ordinary occupations are one thing and noble functions are another is never adequate in discussing human affairs. Consider the following. Let us assume that there are an individual samurai and an individual merchant. Let us assume that they are brothers in one family, brought up in the same house, that their education at school is the same, and that the main features of their characters and behaviour are the same. Furthermore, let us assume that they each engaged in different occupations from the time when they embarked upon their respective careers in the world. Now let us assume that we have them sit down together in the same room. When they see the differences in their respective tastes, feelings, desires, and ideas, they will be completely stunned to discover how the character of an occupation influences the character of a person. This is not all. The quality of a person's occupation also strongly influences his character. For example, although from an economic point of view there may not be much distinction between an owner of a brothel and a clergyman, or between a geisha and a girls' school teacher; nonetheless, matters in society cannot be judged merely from an economic point of view. Although occupation for a livelihood is simply for the purpose of making a living, a person who gains his living by dishonest means must be considered a dishonest person, whatever excuse he may make. A nation is exactly the same. Since the chief occupation in a nation's way of life has the most important influence upon that nation's character and qualities, the leaders of society, particularly those who wish to be founders of a new era, should exercise the utmost caution in adopting it. In general, both the industrial and the military organs do not simply exert their influence within their own spheres, but also to all affairs in society. Just as food at first stimulates

The Life of a Single Nation

31

the digestive organs, and later becomes blood, and flows through the blood vessels to all the members and faculties and to the brain, thus providing sustenance to the entire body, so everything in society is affected by the influence of the military and industrial organs. Thus, in countries where the military organ is developed, political power rests in the hands of a minority; in countries where the industrial organ is developed, political power is distributed among the majority of the people. On the one hand, it is believed that the people exist for the sake of the state, while on the other, it is insisted that the state exists for the sake of the people. In the former, within the state there exists only the state, and apart from the state the people do not exist; in the latter within the state there exists only the people, and apart from the people the state does not exist. Co-operation in the former is compulsory: in whatever sector, society is organized in the spirit of a military organization. Co-operation in the latter is voluntary: in whatever sector, society is organized according to economic principles.68 In the former, society is composed of two classes: masters and slaves. In the latter, society is composed solely of a single fraternity. The distribution of wealth in the former is artificial, such that the labourers always suffer while the idlers always rejoice. The distribution of wealth in the latter is natural, such that everyone reaps in the present the harvest from the seeds which he has sown in the past. In the former there may be a few great wise men while the masses of people are ignorant. In the latter there may be neither great wise men nor ignorant masses. Authority in the former is based simply upon command, while in the latter it is based only upon contract. In the former the prestige of the state is maintained by sacrificing the people; in the latter, the prestige of the state is maintained in order to provide for the welfare of the people. Conflict is the essence of the former; peace is the essence of the latter. The method of the former consists of injuring others in order to benefit oneself, while the method of the latter is to benefit oneself by benefiting others. The policy of the former comes down to the point of seizing other countries lest one be seized by them, while the policy of the latter consists of maintaining one's independence and carrying on peaceful relations with other countries. The law of the former is violence; the law of the

32

THE FUTURE JAPAN

latter is justice. The principle of the former is 'Might is right'; the principle of the latter is 'Right is might'. In short, in a society in which the military organ is developed, only inegalitarianism is dominant; while in a society in which the industrial organ is developed, only egalitarianism is dominant. Thus, all phenomena in a militant type of society are aristocratic and all phenomena in an industrial type of society are democratic. To sum up, there are only two organs in maintaining the life of a nation, and these two organs are, as has been seen, incompatible. Each organ may exert its specific influence upon the quality and character of the entire nation, i.e., its politics, its economy, and its intellectual, literary, and social life. By which of these organs do the leaders of the present wish to sustain the existence of the future Japan? However much we may hope for the one, if social conditions incline to the other, there is nothing we can do about it. Thus, in deciding which organ we should choose, we must think ahead and envisage the course of events of our country's future. How can we envisage these things? This is first to ask, what are the surrounding conditions in the external world? Second, what are the great natural trends of society? Third, what are the special conditions peculiar to Japan? And fourth, what is the present situation of Japan? If what we desire for the future is in accord with the conditions of the future as revealed by these four questions, then the prospects for Japan are indeed promising. Unfortunately, if our desires and future conditions are not in accord with one another, then we shall find it very difficult to predict our future fortunes.

The World of Might Surrounding Conditions in the External World Viewed from the Surface

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C H A P T E R The World of Might: Surrounding Conditions in the External World Viewed from the Surface

I I I

Part I

IN THIS ERA OF THE NINETEENTH

century, it must be kept in mind that all the countries in the world are our neighbours. Hence it must be remembered that the great trend among these neighbours is indeed one of the elements affecting the destiny of our future. If such is the case, then what is the great trend among these neighbours? This is the problem which we should like to investigate in this chapter. This present nineteenth century may well be an age of despair. Let us turn our eyes toward the four corners of the world. Let us especially observe the European countries which are the principal actors playing the boldest and most active roles on the world stage. Has the force of reason ever been even weaker than it is today? Has the power of the strong ever predominated more than it does today? Has militancy ever prospered more than it does today? The ancient world was a world in which barbarians threatened civilized peoples with their might. The world of today is a world in which civilized peoples are swallowing up barbarians with their atrocities. Why—in spite of the fact that the unlimited power of steam, electricity, steel, coal, glass, etc. has caused a great revolution and has transformed the surface of the world; and in spite of the rapid progress shown in the further advances of philosophy, physics, literature, arts, and other 35

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The Future Japan

fields—do we see in society no end to war, which Bentham,69 the champion of the principle of expediency, called incomparably the most destructive activity? In fact, although the European countries pretend to be Christian nations, they are not, as the prophets of ancient times predicted, a lion obedient to the true God, lying down and chewing grass along with the cows and the goats,70 dragging its tail and lowering its head. As Louis Napoleon71 put it: "The history of the world is the history of wars." Is it not true that the history of the nineteenth century is the history of wars? I would ask readers to look at the table [Table I]. Despite the dictum of a sage of ancient China that a single innocent person must not be sacrificed even if it is for the conquest of the whole realm,72 the Kings and ministers73 of Europe, acting out of a childish desire for fame and glory, thus have in fact wastefully slaughtered enormous numbers of strong, healthy, and vigorous young men in a period of a mere fifty years. This is truly deplorable, for as Victor Hugo has aptly said: "Whether one wears an Emperor's crown or an executioner's cap, the character of the killer is the same. Spilling blood is spilling blood and murder is murder."74 Not only does war kill people but it also destroys wealth. Sun Tzu has said that a military campaign generally requires 100,000 men; the distance travelled amounts to about 10,000 li; while expenditure by the masses and salaries for officials amount to a thousand pieces of gold per day.75 How much wealth, then, have the nations of Europe expended in these wars? I was almost shocked when looking at the statistics concerning the total increase in the public debt of these nations as a result of their wars [Table II]. In 1820 the countries of continental Europe (that is, excluding England) paid approximately 3 shillings of interest per inhabitant on the public debt, but by 1880, they were being forced to pay almost four times that amount or 11 shillings per inhabitant. Of this increase, a mere £575,000 was expended on railways, shipyards, telegraphs, etc., while the rest all went to useless military expenditures. Eighteen hundred years ago, when Augustus Caesar76 became Emperor of Rome, the number of soldiers protecting the entire Empire did not exceed 500,000. Now, however, how many more standing

[TABLE I]

About three million men have been slain in war since the Treaty of Vienna (note that this is the armistice treaty concluded between France and other European countries in 1815), the following estimate giving an approximate idea:

War

Balkan campaign Spanish and Portuguese succession Revolution in Europe [1848] Crimea, Allies " , Russians Italy, Allies " , Austrians United States, northern " ,southern Prussia and Austria Franco-Mexican Brazil and Paraguay Franco-German Russo-Turkish

Total

Number of deaths

Date

120,000 160,000 60,000 155,000 630,000 24,400 38,700 206,000 375,000 51,200 65,000 232,000 290,000 200,000

1828 1830-40 1848 1854 " 1859 " 1863-65 " 1866 " 1867-70 1870-71 1876-77

2,607,300

If to the above is added the French war in Algeria, the British campaigns in India and South Africa, the Spanish war in Morocco, and other minor affairs, it will be seen that the total number of war deaths in the space of a mere fifty years would undoubtedly exceed three million. SOURCE: Michael G. Mulhall, The Progress of the World in Arts, Agriculture, Commerce, Manufactures, Instruction, Railways, and Public Wealth since the

Beginning of the Nineteenth Century [London: Edward Stanford (1880), pp. 9-10. Soho used the Japanese translation by Ban Nao-no-suke, Bankoku shimpo no jikkyo, 3 vols. (Tokyo: Keizai Zasshi, 1882-83).]

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The Future Japan

[TABLE II]

From 1820 to 1848 the growth of public debt of the European countries was not more than £1,700,200,000, or equal to an increase of about £9,000,000 per annum. At this rate the increase cannot be considered too rapid, but after 1848 there is a sudden gain in momentum and the increase becomes truly astounding (an increase of about £100,003,000 per annum). The principal causes of these expenditures are shown in the table below (in £1,000 units): Public debts in 1848 Crimean War Italian War United States Civil War Brazil and Paraguay, etc., War Austro-German War Franco-German War Russo-Turkish War Armaments Railways, docks, telegraphs Total

£1,720,000 £192,000 £105,000 £490,000 £85,000 £90,000 £370,000 £210,000 £1,607,000 £575,000 £5,444,000,000

SOURCE: Michael G. Mulhall, The Progress of the World [p. 40].

armies are there in the countries of Europe, most of which were merely a province or a prefecture of the Roman Empire? Let us look at the table [Table III]. Upon reading The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith we learn that: "Among the civilized nations of modern Europe, it is commonly computed, that not more than one hundredth part of the inhabitants of any country can be employed as soldiers, without ruin to the country which pays the expence of their service."77 We are personally impressed by the truthfulness of this view. The present conditions in Europe are, however, completely different, in that the above percentage is not just 1 per cent, but in some cases even exceeds 7 per cent. A rough estimation of the number of troops in the whole of Europe would be a figure in excess of 9,577,000. It is said that if this number of men were formed into a single line for a parade, the length

The World of Might (Part I) 39

[TABLE III]

Countries

Population

Standing army

Reserve army

England Russia Germany France Austria Italy

35,241,482 100,372,553 45,234,061 37,672,048 37,786,346 28,459,451

189,252 502,738 445,392 518,642 271,833 714,958

636,951 2,080,918 2,650,000 2,550,000 1,026,130 1,989,619

Per cent in Estimated population regular army for soldier in for a population of 100 regular army

185 200 100 72 140 40

2/100 2/100 6/100 7/100 3/100 7/100

SOURCE: Statesman's Yearbook, Statistical and Historical Annual of the States of the World [(New York, St. Martin's Press, n.d.). Soho cited the Japanese translation, Bankoku keisei soran, translated by Okada Yoshinari and Uchimura Kozo, edited by Ariga Nagao, and published by Kodo Shoin (Tokyo, August 1885). The figures in the two columns on the right were apparently calculated and added to the table by Soho himself.]

of the line would stretch 6,010 kilometres (about 1,532 li). It would take 12 days and 6 hours to ride in a gallop along the whole line; and even by express train, it would take approximately 4 days and 18 hours. According to the survey in August 1885 of the International Arbitration and Peace Association, in times of peace the European countries have 3,902,000 troops, while in war time the number rises to 13,841,000. Regardless of which statistics we accept and which statistics we reject, it can be truly said that such military preparations represent a strange spectacle of the nineteenth century. The ancient Oriental despot Shih Huang-ti78 constructed the Great Wall of China with stones, while today the Kings and ministers of Europe are trying to build a Great Wall using human beings. Again, what effrontery! In the first place, what necessity is there for the European Kings and ministers to build up such vast standing armies at all? We find it difficult to comprehend. If there exists such a necessity, then it must prove that our society is in extreme danger. Or

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The Future Japan

conversely, if there exists no necessity, then we cannot help believing that the European Kings and ministers are extremely willing to stir up trouble. Alas! Is such the civilization of the nineteenth century? Naturally such standing armies cannot be maintained in times of peace with no cost. How much, then, do the peoples of Europe pay year after year to cover military expenses? In looking at the research report for 1883 of the International Arbitration and Peace Society of London, England, published in the [Tokyo Yokohama] Mainichi Shimbun,79 the annual budgets together with the percentage taken up by military expenses for the six countries of Austria, England, Russia, France, Germany, and Italy, are as shown [in Table IV].

[TABLE IV]

Countries

Annual budgets (£)

Navy expenditures (£)

Percentage

Austria Germany France England Italy Russia

93,610,555 210,809,893 136,137,607 89,004,456 61,489,047 129,417,570

13,413,795 22,624,749 33,730,783 31,420,775 12,005,589 46,102,500

14 20 25 35 20 36

This is not all. This amount of national debt which is used to pay these military expenditures is astonishingly high. If it is included, the total figure will rise to more than $23,021,500,000. The interest alone on that sum is $1,037,159,175. This is to say that England pays an annual interest of $156,000,000 for a public debt of $3,790,000,000; Russia $156,000,000 for a public debt of $3,017,500,000; France $272,500,000 for a public debt of $4,800,000,000; Germany $67,500,000 for a public debt of $1,500,000,000.

The World of Might (Part i)

41

Having described this general trend in European armaments, we cannot but feel pity at the misfortune of the peoples of Europe. Even though Louis Napoleon did crush the might of Russia at Sebastopol, what did it benefit the people of France? Even if the fame of Bismarck80 did dominate the world in retaliation against France, adding shining glory to the medals of Moltke,81 of what benefit was this to the German people? Even if Lords Palmerston and Beaconsfield82 incessantly continued their pointless war against the barbarian tribes of Africa and Asia, adding something to British territory, did the gain to the English people outweigh the loss? Recently, Ferry83 put on a bold show of force against China in the Annam Incident, and lost 15,000 troops and £4,300. In addition, Admiral Courbet exposed himself to the hazardous weather of Tonking and was cast into the Indian Ocean, to no purpose.84 Again, the English Cabinet sent General Gordon85 onto the scorching hot sands of the vast desert of Sudan where his armaments failed and his ammunition was exhausted and his noble and courageous spirit was buried. In what way did these exploits add to the pleasure and happiness of the English and French peoples? When we consider these things, we realize how truly correct were the words of the ancient Chinese poet who said: Let us not talk about titles and promotions; for behind the fame of every general, ten thousand desiccated corpses lie in heaps.86 John Bright expressed the true mind of the peoples of Europe when he said: "I have discussed these questions of war, Chinese, Crimean, Afghan, Zulu, Egyptian, on grounds common to and admitted by all thoughtful men [ . . . ].87 Perhaps the bondholders, and those who have made money from it [the Egyptian war], and those who have got promotion and titles and pensions, will defend it, but thoughtful and Christian men will condemn it."88 In looking at the past and in observing the present, it must be said that the current state of affairs in European countries has reached a peak of militancy. That is to say, there has never been seen a comparable development of the military organ since the years of

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The Future Japan

antiquity. Such being the case, the spirit of military organization is not limited to the single sphere of the military. As a natural consequence, its influence extends to every aspect of society, and we have already demonstrated clearly the reality of this influence. "Unless one has been to the top of the T'ai mountain,89 one is unable to know the height of the universe, and unless one has seen the Yellow River, one is unable to know its depth." Similarly, unless one has spent time in Berlin, one cannot know the glories of scholarship; all the students in the world thus flock to the German Empire, the philosophical paradise and the centre for great scholars. How, though, has its political life contributed to the advancement of the happiness of the people? It is natural that almost any society cannot avoid criticism as being a world of empty theory until it has perfectly achieved its development; yet that, of all the countries in the world, there is none which indulges in empty theorizing to the extent that Germany does, is indeed the cause of our great concern for the German people. Among the philosophers, political theorists, and legal scholars of Germany, there are those who have made extremely profound and intricate disquisitions on, or commented on the advantages and disadvantages of, each country's institutions. But how much of what they say and advocate is actually realized in the social system of those countries? For instance, the myriad theories of the revered Dr. Stein, the Austrian scholar,90 are not worth a single bluff of Bismarck. Let us take an example. Examine the actions of the German Empire after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. What is described by the Iron Chancellor Bismarck as state socialism, i.e., a system of state autocracy, has gradually appeared in the society; in 1871 he forced the passage of a bill for military expenditure of the Empire which was fixed for the following three-year period, and again in 1874, a similar bill for the next seven years, and again in 1880 another huge sum for the same purpose. In such circumstances, does the parliament have any authority of its own at all? What Pym91 said about Parliament, that when it loses its power it becomes no more than the tool of autocracy, applies to the German Diet.92 Those who have had long careers as noncommissioned officers are appointed as civil officials, and the provincial population have to look

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up to these rough military characters as their governors. Furthermore, even high government officials and university scholars of broad knowledge and deep learning, as well as middle school and elementary school teachers, are all forced to undergo a year of military service. Even the priests who oversee the spiritual realm are suppressed beneath the authority of the state, whether in church discipline or organization or priestly ordination. These priests have become obliged to follow the dictates of the state, or rather of the government, in everything they do. Germany was actually the birthplace of the Reformation! Indeed, Martin Luther93 came out of the wasteland of Lower Germany and with his bare hands resisted the violent tyranny of Pope Leo X.94 But now the interference of the German government in religious affairs is much worse than that of the Roman Pope. I wonder what Luther's spirit would say now to this! The government also infringes upon economic life. For instance, three-quarters of the railways, which are the most active system of distribution in a civilized society, have been nationalized by the Empire. In addition to this, protective tariffs are extensively employed, and the law regulating interest rates has been reinstated, Sunday labour has been restricted, and the postal services have been expanded in an attempt to take over the functions of the banks. As well, the regimentation of people into small groups is so strictly enforced as to recall the establishment of the five-man group system, initiated by the politician Shang Chun95 in the Warring States period in China, and compulsory co-operation is strictly implemented. The freedom of workers is restricted by the establishment of a national insurance law. Also, in a matter of a few years, 224 socialist party organizations have been dispersed. The publication of 180 newspapers and magazines has been terminated. More than 137 books have been banned. A bill presented by Prince Bismarck for the expulsion of Polish people from Prussian territory was passed in the Prussian Diet on January 26 of this year. One can predict the direction of events from any one of the above examples. In short, it is as clear as the light of a fire that the general trend in Germany is toward direct or indirect expansion of the power of the

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state and the elimination of the rights of the individual; and just like a silk-worm devouring a mulberry leaf, the power of the Empire has now already rapidly expanded so that there is almost nothing left. It is always said that the direction of the nineteenth century is toward liberalism. But it is my conviction that the direction of the German Empire is toward despotism. I say the German Empire, not the German people. That is to say, there is only the state; there is no people. The saying "A heaven in theory, but a hell in practice" suits this country. If that is so, then a country such as Russia is much worse. Anyone who has ears and eyes must perceive the wretched state of Russia, and for this reason there is no need to dwell upon it. I believe it is sufficient simply to quote the following lines of poetry. This poem was composed more than one thousand years ago by a Chinese poet satirically lamenting the conditions of his time, but its sombre and moving tone appears to me to be appropriate for depicting the present state of Russia. Soldiers on the march, each holding at the waist a bow and arrow. Fathers and mothers, wives and children come to see them off— The dust makes invisible the bridge at Hsien-yang. Tugging their dresses, stamping their feet, they block the road and cry, The sound of their wailing reaching up to the clouds. A passerby on the roadside asks the man marching, Who says merely that conscription is pressing. Some since fifteen have been north guarding the River; Now at forty they are sent west to till the camp farm. When they started out, the sheriff wrapped their heads for them; Upon return, their hair already white, they still have to guard the border, Where, by the army post, blood flows and makes a sea— The Martial Emperor is still intent on opening up the frontier. Have you not heard that in two hundred counties east of the mountains of the Han empire, Thorns and brambles grow in thousands of villages? Even if there are husky women to hold the plow and hoe,

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The grain grows wild among dikes and fields in all directions. Moreover, the soldiers of Ch'in could endure tough battles, Driven as they were like dogs and fowls. Though you, the elder, have asked me, How dare I, a draftee, make a complaint? For example, in the winter this year, Unrelieved are the soldiers west of the Pass. The county officer presses for tax collection, But where could the tax money come from? Truly, it is unlucky to bear sons And far better to have daughters. Girls can yet be married into the neighborhood, But boys are buried under the hundred weeds. Do you not see at the top of the Blue Sea, The white bones lying there uncollected since olden times? New ghosts moan and murmur while old ghosts wail, The sky is gloomy, the rain drenching, and sad the sound of sobbing.96 Would those who read this poem not think that it is simply the characteristic exaggeration of Oriental poets? Indeed, one is hard put to say that the cruel state of Russia is fully depicted even in these skilful lines. If anyone doubt this, let him confront the nihilist prisoners performing hard labour in chain gangs in the mines of Siberia, exposed to the glacial mountain cold and the biting northern wind. Alas! Such conditions are not restricted to those two countries. Whether Austria, Italy, England, or France, all are tainted to some extent with the same flavour. It is just that these two countries are the most extreme. We still recall the following passage by that great champion of peace John Bright, who explained in June last year about the present conditions of Europe: As things stand, nations find their resources swallowed up by the insatiable exigencies of the militarism in which they live. [ . . . T]he real interests of the masses are trodden under foot in deference to false notions of glory and national honour. I cannot help thinking

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that Europe is marching to some great catastrophe. The crushing weight of her military system cannot be indefinitely supported with patience, and the populations, driven to despair, may very possibly before long sweep away the personages who occupy thrones and the pretended statesmen who govern in their names.97 Such are the present-day conditions of Europe. What, then, of the future? To begin with, this development of the military organ is a result of over-expansion of military activities in the past. So far as the future is concerned, however, there is reason to believe that the expansion of the military organ will become the cause of military activities. Although standing armies were originally established in the spirit of defence, just as weapons for defending against the enemy may drastically change into weapons for attacking the enemy, so the spirit of these armies may drastically change into an offensive one. Although standing armies were originally brought into being in the spirit of preserving peace, they may drastically change into a catalyst provoking war. Since we know that the duels among the feudal samurai were most frequent in those days when they carried two swords, we know for sure that there will be duels in the future among the European countries because of their huge standing armies. In fact, even though in appearance the law which regulates the activities of European countries is the Law of Nations, yet it is a law which Bright describes as "complicated and contradictory rules which have developed from customs; and, moreover, those customs themselves usually follow the desire of the strong".98 Thus, even if the Law of Nations were successfully enforced, this would not be enough to ensure peace in the world. Let alone that this Law of Nations is not a master which controls each country, but instead is a slave controlled by them! Let alone that, as Bismarck has said, one relies not on the Law of Nations, but only on blood and iron! What, then, is the law which regulates the actions of the European countries? We know that it is not the Law of Nations which has developed from customs. It is also obvious that it is not the New Testament principle of loving your enemies, blessing them that curse you, doing good to them that hate you, and praying for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.99 Has not Carlyle said that the

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ultimate issue in the relationship between any two individuals is simply either to kill or to be killed?100 We must frankly set forth what is the present-day international law of Europe. To wit: European diplomatic policy is not merely a matter of loving one's friend and hating one's enemy; nor is it merely a matter of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth; the ultimate issue comes down to whether my country shall annex thy country or shall be annexed by her. As we already know that this law is what governs the present world, so we need to know its future, too. What will be the future trend in Europe?

CHAPTER The World of Might: Surrounding Conditions in the External World Viewed from the Surface

IV

Part II

IF ONE LOOKS AT THE MATTER FROM

an historical perspective, it must be said that there is indeed an intimate relationship between the two continents of Asia and Europe. Let us look and see. The mountain ranges of East Asia stretch like rough waves from the Japan Sea to the Bay of Biscay, now rising, now falling, sometimes continuous, sometimes broken, criss-crossing the two continents north and south in irregular broken lines. Furthermore, the great flat plains of Central Asia continue their vast, limitless course into the heart-lands of Germany and Holland as if they knew no bounds. There are more than 6,000 miles from the shore of the Pacific to the shore of the Atlantic. But the altitude varies by no more than a few hundred feet. On the average, the continent of Asia rises above 1,130 feet above sea level, while Western Europe rises an average of 671 feet above sea level. The climate is temperate and suited to human habitation, with abundant vegetation and potable water. In addition, there are no great rivers running across these two continents to act as natural frontiers. Such are their geographical characteristics. In these circumstances, therefore, the two continents of Asia and Europe may be said to be most suitable as a battlefield for great movements of a host of armies. Without a doubt, these lands are truly ideal for great heroes to employ their weapons. Thus from the primitive and undeveloped ancient times to the present nineteenth century, it is a great truth that the chronicles of human history have been merely the drifting of various races back 48

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and forth from North to South and East to West across these two continents. It is no exaggeration to say that the history of Europe past and present is simply the history of the movement of the races. In the first place, the ancestors of the peoples of present-day Europe migrated from Central Asia, and thus we must say that ancient history is a history of the races travelling from East to West. For example, the Celtic races moved West against the indigenous population, the Latin races against the Celtic races, the Teutons against the Latins or the Celts, the Slavs against the Teutons, and the Tartars against the Slavs; all these movements have been from East to West, the one following in the footsteps of the other. Finally, the Spaniards on the extreme West coast of Europe moved West across the Atlantic Ocean and reached the continent of America. In contrast to this, present-day history is in fact that of the movement of races from West to East. I cannot help but experience a strange thrill upon reading over history, past and present. Although the history of Europe is said to be quite varied from time immemorial to the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, nevertheless, just as if there were a great general directing everything from behind the scenes, in spite of the voluntary nature of the above movements, they are all in accordance with a fixed law of a general movement from East to West. (Of course, the eastern conquests of Alexander the Great and of the Crusades moved from West to East, but these were not original movements but rather reactions. And in fact, the impetus behind these reactions was the pressure from East to West.) From the beginning of modern times down to the present, however, there has been a further great reaction. The direction has changed completely, just as if a host of cavalry had wheeled about and begun a movement according to the order of a general, or as if various races had begun to travel back to their homelands, from which their ancestors had departed several thousand years ago in the remote past, or several hundred years ago in the recent past. I am greatly surprised by these facts. For example, Greece has thrown off the Turkish yoke and become independent; Italy has separated herself from Austrian control and established a new state; Spain against France, France against Germany, Germany against Austria, England

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against Russia, and various Western countries against Turkey—have not all these thrusts been movements attempted from West to East? Compare the political map of three hundred years ago with that of today, and much will be learnt. NOTE: For example, Turkey gradually annexed her surrounding territories after the conquest of Constantinople in 1453. With the exception of Montenegro, the entire Balkan peninsula, the Peloponnesus, and the Black Sea coast, as well as the Northern Coast of the Azov Sea, all fell into Turkish hands. By 1711, the Turkish domain stretched from the Adriatic Sea and the Danube River in the West to the region of the Dniester and Dnieper Rivers in the East. Bessarabia, the Crimea, and the Mongolian territories also became Turkish possessions. The total area in continental Europe held by Turkey was 15,454 square miles. With the exception of Russia, Turkey had more territory than any other country in Europe. From this time onwards, however, she gradually fell into decline, and although she won a battle against Austria in 1739, afterwards she lost territories one after another, and by the time of the outbreak of war with Russia some years ago, she had only 9,456 square miles. Of these, 8,902 square miles belonged to principalities which acknowledged Turkish overlordship in name only, otherwise being almost the equivalent of independent countries. Next, Turkey was again relieved of 4,558 square miles of territory by the Treaty of Berlin. Thus in the period from 1700 to 1878, she lost in Europe 10,666 square miles; of these, 8,902 square miles were conquered by Russia, and 4,816 square miles of these territories became integrally Russian territory. More recently, do we not have the example of Ireland, which has acquired a chance to recover her right to freedom and landownership, withheld by the English for many years? (The bill for Home Rule by Gladstone 101 on April 8, 1886, and the proposal for Land Reform on the 16th of the same month.) A thousand years ago, the wars which trampled the Roman Empire underfoot were among the Teutonic, the Celtic, the Latin, and the Slavonic races. What of the wars of the present? Are not the wars between the Anglo-Saxon English and the Slavic Russians, between the Latin French and the Teuton Germans, also all racial wars? Without a doubt, the world is the battleground of the struggle for the survival of the fittest among

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races. The history of what is called the fall of Rome is also the history of the struggle for survival among races. The history of nineteenthcentury civilization is again the history of a struggle for survival among races. The difference is simply that those who were on the offensive are now on the defensive; and the direction of movement has become West to East instead of East to West. We have heard the following: that Bismarck's future strategy is to exclude Austria from the German Alliance and push it aside in the East, annex the Balkan principalities, move eastward along the Danube, use Salonica as the capital and the great river Danube as a means of extending the German Empire to the Black Sea, boldly to seize Constantinople, secure the Northern Mediterranean, and thereby establish a new version of the Eastern Roman Empire in the world of the nineteenth century. We do not know whether or not this is true. Nevertheless, considering this strategy under present-day conditions, we may not say it is completely conjectural. For example, Russia took over Poland and turned swiftly toward the southwest like a long snake moving down a steep slope; nonetheless the German Empire blocked her path, and as it were like a fierce tiger taking refuge by a crag so that no one would dare to attack him,102 prevented Russia from advancing a single step further. Russia, however, has not been able to forget her plan to move South for a single day. As such a desire as Russia's to advance to Constantinople does not arise overnight, so she will not readily abandon it. We are familiar with the fact that the movements in Eastern Europe in the nineteenth century are, generally speaking, mainly steppingstones for Russia's advance on Constantinople. For this reason, it is not impossible to say that the question of the future of Europe comes down to the point of into whose hands this ancient capital of the Eastern Roman Empire will fall. Alas! This ancient capital will certainly not remain in the possession of the Tartar races forever. That being so, the question is therefore whether it will fall into the hands of the Slavonic races or the Teutonic races. In either case, from an historical point of view, it already appears clearly that this ancient capital which was captured by Islam some four hundred years ago will be returned once again to its former Christian masters.

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Nevertheless, it is like this with the European countries: "If for much land they deploy armies, for a little, they smite with halberds."103 As there is not even the width of a pace between the European powers, it is not at all possible for them to manoeuvre freely. In such a situation, where is it possible for them to attempt such undertakings? By and large, it is the law of nature that objects follow the path of least resistance; the movement of the races also has to obey this principle. In ancient times, it was difficult to move East and easy to move West. This is the reason that in ancient times movement was towards the West. In the present day, it is difficult to move West and easy to move East. This is the reason why movement now is towards the East. From this, for the first time in the history of the world, arises the great problem of the Eastern Question.104 Russia, for instance, although disappointed because her westward movement was hindered, once having turned her spearhead to the East, has now begun to conquer those Tartar peoples who had previously conquered her. And just as one drives wild beasts back to the forest, so the East is the direction in which Russia continues to advance. Thus Russia stretched like a dragon into Central Asia, in one vast sweep, just as one overruns uninhabited territory. She has come close to Afghanistan and reached Manchuria, thereby pressing upon our strategic northern outpost. Her Eastern Fleet sails on the Amur River, and thus the Russian Eagle flutters buoyantly in the northern wind on our horizon. Twenty-five years ago, toward the end of the Tokugawa government, Russian warships came to Tsushima and attempted to capture the island; the government of that time, with the help of English power, barely repulsed that attempt. This incident is still fresh in the mind of the public. The English Minister to Japan at the time, Sir Rutherford Alcock,105 who was intimately familiar with these events, recently sent a letter to the London Times upon hearing rumours that Russia would make another attempt on Tsushima. NOTE: "Since the Japanese government was concerned upon hearing rumours that Russia had designs upon Tsushima", wrote Alcock, "when I look back upon my stay in Japan in the past, there is no doubt that such rumours

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greatly disturbed the Japanese government." According to Alcock, owing to the characteristics of the Russian people as well as the differences between despotic governments and others, once they conceive a policy, they always adhere to it, and they do not change their policy for a long time. The aims of Russia, be they Constantinople, the Bosphorus, Central Asia, China, or the Amur River and Mongolia, do not change; once she has set her eyes in a certain direction, no matter how great the obstacles she may encounter, she certainly does not abandon her course. Although it may happen that for a temporary convenience, she may put off her plan, sooner or later she will look for an opportunity and strike out once more; and, in effect, she will not give up until she has achieved her goal. At the same time, wrote Alcock, Tsushima is an incomparably valuable island on the eastern side of the Korean Strait. One harbour on the island is a deep seawater harbour stretching far inland, with a warm climate, hence there is no worry of freezing at any time of the year. The harbour entrance is very narrow, so it is easy to defend against enemy attack. Strategically speaking, it is a crucial port which must be called a natural Sebastopol. In addition, since in peace time the island controls trade from the Pacific to the China Sea, and in war time it is convenient for launching an attack upon Korea or Peking, from the Russian point of view it must be even more valuable than her possessions north of Sakhaline, all of Siberia and the Maritimes. When we saw that the other year, after the European countries had first concluded treaties with Japan, Russia immediately tried to take Tsushima, we should have realized that she had a profound interest in this island. "A gradual sequence of minor events will eventually lead to a great change." 106 Alas, the danger to our country is like that! It is necessary for our people to concentrate their attention on all aspects of the East. Notwithstanding that Russia nourishes her ambition towards the East, we should remember that there is, nevertheless, already one master in the East. Who is that master? It is in fact Britain. Britain wields the greatest power in the East because she holds India. Then it is not without reason that Russia is always waiting vigilantly for an opportunity to wrest India from Britain's hands. But how will Russia attempt to carry this out? The first land she should seize is Afghanistan. The course of world events is concentrated in the East, the course of events in the East is

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concentrated in India, and events in India are concentrated in Afghanistan. Thus Afghanistan is the strategic point between Britain and Russia. If Britain wishes to defend India, she must necessarily defend herself right here. If Russia wishes to attack India, she must necessarily attack right here. The dispute over Afghanistan for this reason has always been between Britain and Russia. This is also the reason why this problem must be considered as a great clue to the Eastern Question. The Afghanistan border dispute has been exploding for years; last year the makeshift measures adopted by Lord Salisbury's Cabinet107 temporarily patched things up, but all this was just like putting a lid on top of an active volcano; people can expect that in the years to follow, there will be a greater explosion of the volcano. At present, Amir Abdur Rahman108 appears to be a vassal of Britain, but in fact to those who are even only slightly familiar with the Eastern Question, his rule should prove to be a good opportunity for Russian advancement. He lived for many years in Russian territory, and has, for a long time, been receiving lavish treatment from Russia. At present, secret emissaries from St. Petersburg make trips back and forth incessantly to Kabul, the capital. For this reason, one should realize that such a "relationship is by no means based on a casual and temporary association".109 In fact, I discovered, in reading his argument on the Eastern Question as related to Persia, the following words of the former American Minister to Persia, Mr. Benjamin. The policy and determination of Russia was in fact explicitly made public last spring (1885) in a statement by a Russian official: "Believe nothing you hear a propos of the imbroglio on the eastern frontier. Even if you hear any one swear that we do not want Herat [the Western metropolis of Afghanistan], do not believe him; not even if I swear, not even if the Czar should swear, do not believe it. We want Herat, and we shall have it!"110 If this statement is credible, the explosion of a hitherto latent crisis cannot be far off. For myself, I am just watching the Western sky and waiting to see the rising of black smoke. No doubt the history of the British conquest of India is a history of British crimes. There is no need for me to elaborate on this point.

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Everyone in the world, including even the British themselves, admits as much. In other instances as well, such as Hong Kong, China, Japan, and, last year, Burma, their justification was that there was no way to avoid fighting; but does this mean that one has no choice but to conquer another country? Apart from this, I myself have been unable to discover any reason why that is inevitable. Furthermore, I do not know on the basis of what right Britain has occupied Kyomundo, Russia Cheju Island, Germany the Marshall Islands or Caroline Islands, France Annam or Taiwan and Fukien. I do not know of anything other than the right of the strong on the basis of which they have done so. In effect the Eastern Question is the question of by what race, by what country, and when the unfortunate countries of Asia, doomed as they already are to the fate of annihilation by the merciless peoples of Europe, will be annihilated. Look at Burma, a country with an area more than two-thirds that of France, with three great rivers cutting across a vast and fertile plain, blessed with abundant forests, oil, coal, minerals, precious stones, as well as rubber and sulphur. Although she is a great country whose land should provide employment for thirty million farmers, yet when, owing to her crime of being primitive and weak, she was taken over by Britain, there was not a single person in the world to shed a tear for her. I cannot help but be moved by that poem by Campbell about the downfall of Poland: Oh, bloodiest picture in the book of Time, Sarmatia fell, unwept, without a crime; Found not a generous friend, a pitying foe, Strength in her arms, nor mercy in her woe! Dropp'd from her nerveless grasp the shattered spear, Closed her bright eye, and curb'd her high career.111 At least there is someone who sheds a tear at the death of a single peasant in a country village; why then does everyone in the world turn a blind eye to the death of such a great country as though one knew nothing about it? I suspect that just as plants exist for the sake of animals, and animals exist for the sake of human beings, so perhaps Asia exists for the sake of Europeans.

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Reading the Jinno Shotoki (The Records of the Legitimate Succession of the Divine Sovereigns),112 I came across the following ancient legend which is very appropriate indeed to the present condition of the Orient: Susanoo descended from heaven and went to the headwaters of the Hiver River in Izumo, where he came across an old man and old woman who, in tears, were seeking to comfort a young maiden seated before them. Inquiring who they were, Susanoo received the reply: "We are earth deities, named Ashinatsuchi and Tanatsuchi, and this maiden is our child, Kushi-Inada-hime. At one time we had eight daughters, but each year an eight-forked snake (yamata no orochi) has consumed one; this year he will surely come for this, our last child." Whereupon Susanoo said: "Why, then, don't you give her to me?" And when the old couple said "We shall do as you request," Susanoo transformed the maiden into a manytoothed comb and placed her in his hair. Pouring a carefully brewed brand of sake into eight tubs, Susanoo then awaited the arrival of the snake. Finally the snake came, put each of his heads into one of the eight tubs, drank all the sake, got drunk, and went to sleep. Susanoo unsheathed the ten-span sword he was wearing and hacked the snake into bits.113 Alas! India has already been swallowed up! Annam also, and Burma after these. The rest of the countries in Asia, as well, remain independent in name only. I wonder whether or not these countries will be able to avoid the fate of being devoured sooner or later by the great serpent. In the present nineteenth century, while there exists the eight-headed serpent, is there a Susanoo-no-Mikoto? Truly it is a precarious age. Indeed, what about the future of Persia? And that of China? And Korea? And Japan herself, above all? When we consider the future prospect with an unflinching gaze we see a critical turn of events. I cannot help but be concerned about this. Perhaps we can only await the outcome of these events in the twentieth century.

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CHAPTER The World of Peace: Surrounding Conditions in the External World Viewed from the Inside

V

Parti

ALAS! THE TURMOIL OF THIS WORLD,

when will it come to an end? When I look at the state of Europe, I cannot help but lament. This notwithstanding, how is it that European countries are able to furnish themselves with such vast armaments? It certainly must require vast expenditures. But how are they able to afford such vast expenditures? These must necessarily derive from the wealth of society. Wherever one has these armaments, one must also have the wealth to maintain them. Hence, these flourishing armaments on the surface can be none other than evidence of the fact of the expansion of the industrial organ underneath. Cobden said: "Happily, by the ordinance of Divine Providence, war is in its nature self-destroying."114 For there must be nothing more expensive than war. If one wants to carry on great warfare it is necessary to pay a great cost. If one wants to pay a great cost, it is necessary to develop the industrial organ accordingly. Since industrial and military organs tend to be, however, mutually incompatible, once the industrial organ moves forward, the military organ must necessarily take a step backward. When the former makes a further step forward, the latter must recede accordingly. To illustrate this, take the situation of two people crossing a single lane bridge from opposite ends. As they approach the middle, they are unable to cross without conflict. The advance of one necessitates the retreat of the other; and in order 59

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for one to cross to the other side, to reach the goal, the other must return to the side he started from. I can barely refrain from laughing. Why is it that those Machiavellian European politicians who are naively engaged day and night in expanding armaments completely forget that the means by which they try to expand armaments paradoxically becomes a formidable enemy blocking their very purpose in armaments expansion? In fact, in the nineteenth century the only way to be able to carry out military movements freely is to increase the power of wealth. The means of increasing the power of wealth is, however, none other than the means of diminishing military power. For this reason are not those Kings and ministers who are engaged in armament expansion in fact like one who wants to strike others but instead points the dagger at his own throat? If such is indeed the case, then the end of militarism cannot be far off. Thus, judging from the general trend of present times, the force that dominates Europe can be found in two great principles: armaments and wealth. The question is which has the greater power? Do armaments dominate wealth? Or does wealth dominate armaments? This is the question which we must examine. Perhaps the world of the nineteenth century must be considered as a huge battleground between industrialism and militarism and the present age one of combat between these two principles. In fact, these two organs appeared together with mankind in society and developed simultaneously; and as it is natural that as long as things have not evolved fully, various types and different kinds are mixed together, therefore, until recent times, it has been almost impossible to distinguish their true natures from each other. To illustrate this, look at the occurrences in ancient history. Just as the Earl of Ko is said to have quarrelled with the food bearers,115 the people of Cheng116 seized the granaries of On,117 the Israelites fought each other for grazing lands, and the highland Scots took the cattle and crops of the lowland Scots; was not the purpose a mutual struggle for means of livelihood? It is said that there have been 286 great wars which have remained in people's memory throughout the world. According to Mr. Lecky,118

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the causes of those wars arose, first, from religious differences; second, from competition over economic interests; and third, from the conflict between the rights of the monarch and those of the people.119 We should know that the conflict over trade interests has been an important cause of wars until recent times. For example, whenever the Spaniards learned of any country which was rich in gold and silver, they would devote all their energy to conquering her. In this way, it has been customary to regard war as a kind of robbery; and trade was also a kind of robbery because it benefited oneself at the expense of others. It has been considered that to practise trade was to engage in robbery; to engage in robbery was to engage in war; thus trade and war always acted together in the pursuit of the common objective of robbery. It is quite natural that merchants in the very recent past carried on trade in the spirit of warfare, and warriors in the recent past waged wars in order to achieve their commercial purposes. The traders regarded trade as war, and the warriors regarded war as trade. It is quite natural that warfare and trade have been viewed as almost identical, the only difference being that they have been viewed from opposite sides. This illusion is not only common among mediocre politicians but can be found even in Montaigne, Bacon, and the observant Voltaire,120 who can be said to be the precursor of the French Revolution. Again, even the foremost English statesman of the middle of the eighteenth century, the Earl of Chatham, Pitt,121 said that to open hostilities with France and to usurp her territory, Canada, were for the purpose of monopolizing trade interests for the British.122 Thus the economist Say123 has said: "Out of approximately the last two hundred years, the European leaders have engaged in war for at least fifty years because of the illusion that it is a necessary part of the struggle for trade interests."124 In fact there is nothing more harmful to society than this biased argument and wicked theory. Why should human beings willingly do evil? But the reason that they have caused harm to society is just because it was assumed that they were acting in the right, and they simply remained unaware until their death. How can we not be concerned about this? As already pointed out, even many famous people have believed in this illusion. Hence it

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goes without saying that the views of the ordinary people would be captivated by mercantilism, protectionism, and monopolism. When a trend reaches its extreme, it must change.125 The European politicians have tormented their peoples with this ignorant policy, and caused their countries to suffer. The commoners are driven to an extremity, in which, almost, they are "with aching heads and furrowed brows, saying to each other":126 "Our Kings and ministers love to plunder. How did they bring us to this extreme? Fathers and sons cannot see one another. Brothers and sisters, wives and children are separated." Just at this point, fortunately, the peoples of Europe for the first time encountered a saviour preaching a new economic theory. The unprecedented truth which Adam Smith expounded before the nations of Europe is that the principles of trade and war are as incompatible as fire and ice. For in war the idea is to benefit oneself at the expense of others, and the benefit and loss to oneself and others can never be compatible; yet the idea of trade is precisely the opposite, that is, to benefit oneself as well as others, and the benefit to oneself and others should by all means be compatible. Naturally there were many scholars in Italy, France, and Scotland, who propounded this idea at about the same time as Smith, but there had been no voice as far-reaching as his. In fact, it must be said that his book The Wealth of Nations, which appeared for the first time in 1776, was the gospel of the trading world. He wrote: Each nation has been made to look with an invidious eye upon the prosperity of all the nations with which it trades, and to consider their gain as its own loss. Commerce, which ought naturally to be, among nations, as among individuals, a bond of union and friendship, has become the most fertile source of discord and animosity. The capricious ambition of kings and ministers has not, during the present and the preceding century, been more fatal to the repose of Europe, than the impertinent jealousy of merchants and manufacturers.127 He also said: The wealth of a neighbouring nation, however, though dangerous in war and politics, is certainly advantageous in trade. In a state of

The World of Peace (Part 1) 63

hostility it may enable our enemies to maintain fleets and armies superior to our own; but in a state of peace and commerce it must likewise enable them to exchange with us to a greater value, and to afford a better market, either for the immediate produce of our own industry, or for whatever is purchased with that produce. As a rich man is likely to be a better customer to the industrious people in his neighbourhood, than a poor, so is likewise a rich nation.128 In this manner, he revealed to the nations of Europe that there was light.129 Hence, the sun of commerce spun its way brightly into mid-air like a fire wheel, and completely changed the face of Europe. Sir James Mackintosh130 said this is "perhaps the only book which produced an immediate, general, and irrevocable change in some of the most important parts of the legislation of all civilized states".131 This new doctrine indeed went unopposed, and swayed the whole of Europe. Mountains and rivers, trees and plains, everything was cowed before its power. No matter how obstinate were the Kings and ministers, no matter how exclusive were the dishonest merchants, no matter how infatuated were the policies, most of them have now been swept away; it was at this point that a new means for the industrial world, which was most essential to the advance of the new doctrine, appeared: Watt's invention, the steam engine, in 1769. Free trade and the steam engine set in motion a dynamic force like a cloud and a dragon chasing each other. One necessity gives rise to one invention, one invention gives rise to another necessity. Progress follows progress, and invention follows invention. In a mere fifty years, their great interactions indeed have unexpectedly created a new world in the universe. What is that new world? That is the world of the nineteenth century. If we wish to understand properly the phenomenon of the industrial world of the present day, we should first observe the functioning of the present-day distribution and communication organs. For these organs are the cause of the meeting and parting of all kinds of goods. Thus they are in fact indispensible to industrial society.

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(1) The invention of the steam engine. NOTE: With the introduction of steamships, navigation became extremely easy. Within the time required for a sailing vessel to make one voyage, a steamer can make three voyages. For this reason, even without increasing the number of ships, trade was greatly benefited by this facility. In addition, if steamships were used, the demand for ships and seamen would be greatly reduced. For if only sailing vessels were used, we should require 33,000 more vessels and 550,000 more seamen than at present. If this happened, it would increase the cost of all merchandise 6 per cent, without any benefit to the producer and the consumer. Herewith [Table V] is a list of the tonnage of the countries in the world (in 1,000 tons). [TABLE v]

Nation

Steamers

Sailing vessels

Tonnage

Britain United States Sweden, Norway Italy Germany France Spain Holland Russia Greece Austria South America Portugal, Egypt, etc.

3,363 1,127 207 98 227 334 175 135 106 7 81 59 83

5,807 4,411 2,003 1,292 876 725 565 402 392 427 339 95 146

9,710 4,538 2,209 1,390 1,103 1,059 740 537 498 434 420 154 229

Total

6001

16,480

22,481

SOURCE: Michael G. Mulhall, The Progress of the World [pp. 47-48].

The World of Peace (Part 1) 65

(2) The invention of the railway. NOTE: Looking back into the past, from the time of the famed Stephenson (about 1820),132 one knows that most of the skills of industry have been concentrated in railways, and made the greatest contribution. When Stephenson was building the London and Birmingham railway, people were amazed by this great construction and considered it as great a work as the pyramid of Cheops. But this railway cannot compare with the railways which have been recently constructed. (In this connection, the London and Birmingham railway needed 56 per cent more labour than the pyramid to construct. Yet whereas it took 100,000 labourers and twenty years to build the pyramid, Stephenson used only 20,000 labourers and completed the line in a mere five years. Based upon Smiles.)133 Let us take two or three examples to illustrate the point. The Oroya railway which connects the Andes and Peru is 15,646 feet above sea level. This railway has 63 tunnels, cutting through the Andes, and leaping from cliff to cliff by bridges that seem to hang in the air. There are not many such high and steep railways in the world. But it is not so steep compared to the Rigi railway of Switzerland, which soars high like a staircase up the gigantic rocks. Although it takes only four miles for the Rigi line to reach its peak (4,500 feet higher than the surface of Lake Lucerne), it is considered most treacherous, as there are huge rocks jutting out along the way. With regard to the underground railways, the most well-known is the Metropolitan Underground in London. The cost to construct it was £600 per yard. A construction on terrain not inaccessible but requiring great expense was that of the Elevated Railway in New York. This railway may be said to run in the air; the track is constructed on girders along the most crowded streets, carrying 2,000,000 passengers monthly. It required a huge expenditure to build it, about £78,000 a mile. Recently a similar type of railway using electricity was attempted in Berlin by the famed Dr. Siemens.134 The construction of the railway between Stockton and Darlington in England in 1825 touched off the use of railways for travelling.135 In the last thirty years, engineers have built 100,000 miles of railway all over the world at the huge cost of £1800 million.136 The expansion of railways in the world is indicated in the accompanying table [Table VI].

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[TABLE VI]

1830

1840

1850

1870

1880

Europe United States Africa Asia Australia

550 340 -

5,500 4,090 -

24,200 20,160 40 -

60,400 56,300 580 4,500 1,300

95,271 92,842 2,060 7,850 3,980

Total

890

9,590

44,400

123,080

202,021

SOURCE: Michael G. Mulhall, The Progress of the World [p. 72].

(3) The invention of the telegraph. NOTE: It has not been long since the appearance of the telegraph. In 1837, Messrs. Cooke and Wheatstone,137 after improving the method used by Mr. Ronalds138 in 1816, acquired a telegraph patent. Two years later, the telegraph was first used by the Great Western Railway. But even in 1848, there were 1,700 miles of railway that refused to adopt it. At that time it was considered wonderful that the Queen's speech of seven hundred words was transmitted in sixty-five minutes from London to Liverpool. The first submarine cable was laid between Dover (England) and Calais (France) in 1850; and at present, there are 330 submarine cables, having a length of 97,600 miles. The mileage of land-wires in the world is as shown [Table VII] (messages in units of 1,000). (4) The progress of postal systems.

NOTE: Regardless of the country, it is possible to fathom the intellectual and commercial activity of a people by the postal returns. Herewith is a list [Table VIII] showing the average number of letters to each inhabitant, and the progress in ten years.

[TABLE VII]

Miles

Messages

Mess, /mile

Mess. /1 00 Inhabitants

Europe United States Asia Australia

218,450 140,550 22,400 25,700

78,000 24,000 2,000 4,000

350 170 90 160

75 31 31 150

Total

421,150

109,000

260

9

Place

If to the above is added 97,600 miles of submarine cables, we arrive at a total of 518,700 miles. SOURCE: Michael G. Mulhall, The Progress of the World [p. 85]. [TABLE VIII]

Nation

United Kingdom Switzerland United States Australia Germany Low Countries (Holland & Belgium) France Scandinavia Austria-Hungary Canada Spain & Portugal Italy Spanish America Greece Russia Japan

1867

1877

27 24 15 13 9 9 10 7 6 6 4 3

35 30 19 18 15 14 10 9 8 8 5 4 2 2 1 1

1 1/2 l1/2

SOURCE: Michael G. Mulhall, The Progress of the World [pp. 94-95].

3/4

-

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(5) The publication of newspapers. NOTE: In the accompanying table [Table IX] are shown the date of the introduction of newspapers into each country, the number existing in 1840 and at present, and the tons of printing paper consumed per annum. [TABLE IX]

Nation

United Kingdom United States France Austria Russia Low Countries (Holland & Belgium) Scandinavia Italy Spain & Portugal Switzerland Spanish America Canada West Indies Australia Turkey Persia India China Africa Sandwich Islands Japan Total

First paper

No. in 1840

No. in 1880

Tons of paper (unit: 1,000)

1622 1704 1605 1550 1714

493 830 776 132 204

1,836 6,432 1,280 876 318

168 525 134 92 72

1757 1644 1562 1704

75 104 210 92 54 98 88 37 43 8 2 63 4 14 1 -

376 120 1,124 150 230 850 340 50 220 72

40 30 38 10 17 20 20 5 15 -

644 40 6 34

30 -

3,633

17,348

1728 1765 1731 1805 1797 1838 1781 1880 1824 1835 -

1,470

The newspaper circulation is about 4 million copies in the United States, 2 million in the United Kingdom, and 6 million in the rest of the world. SOURCE: Michael G. Mulhall, The Progress of the World [p. 91].

The World of Peace (Part 1) 69 These inventions and developments, in a concerted movement, have given rise to great changes in the world. Behold! When the fearless and invincible Magellan,139 who relied on the dim light of the south pole stars in venturing forth onto the unexplored seas, shed tears of joy to celebrate the infinite ocean that God had given him on which to test his iron will and named the Pacific Ocean, he had spent three years going around the world.140 The chance that he took was not one that an ordinary seaman would risk. That was the kind of chance that would be taken for the first time only by one such as Magellan, as great a man as ever lived. As it is said in an old poem that "The sea is endless",141 it is even more difficult to sail upon the ocean than to go up in the air. But at present, it is possible just to lie down peacefully in a room and make a tour around the world within only eighty days. Formerly, it took about four months to go from London to Calcutta, even if the sailing ship ran at an exhilarating speed, using the wind to ride over the high waves of the Cape of Good Hope. To use a steamship, it took ninety-four days. But ever since the completion of the great excavation of the Suez Canal (1869), it has become possible to go to Japan on the eastern edge of the Orient, not merely Calcutta, in forty days. The Egyptians, who looked down on other peoples in ancient times because of their achievement in building the sky-scraping pyramids, made repeated attempts to carry out the canal project but finally had to abandon it, in spite of their labour and experience, thousands of years ago. However, the Frenchman Ferdinand de Lesseps142 carried it out single-handedly with ease. Even after this great achievement, his dynamic energy still seemed to be inexhaustible, and at present he is joining in the excavation of the Panama Canal. What would the people of old times say if they heard of this news? In the last century, it was almost impossible to think of such a thing as a railway. Commenting on Newton's143 prediction that there would be in the future an invention which could provide a means to speed along at the brisk pace of fifty miles a day, Voltaire laughed and regarded it as a fancy.144 But now is it not true that it takes that railway less than a week to go from one end on Pacific coast to the the other on the Atlantic coast? And the speed of the telegraph is indeed

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amazing. Through more than 3,000 miles of marine cables, a communication between London and New York can be transmitted in a mere two and a half minutes. Within ten minutes, it is said, it is possible for one to receive a reply. Spencer wrote: "Including times occupied by taking messages to and from offices in each place, any citizen in Edinburgh may give motion to any citizen in London in less than one-fourth of the time a nervous discharge would take place to pass from one to the other, were they joined by living tissue."145 The nerves of society are more active than those of animals. How amazing it is! The great impetus of these new inventions, however, is not merely affecting the facade of society but has also produced considerable changes in the feelings of the individuals who make up society. Without relying upon wild geese in the forest,146 our communication can be entrusted to the postal service. Even if, "while being blown by the wind, one wishes to cry, looking for one's native land",147 the whole world has become one's home. The imaginary world of the Kokinshu (Ancient and Modern Collection of Poetry)148 and of Selected T'ang Poetry has been taken over by these inventions and the practical world is all the more expanded, while the domain of imagination becomes ever narrower. The influence of the practical world is increasing day by day, while the authority of the poet is diminishing every day. For the poet's sake, perhaps we should somewhat lament these developments, but if we consider them as a phenomenon of social progress, we should thank Heaven. These organs of distribution and communication spread like wild fire or like water running downhill, trespassing upon political boundaries to constitute an economic dominion. With respect to politics, in the European countries at present there are many different forms of polity, a variety of peoples, and all sorts of political institutions. These countries are glaring at each other, as if to say: "If you are going to kill us, we are going to stab you." In spite of this, the economic world is impartially149 integrating them and treating them as one federation. Macaulay wrote: "Under medieval feudalism a religious federation was created, for all European countries believed only in one Roman Catholicism with a single Pope reigning over it."150 But the Europe of

The World of Peace (Part 1) 71

the present nineteenth century has become a great republic, owing to the industrial organ. Is that not delightful? Bismarck said: "Is it not delightful that now for the first time since Louis XIV we have taken revenge upon our arch-rival France?" Gambetta151 stated: "Behold! Behold! Now mustn't we one day remove the disgrace of Sedan and the humiliation of Paris?" All of these are illusions of the political world which is dominated by the military organ. In the economic world, there is neither France nor Germany; what room can there be for love or hate? No matter how stubborn and proud the English are, "to get intoxicated"152 they have to buy excellent wines made in France. No matter how much animosity the Germans bear against France, to appreciate elegant and sophisticated French literature must be impossible without importing French books. Those countries that produce iron will export it. Those countries that have a demand for sugar will import it. For this reason, while in the political world things are constrained; stone fortresses and iron bulkheads are created by every state to declare that this is my territory, and that is your possession; in the real world, however, it is in no wise so. "On broad highways, in search of profits, people come and go swiftly."153 They come in like the wind and go away like an ebb tide. They gather because of the centripetal force of demand. They disperse because of the centrifugal force of supply. The whole world is a great arena of competition for commercial gains. "Easily-accessible and great cities"154 are nothing but markets for these gains. To illustrate this, imagine how, even if one sets up fences on a waterway to indicate which part belongs to which individual, in actuality, under the fences, the water currents are mutually connected. How astonishing this is! Thus, from an economic point of view, those crafty politicians carrying out adventurous tactics to resist the movements of the economic world are just like children in a fishing village, standing at the seashore gathering sand in an attempt to block the coming of the tide. How pitiful it is! Above is a description of the organs of distribution and communication. How has commerce progressed by making use of these organs? In the last fifty years, world commerce has progressed

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[TABLE x]

Nations

United Kingdom British Colonies France Germany Low Countries (Holland & Belgium) United States Austria Russia South America Italy Scandinavia Spain & Portugal Turkey & East

World

1830 (in )

1878 (in )

Increase

88,000 21,000 42,000 39,000 30,000 35,000 12,000 24,000 14,000 11,000 8,000 11,000 15,000

601,000 322,000 368,000 319,000 275,000 160,000 160,000 128,000 101,000 98,000 66,000 29,000 85,000

7.00 fold 14.50 9.00 8.00 9.00 6.50 13.00 5.50 7.00 9.00 8.00 3.50 6.00

350,000

2,787,000

8.00

SOURCE: Michael G. Mulhall, The Progress of the World, [pp. 45-46].

rapidly into prosperity, having multiplied eight-fold, as shown in the table [Table X]. What about manufacturing? The civilization of modern society has progressed steadily, almost in step with the progress of manufacturing. Behold! The industries that now employ 12,500,000 workmen and are attaining prosperity in Europe were in their infancy at the time of the Battle of Waterloo [1815], and since that time the countries most advanced in manufacturing have been infallibly the most prosperous. The accompanying table [Table XI] shows the state of manufacturing industry in the countries of the world. According to Bence155 the manufactured amount of reeled thread in 1833 was 5,000 million miles. In other words, a length so great as to be able to encircle the earth 250,000 times, or fifty-one times the distance from the earth to the sun, or 8.5 times the earth's orbit. Again, the

The World of Peace (Part 1) 73 [TABLE XI]

Nations

United Kingdom France Germany Russia Austria Low Countries (Holland & Belgium) Spain & Portugal Italy Scandinavia United States Colonies, etc.

Total

Operatives

Product (in )

Per Operative (in )

2,930,000 1,936,000 2,781,000 1,500,000 1,100,000

665,000,000 416,000,000 286,000,000 160,000,000 130,000,000

224 220 103 106 120

1,180,000 610,000 390,000 220,000 2,704,000 50,000

117,000,000 72,000,000 42,000,000 20,000,000 846,000,000 50,000,000

100 119 108 90 312 100

15,851,000

2,804,000,000

180

SOURCE: Michael G. Mulhall, The Progress of the World [pp. 55-56].

amount of cotton cloth exported in the same year could encircle the equator eleven times, and is longer than the distance from the earth to the moon. These were the figures 53 years ago, and there is no need to say how thriving this manufacturing has become at present. But the progress of commerce gave rise not only to the above phenomena but also to another astonishing phenomenon. What is that? It is the development of the credit system: a great achievement of modern civilization. If people of earlier generations had been told of this, they would have mocked it as a story from the "Arabian Nights". In fact, except for the people of this century, it would be impossible to comprehend the ingenious and smoothly-working nature of this system. What is called debt is in fact a kind of wealth, and there are those called bankers who specialize in a sort of business by buying and selling debts. The crucial function of the credit system

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in the commercial sphere is just like that of the steam engine in the world of locomotion. Daniel Webster156 has thus said: "The credit system greatly activates modern commerce. The benefits that it brings to the nations are several thousand times greater than all the gold and silver collected from the mines all over the world. It stimulates labor, activates manufactures, accelerates foreign trade, links different peoples, kingdoms, and various small ethnic groups, and makes them contact with each other, and thereby develop mutual relationships. Because of the credit system, a highly efficient army and navy could be organized and overpower the force which is simply based on the number of soldiers. Because of the credit system, the strength of a country can only be based on the talents of a nation, wealth, appropriate manufacturing, and others."157 The above statement is no exaggeration. Anyone who wishes to see the truth should visit Lombard Street in London, which perhaps should be called the 'wholesale store' of the world's banks. I need not speak at great length about the progress in livelihood in Europe. This, well-informed people would know for sure. The out-ofoffice politician Itagaki Taisuke,158 who stayed in Paris in 1882 and 1883, wrote: When I was in France I visited the French scholar M. Acollas.159 He asked me what my impressions were after seeing things in Europe. I replied: "Since I have not been long in Europe, I have no means to be familiar with the details of these matters. Generally speaking, I was amazed, however, at the advance of European philosophies, just as I had heard before leaving Japan. At this time, I am particularly astonished at two things. First, the great progress in livelihood, and second, the fact that, as compared to that, there is no great advance in the political world." M. Acollas was greatly impressed by what I had said, saying: "Three days ago I, in collaboration with my colleagues, wrote on 'What aspects of the nineteenth century should we pay most attention to?' What we thought was that in spite of the progress in livelihood, no significant political progress has been made. In the nineteenth century, what should be improved most, therefore, is the political aspect. You have really grasped current European conditions." I thus

The World of Peace (Part 1) 75 unexpectedly received his praise. In observing the current progress in livelihood in Europe, one sees co-operation among those who have wealth, those who have knowledge, and those who are doing manual labour, in carrying out well-designed, elaborate undertakings; from food, clothing, and shelter, to agriculture, manufacturing, and commerce, everything has achieved the utmost development. Even in the villages, one finds everywhere factories, with smoke from the chimneys reaching the sky. Beautiful company buildings rise above the clouds, with roof tiles glittering in the sun. One inevitably sees everywhere the residences of the wealthy, the intelligent look of the people, and their gorgeous clothing. If one just carries one's observation a step further, one sees the situation in which human power almost overwhelms nature: workmen carrying loads in their workshop, the swift buying and selling of bills of exchange at the companies, transportation and traffic moving freely on the roads which are as level as a billiard table, canals being built where there is no water supply. All of this looks as if human beings are overwhelming nature with their power. If one turns his eyes to the political world, however, one sees that even matters that ought to be left to individual freedom cannot be saved from political interference, or affairs that ought to be entrusted to the autonomy of towns or villages cannot escape the control of central government. Even those groups which call themselves political parties are not immune from the evil habit of factionalism, which is seen in childish actions such as the decision to expel the nobility from the French House of Representatives, or the disallowance of Mr. Bradlaugh, who refused to take an oath, from entering the English House of Commons.160 This is true, indeed. In Europe, although in the past the political world dominated livelihood, yet at present, progress in livelihood is impelling political progress, and interrelations in the economic world are breaking down divisions in the political world. I must say that sooner or later the future of Europe is one in which the industrial organ will inevitably overpower the military organ.

CHAPTER The World of Peace: Surrounding Conditions in the External World Viewed from the Inside

VI

Part II

WEALTH IS THE GREAT MOVING

force of the nineteenth century. If we know that armaments largely dominate the economic world, we should realize too that wealth largely dominates the political world. If we are aware that the political world is subject to the dictates of the economic world, we should know that armaments are also subject to the dictates of wealth. Again, if we recognize the immense power of armaments, then we should also notice that the power of wealth, which dominates armaments, is even greater. The world of the nineteenth century, therefore, is a world in which wealth is able to dominate armaments. The creation of the standing army system should in fact be considered as the first victory of wealth over the armaments. The reason behind this is that with the creation of a standing army, a society in which the whole people bear arms has been in effect changed completely; with only a small part of society being mobilized as soldiers, the remaining majority of the population would be readily employed —and should necessarily be employed—at work in the productive industries. For not only do these people have to make a living for themselves, they also have to provide now for that burden, the standing army. The creation of standing armies and the invention of firearms, if one inquires about their period of time, occurred almost simultaneously, and the two events had a peculiar, strange connection. At the 76

The World of Peace (Part II) 77

moment, I will leave an exposition of this connection to another discussion and must be satisfied to point out that it was owing to the invention of firearms that standing armies were created, and firearms were provided at an enormous expense. Behold! Even those "easily-accessible and great cities"161 which dominate the world of the present day were simply humble and small cities at the outset of modern history. How were they able to be saved from the ferocious claws of powerful feudal lords? They simply took shelter under the wings of the kings. But why were charters of freedom granted to the cities by the kings? Why were the cities allowed to have self-government? Why did the kings come to take sides with the cities and always protect them ever since? Why did the kings encourage the cities' trade and commerce and assist in their progress? It was for no other reason than that the kings wanted to collect taxes from the cities. To be precise, it was only because the kings wanted the cities to bear the expense of maintaining their standing armies. Anyone who has read English constitutional history should know this. Why did the King allow the citizens of the cities to participate in the Parliament? Why, and by what necessity that was the Parliament established? And by what necessity did the King unsparingly concede that most crucial right to the people? There was only one necessity, i.e., the necessity of maintaining armaments. In this manner, the industrial organ emerged at the beginning within the military organ as a means to obtain armaments. But the industrial organ contains an element which, by its nature, must necessarily greatly develop. It is like a mustard seed taking advantage of the spring sun to grow, and eventually its vigour is such that even a passerine circling in the sky would build a nest in the branches thereof.162 The trend has reached that far. No matter how much the Kings and ministers regret it, it is too late now. England, for example, has developed in the way described in Walter Bagehot's words: "the slavish parliament of Henry VIII grew into the murmuring parliament of Queen Elizabeth, the mutinous parliament of James I, and the rebellious parliament of Charles I."163 At last, even King Charles, an advocate of the divine right of Kings, was driven by sheer necessity to

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yield to the manufacturers, workers, businessmen, traders, and farmers; and to consult their pleasure. Why was this? It was only because the power of wealth keeps armaments under control. The history of Europe since the intrusion of the barbarians, especially since the creation of standing armies, has in fact been a history full of events related to the rise and fall of armaments and wealth, and perhaps should rather be called the history of the war between armaments and wealth. Upon my realization of this while reading European history, I felt high-spirited, like a traveller who, after having walked lonely with a bamboo stick through the Kiso mountains and dales while gazing at the tiny confines of the sky, begins to command a view of the boundless expanse of open fields from the top of Mount Usui. In ancient times the barbarous peoples trampled upon the civilized peoples only because their physical power was able to dominate wealth. In the present day, why are the civilized peoples annihilating the barbarous peoples? It is simply because their wealth is able to control physical power. The world of today is a world in which wealth dominates armaments, and thus "wealth is might" should be seen as the watchword giving insight into the great trends of the present day. Adam Smith wrote: In modern war the great expense of fire-arms gives an evident advantage to the nation which can best afford that expense; and consequently, to an opulent and civilized, over a poor and barbarous nation. In ancient times the opulent and civilized found it difficult to defend themselves against the poor and barbarous nations. In modern times the poor and barbarous find it difficult to defend themselves against the opulent and civilized. The invention of firearms, an invention which at first sight appears to be so pernicious, is certainly favourable both to the permanency and to the extension of civilization.164 One should realize, then, that there is only one reason why at present the Asian countries are being annihilated by the West: the Asian countries are poor and barbarous, and the West is wealthy and civilized. This is natural. How can one harbour suspicions about this?

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Let us look, for example, at Russia. Her size is one twenty-sixth of the entire globe or one-seventh of its land, covering an area of 8,500,000 square miles. In spite of the fact that she is thus the largest empire which has ever existed, that she is a thoroughly military country, and that her military power is strong enough to overrun European countries, why is it that not only is she unable to exert her power in Europe but even in East Asia? It is because Russia is contained by Britain. What are the means by which Britain can, then, contain Russia? Is it her navy that makes Britain the ruler of the seas? The answer is no. What makes Britain the ruler of the seas is not her navy but her merchant marine. According to Michael Mulhall, in the year 1877 among 103,390,000 tons of vessels entering all ports, 54,240,000 tons are British merchant ships, whereas only 49,150,000 tons belong to all the other countries.165 What is the necessity, then, for this enormous number of merchant ships? It is due to the thriving British commerce. The amount of business in which Britain acts as a commission agent in fact commands a majority (more than 53 per cent) of that of the world.166 Mr. Porter,167 an Englishman, has said: "If our country had not possessed skilled industry, we should on no account have stood any chance of success in the Napoleonic Wars."168 If such is the case, one should realize that this was also the reason why Britain was able to hold Russia in check. The reason why Britain assumes the hegemony of the world while Russia, the most powerful nation in the world, is unable to outstrip her is also to be found in the Lombard Street money market, in the Newcastle shipyards, in the Manchester cotton mills, in the Sheffield steel plants, or in the docks crowded with ships in London. The gigantic black smoke from the chimneys of the factories is like a signal fire giving warning of the enemy, and restrains Russia from carrying out her ambition freely. Behold! No matter how Russia spurs and exploits her people, her limited wealth cannot match her boundless expenditures. At her wits' end, she is forced to advertise for flotation of public loans at a high rate of interest from Lombard Street, which in fact reveals her lack of credit-worthiness. As Mr. Cobden has cautioned the British people

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that "to lend your money to Russia is to put your wealth in an active volcano",169 it is not without reason that creditors lend their money at especially high interest rates, for Russia is a most uncredit-worthy client. Thus one should realize that Britain has eclipsed Russia because she has wealth, and that Russia has been eclipsed by Britain because she does not have wealth. What is the relative strength, then, of wealth vis-a-vis armaments in the world of the present day? It should not require a person of intellect to elucidate this question. Indeed, we should say that the power of wealth can oppose armaments, but the power of armaments cannot oppose wealth. This is because in the present world, while armaments can be maintained by wealth, wealth cannot be maintained by armaments. Consider the following. If the power of armaments is able to dominate wealth, why did Bismarck not become the Lycurgus170 of the nineteenth century, striking iron coins, banning trade, closing harbours, installing barriers to block comings and goings, creating a new world apart from the world or opening a new universe within the universe, transforming the German Empire into a modern Sparta and developing the military organ at his will? If that had been the case, he could have changed the entire country into a fortress; he could have converted all the people into soldiers. For the sake of training he could have authorized robbery. For the sake of practice he could have allowed assaults on slaves. He could have slaughtered weak babies who in future would not likely become soldiers. But why is it that Bismarck did not do the above for which he had a forte, but instead tried hard to learn from Solon171 the sort of things for which he was most incompetent? Why is it that Bismarck wanted to have the qualities of a businessman, in addition to his capacity as a great plunderer? He brought Germany's steel industry, for example, into competition with Belgium's and England's in their domestic markets, and pitted German bronze wares and lighting equipment against French merchandise in the Dutch, Belgian, Spanish, and Italian markets. He also contemplated overpowering England, the old master of the East, in a trade war in the East, particularly in Japan and China. In spite of the fact that the means he adopted went beyond the

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natural boundaries of economics and was rather political and strategic, and that his intention exceeded that of the bona fides of a trader, and rather comprised the characteristics of a treacherous diplomat, why is it that he felt the necessity for carrying out such enterprises? About this, I cannot help but wonder, indeed. It is, however, not surprising at all. Such is called the general trend of the nineteenth century. It was the power of wealth, i.e. the necessity, for maintaining armaments, to rely on wealth, that made Bismarck put on the mask of a trader over his actual face of a diplomatic manoeuvrer. In seeing a dim light in the future of the German people, I cannot help but rejoice with them. Trade, even if used to conquer land from other people, is still trade. Trade, even if used to kill other peoples, is still trade. Whether it is conducted with the ill design of a Tao Chih172 or with the good intention of Yao and Shun,173 trade is trade. If such is the case, then once the sun of trade has shone over the heart of the German Empire, it goes without saying that the ominous star of armaments phantasmally produced by Bismarck's magic will rapidly lose its light. The German Gazette of September 8,1885, wrote: "We are fortunate that what we believed, until some ten years ago, could not be acquired except as spoils of war are now being secured through the promotion of industries." Are the Germans now awake to their mistake? Even Bismarck with his stubbornness and arrogance had to bow down before the great trend of the nineteenth century, let alone those who wish to become Bismarck and those who cannot become Bismarck. I hope that the mediocre politicians in the world will think twice about this. Although at first glance Europe might look to be a world of might, as one observes a little beneath the surface, one will see also a world of wealth. One will realize that armaments and wealth are the two great forces, like, as it were, the sun and the moon, both hanging in the sky, vying to shine upon the earth. But if one observes more carefully, one will see that even though the sun of armaments appears to emit dazzling light, it is a desperate one as it is already sinking at a

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low angle behind the western hills, whereas the sun of wealth is a hopeful one with its brilliant ruddy orb, fairly leaping up into mid-air. Yet, if one ponders upon the question even further, one should see that even the desperate light is after all a reflection of the hopeful light, and appears only for some time. It can be likened to the moon which is originally not luminous, but radiates, because of the sun's reflection, graceful light. If the sunlight were eliminated, there would be no moonlight whatsoever, and thus moonlight is sunlight. In the present day, the military is powerful because it borrows the power of wealth. If the power of wealth were eliminated, then the power of the military would not be particularly significant. Persons of insight will readily acknowledge this proposition. In the former days, production existed for the sake of the military, but the situation has been completely reversed in the present age, since the military now exists for the sake of production. The end has all at once become the means, the means has all at once become the end, and the position of lord and vassals, master and servants has been reversed. Nowadays, those such as the great General Wellington,174 the hero of Waterloo, or Admiral Nelson,175 the hero of Trafalgar, have to fight desperately to protect the merchants and the farmers who, in the old times, had exerted themselves to serve the warriors. I cannot help but rejoice on account of the laws of nature and man.176 A most strange phenomenon we are observing is the situation in which armaments seem to be not simply a necessity to protect production but also articles of luxury advertising the power of the industrial organ. During the Tokugawa period, for example, the country was at peace and no weapons were used. Swords, which had been a necessity during the previous Warring Period, all at once became luxury goods. Dignitaries looked for Masamune long swords and Kanesada short swords, inlaying their sword-guards (tsuba) and handles (kotsuka) with gold or gems. Wearing these swords and striding through the streets, they looked exultant when people along the roadside admiringly pointed at them and said to each other, "Those are the dignitaries." Similarly, in present-day Europe things such as Krupp guns, Armstrong guns, ironclads, or torpedo boats are

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no more than a sort of ornament for exalting national glory and boasting to other countries: "Look at how much armaments our country possesses!" In short, many wars are in fact wars of armaments; and why is it that it looks as if even before hostilities begin the issue has been decided? This is simply because the issue is decided by the amount of wealth. For this reason, one may say that wealth is indeed the great force dominating the nineteenth century.

CHAPTER The World of Peace: Surrounding Conditions in the External World Viewed from the Inside

VII

Part III

THUS WEALTH AND ARMAMENTS DO

not belong to the same principle. The principle which governs wars is not the same as that which oversees commerce. Even if two mountains might meet each other, or two parallel lines intersect each other, the above two principles would never agree with each other. Such a finding indeed constitutes the second stage in the victory of wealth over armaments. The human being is a self-seeking animal. Although I do not necessarily believe in Bentham so as to advocate utilitarianism, yet if I were asked what is the prime mover of mankind, I should not be reluctant to answer that it is self-preservation. If one knows that self-preservation is the prime mover for human beings, one should realize that self-preservation is also the prime mover for a nation, which is made up of individuals. And once knowing that the human being is an animal moved by self-preservation, or self-interest, one should also understand why one should not do certain things, when one's interests are incompatible with another's, that might impair oneself and benefit another. No matter how enormous is the influence of Christianity, and how great is the merit of Buddhism, as long as one's own interests do not stand side by side and advance side by side with another's interests, Christ's love and Buddha's compassion are like oil poured onto a fire, serving only to make the flame even stronger. In fact, in ancient times, or perhaps almost until recent times, people lived under the delusion 84

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that one's own trading interests, which are most pertinently and directly related to oneself, are incompatible with another's interests. As long as this delusion pervaded everyone's mind and all corners of society, no matter how compassionate a sermon might be, it was of no more use than telling a story to a stone image of jizo. Even the preacher himself, in his heart, let alone his audience, was neither satisfied nor convinced by his sermon. The true principle of trade, however, is to make one's own interests compatible with another's interests. The principle of trade is thus the principle of human nature, of religions, and of love. Adam Smith startled the world by explicitly proclaiming aloud this principle; James Watt177 discovered how to apply it in practice. If heroes are those who destroy other people's states and societies, exhaust the energy and financial resources of the common people, murder some people's fathers and make other people's children orphans, and introduce tyrannical governments and cause damage to the world; then Napoleon, Bismarck, Gorchakov,178 and the like are indeed heroes. But if great men are those entitled to worldwide respect and admiration, who put new clothes onto people clad in rags, provide meat for the poor who have nothing to eat, turn weather-beaten hovels into pleasant dwellings, change grudges among peoples into friendly feelings, "put down warlike spirit and bring about a future in which hope shines with the light of the sun and the moon",179 who provide the world with the light of the great truth that social co-operation should be based upon voluntary co-operation instead of compulsory co-operation, and that voluntary co-operation is the co-operation of interests and the co-operation of interests is the co-operation of love— they are then none other than Adam Smith and James Watt. One should not count upon a single individual's power to inspire society. But if I were asked who, on his own, exerted his powers to the uttermost and contributed most to the emergence of the new world of the nineteenth century, then I am certain that the above two men were the most outstanding. It is to these two men that the nineteenth-century world of civilization is indebted, more than to the kings who wear gold crowns and the ministers of the highest rank, or to the men of letters writing in ornate style, or to the eloquent mem-

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bers of parliament idolized by the people, or to the enterprising and experienced traders, or to the devoutly religious men. The presentday world was indeed created at the hands of these two humble scholars from the Scottish highlands. As great benefactors of the world, perhaps they should be called the uncrowned kings. I hope that the people of our present day, and the youth, the people of the future, may transfer their passionate admiration for Napoleon and Bismarck to these two benefactors. Indeed, it should be said that Adam Smith was a pioneer among the advocates of peace in recent times. Naturally there were those who advocated peace before Smith, but their peace was no more than empty words. In other words, this peace considered hedonism as its sworn enemy and idolized stoicism. It went against popular likings and human nature. It demanded of those in the world who were striving after fame and wealth to become Stoic philosophers. What it asked for was Sakyamuni's ascetic practice on snowy mountains; what it expected was Dharma's nine-year meditation facing a wall. It was, therefore, simply an inconsiderate and cruel empty theory. It talked about peace on the one hand, but demanded struggle on the other. As there was no consistency between profession and practice, no matter how fervent a speech one might deliver, its empty words would do no good to the world. However, when Adam Smith maintained that peace should not be peace at the expense of one's own interests but rather for the promotion of one's interests, peace for the first time could be practically realized. Its vigour is like that of a flood: nothing can stop its outpouring. Peace is after all a paradise, but in the old times in order to attain peace one had to perform what the Buddhists call a hazardous feat. Many would indeed wish to enter paradise, but again, many would no doubt feel reluctant and shrink from the suffering of having to perform a hazardous feat. Finally, Adam Smith sent word to the people that there is no pain needed to reach the paradise of peace, that there is no such thing as a hazardous feat or the River Styx, and that one can travel to the paradise of Sakyamuni by walking freely and assuredly, with the arts of T'ao Chou-kung.180 Once this gate is opened, is there anyone who does not wish to enter it voluntarily?

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Behold! The principle of peace has already imperceptibly gathered force at the core of society. Is it not better to conduct trade by trade, rather than by war? The principle of trade is the principle of peace. How true it is, then, that the more wealth progresses, the more peace progresses. Two years ago (1884), for example, at the outbreak of hostilities between France and China, the foreign residents in Shanghai raised funds to mediate a peace between the two countries, as they wanted peace so much. This was by no means because they could not stand looking at the distress of the people of these two countries and wished to fulfil a moral obligation. To scholars who are little acquainted with the actual affairs of the world, it might appear to be a curious affair indeed, as if the foreign residents in Shanghai were, without any obvious reasons, overanxious about other people's affairs. But this was not the case. The foreign merchants believed that they would rather suffer the pain of paying a minor contribution than sustain major damage because of the transactions lost in the war. In other words, simple devotion to self-interest had led the foreigners to mediate a peace between two alien countries. When I saw the fact that such an effort did not come from the pure hearts of those called philanthropists, moralists, and humanitarians, but rather from merchants who were bent only on making profit, I came to realize that theories by themselves indeed have no value, and the theories which have value are those congruent with human self-preservation. One should know that the principles of peace and self-preservation are, unlike wealth and armaments, by no means two antagonistic principles, but are, in fact, in accord with each other. Self-interest, rather than peace, is the enemy of war. This is because the principle of peace progresses only where self-interest prevails, and flourishes only in accordance with self-interest. I feel sorry for war, which has to face an unexpected formidable enemy, and rejoice with peace as it acquires an unforeseen powerful ally. The dreadful enemy of militarism is thus precisely this selfinterest, and only this self-interest. Until the present, militarism has been rampant in most societies because people were lost in the wild fancy that it was in accord with self-interest. In other words, it enlisted the aid of self-interest. But now, the doctrine advocating that to

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injure another is not to benefit oneself, and to benefit onself is also to benefit another, has become predominant in societies. And in such circumstances, who would become an ally of militarism? Behold! In the present day those who do not wish for peace are limited to an extremely small minority: a few Machiavellian politicians, Kings and ministers of wolfish greediness, and a few opportunistic men in the army and navy. Nevertheless, it looks as if this group of people still exerts a certain influence over societies. This is unavoidable, indeed, because of the legacy of the past. But how can this situation go on for ever? Consider the fact that in the present-day world, not only individuals or people of certain social classes are advocating peace, but there is an entire nation pleading the cause of peace. Where is that nation? It is our eastern neighbour, the United States. On August 14, 1884, when the meeting of the International Arbitration and Peace Association was held, Mr. Brown,181 an American, delivered a speech in which he said: There are now no standing armies in America . . . . The Federal Government, except in time of war, has never found it necessary, even with its present population of 50 millions of people, to keep more than 25,000 men under arms. This is due to the fact that there have been very few wars since her independence. During this period of one hundred and one years, she has fought only twice against a foreign country: in 1812 (against England) and in 1847 (against Mexico). Yet as you well know, she has incorporated into her territory during the same period the huge lands she purchased from Spain, France, Russia, Mexico, and other countries, thus increasing her population from three million to fifty million. The growing territorial aggrandizement and steady population increase were brought about by peaceful measures, and not by military means. To maintain domestic security and extend national prestige abroad, we do not feel the necessity of a standing army, which is always indispensable to Europe. The Civil War lasted for four years, during which it devastated land and caused damage to lives, presenting an unbearably terrible spectacle. Nevertheless, on this ground, I feel even more assured in saying that a standing army is

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not necessary. For even though during the War, both sides, North and South, recruited perhaps no less than 1.5 million soldiers in total, within a few years after the end of the War, these soldiers were returned to their original occupations, and only a very small fixed number of soldiers was kept. In short, if a huge army be maintained, it is apt to provoke a temptation to play with it, thus what is originally designed to put down hostilities may start hostilities instead. There are more than a few such examples in history. How deplorable it is!182 I cannot help but wonder how it was possible for the United States, with such a polity, to preserve her national existence with such glory. For all the bellicose nations in the present age have been waging wars, and there has been no single day which saw no signal smoke or heard no gun report. The United States in the present-day world may be likened to a man who, dressed in civilian clothes and carrying no sword, strides with an attitude of perfect composure amid a scene of bloodshed and gunfire; and everyone is surprised at his audacious action. Upon what does he rely to take such a dauntless action? What do other countries fear, that they do not attempt to take advantage of a golden opportunity to take over this wealthiest nation of the world, and score a signal success at a stroke, like Rome's seizure of Carthage or Alexander the Great's seizure of Tyre? Any person who understands this question will certainly understand the truth about the nineteenth-century world. In the present day, there is nothing that all nations desire as much as wealth, and there is nothing that they fear as much as wealth. The world of the present day is the world of wealth. The United States, with a polity founded on the basis of wealth, is the wealthiest nation in the world. For this reason, even the great robbers in the world cannot have designs against her. If one take a scathing look, not everything about the United States may necessarily be admirable. But it is indeed impossible for me not to be captivated by the excellence of her state, her institutions, and her civilization. Her democracy has not only developed in the realm of politics, but permeated the entire society. Not only in great matters such as the government of the country, but even among the trifling matters of everyday life, which

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do not even attract one's attention, there is nothing which, if analysed, is not found to be composed of democratic elements. In short, in every way the entire nation is a crystal of democratic elements. To this great phenomenon, I cannot help but offer my tribute of admiration. Tocqueville wrote: The Americans brave dangers for commerce. They do for cheapness what the French did for conquest. Due to their efficient and active temperament, the Americans can perform their job more rapidly and at a cheaper rate than any other traders. He also said: The Americans are already able to make their flag respected; in a few years they will make it feared . . . . When I contemplate the ardor with which the Anglo-Americans prosecute commerce, the advantages which aid them, and the success of their undertakings, I cannot help but believe that they will one day become the foremost maritime power of the globe. They are born to rule the seas, as the Romans were to conquer the world.183 The Romans in fact used iron to seize money, but now the Americans seize money to use iron. Not only is this the difference between the two peoples but also the difference between the trends of ancient and modern times. That is to say, might dominates wealth was the trend of ancient times, whereas wealth dominates might is the trend of modern times. Moreover, not only does wealth dominate might, but it also invites the hope that all of the offspring of might will be driven off: tears, blood, enmity, conflict, or jealousy, the strong oppressing the weak, violence winning over justice, and such things as diseases, famines, fires, and robberies. Let us hear the view of Richard Cobden, a great pioneer of free trade in England: I believe that the physical gain will be the smallest gain to humanity from the success of this principle. I look further; I see in the Free Trade principle that which shall act on the moral world as the principle of gravitation in the universe—drawing men together, thrusting aside the antagonism of race, and creed, and language,

The World of Peace (Part III) 91 and uniting us in the bonds of eternal peace. I have looked even further. I have speculated, and probably dreamt, in the dim future —ay, a thousand years hence—I have speculated on what the effect of the triumph of this principle may be. I believe that the effect will be to change the face of the world, so as to introduce a system of government entirely distinct from that which now prevails. I believe that the desire and the motive for large and mightly empires, for gigantic armies and navies—for those materials which are used for the destruction of life and the desolation of the rewards of labour—will die away; I believe that such things will cease to be necessary, or to be used, when man becomes one family, and freely exchanges the fruits of his labour with his brother men.184 I really hope that these words are not a wild dream, and I do believe that they are not to be a wild dream. This is because the economic development in the present-day world assures me that these words do not represent unfounded hope. Modern history is in fact the history of the war between wealth and armaments. And the nineteenth century is an era during which wealth has been winning, and is going on to win a great victory over armaments. Behold! In the future of Europe, there must necessarily be a great revolution startling the Kings and ministers. But what kind of revolution will it be? A great revolution in which commercialism will strive to stand against militarism, winning victory after victory, and finally achieving its ultimate goal. Behold! My fellow countrymen! Remember that what is described above is our surrounding environment!

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The Movement of Democracy In View of the Natural Trend of Societies

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CHAPTER The Movement of Democracy: In View of the Natural Trend of Societies

VIII

PartI

"THE UNIVERSE IS AN INN FOR ALL

things, and time is a traveller of a hundred generations."185 In the great tide of time, then, the phenomena arising from human affairs which come to the fore in the world are inevitably forced to change in themselves. That change is bound to be governed by the great natural trends of society. Behold! Where is now, for example, that aristocratic phenomenon which brilliantly adorned the world-stage of ancient times? Behold! Has not a great part of that phenomenon declined and faded away from public sight, being retained only in memory? And is not the little part of it remaining also staggering, having one foot in the grave? In contrast, has not the democratic phenomenon been rising high in the nineteenth-century world, like the soaring Mount Fuji bursting forth overnight from the surface of the earth? It is indeed a great historical fact that the aristocratic phenomenon is already gone, and the democratic phenomenon is coming. If that is so, there must be well-grounded reasons for it. Naturally, as a society is in fact composed of random elements, its movement is by no means controlled by simple laws. For this reason, even though I do not consider the vicissitudes of the military and industrial organs the only causes of its movement, if I were asked under what conditions the above two phenomena developed, I should 95

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answer, without hesitation, that the aristocratic phenomenon emerged from conditions under which the military organ progressed, and the democratic phenomenon emerged from conditions under which the industrial organ prospered. Consequently, it is no wonder that the aristocratic phenomenon existed in ancient society, because of the conditions in the past; similarly, it is no wonder that the democratic phenomenon has occurred in modern history, because of the conditions of the present. Any creature of free will inevitably bows down its head when necessity arises. In ancient times the necessity of instituting the military organ gave rise to another necessity, i.e., that of creating the extraordinary and distinctive aristocratic phenomenon. But for what necessity was the military organ instituted in ancient times? It was the necessity for the progress of human society. Or to put it properly, it was the necessity for guaranteeing the survival of superior races and superior societies, and of ensuring their domination, according to the wonderful law of 'survival of the fittest'. The faint dawn light of world civilization began with the movement of armaments. Society then progressed in proportion to the progress of the military organ, and there was no single occasion on which both did not advance side by side. I can assert definitely that civilization was in fact born from the womb of might. Consider the following: as freedom is necessary to cause human beings in the civilized world to become a civilized people, similarly oppression is necessary to cause human beings in the barbaric world to advance toward becoming a civilized people. In the former case, if the will of human beings did not have its own way there would be no progress toward civilization. In the latter case, if the will of human beings had its own way there would be no progress toward civilization. Although their purposes are identical, their means are different, since the circumstances in which the people live are different. Consider, for example, the following: How could great empires emerge? How were inventions of machines and techniques achieved? How did people of sturdy body come to dominate society? How did elaborate laws come to exist? How were intricate political and social institutions developed? In short, how was human society able to

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progress from a primitive stage to an advanced stage? Is not all of it the result of the movement of might? What brought the barbarous peoples a step forward toward what is called the civilized world of the present day? It was none other than the advent to society of figures such as Nimrod,186 Shih Huang-ti, Romulus,187 Menes,188 or Lycurgus. If these figures had not existed, present-day society would be as yet a primitive society, present-day people would still be like the Tartars chasing wild animals on open plains, or like those camel drivers in the Arab deserts. On that account, these tyrants and despots should indeed be called great benefactors of social progress. Although in the ancient world there were nations which did adopt self-government and control society by a democratic phenomenon (e.g. Carthage, Tyre, Athens, or the colonies of Tyre and Greece that spread along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea), and their freedom did shine brilliantly upon primitive societies, yet, just in the same way as a small fish is bait for a big fish and a small enemy becomes a captive of a powerful enemy, these nations fell prey to the neighbouring belligerent nations. What were the reasons for all this? It was because the time was not right, the circumstances were not suitable, and their progress did not match with the progress of the entire world. Accordingly, a democratic society in ancient history was, like a flower amidst green leaves, delightful and yet rare. In the final analysis, however, it was only a pitiful history. For this reason, one should know that the conquest of Carthage by Rome was neither Scipio's achievement nor Hannibal's fault,189 and that, also, it was not attributable to a single battle in the Peloponnesus that Athens was defeated by Sparta. The fact that Carthage and Athens were democratic societies was the real reason for their collapse. Rather than saying that this is the fault of democratic society, it should be said that Carthage and Athens were societies which did not suit their time. The fact that Rome and Sparta were aristocratic societies was the real reason for their strength. Rather than saying that this is the merit of aristocratic society, it should be said that Rome and Sparta were societies which suited their time. It is natural that aristocratic society should prevail in a militant world, and democratic society should prevail in an industrial world.

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The trend of the times, nonetheless, moves incessantly. As the military organ exhausted its effect on the progress of society and society moved a further step, the social environment, as a consequence, must necessarily move a step further. On a snowy day when the whole landscape is mantled in silvery snow, balmy spring weather with all sorts of flowers is almost beyond the wildest dreams of the people, but as the earth circles in its orbit, such a time will unexpectedly come. Similarly, along with this trend of the times, world history was bound to arrive at this surprising environment. It should be said that medieval history was the history of the great transition from a militant environment to an industrial environment and from an aristocratic society to a democratic society, and that the history of the modern period has already fulfilled half of the goal of this transition and desires to carry out the other half. In the same way that the industrial organ originated in the heart of the military organ, most of the elements of the modern democratic phenomenon have come from the aristocratic phenomenon of the medieval period. Those who are well-versed in the trends of societies appreciate that the decline of the military organ and the collapse of aristocratic society always take place in a concerted movement with the rise of the industrial organ and the emergence of democratic society, and there exist wonderful laws behind this development. No country has made progress in democracy in as orderly a fashion as has England. In fact, the concrete examples of social change in England suffice as models in considering European society at large. How was England able to rid herself of the feudal yoke so swiftly? How was she able to set herself free from monarchic despotism so rapidly? How was she able to release herself from religious and superstitious absolutism so expeditiously? How was she able to secure political and social liberties, and freedom of thought, of discussion, and of conscience? In the face of this question, scholars hitherto have answered with various lengthy theories. But if they were asked to sum up their theories in one point, they would certainly unanimously say that it was owing to the progress of wealth. Progress in commerce and progress in democracy never proceed inde-

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pendently. It is true that for a while there are such exceptions, but eventually the two must be connected, otherwise their existence would be dubious. Those who have doubts about this should cast their eyes over English constitutional history. Behold! How considerate and exhaustive are the Creator's preparations! When oppression provided happiness for human life, He certainly provided human life with oppression. It was not provided directly through His hands, but rather, social circumstances at the time caused mankind to endure oppression. Again, when freedom had become indispensable to mankind, He provided them with freedom. The means by which He provided freedom to mankind was none other than that He completely altered the circumstances surrounding mankind, and caused mankind not to endure oppression any longer. The military organ in ancient society was strengthened so that the industrial organ of modern society would be strengthened. Aristocratic society prevailed in the ancient world so that modern society would be a democratic one. Our ancestors suffered from oppression so that we should not have to suffer from it, or to put it in another way, so that we might acquire freedom. In fact, the world of freedom, i.e., a democratic society, should by no means have been put into practice in such a simple and barbaric society, as Rousseau190 imagined. That is to say, people must be made to be amenably disposed; their temperament must be tamed. They must be made acquainted with the way of association and cooperation, with the inter-relation between egoism and altruism. They must be apprised of the controlling power of society. Physically, they must be trained to perseverance. Intellectually, they must become foresighted and be equipped with knowledge to anticipate things to come. Emotionally, to keep their self-indulgent activity under control, they must be subjected to various kinds of restraints through a sense of honour and customary standards of conduct. It is only in an advanced society of that sort that artificial co-operation comes to an end and natural co-operation emerges, artificial necessities fade out and natural necessities arise, and compulsory and restrained movement ceases to exist and free and voluntary movement comes into sight.

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If one wishes, for example, to reclaim a wild fowl to keep in one's grove, one has, in the first place, to put it in a cage. The cage is by no means the place where the fowl is ultimately destined to be. But if one wishes to have it flying high and singing in the grove, one must first make it put up with the suffering of being in a cramped cage. Without doing so, its disposition would not be tamed. The world is in fact the Creator's grove. Mankind are His fowl. If they are to leave this sombre ravine, and to go to this grove, moving among the big trees and flying freely, they must first be imprisoned in the cage of aristocratic society. The aristocratic society of ancient times was thus a school for the training of human disposition for freedom. Several thousand years have since elapsed, and now, for the first time, mankind looks back to the past and is able to appreciate but a tiny portion of the profound intention of the Creator. I cannot help but be astonished at the miraculous way of bringing a lotus flower in the flames to bloom, reaping grapes from a thorny shrub, and generating freedom from oppression. There are those who, looking from the narrow-minded point of view of a human being, privately wonder whether the length of time at the oppressive school is too long. But viewed from the perspective of the Creator, who sees infinity as time and the universe as home, that length would not amount to even a second. When the universe moves one step, no one knows how many thousand years elapse for mankind. Behold! How great it is!

CHAPTER The Movement of Democracy: In View of the Natural Trend of Societies

IX

Part II

TO BEGIN WITH, THE MOVEMENT OF

democracy is most conspicuous in the political world. The inroads of democracy into the political world are like raging waves surging on the surface of the sea. The aristocratic embankment wished to resist instant collapse but could not do so. This is displayed in what all eyes can perceive, e.g. the American Revolution, the French Revolution, Greek and Italian Independence, the English Reform Bill, or the Anti-Corn Law movement. In 1865, John Bright made the following speech on the Parliamentary Reform Bill in the Town Hall of Birmingham: It is not the democracy which these gentlemen are always afraid of that is the peril of this country. It was not democracy in 1832 that was the peril. It was the desperate antagonism of the class that then had power to the just claims and rights of the people. And at this moment, when they dine and when I speak, I tell them that Conservatism—they give it that name, but it is worthy of a very different name—that Conservatism, be it Tory or be it Whig, is the true national peril which we have to face. They may dam the stream, they may keep back the waters, but the volume is ever increasing, and it descends with accelerated force, and the time will come when, in all probability, and to a certainty, if wisdom does not take the place of folly, the waters will burst their banks, and these men, who fancy they are stemming this imaginary apparition 101

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of democracy, will be swept away by the resolute will of a united and determined people. For one moment cast your eyes over the face of Europe. You will find that there are now only two considerable States that have not representative institutions—Turkey and Russia; and Russia is making progress in freedom equal at least to the progress of any other State in Europe. Representation is found in Italy, in Austria even, in almost all the German States, in the Northern States, in Belgium, Holland, France, Portugal, and Spain.191 Democracy is thus a momentous force in the present political world. I do not know whence it comes from and whither it goes. But I have witnessed and marvelled at its "exceedingly great and exceedingly strong impact and spirit wherever it touches and inspires, which fills everything between heaven and earth."192 Wherever it advances, it becomes appeals demanding rights for poor peasants, workers, and artisans; or petitions by elegant and graceful ladies for the suffrage; or the passionate Declaration of Independence which makes even the gods weep; or eloquent speeches whirling from heaven. Because of its influence, a great democratic nation suddenly emerges; a great aristocratic nation unexpectedly ceases to exist; a private citizen all of a sudden becomes a president respected by all nations in the world; or descendants of a great king who boastfully said "L'etat, c'est moi"193 must dwell in exile, and pursue a lonely life in remote foreign lands. When democracy is incited to extremes, it comes down like a shooting star with a thundery sound in the bombshell of nihilism; when democracy is treated with neglect, it goes off like fireworks in the violent measures of socialism. The reasons for this seem to defy practically all comprehension. What, then, are the reasons? The reasons why people have such an aspiration in the political world, and their aspiration has gathered such enormous influence, is because people want to carry over what they have achieved in the industrial world into the political world. Since there are only sellers and buyers in commerce, persons imposing obligation and persons obliged, they want to extend such relations into politics, so that political relations also would be dominated by relations of rights and obligations. It is only natural

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necessity that directs and moves them in industry, therefore in politics they want to make this natural necessity their director. Since justice is the highest authority in their livelihood, they wish that justice also should be the highest authority in politics. In short, they are free and equal and act voluntarily in industry, therefore they simply desire to be free and equal and to act voluntarily in politics also. People are most concerned with their most acute interests. As interests in living are their most direct interests, all mankind, therefore, first seek a position of security and peace for their living. Political interests are their indirect interests. However, once their direct interests have been obtained, then indirect interests must be the ones that preoccupy mankind most. Indirect interests are considered indirect only as long as direct interests exist. Once the situation has changed completely, indirect interests must also change completely and become direct interests. "Blue comes from indigo but is bluer than indigo":194 democracy has arisen under the conditions of the industrial organ, but its influence tends to surpass that of the latter. How natural it is that democracy should be most widely prevalent in politics! In order to be maintained, present-day society must be democratic. Present-day democracy must be the vital energy of society. In the same way that aristocratic society was maintained for militarism and with militarism and by militarism, the industrial world must be maintained for democracy and with democracy and by democracy. There exists only necessity. Necessity carries everything before it. How true it is that in the present day, democracy is invincible! Those who consider themselves to be sworn enemies of democracy reproachfully grumble that the development of democracy was brought about by the agitation of such people as Montesquieu and Rousseau. But how can it be so? Admittedly the arguments of these two men were not flawless, but they "gave impulse to all the wisdom and valour of their generation, and enlightened the minds of people for all ages".195 Needless to say, they were rare personalities of stout heart and outstanding knowledge. But if what they said was against the actual interests of the people or had no bearing on them, how was it possible, then, that they gave rise to such an earth-shaking great revolution? Even though the people were unable to comprehend

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what was democracy in politics, they had already been practising it in their livelihood. Montesquieu and Rousseau themselves did not build castles in the air to incite the people. They simply observed the facts of the actual life of the people, then reasoned inductively and deductively to form their opinions. Buddha was, of course, a philanthropist. But before him, how many thousands of people had engaged in charitable work? Montesquieu and Rousseau were, needless to say, proponents of democracy. But before their exhortation to democracy, how many people had practised it? Since a nation is a great organic body consisting of people, there is no doubt that democratic elements had come into existence with nations and within nations. Democracy had, however, never developed before, because the time had not come, the conditions had not emerged, and the opportunity had not been ripe. Yet now, a good chance has offered itself. It must be said that even without Montesquieu or Rousseau, such democratic phenomena would have occurred under these conditions; let alone when they were there to be its guides! The movement of democracy in the present-day European countries is not a useless business of gambling by Oriental bogus adventurers, obsessed only with the next wager, and searching for accidental success. Nay, it is closely related to the interests and existence of the people. The European world is a democratic world. Thus there is no one who indulges in a leisurely life, satisfying his own appetite, by levying heavy taxes on the people, or exploiting others. Who then is unnecessarily concerned with affairs irrelevant to him? The world of civilization is a busy world. Why would there be anyone suffering from the worry of how to kill his spare time? The reason why people in the world of civilization are constantly making strenuous efforts is because all the vicissitudes of fortune will have a direct result on their own well-being. Democracy in Europe is no mere puddle on the road, incidentally caused by the effort of two or three persons. Victor Hugo once said: In the midst of the crisis which France now has to undergo, someone suddenly wonders: "Who has created all this trouble, and who should be punished for it?" The European alarmists say: "It is

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France." The French alarmists say: "It is Paris." The Parisian alarmists say: "The culprit is freedom of the press." But a person with observant eyes and exact understanding says: "The culprit is not freedom of the press, it is not Paris, it is not France; rather, the culprit is deep in the human mind."196 I wish to say that if present-day democracy is to be blamed, the people's practical interests, that is, the people themselves, should first take the blame. Democracy was not popular in the political world of ancient times, because there existed only states, but not the people. Democracy is, however, popular in the present day, because the people exists, and states are instituted only for the sake of the people. Why is it that democracy is not winning a complete victory? There is an explanation for this, as follows. Inasmuch as everything in the universe is governed by the law of cause and effect, regardless of human beings or society, nothing can be exempted from the restraints of the past. As European society in the past was an aristocratic society, it was bound to a designated fate, even before present European society was created: it had to submit, to a certain extent, to these restraints, no matter how much it wished to escape from them. As Herbert Spencer has sarcastically remarked, at school, during six days of the week children are made to revere Achilles (the valiant general of the Trojan war), and on the seventh day (Sunday) they are taught to love Christ. At Town Hall dinners, the first toast is proposed on behalf of those in the army and the navy, even before the one on behalf of the Parliament.197 How did this inconsistent practice arise? How did this arrogant, eccentric, and unhealthy patriotism come about? How did the habit of respecting distinguished families and old customs start? How did the delusion that a human relationship is one between a master and his slaves, rather than one between equals with rights and duties, come into being? How did the fallacy that government officials are to be looked upon as gods, and that there are no distinguished achievements other than military achievements, emerge? Why is the government believed to be so almighty that it can do everything? Why is it thought that the authority of the state is so powerful that it can even stop the movement of celestial bodies? Why is it held that a standing

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army is indispensable to a nation, that political negotiations should not be conducted with a foreign country, and that a nation's rights cannot be expanded without the use of military might? Why is it that neighbouring countries should feud with each other because of their historical animosity? Why is it that national memories, i.e. revengeful feelings, which are the greatest anguish of the world, occur? Behold! Why is it that at present it looks as if Prussia and France are only at a cease-fire while continuing in the state of war? It is because of the grudge between the two, lingering from the past. Why is it that relations between Ireland and England are such that up to the present the latter has had to resort to the Riot Act? This is because compulsory co-operation was enforced in the past and its legacy has not disappeared. The people have not been pleased by the policies of the Kings and ministers. Not a few of them have criticized and rejected them, seriously and squarely. Yet the world has been unable to become a cheerful world—with clouds and fog clearing away and blue sky coming into sight—because of the legacy of the oppressive past. The past is indeed the most powerful oppressor. It is mainly because of this that in present-day Europe, the old Europe and the modern Europe are in incessant struggle against each other; and the new elements and the old elements are incompatible, and are apt to conflict with and crash against each other. For instance, in the rivalry between the English political parties, while there is obviously more than a single cause, the recurring theme has been the strife between the elements of the past and the elements of the present, and between the aristocratic phenomenon arising in a military environment and the democratic phenomenon arising in an industrial environment. The one does not wish to give way, but the other wants to take over. In that situation, how is it possible not to have a collision? The history of nineteenth-century English politics is practically a history of the contest between these two elements. It was the force of the old elements that made the extraordinary Lord Beaconsfield perform astonishing dances on the grand stage of European politics with his elusive political tactics. It is the force of the new elements that makes Richard Cobden and John Bright perform

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a political drama with new plots and arrangements which never entered even Shakespeare's brilliant mind, and makes their opponents nickname them, as ones born from the womb of democracy, the modern Gracchi (the brothers Tiberius and Gaius, the Roman proponents of democratic rights).198 While Mr. Gladstone is a great man of this time, that he has been occasionally unable to act on his own ideas, as in the involvement with Egypt and in the Sudan campaign, is because of the constraints of the past. It is also because he has been forced by Lord Beaconsfield, his political rival, to inherit and reap the calamity, the seeds of which were sown by the latter. That the Tories still maintain some power in present-day English politics is, in the first place, because of the force of the old elements, in particular because of the power of Lord Beaconsfield, who reinforced them. Salisbury, an eloquent orator, and the spellbinding199 Churchill,200 are of course not weak opponents; however, to Gladstone they are no more than children, what could be called "obscure figures of no use".201 But why is it that, today, Gladstone is unable to become a genuinely clean politician, as demanded by Cobden and Bright, but must practise a temporizing policy, as it were stealing one chicken a month?202 This is because of the great enemy of the past. In fact, even in his grave, a silent dead man, lying in the gloomy ground in Westminster Abbey, is obstructing the course of advance more effectively than many living persons, who clench their fists with anger and talk as much as they can in Parliament. When I read The Romance of the Three Kingdoms I was astonished at the extraordinary story of the dead K'ung Ming who chased away the live Ssu-ma I.203 I should never have thought, then, that as of now I should be seeing it with my own eyes.

CHAPTER The Movement of Democracy: In View of the Natural Trend of Societies

X

Part III

IN SPITE OF WHAT HAS BEEN SAID

above, the past is the past. How long will it last? By now, the military organ and the aristocratic phenomenon have already achieved the goal of their arrival in the world. Their undertaking has already been completed. Their achievements have come to a conclusion. They have brought our society and its peoples to this stage and to this time. They are no longer needed in the present world. Accordingly, some might ask: "If that is the case, why do not they come to an end with a good grace? Why does not the Creator banish these worse-thanuseless things from the world?" The following is an explanation. On a long journey across mountains between which the north wind cuts like a blade, and where snow comes up to one's knees, the traveller must necessarily put on his many-layered quilted-cotton clothes. In fact, his cotton clothes are most needed for that particular time and for that particular place. But when he arrives at a wide field under mild spring weather, needless to say, his quilted-cotton clothes are a most unnecessary burden. Why he does not, then, take off his quilted-cotton clothes? The custom that envelops the human mind is more clinging than the cotton clothes that envelop one's body, and if one realizes this one should know that the restraints of the past are truly enormous. Even so, whatever the restraints of the past, they are no match for the 108

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self-preservation of mankind. To a human being, self-preservation is like the force of gravity to objects. Objects always move downward. Although there are examples such as a balloon, filled with gas, flying in the air, yet this is an exception. Even a balloon, when its active force is gone, has to surrender to the force of gravity. Although there may be cases in which the working of self-preservation is inhibited by an artificially-created agency, yet again this is no more than an exception. Whatever the "power", whatever the "prestige", whatever the "wealth",204 whatever the temptation, whatever the illusion, whatever the eccentricity, and whatever the evil practice, how is it possible that any of them can stand up against the sword of self-preservation? Self-preservation carries everything before it. Just as the sun is still there as usual even when overspread with dark clouds, so, in spite of temporary obstructions, how can one not be sure that the complete victory is approaching? I believe that the great hurricane of the nineteenth-century world has rooted up the towering aristocratic tree, which in olden times, like gloomy clouds, used to hang over the sky. As the tree has been rooted up, even if its green leaves have not changed colour, it is already dead wood, and no longer a living tree. How long can it last? John Stuart Mill once said: "The reason that our nation (England) has undergone a transformation, or is indeed about to embark upon a great transformation, of her institutions is not to be found in the impact of the philosophers. It is rather due to the influence of the interest and the desire of the majority of the people which has rapidly become powerful in recent times."205 Thus one must know that the commanding influence of democracy is due to the fact that the interest and the desire of the people are its driving force. Aristocratism is in decline because the interest and the desire of the people are its antagonist. In consequence, Cobden and Bright are not the only people who denounce the aristocratic phenomenon in present-day England as reflected in her diplomatic policy, or more precisely, in her Machiavellian and aggressive tactics. While it is true that at the beginning their stance won sympathy from only a few people because its tune was too lofty and virtuosic to play,206 because their ideas are pursuant to—or to be precise, based upon—the actual

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interest and the actual conditions of the people, at present no small number of people join in the chorus. NOTE: A society called the 'Anti-Aggression League' was created on February 22,1882 at the Westminster Palace Hotel by the philosophers Herbert Spencer and Alexander Bain, and well-known members of Parliament and other personalities, including John Morley and Frederick Harrison. The society concerns itself with England's obnoxious practice of resorting to and committing aggressive acts against foreign countries. Its aim is to try to redress this practice and to create a universal brotherhood through the following measures: 1. The direction of English policies should be closely watched. 2. Parliament's power of control of diplomacy should be expanded. 3. Diplomats who adopt repressive measures against foreigners should be dismissed. 4. The most appropriate limits to the policy that arms may be used to protect English subjects should be established. 5. Justice should be made a principle when coming into contact with foreigners, and no high-handedness should be allowed, even though they might be primitive people. 6. Attempts should be made as far as possible to prevent wars, either through negotiation or arbitration, or by improving international laws. 7. The public should have indicated to them that the prosperity of the people should be based entirely upon peace among civilized countries and noninterference in barbaric countries.207 The above trend is not confined to England but can be seen in all European countries. As an illustration of this, I quote an article on the Fourth Congress of the International Arbitration and Peace Association in 1884: The Congress of the International Arbitration and Peace Association was opened as scheduled at the Conference Hall on August 4, when the Fiftieth Anniversary of the foundation of the University of Berne (Berne, Switzerland) was celebrated. In his inaugural address, M.' Ruchonnet, a member of the Swiss Upper House, said: "War is a fearful disease to mankind, doing damage to society even greater than phyloxera does to grapevines or cholera does to human life. War is not necessarily a means that can cure trouble; since even if a war ends, trouble may remain unsolved. Accordingly, it is best to use arbitration to resolve the troubles

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among nations. By so doing, we may arrive at a situation in which a nation's armaments are simply for maintaining domestic peace and preserving her independence from without." Ruchonnet then suggested that the Congress should pay tribute to Dr. Bluntschli, under whose dying wishes the Association was established. Hodgson Pratt, the Chairman of the English Committee, expressed his hope that the purposes of the Association would be extended and that its membership would be increased. The French Committee failed to attend because the members of Parliament had to be present at their Parliament to discuss the Bill on the amendments of the French Constitution. In the first place, the Association has been best served by the creation of branches in cities of various countries for the utmost endeavour to arouse public opinion, which then would exert influence upon the Parliaments and governments of these countries. This undertaking in fact is extremely difficult: it has to break the custom of some thousands of years and damage the interests of those in the military. But even so, we must not bend our will in the least. We simply should be assiduous in performing our duties; then eventually the day will come our will will be fulfilled, as "the right will undoubtedly prevail over the wrong". Since the Congress held in Brussels in 1882, the English Committee has attended every meeting, and has not missed an opportunity to intervene whenever trouble was about to occur among the world powers. It has every time tried to undertake acts of mediation in writing. As a matter of fact, at present it has established contact and is discussing with the French Committee the Suez Canal and the Egyptian incidents. In addition, the English Committee made known its position to various countries and won much support particularly from the working class. This day, Herr von Biihler, a member of the German Reichstag and President of the Wuerttemberg Privy Council, stated: "All German people are uniformly peace lovers, yet until now Germany has been unable to reduce her armaments. The reason for this, in the final analysis, is because peoples of various countries have from time to time engaged in activities against Germany. When I proposed a motion in favour of the reduction of armaments in the German Parliament, I could not find two members who would second it at the beginning, but later there were forty supporting members." Below is a list of the persons who have supported the principle of international peace and recently joined the International Arbitration and Peace Association:

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Lewis Appleton (Secretary of the English Committee), Madame Fischer (London [sic]; the belief of this lady is that women are also responsible for the expanding arms race among the powers. If women of all countries are united, according to her, to oppose it, the causes of war will be checked, and armaments will naturally be no longer needed), Pedro S. Lamas (Paris), Vice-President of the Senate Alfieri di Sostegno (Rome), Stern (Bucharest), Lemonnier (Paris), Carl Von Bergen (Stockholm), Bajer (Copenhagen), Loewenthal (Berlin), and Michelis (Freiburg).208

The situation in Europe is as above. If I were asked about the prospect of European politics I should immediately reply by pointing to the great democratic nation across the Atlantic, and say: "That is the only way it is going to be." The United States is indeed the leader of the democratic movement. Her people are the Creator's chosen people, who have set the goal for the future of all peoples in the present world. Plums put forth buds in snow in order to announce the coming of spring. The appearance of such a society as the above in the present-day world is in order to make us expect future political change and prepare for it. There may be delay or swiftness. Yet, the self-complacent Germany and Russia, which stand against the great force of the nineteenth century, will someday certainly adorn future history with an extraordinary occurrence in which their present appearance all of a sudden vanishes from the surface of the earth, like Pompeii which all at once was buried overnight by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. I can definitely assert the aforesaid at the present day; I hope that the Emperors and Prime Ministers of Germany and Russia will now prepare themselves for this danger in the future. In this way, the democratic movement is about to change completely not only the political world, but also the religious, economic, cultural, and technological worlds, from social intercourse, sentiments, thoughts, contentions, to any other human phenomena whatever; in the same way that no place on the surface of the earth is not filled with air, wherever it goes, whatever it touches, everything is combined or crystallized with it. Whatever the angle from which one looks, either vertically or horizontally, there is nothing which is not a democratic phenomenon; and its appearance in the political world is

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simply the most conspicuous example. I should like to elaborate this in detail, but unfortunately my space is limited. John Morley,209 a well-known English Radical, has said: Modern society, regardless of whether it is democratic or aristocratic, must undergo great changes in social intercourse, religion, and politics. This is truly a perplexed, difficult, and dangerous matter, which is nonetheless the trend of the present-day world. You cannot discuss the government if you separate it and consider it as independent of the influences of the enormous and profound impact of the spirit of the present-day world. European civilization is quietly and solemnly progressing towards its new stage. The form of government is no more than a small part of the whole.210 I admire Morley's insight, indeed, and I am really impressed by his pertinent words. Such is the true general trend in Europe. In a word: I do not know about the past of some ten million years ago, about which human memories are not recorded. Neither do I know about the future of some ten million years from now, which is beyond the reach of human imagination. If I gaze, however, at the picture of the course of mankind's journey within the limits of comprehension and imagination, it appears that we have progressed fairly and squarely towards definite goals, following a definite order. It is just like the pick of the French standing army, marching under Napoleon's orders, crossing the Seine River in the morning, traversing the snowy mountains of the Alps in the evening. The warhorses neigh against the wind, dauntless swordsmen tramp across land buried under ice. Now the troops are reaching the Tuscan plain—villages with luxuriant verdure and bright flowers, green groves, and birds singing harmoniously. Before this they had to climb through the snowy mountains of the Alps, in order now to have reached the Tuscan plain. Similarly, in order to arrive at the stage of the industrial world, mankind had to pass through the stage of the military world; the rise of the aristocratic phenomenon in society was for the rise of the democratic phenomenon in society. Mankind had to be imprisoned in the world without freedom so that they might come to the land of freedom. And now is the time that mankind's journey longs to

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reach this land. This is what is called the time at which opportunity has arrived. It goes without saying that we should proceed towards our destination with a more buoyant pace. If one recognizes that it is impossible for human power to obstruct celestial movements, one must also recognize that it is impossible to halt the movement of mankind. If one recognizes that control of the cycle of the four seasons is beyond human power, one must also recognize that control of the cycle of human destiny is beyond the power of artifice. In fact, mankind is no Robinson Crusoe who has drifted by chance to a solitary island in a distant sea. It has always had definite goals. Since the first establishment, some ten million years ago, of a primitive society on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, mankind's fate has been predestined by the Creator so that it should arrive at the present situation and appear in the present world. I certainly have no doubt that from the moment the ancestors of mankind stepped out on their journey, the Creator had already predestined in his great providence that their offspring, mankind of the nineteenth century, should infallibly reach this stage and this time. Just as all rivers are bringing their tribute to the sea, so mankind is rushing forward to this final destination. Now the democratic movement is like fire, like lightning, running across the surface of the earth. The necessity of industrial circumstances drives peoples and societies. It is about to bring every race and every country into the democratic world. This is the general trend of the nineteenth century; those who follow it will flourish, and those who go against it will perish.

A Natural Commercial Nation In View of Japan's Peculiar Conditions

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CHAPTER

XI

A Natural Commercial Nation: In View of Japan's Peculiar Conditions

THE ENTIRE ENVIRONMENT OUGHT

to govern the partial environment. The overall trend ought to govern the partial trend. If such is the case, how can one not be sure that Japan's particular environment and trend ought to be governed by the environment and trend of the world as a whole? The reader will recall that the environment of the present world is that of wealth and the general trend of the present world is that of democracy. If that is the case, solely on the basis of this fact can I state positively that in the future our Japan will become a commercial nation, and should become a commercial nation? The answer is yes, definitely. However, in the case of countries such as Germany and Russia, because of their peculiar conditions, it is not easy for them to conform to the general trend, and to join the whole environment, and to move in unanimous accord with the whole. Do such conditions exist in Japan at all? This is the issue to which we have to give serious thought before we observe our country's environment. Generally speaking, it must be because of inevitable conditions in the past that a country sets herself against the general trend of the present day and supports her national life on the basis of armaments. Among these conditions, the following are most visible: 117

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(1) Internal co-operation is weak, thus coercive co-operation has to be used:

Weak internal co-operation is often liable to be a cause of disunity. There is a number of reasons behind this. It may originate in the fact that people are of different racial origins and thus their dispositions may be as irreconcilable as oil and water. It may be because a sector of the population were conquered and their own country was annexed; however, this group of people still retain traditions of their own once-independent country and memories of her national identity. They may conceal or endure their humiliation, but there is no single day when the thought of revenge does not come to their mind. Therefore, the conquerors cannot rest easy even a single day unless they can put down that country by fire and the sword. It may be because the religions, languages, and customs of the people conflict with one another, or commercial interests differ; or the size of the country is so large that the politicians are unable to maintain the country on the basis of voluntary co-operation at their disposal, and the situation is so precarious that the country is apt to fall apart; or the government is not in a position to represent the people, i.e., their actual conditions and interests. The country thus becomes oversensitive to her dangerous position and is driven to a selfdefeating resort to military power to protect herself. This is the case of Austria vis-a-vis Hungary where ethnic origins and political systems are not identical, of Turkey vis-a-vis Serbia and Roumania, of England vis-a-vis Ireland where ethnic origins, political systems, customs, languages, and religions are different. In the case of Russia, her land is too vast as the territory for a single government, and more importantly, her people and government are hostile to each other. In the case of the American Civil War, this was because of the conflicting interests of the South and the North. Why the German Confederation has to have recourse to coercive co-operation in the present day is because its co-operation is created with a view to military considerations.

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(2) Pressure from neighbouring countries:

In the case where two countries fought against each other in the past and what are called historical memories still exist, if one side does not take revenge on the other, the latter will take revenge on the former without fail. Both sides will, as a result, be engaged in fierce confrontation, and the military organ must necessarily be expanded. Even if there is no such enmity, if their frontiers interlock in dogtooth fashion and one side is strong and militaristic, the other has always to take the utmost precaution. Otherwise she will be assaulted by fierce and greedy forces of the former. Also, if a country is located at what is called a strategic point, she has to pay special attention to armaments. This is because, as every country and every people will be hungry and snarling to seize her, and will be looking for an opportunity when she appears unguarded, she will soon lose her national independence. In that case, she will have absolutely no choice but, though hesitantly and unwillingly, to resort to the selfdefeating measure of armaments, even if this may bring her to the verge of bankruptcy. Of the above three cases, Franco-German relations are due to historical memories, Russo-German relations to the ill-defined borderline, and the situation of Italy is due to the fact that since the fall of the Roman Empire, she has been an object of contest for various powers, which wanted to fulfil their ambition. Consider the following: Does Japan have these inescapable conditions at all? The answer is no. She has only one national entity, only one race, only one set of manners and customs, and only one language. Her co-operation is one of interests, and not a military cooperation; there is therefore no conflict of interests among the people. So far as religions are concerned, until the present they have not been able to develop to such a condition as to attract the politicians' attention. Even if the influence of Christianity should advance in future, this should not loosen Japan's national unity but, on the contrary, should help to strengthen it. In addition, Japan's area is no more than 29,794 square ri [sic].211 With this small size, even mediocre politicians should have no problems in keeping her government in the palm of their hands.

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What are Japan's external conditions? She is surrounded on all sides by a boundless expanse of water. As until thirty years ago she was following a policy of isolating herself from the outside world, she has no historical memories about others at all. Her land is beautiful but, unlike Italy, not easy for an enemy to capture by long-distance manoeuvre of a small army. What conditions, then, can obstruct her from becoming a commercial nation? It must be said that should Japan's external conditions bring a reaction upon her, even if her military activity might be restrained, yet the development of her commercial activity, on the contrary, should be thereby stimulated. In short, Japan has formed a natural political entity based upon natural co-operation. Thus, there is no way to govern her other than to rely upon the natural trends, just as the water flows to the lower reaches of the stream. As stated above, there cannot be found any hindrance to Japan's entrance into the natural environment and her participation in the natural movement. Moreover, if we look further, we shall find that Japan is blessed with very favourable circumstances: (1) Climate:

The Creator gave the Japanese people a most convenient land in the temperate zones. Consequently, the Japanese are not like the Eskimos, who live in this world to struggle against the cold, dwelling in igloos, drinking whale oil, and eating seal meat. They are also different from the Arabs, who spring from the desert and return to the desert, living as companions of ostriches and masters of camels, under the scorching sun and on baked land where not a single plant can grow freely and abundantly. The Japanese are not destined for life in places such as the Amazon valley region, a world which can be called one belonging to vegetation and animals, where gigantic trees, wild beasts, and venomous serpents overwhelm human beings. In contrast, our country's climate is indeed moderate in temperature and regular in its changes of dryness and moisture. For that reason, not only do useful animals and plants breed favourably, but human

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beings themselves are endowed with opportunities to develop their heaven-bestowed capacity most satisfactorily. (2) The nature of the soil:

Referring to Canaan, Moses said that it was a land flowing with milk and honey.212 Japan, similarly, should be called a land flowing with raw silk and tea. An account of the production of Japan's mulberry-tree plantations and silk yarn is as follows: The area cultivating mulberry trees, the basis for raw silk production which ranks first among Japan's export goods, is 110,174 cho 3 tan 3 se213 (based on a survey in 1881). This area would yield 245,811,669 kamme214 of leaves with an average of 223 kamme per 1 tan. As sericulture requires 200 kamme of leaves to raise one silkworm egg sheet, 245,811,669 kamme of leaves would feed 122,950.8 koku215 of silkworms from egg to cocoon, and these silkworms would produce 983,246 kan216 680 momme or 6,145,292 kin217 of raw silk. According to a survey in 1882, there are 752,503 households of sericulturists in Japan, thus each household on the average owns 1 tan 4 se 19 bu of land for mulberry-tree plantation, which should yield 326 kan 800 momme, thus producing a little more than 8 kin of raw silk on average. (Chugai Bukka Shimpo [Domestic and Foreign Price News], April 18,1886.) The figures of exportation of raw silk are as shown [in Table XII]. [TABLE XII]

Weight (lbs)

Raw silk Silkworms & silk threads

Value (yen)

1882

1883

1882

1883

2,884,068

3,121,975

16,232,150 19,377,800

16,182,550 18,678,615

SOURCE: The Fourth Year Book of Statistics.

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Next to raw silk, the most profitable product is unquestionably tea. Here [in Table XIII] are the figures for its export. [TABLE XIII]

Weight (lbs)

Tea Different kinds of tea & peppers

Value (yen)

1882

1883

1882

1883

23,589,098

24,141,737

6,858,763

5,976,595

7,033,380

6,111,939

SOURCE: The Fourth Year Book of Statistics.

According to a survey conducted in all prefectures in 1881, the area for cultivating tea plants is as much as 42,023 cho 9 tan. In other words, of 28,983,932 yen of Japan's total export value in 1883, 24,790,554 yen is from raw silk and tea, i.e. the exportation of these two products occupies as much as five-sixths of all Japan's export value. As such, raw silk and tea are the products truly particular to Japan. Japan's arable land is 4,507,474 cho 4 tan 4 se 16 bu, or 12 per cent of her total area. The land for the cultivation of mulberry trees and tea plants is 152,198 cho 2 tan 3 se, i.e., less than one-thirtieth of the total arable area. A maxim of the Oriental feudal world said: "Do not depend upon others for what is needed for the livelihood of your own country."218I hope that henceforth people will rid themselves of this bigoted and evil practice, Since the universe is boundless and 'the four seas are brothers', "one should act in accordance with heaven-bestowed time and one's geographic advantage".219 One should comply with the principle of free trade, which makes use of the convenience of the division of labour all over the world. Our arable land, from the mountainside to the seashore, should thus become mulberry-tree and

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tea plantations; our entire nation should be turned into the world of sericulture and the land of raw silk. One can thus look forward to Japan's prosperity! Woolsey220 said: "Soil. This is important in its political relations, from its determining in a degree the occupations of the people . . . . The mode of life in turn determines in great part the political condition." 221 This is true indeed. The fertility of the soil of our country implies that our people will be producers, and our productive occupation means that our country must be a democratic one. (3) Geographical features:

Rai Jo wrote: "I once travelled throughout Japan and thought about her physical features. In my opinion, her topographical alignment comes from the northeast. It gradually becomes narrower as it approaches the west. Compared to a human body, Mutsu and Dewa would be its neck, Kai and Shina its back, the Kanto and Tokai areas its chest and belly, and the Kyoto region its waist and buttocks. From San'yo and Nankai to the west would be its thigh and leg."222I am not sure whether this analogy is valid, but it is certainly true that the terrain of our country lacks uniformity. From the northeast it drifts to the southeast like a dragonfly, with the mountains jutting out in the interior and the rivers and the sea encircling the coasts. The climate of our country thus possesses a proper degree of diversity, which enormously stimulates the advancement of production. This diversity of natural features made ancient Greece a pioneer in civilization. If that is the case, how can one then doubt Japan's future? In addition, people of our country must remember and pay attention to the following fact: Japan is an island country. As Gilbart223 wrote in his History of Ancient Trade:

In most cases, an island presents greater advantages for commerce than a country situated on a continent. In proportion to its size, an island has a larger extent of sea coast than any continental country can have. The climate is usually milder and more even, so that the operations of commerce are not disturbed by the seasons. The sea is a natural fortification, so that there is less danger of an invasion

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from a foreign enemy, and a less proportion of the population are required to be enlisted in the army. And, as all commerce with other nations is necessarily carried on by sea, the inhabitants naturally acquire maritime habits; ship-building and navigation are more generally studied, and the people have more skill and courage in maritime warfare. In ancient history, the islands of Crete, Rhodes, and Cyprus were celebrated for their commerce. Islands have also the advantage of being able to carry on the trade between the several provinces by sea. What in other countries is an inland trade, and is conducted by means of roads and canals, is, in islands, a coasting trade. An interchange of commodities between the different parts of the country is effected, by means of shipping, in less time and at a less expense.224 What is said above is well argued. It is unnecessary for me to make further comments. (4) Location:

Look at a map of the world. What sort of position does our country occupy? She is located on the eastern edge of the Far East. Her territory is very small; naturally it is difficult for Japan to predominate over other countries on the basis of her land. Nevertheless, her advantageous position provides for her the opportunity of being the centre of future Oriental trade. In view of this, the fact that her territory is small is not necessarily regrettable: a man of small stature who is yet endowed with extraordinary wisdom will dominate one who has only a massive physique. From ancient times trading countries have not always been large countries. The size of such countries as Athens, Tyre, Holland, Belgium, or England, is about equivalent to, or a half or a third of, that of Japan. That these countries became centres for the movement of commodities was due to their favourable locations. "A person wearing long-sleeved clothes dances well, and a person of abundant wealth can afford to buy much".225 People living in the mountains surely love hunting and those dwelling by the river or the sea invariably love fishing, and those who live in cities and towns

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infallibly want to be engaged in business. Thus, Japan's natural position makes us become the principal market for oriental trade. Without hesitation and delay, our people must grasp this golden opportunity. Turn around and look at Japan's surrounding environment. To the west, across a narrow strip of water, Japan faces the incomparably great empire of China. To the south, Japan is linked with Australia through the South Sea Islands. The Kurile Islands, her border to the north, look out upon Kamchatka, a headland of Siberia, which is so close as to be within calling distance. The size of mainland China alone is 1,500,000 square miles and her population amounts to four hundred million. Her wealth and prosperity are constantly a source of fear and envy for Westerners, who have accordingly attempted incessant inroads upon China. Australia is of course a new country. It is precisely because she is new that she can be fully expected in the future to have trade relations with Japan. Her land is abundant in gold and coal mines; cows and sheep are plentiful throughout her villages; one sees a limitless panorama of sugar and wheat. In all the above respects Australia has emerged pre-eminently in the forefront. Although Siberia is not comparable to Australia, there is no doubt that she is a good customer for Japan. Nonetheless, Japan's best customer is her neighbour to the east across the Pacific: the United States. At present, most of our exports are raw silks, which are for the most part exported to the United States. Indeed, Japan and the United States enjoy trade relations of mutual dependence, like two good brothers. Besides, if Ferdinand de Lesseps' grand plan of digging the Panama Canal can be completed as expected by 1889, the two great oceans will be connected. The dream of making a direct voyage from the Atlantic to Cipangu (Japan) that Columbus dreamt more than four hundred years ago will come true. Ever after, from all harbours of the cities on both sides of the Pacific, in the first place, then the Atlantic, and beyond that from the cities on the Mediterranean—through the Straits of Gibraltar, and through the two great oceans of the Atlantic and the Pacific—along the great highway between the broad heaven and the boundless sea, hundreds and thousands of steamers will come and go. Then it will appear as if an unbroken line of decks

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made a bridge from the Straits of Gibraltar to our harbours. At that time, even if it is not what Japan wishes, she will necessarily be prompted by her natural position to become a commercial nation. In addition she is now determined that she must rid herself of the past, that everything must be based upon just laws, that all classes, high and low, must be united in actively conducting the affairs of state,226 and that military expansion must by all means be halted. As I have stated in my booklet Freedom, Morality, and Confucianism:

If we make our system one of freedom, reorganize our finances, build credit-worthiness, protect the people's property rights, liberate all occupations and entrust them to the will of the people, erase the vestiges of protectionism, develop our harbours, reduce tariff rates, authorize foreigners to live anywhere in the country, permit people to come and go at will, and allow foreigners, foreign capital, and foreign goods to enter freely into the country, there is no doubt that our industries will prosper, just as when grass which has been buried by frost and snow suddenly shoots up at the first spring breeze, there will soon come about a good season of luxuriant verdure. If that is the way things happen, because "cultivators want to till the best land, merchants want to do business at the best market, and travellers want to travel to the best place",227 Japan will then become a pier on the Pacific, the great metropolis of the Orient and emporium for international trade. The smoke coiling up from thousands of chimneys will obscure the sun. Buildings will be as high as the clouds. Ship masts will be as numerous as trees in a forest. The sound of drills, levers, and hammers will be orchestrated with the echoes of steam engines, and the sound of the horses and vehicles will be heard as a roll of thunder on a fine day. How delightful it will be! Did not Joseph Cook228 say the following: "Although Japan is small, she is like a rudder. The great ship of the Orient can be steered by nothing other than this rudder." These words are most fitting. If this reasoning is sound, we must say that Japan is endowed with the conditions to be a natural commercial nation. There is still, however,

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another question: Do our people possess the qualities to become business people? I do realize that our people of the present day do not fully possess these qualities as yet, since they have grown up in a military world. But in spite of this obstacle I should not modify my assertion. First of all, are the Japanese doomed not to become traders and producers? I cannot by any means affirm this, since it is actually feudal customs which have made our people unproductive and inactive. As a matter of fact, dispositions which were fostered by customs can be changed, again by customs. The characteristics which were affected by one environment can be affected by another environment. Behold! For instance, with the transformation of the Meiji Restoration, the feudal samurai have lost their time-honoured hereditary stipends and have had to rely upon their own exertion for a livelihood. But at present, it is very seldom that members of the ex-samurai class die of starvation. This is because the change of the surrounding environment of the samurai, coupled with the stimulus of necessity, forced all our exsamurai class to become producers. Since the ex-samurai class can be converted into producers, why should it be difficult for our samurai country to become a commercial one? As mentioned previously, Japan is governed by the world environment and the world general trend. There is nothing that might hinder their influence. Not only that: Japan is governed by her peculiar environment, which acts as a catalyst, and reinforces them. She is also governed by the necessity that she must maintain at all costs her independent life vis-a-vis all other countries in the world. Therefore these necessities will quickly transform the qualities of our people into those of genuine merchants, traders, workers, financiers, and entrepreneurs. Even a solid rock, which cannot be altered by a balmy spring breeze, has to be altered by such a pressing trend; how much more so our people, who are well-known throughout the world for their promptitude and amicability, their natural accommodation and adaptability! Our ancestors were not like the dull, thoughtless, timid, weakkneed, and effeminate people of the last days of the Tokugawa feudal regime. Our ancestors were people of vigour and ability, full of

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daring and adventurous temperament, of which I am proud and envious. For example, look at Otomo Sorin, Gamo Ujisato, or Date Masamune229 who dispatched embassies to Rome. Through them, our jet-haired230 and dark-eyed people, as early as the late sixteenth century, were in the magnificent ancient capital of the great Roman Empire—gaining audiences with notables of various countries and the Pope himself, taking part in solemn and sacred ceremonies. At St. Peter's Basilica they were able to glide about with assurance right up to the very altar. Date Masamune composed the following poem for Hasekura Tsunenaga231 and his embassy upon their departure from Japan in 1614 [sic] (the nineteenth year of the Keicho era)232 for a straight voyage across the Pacific to Mexico, Spain, and Rome: The country is being incessantly confused by the heretical doctrine, The wish to conquer barbarian lands has not yet been fulfilled. When will our ambitious enterprise toward the south be undertaken? So long have we been awaiting for the wind from afar. If Magellan was the first person who sailed across the Pacific (1520), then Hasekura must have been the second one.233 After Magellan, the greatest hero that ever lived, one of our people accomplished this extraordinary feat of navigation. Not only did Japanese merchant ships make frequent journeys to the China Sea, the Indian Ocean coasts, and islands in the Western Sea; Japanese adventurers of the time established settlements or became men of power in these foreign places. This should be wellknown to observant people, thus it is not necessary for me to go on at length. At the time that navigation and trade were making headway in our country, the truth of trade, the genuine principle, had already radiated a dim light. During the Keicho era when our merchant ships sailed to Annam,234 the Confucian scholar Fujiwara Shuku,235 the pioneer of the Tokugawa literary circle, wrote the following ship's oath: Commerce is the business of selling and buying in order to bring profit to both parties. It is not to gain profit at the expense of

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others. When the profit is shared, the gain may be small but the benefit is great. When the profit is not shared, the gain may be great but the benefit is small. "Profit is the happy outcome of righteousness." So while the greedy merchant bids for five, the decent one bids for three. Keep that in mind. SOURCE: Gaikoshi-ko (Draft Materials on [Japan's] Diplomatic History).236 If the above endeavours had not been interrupted halfway, I should not now have to dwell in lengthy discussions upon whether or not our people possess the qualities of business people, or our country those of a natural commercial nation. Evidence is more important than argument: i.e., at the present day our people ought to be by nature shrewd and active traders and by nature vigorous seafarers. When recalling this, I cannot help but deplore Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of modern237 feudalism. Yet this was rather a temporary folly. One should not blame bygone times. However, it must be said that the facts themselves point to the following truth which is indubitable. That is to say, our people can by no means be considered bereft of their qualities of yore as traders and navigators. At present there are doubts about these qualities in our people simply because of artificial restraint during the Tokugawa period. Once this restraint is removed and our people are set free, even without inspiration or encouragement from others, they will, like their ancestors, or to be precise, one degree further than their ancestors, become producers and business people.

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Japan in Retrospect In View of Japan's Present Circumstances

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C H A P T E R Japan in Retrospect: In View of Japan's Present Circumstances

X I I

Part I

WHEN

HEARING

STORIES

ABOUT

Sparta from their teachers, schoolchildren in our country are astounded at the extraordinary traditions of the Spartans. The Japan of our ancestors was in fact a militant society like Sparta, or one with an even more elaborate and thoroughgoing military organization than Sparta's. Now, before discussing Japan's present circumstances, I must first look into the Japan of the past. There had never been previously a feudal society like ours. There will never be a feudal society like ours again. The society of our ancestors was indeed unparalleled through all time. For the vitality of this society was thoroughly military; all corners of society in which it penetrated were in every way full of military spirit. It was like the present standing army system extended to the entire nation, and the barracks of the present standing army expanded over the whole country. The situation at that time was like this. So to speak, the whole country was like a military barracks, and the whole nation was either soldiers or those who served them. I should like to make a little observation about this fact: what was called the samurai at that time was equivalent to the so-called standing army of the present time, the difference between the two being that military duties are restricted in the latter case to a limited period of time, whereas in the former case the duties were not only extended for the samurai's entire life—literally from birth to death, 133

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but also to every member of their families, and from their ancestors to their offspring. It is no wonder that just as soldiers of the standing army of the present day carry a gun on their shoulder and a dagger at their side, so the samurai wore two swords at all times. From their childhood until their advanced years they were occupied with martial arts, in the same way that present-day soldiers undertake military drills. They had no freedom of movement; even after obtaining a licence they were allowed to travel only during a limited period of time and only to nearby domains, in the same way that present-day soldiers are permitted to go out of their camps only on Wednesdays and Sundays before closing-time. They bore arms in appropriate fashion at home, as do present-day soldiers in their camp. They got up, lay down, and moved to the sound of drumbeats from the guard tower, as do present-day soldiers to bugle signals. Unless they were able to acquire a certificate of qualification in the martial arts, the name of their family would be deleted from the domain's register, in the same way that those who cannot meet the physical requirements are not selected for military service at the present day. There were numerous ranks among them, from ashigaru (a footman) to karo (a chief retainer of a feudal lord), to joshu (a feudal lord), to the Shogunate; similarly in the present military system there are privates, noncommissioned officers, officers, field grade officers, and generals. How did the superfluity of samurai in the country, and the high-ranking samurai who governed the samurai (such as the feudal lords), live?238 At no time did they ever take a plough or an abacus in their hands. If so, how were they able to maintain so comfortable a life? There must have been a commissariat. In fact, the peasants, artisans, and merchants all were their commissariat, existing simply to serve the samurai and the high-ranking samurai. Similarly, presentday soldiers are not engaged in labour but are fully supported by all the rest of the population. There is a difference, however, between the present day and the feudal age, i.e., present-day soldiers exist to protect the people and their produce, whereas in the past the people existed to serve the samurai and the high-ranking samurai. As the people were but a commissariat, they were at all times ready, without

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any reluctance, to abandon their labour, or their property, the result of their labour; or to lay down their life, which they could not live twice. Nay, they were not allowed to be reluctant. In the same way that the present-day army is divided into twelve brigades and six divisions, all controlled by a single army headquarters, the samurai were located in three hundred castles which were supervised by Edo. It must be said that for the samurai, the three hundred castles were then the bases for sub-regimentation, and indeed Edo was the base for regimentation. In this manner, the samurai followed the high-ranking samurai, the commissariat followed the samurai, and all sorts of goods followed the commissariat. Thus, it was not without reason that there was, with no exception, a castle town for every castle, and Edo, the greatest castle town in the country, was several times as prosperous as the modern Tokyo. On my journeys to different parts of the country, I have seen vestiges of the past society in the feudal castle towns: desolate empty moats and half-ruined houses amidst overgrown autumn flowers; the samurai had been dwelling around the gates of the castle, the artisans and the merchants around the samurai residences. I then came fully to realize that the centripetal force of wealth was with the samurai at the time. How was it that the samurai possessed the sole centripetal force of wealth? Because they were the consumers of wealth. How could they become consumers? Because they owned the people, they were the masters of what the people owned. Thus, they certainly did not trade with the commoners; the wealth usurped from the latter, on the one hand, was simply exchanged for goods, on the other. In the world of militancy there could be no genuine trade, but only the above type of exchange. The reason was that there were two kinds of classes in society: one being strictly consumers, and the other being strictly producers. The consumers, on the one hand, consumed all along, pleasantly and comfortably, in areas where no production could be regenerated. The producers, on the other hand, produced all along, toiling and sweating throughout their life, for the sake of producing. Under feudalism, the peasants, artisans, and merchants thus did not labour to sustain their own livelihood, but rather to support

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others' luxury and extravagance. In other words, they did not labour for the sake of living but rather lived for the sake of labour. In this manner, the wealth of a region gathered in its castle town, the wealth of all regions in Edo, and the wealth of society in the samurai and the high-ranking samurai. Hence, the impoverishment of the slaves could be inferred from the extravagance of their masters, the decline of rural areas from the prosperity of the castle towns, the poverty of the provinces from the affluence of the metropolis. It becomes evident that, in a society with a military organization, in economic terms, the principle of natural distribution must always be suppressed, and there must be no other way than artificial distribution. There are circumstances due to inequality in which the principle of artificial distribution must be put into practice, and, needless to say, once inequality becomes predominant, an aristocratic type of society, along with all sorts of curious aristocratic phenomena, emerges. Generally speaking, if the principle of natural distribution in the economic world is followed, the whole country, the whole society, and the whole people will become producers and consumers. The producers will necessarily be at the same time the consumers, and vice versa. The amount of consumption will necessarily be equally balanced with that of production. That is to say, those who consume much produce much, and those who consume little produce little. Thus the relations of cause and effect are strictly followed. Those who work diligently and acquire wealth are, as a natural result, able to enjoy the pleasures of drinking excellent wines in noctilucent gem glasses, viewing flowers while riding on silver saddles, or boating by moonlight. Those who are lazy and lead a dissolute life will have to wear poor clothes and eat repulsive things, being insulted by others and unhappy with themselves, and for the rest of their life drooping like a dog in a house of death.239 Nonetheless, they should blame neither Heaven nor other people for the disparity between themselves and the others. It is simply a natural consequence of their deeds, as the saying goes: "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."240

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NATURAL DISTRIBUTION

ARTIFICIAL DISTRIBUTION

In opposition to the above is the principle of artificial distribution, in which cause A is connected with effect B, and cause B with effect A. The labourers always labour and collect the pain on behalf of the idlers, who always live a life of leisure and secure their pleasures from the labourers. Could there be any inequity more extreme than this? Could there be any injustice more extreme than this? If this is bearable, what then would be unbearable? Why is it, I wonder, that during the long period of more than two hundred and sixty years under the Tokugawa regime there was no one, from the peasants, artisans, and merchants, i.e., the victims of the samurai, not to mention the samurai themselves, who called for the restoration of justice and the preservation of natural right? The situation under the Tokugawa rule was as above. How is it possible that the phenomena arising from these conditions were normal? After all, the phenomena which emerge on the surface of society are a mirror, reflecting the spirit of the inner depths of society. For instance, great constructions such as Egypt's gigantic pyramid and China's Great Wall, that still exist today, are evidence of the fact that the aristocratic type of society was highly developed in these two countries in ancient times. For it was by no means a coincidence that these constructions could be carried out during such times, in such countries, and on such a great scale. They were completed only with the exhaustive use of the energy and wealth of the commoners, and

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the brains of the entire population. Although these two constructions are truly 'great', their greatness is no more than a monument for all ages to ancient tyranny. The wealth or poverty of a country refers generally to the average of the entire population. An aristocratic society is overall extremely poor; then why is it that in its present form there are many more magnificent and brilliant things than in a democratic and rich society? This is simply because the wealth of the whole nation was gathered in by artificial means among a small group of people. That is to say, the aristocrats wore beautiful clothes by making the rest of the population threadbare. The former drank refined wines and gorged themselves on delicate meats by making the latter drink water and eat dirt. The former lived in lofty mansions with beautiful and elegant ladies, and travelled on stout horses or lightweight carriages attended by crowds of retainers, by leaving the latter blown about by the wind and exposed to the showers of rain, their family members scattered, and all in extreme distress. The prime objective in aristocratic society is thus to benefit oneself by injuring others, to laugh at others' crying, to dance at others' falling down, to sing at others' laments, or to gorge oneself at the expense of others' starvation. It is the principle by which one would lay hands upon others' daughters and wives to satisfy one's lusts, would slay others from baseless anger. How could one hesitate to demand others' lives in order to protect one's own? One would slaughter and cut off even lives. When lives were mown down without a murmur like grasses, where was righteousness? Where was justice? Where was peace? Where was right? Where was law? According to this principle, tyranny was righteousness, arbitrariness was justice, conflict was peace, might was right, and lawlessness was law. I should call this type of society the most barbarous and repressive type. All the above is but the natural consequence of the expansion of what is called the military organ. Hence, to abhor the above evil consequences but still attempt to turn society into a military organization is to be just like a person who hates to become drunk but still keeps on drinking sake. How misguided it is!

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There are those who consider it a national glory that the fine arts are advanced in our country. But are they something to be proud of? Consider: how is it that such a poor country as ours has produced those refined arts so out of balance with her national wealth? Only because of the demands from the aristocrats. How did such demands occur? Because of the commoners' poverty. The feudal aristocrats, in a certain sense, possessed boundless wealth, disproportionate to the demands of their life. Therefore their demands grew in almost no time, and from their demands emerged strange phenomena: exquisite fabrics such as figured brocade, satin, twilled fabrics, and nishiki brocade241 were manufactured while our people had no rags in which to be clad. Gorgeous Kutani porcelain242 was produced while our people had not even coarse sake bottles. Gold-painted lacquer and lacquer ware were made while our people had not even broken trays and rice-bowls. Printed silk and embroidery was fabricated while our people had not even cotton clothes dyed bastard saffron. Handiwork in gold, silver, red copper, ivory, and the like was creatively and cunningly wrought while our people had not even cooking-pots, and had to use their teeth as knives, their fingers as chopsticks, and moonlight as lamplight. The solemn and magnificent Mausoleum at Nikko243 in dazzling golden and blue colours, admired and envied by foreign countries even today, was made possible because our people had no cemeteries nor even gravestones, and were not able so much as to perform the Buddhist rites for the repose of their departed parents' souls. If this is the case, the above art objects are a testimony to the agony and grief of our people under feudalism, which must be explained to and remembered by us, their offspring. Accordingly, if we just feel pride in these art objects without thinking about their origins, how ignorant we are of our ancestors' feelings! Are we not going to be laughed at by persons of good sense? During the Warring Period244 no one was more brave and fearless of death than the samurai from Mikawa province.245 They were not reluctant to risk any danger, even had they to "tread upon naked swords or to go through flood and fire".246 Even Cromwell's three thousand Ironsides247 were not their rivals. But how were these

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Mikawa samurai changed in the peaceful years under feudal rule? I cannot help but lament upon reading the stringent admonitions by Matsudaira Sadanobu,248 the wise councillor of the Tokugawa Shogunate during the Kansei era, to eight thousand retainers: The ancestors of most of you served the Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu;249 many times they fought on the battlefields without sparing themselves; on account of their meritorious services, land on tenure was granted to them. At present the comfortable life of every one of you, and the support of your dependents, and your being respected as retainers by the rest of the population, is all owing to their services. But there are those of you who, forgetting your indebtedness to your ancestors, consider the land on tenure as your own, tyrannize over the commoners, without the slightest mercy often force conscript labour on them. These acts are by no means upright. Such misconduct arises from ignorance and not having been brought up to discern right from wrong from their early y e a r s . . . . For example, so far as recreations are concerned, it is said that there are those of you who eventually come to imitate the theatrical people in such a way as amusing themselves with things unbecoming in a retainer such as the shamisen250 and puppet-play songs rather than those amusements handed down from ancient days such as composing waka,251 playing ancient football, performing the tea ceremony, or composing renga252 and haikai253 poems, and playing go and chess, etc. This is because, having no legal wife and using their serving-girls to look after the household, they become frivolous and lose control, allowing unsuitable people to have the run of their house. Being dead to all sense of shame, such people become selfindulgent; consequently their household becomes unmanageable; they neglect the necessary military accomplishments of a retainer, and spend money uselessly beyond their means. In needy circumstances, many of them try to make up for these expenses by adopting the daughters of families of base stock for the sake of their dowry, who naturally become the source of disorder within your families. The regulations of the Tenna law, which provide

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that an adopted child must come from a family of the same name as the adopting retainer's family, were intended to rectify the family regulations. They also stipulate that the practice of receiving gift money for adopting or marrying a child must be stopped, that family names must be examined scrupulously, and that the time of marriage must not be delayed. Those who cannot manage their household, yet who are not unruly, but have no money to advance gifts, will naturally delay their time of marriage, and eventually relations between the sexes will become improper. Hence, those who hold responsibility must pay the utmost attention to this question; when they receive requests for permission to adopt or marry, they should examine the cases scrupulously. The young ones who lose their chance for marriage will go to licentious quarters and indulge themselves in inappropriate pleasures. Their manners will deteriorate; as a result they will remove their family insignia from their clothes and their family stamp from their night travel lanterns.254 The decline of the samurai class was as above. No matter how painstakingly that wise councillor tried to revive the world of his ancestors, it was impossible. In the final analysis, the system of military organization could not maintain forever its original spirit of vigour and simplicity. Consider the following: is it not true that the Romans conquered the world with their bare hands, but their offspring were left to the tender mercies of the Northern Barbarians? I am not surprised in the slightest at the appearance of the above in the decline of our militant society. This is because the samurai were those who ate the people's crop-taxes, and clothed themselves in the people's levies. No matter how sumptuous their style of living, they did not sustain any detriment. They could have gem glasses and ivory chopsticks. They could build silver bridges across ponds, or a false snowy mountain using white sugar. The distribution in militant society is one in which an evil cause produces a good effect and a good cause produces an evil effect. "He who steals a belt buckle pays with his life; he who steals a state gets to be a feudal lord—and we all know that benevolence and righteousness are to be found at the gates of the feudal lords."255

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In this way, the one who ate coarse food—a bowl of soup and a bowl of vegetables for his meal—and wore plain dress such as cotton clothes, only felt unhappy about his life, because his practice of frugality brought him no benefit. In contrast, the one who indulged himself in sumptuous food and was given to pleasure, only felt delighted with his life, because his extravagance brought him no detriment. Accordingly, this system created two groups of people: those with limitless rights on the one hand, and those under limitless obligations on the other. And it is assumed that the masters should have treated their slaves well. Is it not silly? The samurai and the high-ranking samurai were in effect emperors, with unlimited power but without responsibility. They had an ever-flowing and inexhaustible source of revenue. And even if this source of revenue was exhaustible, in no way were the samurai themselves affected. Given the situation, how could they hesitate to make the most of it? I can therefore assert that our militant society necessarily led the samurai, as its masters, to extravagance and effeminacy. This was because their livelihood was not based upon their own labour. They had much more wealth than they actually needed for their livelihood. Indeed, they even had wealth which they had trouble consuming. In such a case, why is it surprising that unnatural demands did emerge? Once there were those, on the one hand, who possessed much more wealth than necessary for their livelihood, naturally there must have been those, on the other hand, who supplied it, and as a result did not have enough wealth even to sustain their own livelihood. If there was, on the one hand, an unnatural demand, there must necessarily have been an unnatural supply, on the other. In his booklet On the Characteristics of Japanese Civilization, Taguchi Ukichi

has offered an illuminating exposition of this question, a section of which is quoted below: Above the people was a hierarchy of the feudal lords and their highest officials (taifu), whose conditions were completely different from those of the former. They did not gain their resources from labour. They took as their property what the people produced. They considered a single wife not sufficient, and thus in addition sought concubines. If everyone in society had been wealthy, their

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wants would not have been met. The people who supplied them with products, however, being impoverished, were willing to provide them with their daughters. Hence, there were those called concubines in society. Not completely satisfied after acquiring concubines, they frequented prostitute quarters. There were in society those who furnished them with prostitutes, daughters sold out by poor people. Hence, there were those called prostitutes in society. Not completely satisfied with prostitutes, they sought for geisha. There were in society impoverished people who made their daughters become geisha. Hence, there were those called geisha in society. Not completely satisfied with geisha, they sought for professional jesters. There were in society impoverished people who were contented to be even robbers or beggars, not to say professional jesters. Hence, there were those called professional jesters in society. All the above phenomena in society arose from aristocratic demands. The trend of the times is irresistible, like the impelling force of "a boulder falling from an overhanging cliff" and "a torrent rushing into a deep gorge".256 How can this force be held back, even if one had the great physical power of Meng Pen and Wu Huo?257 Once the Roman Empire turned effeminate, however much Cato the Elder258 cursed, scolded, or wielded his iron lash, how could he reverse the trend of the times? Similarly, once the Tokugawa society fell into extravagance, no matter if Matsudaira Sadanobu and Mizuno Tadakuni259 wept indignant tears, agonized, and pondered painfully, how could they change the situation? All the lamentable phenomena seen thus far originated in the inappropriate distribution of wealth. The distribution of wealth was inappropriate because social organization was also inappropriate. The great law of cause and effect cannot be halted even if one attempts to do so by human power. Why do not politicians in society "return to this basic principle"?260 Why do they not?

C H A P T E R Japan in Retrospect: In View of Japan's Present Circumstances

X I I I

Part II

IN A SOCIETY WITH AN EXPANSIVE

military organ like the Tokugawa, no matter how peaceful it was, no matter how its population increased, no matter how its production rose, no matter how hard the producers—from the peasant, artisan, and merchant classes—worked, they could not achieve enough of an accumulation of wealth from the nation as a whole to improve the standard of living of the people as a whole. This is because the wealth produced every year was consumed for military expenditures, i.e., to support the samurai and the high-ranking samurai in their insatiable extravagance. Year after year, the country's wealth was thrown away on unproductive expenditures, like merchandise dropped to the bottom of the water, which could never be recovered. This is the reason why our country remained barbarous and poor despite more than two hundred and sixty peaceful years under the Tokugawa Shogunate. In the mind of the legislators of the military government, there were only strategic considerations. In deciding the position of a castle-town, natural strongholds "protected by mountains and guarded by deep water were selected";261 and in constructing roads and docks, everything was based upon a concern for offence and defence. Similarly, the installation of check-points along highways and the prohibition of exporting strategic materials, the division of administrative districts and the regulations concerning the inhabit144

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ants, all resulted from military interests. The business of the peasants, artisans, and merchants was interfered with because their business was not recognized as independent, productive business, but was no more than a means to achieve the legislators' military goal. Of course, such a thing as economic truth would never have struck their mind. The only thing they were concerned with was to acquire sufficient food and other supplies in time of peace in order to prepare for a time of emergency, a war with a neighbouring country, or a state of siege. The feudal lords primarily encouraged agriculture, and within agriculture, they encouraged particularly the production of grain. Even Rai San'yO, an independent scholar in the feudal era, beguiled by feudal legislators, held that peasants should be respected while merchants should be despised. One must be aware of the evil effect of his line of argument. In addition, under feudalism everything from weapons and daily utensils to articles of luxury for the pleasures of feudal lords was produced within feudal domains. In the world of the present day—from the far side of the Antarctic Ocean to beneath the Great Bear, or in the burning deserts directly beneath the equator; almost wherever mankind can reach, wherever the sun shines, wherever the air flows, and wherever mankind lives—everywhere is a source of supply for mankind's demands. In contrast, in our feudal society, the economic world was limited to Japan alone. How confined it was! It was pardonable, however, compared with the following. There were three hundred feudal lords in Japan at the time. Their domains were military barracks where the people were not allowed freedom of movement, thus the economic world under Japanese feudalism was restricted to the individual domain. In other words, every eighty square miles—one-three-hundredth of Japan's total area—formed a world of its own. The small population within that tiny society was charged indiscriminately with every kind of occupation and production which the whole world and all its people were undertaking. In such a society, how was it possible to have a division of labour? How was it possible to put into practice the beneficial principle of eliminating disadvantages and making use of advantages? How was it possible to make the most of heaven-sent opportunities, advantages

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of position, and the harmony of men/ 62 to do things such as pursuing natural occupations in accordance with natural trends? Were not the conditions in feudal domains exactly those Lao Tzu would have called 'utopia'? NOTE: Lao Tzu said: Though they live within sight of their neighbour states, And crowing cocks and barking dogs be heard across the way, Though the people's food be plain, it would be pleasing, Though their clothes be simple, they would have their beauty, Their dwellings would be havens of peace, They would be happy in their ways, They would be content with their lot, And they would leave each other in peace while they grew old and died.263 Alas! The utopia of the feudal world was as above. How could this be what we are hoping for? In the feudal world, the people, the producers, all became metal workers to make their own agricultural implements. They also became peasants to till, cooks to prepare foods, shipwrights to build boats for coastal voyaging, and sailors. In putting up their thatched cottages, they were forced to imitate Robinson Crusoe, who had to become at the same time a sawyer, a carpenter, a stonecutter, and a mason. Under such conditions, how could one expect any improvement in the world of livelihood? Our people in the feudal society were poor prisoners, living in the most confined society of all confined societies, the most unfree world of all unfree worlds. But why, then, were the people quietly contented with their lot? The following is an explanation. To begin with, in the feudal world neighbouring lands were enemies. The Hojo, for instance, stopped selling salt to the province of Kai, and this brought the Takeda, Kai's lords, into jeopardy. "Faced with a naked sword at one's breast, how should one worry about having one's ten fingers cut off?"264 As people at the time were always prepared for a siege, and were continually conscious of being in the jaws of death, how should they be more afraid? In such circumstances only military necessities stood out. In other words, their goal was to

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accomplish the preparations for a siege without famine. How did they have any spare time to contemplate other things? The Tokugawa regime, after all, was born from the womb of military strife in the Genki and Tensho eras;265 the customs and practices of these eventful days thus became the customs and practices of the uneventful days of Tokugawa society. How is it that in the feudal world, neighbouring lands were thus considered enemies? The answer lies nowhere else than in there being a necessity in the basic nature of a militant society that it must be so. This is because the only policy of a militant society was either to capture one's neighbouring lands or to be captured by them. Although variously either offensive measures or defensive measures might be adopted, the aim in the final analysis came down to a single point: considering one's neighbouring lands as enemies. Accordingly, whether one charged on the enemy as swiftly as a long snake moves down a steep slope, or stood on one's position as firmly as a fierce tiger crouched for a spring,266 all that one could count on was one's own domain. Consequently, was not the principle of feudal seclusion that of a militant society? That the Tokugawa adopted the national closure policy and that those feudal lords adopted the domainal seclusion policy—their principle was as a matter of fact essentially identical—should cause no surprise. The mutual antagonism between feudal domains was expressed in the following war song of the samurai: The visitor comes daringly from the northern domain but we have nothing to entertain him, We shall, then, regale him with ammunition for a meal; Should he say he is not satisfied with it, With a treasured sword, we shall cut off his head as a keepsake.267 It is not without reason that they saw each other as irreconcilable, fierce enemies in singing the above war-song. I see from the above that trade protectionism is indeed a legacy of feudal society, and interventionism is most indispensable to the realization of the goals of a feudal society. For this reason, in feudal society every scrap of land belonged to the feudal lords, every man was subject to his master, and

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the military domain had expanded so much that there was not an inch of space left. Let us turn around and look at the situation of the economic world. It is a desolate sight. Ghost-like rawboned men and women, young and old, with dispirited and pale look, wielded their ploughs and clung to their shuttles. The occupations in which they were engaged were not chosen at their will. Like officers bullying soldiers, unsparing and cruel government officials, wielding their iron whips, maltreated and intimidated them. There was no mercy. There was no courtesy. The saying "a tyrannical government is more frightening than tigers"268 is indeed appropriate for the state of affairs during this period of time. How did the innocent and simple-hearted farmers feel? An Oriental poet wrote: Barley has been harvested and dried, raw-silks have been set on spindle, Even if our food and clothes are poor, We do not have to sell our calves. Such is the life of a farmer; How pleasant it would be, if there were not those officials.269 Their feelings were as above. How miserable it was! In addition, insofar as trade was concerned, there was no genuine trade. As John Stuart Mill stated: This state of society, however, is not destitute of the mercantile class; composed of two divisions, grain dealers and money dealers. The grain dealers do not usually buy grain from the producers, but from the agents of government, who, receiving the revenue in kind, are glad to devolve upon others the business of conveying it to the places where the prince, his chief civil and military officers, the bulk of his troops, and the artisans who supply the wants of these various persons, are assembled. The money dealers lend to the unfortunate cultivators, when ruined by bad seasons and fiscal exactions, the means of supporting life and continuing their cultivation, and are repaid with enormous interest at the next harvest; or, on a larger scale, they lend to the government, or to those to whom it has granted a portion of the revenue, and are

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indemnified by assignments on the revenue collectors, or by having certain districts put into their possession, that they may pay themselves from the revenues; to enable them to do which, a great portion of the powers of government are usually made over simultaneously, to be exercised by them until either the districts are redeemed, or their receipts have liquidated the debt. Thus, the commercial operations of both these classes of dealers take place principally upon that part of the produce of the country which forms the revenue of the government. From that revenue their capital is periodically replaced with a profit, and that is also the source from which their original funds have almost always been derived.270 It is indeed amazing that the above words also depict so well the actual circumstances of trade under feudalism in our country. Consider, for example: Why is it that Edo and Osaka were thriving at the time? Who were the elements thriving most in those cities? Anyone who "contemplates these matters seriously"271 will find "much instruction in them".272 In the first place, under Japan's feudalism, trade was a part of military affairs, and traders were also officials at the same time. That being the case, the evil practice of licensing (sembai tokkyo) necessarily occurred. Upon reading the book Boeki biko (Commentaries on Trade), I came to realize that the world of trade under Japan's feudalism was in practice that of licensing. Behold! Is it not true that the so-called ton 'ya (wholesale dealers) entered a special contract with the government, paid the latter myogakin (a forced contribution) to obtain a special licence, and thereby open competition was excluded and the benefits of trade in special commodities were monopolized by the ton 'ya? NOTE: Most notable among the ton'ya are the Tokumi Ton'ya in Edo. They have gradually managed to obtain special privileges of monopoly, allied themselves with the Hishigaki Shipping Agents, and formed an association of recognized dealers (kabunakama).273 At present, they distribute share cards to all one thousand nine hundred and ninety-five members and do not allow any new members apart from the established members. When someone in the

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association becomes bankrupt or goes out of business, the members of the association will keep the shares and select an appropriate person to be the successor in order to fill the vacancy. In this way, the business of the members of the Tokumi Ton'ya is protected by forbidding outsiders to purchase directly from the producers. There has been no change in the amount of forced contribution, according to established regulations. The Tokumi Ton'ya has eventually expanded into a league of sixty-five groups called the Hishigaki Shipping Agents. SOURCE: Boeki biko (Commentaries on Trade).274 Even the standing armies of Germany and France would be outshone by the above system in its strict and thorough discipline. In such circumstances, how is it possible to expect the progress of wealth? With regard to this, there is another noteworthy question: Why is it that inheritance was so respected and lineage was so prized under feudalism?275 Because they were, as explained below, indispensable to a military organization. First of all, a military organization is a compulsory one, in which a brave man cannot advance by himself, and also a coward cannot retreat by himself. Its co-operation is a repressive one: a man of wisdom cannot develop his intellect, and also a fool cannot display his stupidity. In a military organization there is truly neither intelligence nor stupidity, and by the same token, neither bravery nor cowardice. The wise and the brave cannot act as wise and brave. The stupid and the cowardly cannot act as stupid and cowardly. Everyone, in everything, acts in accordance with a uniform discipline. For this reason, even a fool who has been working long will supervise a man of wisdom, and a man of wisdom who has not been working long will be supervised by a fool. Promotion in the military world is entirely by precedence.276 It is impossible for one who starts his career later than another to catch up with the latter, no matter how he leaps and bounds; let alone to surpass him. A glance at the present military system of the army and navy in various countries will help in understanding what inheritance was really like under Japan's feudalism. While in the current system of the army and navy the privileges of precedence are applied to the career of one individual or to his widow or orphans (i.e., peerage, medals, and pensions), in Japan's feudal society they were extended to their

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descendants indefinitely. In tracing the ancestors of the Tokugawa aristocrats, although I cannot by any means vouch for their service to the people, I indeed recognize that they were men of outstanding prudence and bravery, judging from the fact that most of them started from lowly origins, but rose by their exertions during the period of great military strife during the Genki and Tensho eras to usurp districts and provinces. But what kind of services did their descendants perform, and what kind of abilities did they possess, that they made many men of talents cry for starvation and sent many patriots into obscurity, or squeezed the heart and soul out of the commoners in their domainal territory? Why was it, then, by the blood and tears of others that their pleasures were supplied? Only because of precedence. In other words, thanks to the legacy of their ancestors. If a person himself is incompetent, he ought to be a poor citizen, even if he is a descendant of someone no matter how wealthy. The feudal lords, however, never became poor, however incompetent, however lazy, however tyrannical and prodigal they were. In direct contrast were the people under feudalism: however brilliant and gifted they were, there was almost no way for them to fulfil lofty aspirations. Why was it that above or below the heavens for ten million miles, so to speak, one could neither move up nor sink down? This is only because feudal society was sustained by the spirit of a military organization. In fact, in the last phase of feudalism, when its laudable distinctive customs vanished from sight, not only did its evil inherent practices not diminish, but they were magnified. In any period of time, as long as a military society exists, or even after it has disappeared from the surface of the earth, its injurious effects will remain forever. Such was the importance given to inheritance and lineage in the above society. It is not impossible to say that the environment of our feudal society was a stage on which creation made use of mankind to perform an extraordinary drama. At the time, there were doctors who could neither examine patients nor give prescriptions, fencing instructors who could not wield a bamboo sword, teachers who did not comprehend reading, secretaries who could not draft documents, and painters who could not use colours. Similarly, there were arith-

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meticians who did not know the four elementary rules of arithmetic, merchants who did not know how to weigh in the balance, inspectors who did not inspect, supervisors who did not supervise, financial officers who did not know how to count, and administrators who did not administer. If such was the case, it is hardly a surprise that there was in this period a senior councillor of sixteen years of age, or a Shogun eight years old. NOTE: In the chapter on educational policy in his Keizairoku (Discussions on Economy), Dazai277 said: "In Japan a large number of scholars and professionals specialize in their skills within their families for generations. They work for the government and receive stipends generation after generation. This is why the professionals gradually become unskilful, and proficient professionals become rare. Sometimes it happens that a certain skill becomes disreputable and scholars do not care to learn it. This means there is deficiency of specialization. A specialization is a means to establish a family on the basis of the particular specialty, and to hand it down along the family lineage." The evil practice of succession by inheritance was thus not limited to the feudal samurai alone but was extended to all subordinate parts of society, and eventually gave rise to a strange phenomenon, described below, of inside-out arrangement and false nomenclature. I am not surprised at this because it is only natural that whatever takes place at the centre must necessarily be extended to all other parts. The true face of our feudal society was displayed not only in tangible things but also in intangible things. Consider: morality under feudalism was not something spontaneously likeable and amiable, cultivated through natural behaviour, and inculcated in freedom. Was it not a dead morality, in which people were concerned only with formality? The real picture of feudalism is well reflected in the scenario of Joruri,278 a product of the feudal ideology, which still remains today. NOTE: "Mother, you said that to a son of a samurai, loyalty means to put up with hunger and, when eating, eat everything with ease, even poison. As I have heard those words, I will always control myself, for ever and ever. But as I have fulfilled my duty of loyalty, please feed me quickly. Until then I

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shall be waiting, kneeling with hands on my lap. Even if I am hungry I shall not complain." Even with a grimace and tears, with the thought that he will be praised for not crying, he tries to hide a tearful face by putting hand to forehead. His effort to hide feelings is certainly to be expected from an offspring of a samurai, who is well known for that. SOURCE: Meiboku sendai hagi (The Choice Wood of a Former Era).279 There were loyal vassals who committed seppuku to follow their lord in death, devoted children who sold themselves to support their parents, merchants who worked hard for profits but did not care for profits, and gentlemen who strove hard for fame but did not want fame. Indeed, the moral world under feudalism was so unnatural, that it is beyond my imagination. But it was unavoidable, certainly unavoidable in a military organization. After all, the spirit of military organization is obedience. The extreme of obedience will control a natural reaction, and produce an artificial action. If one stands when one wants to stand, sits down when one wants to sit down, speaks when one wants to speak, keeps quiet when one wants to keep quiet, avoids suffering as suffering, and enjoys pleasure as pleasure, how then can military organization be maintained? Consequently, if military organization is to be maintained, suffering has to be taken as pleasure, pleasure as suffering, poison as medicine, and bitter as sweet. In our feudal society, there was no people. In other words, society was not created for the people, but instead the people were created for society, or rather, for the feudal lords and their vassalage, i.e., the samurai. The officials did not exist for the protection of the people, but the people existed to serve the officials. If there was no people, how was it possible to have any undertakings by them? If there were no undertakings by the people, even though the people wanted to display their full ability, how could they do so? Therefore, outside the government, there was not an inch of room for anyone to exert his power. For this reason, how was it possible for anyone with ambition— good or evil, wise or foolish, a flatterer or one well-versed in statecraft —to have any choice but to set his eyes upon an official career? No

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wonder that in feudal society an official career was so valuable. If one did not pursue this course, however brilliant one might be, one would, like vegetation, rot away. Entering an official career280 was even more difficult than "a camel passing through the eye of a needle".281 How deplorable it was! In short, under Japan's feudalism, from the Shogun on top to the village headman at the bottom, everyone was an unconditional slave to those of higher ranks and an absolute master to those of lower ranks. Social relations were therefore straight up and down; at no time was anyone ever allowed to be on the same footing as another. Whatever the circumstances, human relations were always vertical. This was indeed inevitable in military organization. Because if soldiers were placed in the same rank with noncommissioned officers, noncommissioned officers in the same rank with officers, and officers in the same rank with field officers and generals, that military organization would not last perhaps even a single day. In any event, in our feudal society military discipline was extended to all human relations: those between father and son, husband and wife, brothers and friends. From elaborate matters such as political and military issues to trivial matters such as village affairs, social functions, ceremonial occasions, viewing flowers, or excursions, everything was influenced by uniform and rigid military discipline. How extreme this unequal order was! Whoever the legislator was, he should never have thought even in his dreams that this distortion and impropriety would arise. But how could the result be avoided? If one revenges oneself against one's enemy, the latter's son will in turn seek revenge. How could that be avoided? Those who wish to know the pros and cons of a militaristic system should look into our feudal society, a society in which the military organ was most thoroughly and completely developed. If one observes it objectively, one should realize its merits as well as its demerits. But behold! Through their sufferings and agonies in feudal society, our ancestors have provided us with their iron verdict on the pros and cons of militaristic politics. How can we imprudently overlook it?

The Japan of the Present Day In View of Japan's Present Circumstances

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C H A P T E R The Japan of the Present Day: In View of Japan's Present Circumstances

X I V

Part I

TO LIVE IN PRESENT-DAY JAPAN AND

talk about present-day Japan appears to be a useless exercise, just as it would be to convince a horse that it is a horse, or to stand in front of a mountain and argue that it is a mountain. Nonetheless, one must do so, because without exposing the details of the present situation, it is impossible to predict the future. I am not surprised even a bit at the collapse of the Tokugawa government. Things change—yesterday it was the Eastern Chou dynasty, today it is the Ch'in dynasty; as soon as Hsien-yang282 had been destroyed, Lo-yang283 was bustling. Whatever aristocratic society there may be, needless to say, it has someday to meet the fate that practical ability will predominate over lineage. However, the collapse of the government led to the collapse of the entire society as well; reform of the government led to reform of the entire society as well; and the vehemence of these reforms was such that they could not stop even if they wanted to. This presented a grand spectacle unprecedented in Oriental history. Behold! As is illustrated in the twenty-four dynastic revolutions in Chinese history and what Arai Hakuseki284 postulated to be the nine changes in the imperial rule and five changes in the Shogunate rule in our history, even though the actors displayed each their different peculiar skills, what changed was only the actors. Is it not true that the stage was always the same stage and the scenario always the same 157

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scenario? This is why the history of reform in the Orient has been so stale and threadbare, and thus not worth reading. Why is it that only the history of our Meiji reform has progressed vigorously, exceeding people's expectations at every turn, and utterly astonishing them? I can assert that this has been because the great reform of the Meiji Restoration was a result of internal and external stimuli coming at the same time, the outside pushing and the inside shoving, which were eventually exhibited in a grand spectacle. To be more precise, the world trend awakened our people's mind, which had then to succumb to this inevitable pressure of the world trend and finally embark upon an unforeseen and great undertaking, performing a fresh and extraordinary play which we had never seen and of which we had never heard. Not only we, the onlookers, but even the patriotic and righteous leaders of the Restoration themselves, the actors in the play, must surely have been taken completely by surprise. In the letter that Perry, a pioneer at the dawn of the history of the new Japan, delivered to the then Shogun, there are the following lines: We know that the ancient laws of Your Imperial Majesty's government do not allow for foreign trade, except with the Chinese and the Dutch; but as the state of the world changes and new governments are formed, it seems to be wise, from time to time, to make new laws. There was a time when the ancient laws of Your Imperial Majesty's government were first made.285 This letter should be remembered long in the history of the opening of Japan. When reading the above paragraph carefully, one can understand the enormous difficulties in the history of the Restoration reforms. Any event must have its origins, just as a great flood in the lower reaches of the Nile means that there has been heavy rain in the mountains of Abyssinia. In our country, before the Restoration reforms, there had not been a speck of cloud hanging over her sky; there had not been a drop of rain falling on her land. Is it not true that the sudden great deluge that wiped out not only the government but the old world certainly came not by magic, but as a result of the general stormy trend of the world? The leaders of the Restoration

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reforms wavered, lest they should sacrifice both good people and bad people indiscriminately. Nevertheless, they were spurred on by this general world trend with unrelenting pressure. Hence, one reform stimulated another. One overthrow invited another. Even the leaders wished to stop; they were not allowed to. Even they wished to pause; they were not allowed to. Finally, this thunderous approach led to reforms which in their magnitude are perhaps without precedent to date. After the arrival of Perry's Black Ships in 1853 and 1854, our reformers wanted, on several occasions, to discontinue the changes, but the overpowering trend of reform would not allow them, and one reform led to another. Eventually, in 1867, after the Tokugawa government returned its political power to the Emperor, and the undertaking of the Restoration was thought to have been completed, the upheaval of the Boshin Civil War took place. When the Council of State (Dajokan) had been created, people felt relieved that the rain had fallen and the dust had settled; then the feudal lords returned the registers of their domains to the Emperor, which in turn led to the decisive measure of abolishing the domains and establishing the prefectures (haihanchiken), an unprecedented reform. How is it possible for the reformers to have planned in advance all of these developments, even in their dreams? Extemporaneous measures, designed to meet immediate needs, unintentionally completely changed our militant society into an industrial society and our aristocratic society into a democratic society. Look at the imperial ordinances of the time, for example. Their active and high spirit takes one's thoughts back to the turbulent state of affairs at the time. That the Restoration leaders were subconsciously under the influence of the contemporary world trend is revealed in words such as: "to consider carefully the actual state of the whole world", or, "hitherto, while every nation embarked on great ventures, only our country was ignorant of world affairs and adhered to old rules, not striving to reform herself", or, "to go beyond the seas in order to make the national glory shine in the four corners of the world, and to establish peace throughout the country", or, "may We therefore take a decisive step and unite wholeheartedly with the

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entire population, complying with just and fair principles, and establish a great foundation, one not to be ashamed of in the sight of later generations and of other nations". One recognizes from these lines that our leaders of the Meiji Reform were unconsciously governed by the world trend of the time. As a matter of fact, just as the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire led the bewildered Israelites through the Red Sea to the Promised Land,286 the current world trend led the great reform of the Restoration by leaps and bounds to arrive at the new Japan of the present day. Although the leaders of the Restoration were men of unparalleled talent, as far as insight and wisdom are concerned not many of them could rival Yokoi Shonan. The following is the memorial submitted by Shonan to the Old Prince of Echizen287 when the Tokugawa handed over their political power to the Emperor: 1.

I am greatly pleased that the Shogunate government has repented and become sincere. Should the four domains288 soon proceed to Kyoto and sincerely confer with the Imperial court in order to assist it, the foundations for the peace of the Empire will be established. The Shogunate should also stay in Kyoto, and men of righteousness should be recruited. More than anyone else, Lord should be promoted and his sincerity should be cultivated. The above is my utmost wish.

2.

I suggest that all daimyo go to Kyoto soon. As a first step they should dispatch their highest officials. As the beginning of the new government is of particular importance, when some from the four domains go to Kyoto they should issue a decree of amnesty. (Yet, for the sake of unifying the nation and of enlightening their hearts, I wish that the Imperial court also would reflect and reprove itself.)

3.

When the time is right for a great reform, it is most appropriate that a Parliament be created. Its Upper House should include those from the Imperial court as well as the Shogunate government, and its Lower House should recruit its members from those of talent widely throughout the country.

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At first, the four domains should be in charge of the highest offices of the government; other daimyo who have good names should be appointed additionally.

5.

After the establishment of the Imperial government, money and grain should be supplied without interruption even for a single day. A Treasury Board should be created (and the choice of its personnel is of paramount importance), and in the meantime paper currency equivalent to approximately five million ryo (tael), bearing the official seal of the Imperial government, should be issued.

6.

Taxes should be levied throughout the Empire. From every domain a tax should be levied in the ratio of 100 [sic] koku of rice to an annual production of 10,000 koku. (With the resignation of the Shogunate, however, the enormous expenditures would be cut down, the daimyo should leave Edo and return to their domains, and the practice of alternate attendance (sankin kotai) would be halted. Large sums of money also would be saved. Accordingly, the collection of ten per cent of the rice production should be reasonable. Paper currency should be gradually substituted for rice in the collection.)

7.

A Department of Criminal Justice should be created.

8.

A Department of the Navy should be established at Hyogo. Warships should be collected from the daimyo in the Kanto area, and soldiers from those daimyo having an annual stipend of more than 100,000 koku of rice, and the number of soldiers should be in proportion with the size of the daimyo's annual stipends. Training will be given by navigators and officers invited from the West. The number of warships should be increased every year. Thus with skill, unanimity, and high morale, these soldiers should certainly be abreast of the world trend. The Director of the Department should be selected from those daimyo who have the required calibre, and its officers from

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the dextrous samurai of the domains in the Kanto area. All expenditure will initially be supplied by the Treasury Board; however, when foreign trade begins to thrive, it may be covered by tariffs collected at trade ports. As the expenditure will be enormous, there must necessarily be some talented persons in the Parliament to argue for the appropriation of funds. 9.

The date to open the Hyogo port is at hand. As the alteration of our polity and legitimacy has just begun, the treaties which appear clearly inappropriate must be revised one by one, so that they will be just and fair and remain unchanged over the centuries. The revision, depending upon the case, might evoke animosity. To avoid regret in the future, fair negotiations are desirable.

10.

In foreign countries, there is a study of trade and commerce, which surveys distribution of products throughout the world and the fluctuations of commodity prices. They develop trade widely with all nations, and set up trading companies for reciprocal transactions. In this way, foreign countries are skilful in international trade, while Japan is very awkward. The difference is almost like that between an adult and a small child, and this is why they use sharp practice. As for the trade at our three ports289 during the last six years or so, for us it brought wealth to not a single person, for them it was a trade which brought great wealth to all. This fact clearly points to the great loss that we have suffered in trade so far. The reason behind it is our great vice of not going out to foreign countries to seek trade, which I hope will now be remedied. Japanese trading companies should be established in the West in five countries, Russia, England, France, America, and Holland; and also in China at three ports, Tientsin, Shanghai, and Canton. Trading corporations should be set up at home. With respect to Hyogo port, not only the daimyo in the

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central provinces and in Shikoku, but also merchants and other commoners should be allowed to join these companies, if they so wish. All should unite efforts in perfect accord, and ships should be made ready in a concerted effort to go out for trade. I will not discuss the rest of the three ports, as they are to conform to this example. To ban unregulated arrivals and departures, ships leaving the country should receive a stamp from the governor of the port and should contact the Japanese trading companies at their destination. Similar procedures should be required for ships returning. If things are carried out as above, it is obvious that people will naturally become skilled in trade, and gain profit. Domestically, foreign traders will naturally be debarred from sharp practice and return to fair trading. As the above is related to the most important issues, I hope it will be discussed and settled immediately. 11.

As for ministers in missions abroad, magistrates, and officials of the lords including governors: even though the Shogun has resigned, because he was the head of the feudal lords, one official in the above offices should be selected from the bannermen,290 and the rest from the members of the Lower House.

12.

Useless positions, including inspectors of high and low rank and secretaries, should be abolished. Documents and decrees should be put through the Lower House. By doing so, government would be simplified.

13.

As our national polity has been altered, ministers should be dispatched abroad, and the alteration should be announced thereby.

I believe that all of the above are urgent matters for the present. Though with respect to other reforms of government, including school reform, I have some ideas; I hope that after the creation of

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the basis of the government they will be adopted. As this memorial was written in a hurry, I am afraid that it is improper. I nonetheless put forward this proposal as a slight expression of the sincerity of my heart.291 Upon reading the above, I came to recognize that Shonan had a far-sighted vision which was appropriate to his being a pioneer of reform. Nonetheless, I still perceive the shadowy existence of the feudal system in his views. What is, then, the force that has toppled our society with its military organization? Is it not the inevitability of the world trend, as in an extract from Chao I:292 "Although human feelings are still attached to the old view, it is the will of Heaven that a new phase is to unfold." In my reading of the history of the Meiji Restoration, I have seen not a single case in this enterprise in which an ordinary cause led to an ordinary consequence. In other words, the only relation was that between the antecedents and the results, both of which were not normal. The reason is this. Those who fought against the Shogunate government and overthrew it in one battle were Satsuma and Choshu. These two domains could have followed in the footsteps of the Bakufu and have created two Shogunates, one in the East and one in the West. Why is it that they did not do so, but instead advocated the return of the domainal registers to the Emperor, and took the lead in it? The most meritorious leaders, who had rendered the most distinguished services in the Restoration, were unquestionably Saigo Takamori, Kido Takayoshi, and Okubo Toshimichi.293 Why is it that they were those who first pleaded for the abolition of domains and for the establishment of prefectures? The Restoration reform is one in which a group of samurai defeated another group of samurai, i.e., a samurai reform. Why is it that these samurai deprived themselves of the major part of their class privileges, confiscated their hereditary stipends, and even banned the wearing of swords, the symbol of their station in life? Human beings are not philosophers, so everyone seeks credit for his work. Why is it, then, that the meritorious domains and vassals in the Restoration reform, having survived a myriad chances of death and unexpectedly brought the Restoration to a conclusion, had no desire to seek credit for their

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achievements but instead went on to carry out fair and just reforms on behalf of the entire country? There must be a reason. Viewed on the surface, their disclaiming of their own merits in favour of others is the act of ethereal angels, rather than of human beings in this corrupt world of passions. One thus wonders if they were in fact heavenly beings, transcending worldly passion and greed. Viewed from beneath the surface, however, it is not surprising, given the inevitability of the trend. Under the pressure of the necessity of this inevitable trend, not just the Restoration reformers, but everyone had to be a philosopher, everyone had to be a saint. Those leaders of the Restoration were, nevertheless, human beings. How is it possible that they were completely oblivious of fame and profit? In any human undertaking, there must be, more or less, an element of gambling. In proportion to this element, there must be also some risk. Among human undertakings, there is nothing more of a gamble than political reform, and as such, a great risk must be expected in it. If one luckily achieves one's undertaking in the face of perils above and below, one can do whatever one desires. Whatever one thinks, whatever one wishes, there is nothing one cannot accomplish; that is the way of every Oriental reformer without exception. Why is it, then, that the leaders of the Restoration did not follow the carefree and grandiose fashion of the Oriental heroes, but instead modelled themselves after the serious and upright Founding Fathers of the United States? In fact, this was because there was a necessity. The industrial environment and the general trend of democracy spurred our Bakufu, spurred the Great Elder Ii, spurred the Lord of Mito and Fujita Toko,294 spurred Sakuma Shozan and Yoshida Shorn,295 spurred Yanagawa Seigan, spurred Yokoi Shonan,296 spurred Aizu and Kuwana,297 spurred the Lord of Echizen,298 spurred Satsuma and Choshu, spurred Saigo Takamori, Kido Takayoshi, and Okubo Toshimichi. Whether they were in support of the Bakufu or the Emperor, of expelling the foreigners or opening up the country, whether they advocated blind fanaticism or far-sighted statesmanship, these actors behaved quite unconnectedly and quite unrelatedly, individually and separately, even at cross purposes to each other; the general trend,

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however, melted and pressed them all into one mould, without leaving a single trace of the elements of their great and vigorous individual characters, and crystallized them into a new Japan. This new Japan is our Japan of the present day.

CHAPTER The Japan of the Present Day: In View of Japan's Present Circumstances

XV

Part 11

IT MUST BE SAID THAT THE PRESENT,

in any given age, is a battleground for the collision of, and the struggle between, the elements of the past and the elements of the future. If there is any truth at all in this view, then the Japan of the present day must be the best example. Although the world of the past and the world of the future are by no means identical, in a society in which progress is made in orderly fashion the interval between them is not particularly wide, and those standing on the near shore are able to catch a glimpse of the silhouettes of those appearing on the far shore. In contrast, there is the Japan of the present day, which I have discussed in my booklet Daijukyuseiki Nihon no seinen oyobi sono kyoiku

(Youth of Japan in the Nineteenth Century and Their Education) as follows: The great upheaval of the Restoration Reform has indeed created a gulf of some millions of miles between the young and the old of Japan. Look at the history of European civilization. Since the Northern Barbarians, with their iron swords and speeding horses, overran the Roman Empire, opened the way to the trend of feudal rivalry, and set up the system of lords and vassals in all Europe, until the present nineteenth century, some four or five hundred years have elapsed; things have progressed step by step and built up storey by storey, imperceptibly. 167

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In contrast to this orderly and steady progress, in our country this long course of several hundred years was galloped over in a single instant, in a single breath. For this reason, the remnants of feudalism from the last several hundred years and the elements of civilization for the next several hundred years have appeared simultaneously in the same generation and in the same society, shoulder to shoulder, producing strange phenomena. In this way, present-day Japan must be said to be the battleground of a great struggle between the passing-away Japan of the feudal age and the coming-to-be Japan of the Meiji era. The reform of the world would be easier than a flick of the wrist if with the destruction of an idol one were able to destroy the superstitious attitude of worshipping it, or with the burning of a house one were able to burn the human habit and perversity of dwelling in a house, or with the overthrow of an institution one were able to do away with the bigoted idea which had sustained that institution; or with the reform of society one were able to reform its spirit and vigour. This philosophers' stone, however, does not exist in the natural order of society. Consequently, even in the fresh and exhilarating world of Japan of the present day, underneath the surface of society the old elements are still latently striving with all their force to domineer over society. I am not surprised at those who burn a light even after the sun has risen in the East, or at those who reveal their obscurantism to the public. But why is it that those who, "standing on all below heaven's wide house",299 profess to be the champions of progress are still being dominated by the old Japan? Consider the following. What is the spirit which predominantly governs the present political world? Is it not the legacy of feudalism? In other words, is it not feudal provincial rivalry? Feudal society has suddenly collapsed. To look for it one has to rely on memories. But is it not true that the spirit of feudal society is towering in front of us like a mountain? At present, so far as political co-operation is concerned, I do not see anything other than feudalistic factional cooperation. I see no genuine political authority other than feudalistic factionalism among distinguished figures. I see no genuine political

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sentiments other than feudal sentiments. Unfortunately, in the minds of the politicians in power there is not an idea in which all the people of Japan at large are included, whereas there is an excess of the idea of controlling the world by the power of a single provincial faction. How deplorable it is! Moreover, an official career was never as highly valued as in our country today. The gulf between government and people is as great as between heaven and hell, separated from each other by ten million miles, from above the heavens to underneath the earth.300 Whoever has entered government service will look around exultantly and imposingly, just as if he had passed the door to eminence. People will approach him with excessive politeness and respect, as if he were a living god. When the Roman hero Caesar was appointed governor of Spain, he said firmly: "Rather than being the second man in Rome, I should prefer to be the first man in Spain."301 If we were to assess properly the state of affairs of the present day, we should say: "Rather than being a Gladstone in England, I should be better off to be a high government official in Japan." I wonder if there is any other country in the world where the market for government officials is as prosperous as in Japan. Do not be surprised and wonder why there are not many scholars, businessmen, and entrepreneurs in the private sector in Japan, for even if these people wish to remain in it there is no room for them to give ample scope to their ability. In other words, because of the conditions of our private sector promising people are driven one and all into the governmental circle. I believe that unless the conditions in the private sector be improved to the extent that they provide these people with comparable positions to those in the government, it will be impossible to convert them from aspirants for an official career to private entrepreneurs. This evil custom is again no coincidence, but simply a legacy of feudalism. Turn around and look into the present-day economic world: there is no independent and genuinely economic activity which is free from the control of the political world. For instance, the Bank of Japan in the money market, the Japan Railway Corporation in the railway business, and the Nippon Yusen Kaisha in the shipping business conspicuously lead all the rest merely because of the power or the

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favour of the government. In addition, the splendid civil engineering works, mining operations, and agricultural, industrial, and commercial reforms that have struck the attention of people in our country in the last twenty years are all undertakings by the Meiji government. When occasionally the people of initiative in the private sector started their business independently, many of them in mid-course would trump up various excuses to ask for government protection; those who were not subjected to government intervention on their own initiative were very rare. Look at the people who proudly call themselves merchant princes (shinsho) and have created an oligarchy in the commercial world not only in the three metropolises302 and the five ports,303 but also in other cities. Is there any of them who does not have a close connection with the government? Is there any of their enterprises which is not closely connected with the government? There might be; however, I have as yet hardly seen any. I understand that in mediaeval Europe all the lands belonged to the feudal monarchs; and occasionally if there were any lands possessed by freeholders, these freeholders would donate their lands to the feudal monarchs, and, as their subjects, lease back these lands from the latter. Is it not true that the economic world in our country is also of this kind? If I were asked if there was a difference between the present notorious merchant princes in our country and the merchants under government patronage (goyotashi) who must be called part of the government officialdom in the feudal era, I should have difficulty in pointing out a difference. In politics as well as in economics, it is not worthwhile to condemn flatterers, who cleverly and craftily adopt the style of mountebanks. But as for the conduct of those whom I considered friends and allies, and trusted to be reliable, i.e., the righteous gentlemen, indignant at the evils of the times, who profess to be advocates of freedom, and champions of civil rights, and men of high ideals (shishi)—I cannot hold it in high respect. To begin with, as these gentlemen are advocates of genuine radical liberalism, their political ideas, arguments, actions, and behaviour should consistently be in line with liberalism. If such were the case, one must, then, say that they had expressed the true qualities and

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seriousness of men of high ideals. Upon 'examining their conduct when away from me'304 carefully, however, one sees that although their liberalism is certainly liberalism, still it is a peculiar type of liberalism. Just as "if mandarin oranges (tachibana) from south of the Yangtse River were planted north of the Yangtse River, they would become trifoliate oranges (karatachi)",305 once Anglo-Saxon liberalism was transplanted to our country, naturally it would change its nature, and would display an unusual form, which should be called peculiarly Japanese, or perhaps feudalistic, liberalism. This is because these gentlemen would normally be outspoken advocates of simple freedom and popular rights, but once incidents in neighbouring countries occurred, instantly they would demand that the clouds above the Paektu Mountains306 should be trampled down, and that the country of more than four hundred provinces307 should be overrun. Should war with a foreign country take place, government power would necessarily increase the more. Once government power increases, the power of an individual must necessarily diminish the more. When the military organ expands, the industrial organ must necessarily contract the more. Once the standing army's power flies up to heaven, it must be said that the people's rights will flutter and fall down to earth. However, do not these gentlemen recognize the above? They have treated the people's interests and well-being as playthings. They have not only advocated war, they have also desired to carry it out. They have collected war contributions, drafted appeals for military service, written violent and inflammatory manifestoes, and acted recklessly. Showing no sign of reflection, they have taken these activities as true attributes of men of high ideals. Why is it that the onlookers not only did not reject them, but even gave them applause? I am not a Quaker. I do not profess to be William Penn.308 Accordingly, my position is not to reject war against a foreign country at any cost, without examining the conditions or considering the case. But I want war only in absolutely unavoidable cases, when the righteousness and honour of the country cannot be accommodated in a peaceful negotiation, i.e., after both humanity and justice have been tried to the limit.309

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Therefore, in such affairs, I do believe that Napoleon's aggressive policy and Washington's liberalism are incompatible. Nonetheless, in spite of the fact that normally these gentlemen advertise themselves as advocates of Washington's liberalism, when any incident takes place they quickly adopt Napoleon's aggressive policy. That a single person should want to adopt a dual personality is indeed beyond my comprehension. The gentlemen who normally claim to be allies of liberalism do a volte-face; such is their turncoatery;310 if freedom could speak for itself it would lament over not having a friend in the world. In such a situation, is there any wonder that it is impossible for liberalism to gain a strong voice in our country, for our entire society to be made into a realm of freedom, and for our entire people to become a people of freedom? In that case, our advocates of liberalism themselves, in fact, in the secret depths of their mind, are still as before, no more than obstinate feudalistic people. In spite of the appearance of the new principle, the advocacy of national rights and expansion of armament, which is widely prevalent in present-day Japan, is but a disguised form of the antiquated doctrines of feudal society. Political problems are practical problems. Unlike the experiments that the chemists conduct with chemical elements, political experimentations are neither simple nor inexpensive. But there are those in society who make politics a plaything, take a delight in political experimentations as if they were fireworks, regard political problems in the same way that the poets see the beauties of nature or the novelists treat changing human feelings, give free play to irresponsible statements and bombastic arguments on an unfounded basis, in order to beguile the foolish and ignorant people. I cannot help but lament for our country. It may be fun to fly the flag over the Amur River against the northern wind or to ride one's horse to the highest peak of the Wu Shan mountain,311 and fancy oneself to be Alexander the Great312 or Timur;313 but could such a grandiose scheme be carried out? Do its advocates themselves really think to carry it out? If they simply speak boastfully, knowing that they are not going to carry it out, they are then deceiving the people, they are deceiving heaven, and they are

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deceiving themselves. If they want to carry out this scheme, they are indeed utterly reckless, even as compared to the reckless "Black Whirlwind" Li K'uei.314 In that case, the advocates should go to look for the world of Liang Shan Po and remember that the present day is the world of nineteenth-century civilization and freedom. I have heard that in the olden days there was a rustic samurai. In reading Soga monogatari (The Tale of the Soga Brothers),315 having come to the immensely thrilling section which depicts the revenge of the Soga brothers for their father, he got excited and smote the table, saying: "Why can't I take revenge for my father sometime?" The above advocates belong to this type of people. To think and speak of things that could not be put into practice is the business of poets and novelists. Although our political world is vast and boundless, there is still no room for the realization of that strange and wild fancy. There is yet another type of advocates, those who argue that "the expansion of one inch316 of national rights abroad is better than that of one foot317 of civil rights at home"; that the country cannot be built except upon the military; that the country cannot be preserved except upon armaments; and that "the world of the present day, is it not that of the 'survival of the fittest'?" The question is, however, what is the purpose of the state, and for what reason has the state been created? As Lieber,318 Woolsey, Mill, and Spencer all made it clear that the purpose of the state is to protect individuals, it is not necessary for me to give a lengthy lecture on politics. It may only require a little reflection on the part of these advocates. No matter how much expansion of national rights and encroachment on foreign countries there may be, if the people's individual rights are infringed, then where is the purpose of the state? From ancient times there have been many tyrannical monarchs using the expansion of national rights to suppress civil rights. Should the argument of these advocates be valid, the above would be most desirable. If it were so, the cherished aspiration of these advocates would be to look upon someone like Napoleon III as their sovereign. In other words, do they wish to be the subjects of the cruel, oppressive, and deceiving European monarchs? It is most superficial to identify the world of the present day with the China of the Warring States Period. Naturally, I by no means

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think that the world of the present day is a golden world; neither do I believe that it is a dormant world. I believe that the great principle of 'survival of the fittest' is valid, as in ancient times, or rather is being carried out in an even more efficient and thorough-going manner than in ancient times. However, does 'survival of the fittest' depend simply upon the amount of armies? It is true that before the emergence of civilization—in other words, before the availability of the potent instruments of civilization319 in society—we can assess 'survival of the fittest' simply as a function of unsophisticated physical force. Nonetheless, in the present day, as the potent instruments of civilization have resplendently dominated society, although physical force is certainly an element of 'survival of the fittest', I consider it neither the one and only factor nor a crucial factor. I should rather think that wealth and the power of knowledge are the most formidable and most powerful factors. In other words, I believe that the great principle 'survival of the fittest' is applicable to all nationalities and races; if a country is barbaric and poor, it will certainly become the prey of, and be annihilated by, civilized and wealthy nations. For this reason, those who lament that our national rights are not thriving, that our national glory is not being enhanced, or that our national independence is not durable, should, without delay or reluctance, make our country a civilized and wealthy nation. There are some advocates who say: "The country must be wealthy, the military must be strong. The wealthy country and the strong military (fukoku kyohei) must not be separated. The two are at all times interconnected and go hand in hand with each other. So far they have not been detached from each other, even for a single day. Accordingly, in our country they should be expanded equally, properly, and uniformly. Why is it necessary to discuss their importance, their priority, and their respective urgency?" This argument is moderate and solid enough to deceive laymen, but if one examines it carefully, it is indeed a kind of sophism. Consider, for example, the following. If the nation is wealthy, her military can accordingly become strong. This is because even without a too-large standing army, the people are independent and selfreliant; they will fight for the state and the freedom of the individual.

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They will be furnished with fine and exquisite equipment. How is it possible, however, hastily reversing the logical sequence, to say that strengthening the military will make the nation wealthy? In the world of the present day, although wealth can dominate armaments, armaments cannot dominate wealth. If one is to say that since wealth dominates armaments, therefore armaments also dominate wealth, as do these advocates, is it possible to say that since the world includes mountains, therefore—pointing at the mountains—the mountains are the world? Similarly, is it possible to say that since dogs are animals, therefore all animals are dogs, and human beings, cats, and mice are also all dogs? How can such a strange argument find its place in the world? I have previously explained that the two principles of militancy and industrialism are on no occasion compatible. But these advocates, on the one hand, cry out lamentably, like Emperor Shun who stood still against his plough in the field at Li-shan and called upon gentle Heaven and wept,320 for the removal of supernumerary officials, for the abolition of nonurgent public works, for the reduction of land taxes. Why is it, then, that on the other hand, these advocates urge that the Army and the Navy should be expanded? By what means can such an expansion can be realized? It is possible only by an increase of taxation. On the one hand, they demand a tax increase, and on the other, a tax reduction. Even if the government were possessed of almighty power, it would not be able to oblige them. This is just like sailing two small boats, one from the East and one from the West, and wishing both to be blessed with favourable winds. Even the Almighty God cannot do so. This is the mistake of these advocates. There are also some advocates who say: "To maintain national glory it is necessary to depend upon armaments. In equipping ourselves with vast and advanced armaments, it is not that we wish to use them immediately to start war with foreign countries, nor that the lack of armaments will immediately threaten our national independence. But we can let every place in the world know of Japan's existence, that she should be respected and not be made little of, by installing several hundred military camps, building three-ri-wide castles and seven-ri'-wide enclosures with strong fortifications over

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which even birds cannot fly, constructing batteries, and sending some tens of ironclads flying the flag of the rising sun to various harbours in the world. How delightful that would be!" Although I do not think that it would not be delightful, however, if the advocates consider armaments as items of luxury then I cannot be on their side. Items of luxury may be acquired after all the necessities have been met. There are no people who, while still living in cottages, build great gates and high buildings. There are no people who, while on the verge of starvation, yet purchase mutton and wines. There are no people who, still being unable to maintain national livelihood satisfactorily, yet want to enhance national glory abroad and win respect from foreigners. Not to say that if armaments are conceived as items of luxury, they are the most expensive ones! In the natural economic order, necessities ought to precede items of luxury, and inexpensive items of luxury ought to precede expensive items of luxury. Do these advocates want unreasonably to reverse this order? The proverb The samurai glories in honourable poverty' (bushi wa kuwanedo takayoji, literally, 'Without having eaten, the samurai still proudly pick their teeth') truly reveals the feudal samurai's temperament. Do these advocates want our country to learn from these poor samurai? Oh! Are they also the offspring of the feudal samurai? In short, our country of the present day is the battleground of the old and the new Japan, which affects everything: politics, religions, literature, education, scholarship, livelihood, sentiments, and thoughts. Viewed nationally, the war in the country is always that between the old doctrine and the new doctrine. This is also true for a region, a family, and a person. The war between the old doctrine and the new doctrine is as it were between two antagonistic deities, which, in the words of a theologian in ancient Persia, "reach out immensely and thoroughly; the two exist together, mutually influencing each other, and struggling against each other in everything, from a gigantic object to a minuscule element."321 But what is the outcome of this war? If we could maintain our national livelihood and set ourselves against the world by militancy and aristocratic society, why was it necessary, then, for our country to overthrow her peculiar and proud

The Japan of the Presen t Day (Part II) 177

military organization? Why was it necessary to carry out the great Restoration reform? Why was it necessary to observe the world situation to begin our transformation from militarism to industrialism and from an aristocratic society to a democratic society? If things were conducted in the way advocated by our current reactionaries, where would be, then, the glorious achievement of the Restoration? Upon reading the following words by Hara Chunei,322 an adviser to the Shogunate government at the time of the Restoration, I could not help but feel enraged: Three years have elapsed since I came to Kyoto. There have been so many changes. Everything seems to go beyond the reach of human power. Being confined to bed, rather than sleeping, I pondered the reason for this, and came to realize for the first time that there is a great natural trend in the world. It revolves imperceptibly, but its latent and silent movement always goes beyond human expectation. One does not know how to deal with the state of things; or even if one does, it is beyond one's control. It is difficult to talk about this matter with common people. I have, therefore, been weeping long over it. Even when the Shogunate government was not yet overthrown and the vigour of feudal society was still maintained, i.e., when the embankment of Japan's national seclusion was still intact, the world trend was already beyond one's comprehension, or even if one comprehended it, it was beyond one's control. How difficult it must be today, then, to resist this world trend, when the heavens have been ripped open, the earth has been shaken, the rushing deluge has spread all over the sky, and the waves of the boundless expanse of water are flying and dancing everywhere, regardless of mountains, rivers, castles, or cities. The world trend is rushing incessantly. Along with the tides of time, it moves incessantly. Therefore the world trend which stimulated our country twenty years ago is now stimulating our country with twice the force. The militancy and aristocratic society which could not be preserved twenty years ago are even more

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unlikely to be preserved in the present day. The currents that could not be halted upstream are even more unlikely to be halted downstream. The trend of twenty years ago is the trend of today. The difficulties of twenty years ago are the difficulties of today. In the same way that the past was an epoch of reform, so the present is truly an epoch of reform. This notwithstanding, there are among our people those who are contented with our small success and are wedded to a spell of peace. Self-complacently, they sing: "Our undertaking has been completed. Heaven's goodness has granted this remaining body; now, what is one to do, save only to rejoice?" Who knows that an evil spirit is rampant in their minds, which desires to urge them to indulge themselves in mere restorationist activity? People of Japan: do not be satisfied. The enterprise of the reform has not yet reached its halfway mark. Do not think that the old Japan is already gone. The predominant sectors which control the society of the present day are all elements of the old Japan. If you doubt this, ask the evil spirit in your mind.

The Future Japan A Conclusion

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C H A P T E R The Future Japan

X V I

A Conclusion

OH! HOW CAN I AVOID DISCUSSING

our future Japan? In fact, in observing the state of affairs of our present society, I feel that a discussion of the future Japan cannot be avoided. What will the future Japan be? What should it be? What should be done about it? I previously stated that although our future Japan will be full of events, the most urgent task is to maintain her national livelihood. I also stated that even though there are many means to maintain this livelihood, they may be summed up in the two principles, militancy and industrialism, and that the differences of these two means are closely connected with the temperament, quality, institutions, culture, politics, economy, education, and civilization of a nation. From there, I moved a step further to elaborate the question of which doctrine our national livelihood should be based upon, and in order to avoid snap judgements and hasty conclusions, I began with an exposition of the world environment. I thereby found that the industrial environment is the world environment. I then looked into the world trend and thereby found that the democratic trend is the world trend. I further turned my eyes to the particular conditions of our country and found that the present environment of our country is most suitable to be an industrial environment, and that the present conditions of our country tend most to democracy. In other words, I found that the present situation of our country falls within the scope of the above 181

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environment and influence. In this way, I finally acquired complete materials for a forecast of the future of our country. I believe that the manner in which I gathered and examined these materials is fair and just. If it is so, I believe that on the basis of these materials my forecast is by no means a delusion or a quibble. The question, now, is what should our future country be? I can state positively that she should be an industrial country; and as a natural consequence of, and in accordance with, the inevitability of the development of the industrial organ, she should also be a democratic country. I believe that even if our people do not make the slightest effort, the current deluge will spur our country and direct her there, and that even if our people bravely wield swords and halberds to resist it, the current deluge will certainly intensify all the more its ferocious force and direct her there. In the final analysis, the natural trend "neither accommodates nor disobliges anything":323 however loyal its allies and however uncompromising its enemies may be, all are swiftly taken on its great wing to become convenient instruments for the realization of its goals. For instance, were only Milton,324 Hampden,325 and Pym the people who precipitated the English Revolution? King Charles himself was certainly the most important figure at its origin. Similarly, were only Sakuma, Yoshida, and Saigo the people who instigated the Restoration Reform? Those such as Lord Ii, the Chief Minister of the Shogun, must be called also its promoters. Those who assist the trend are in turn dominated by the trend and become its potent instruments; those who resist the trend are also dominated by it and have no choice but also to become its potent instruments. Once it is realized that human power cannot do much, it would be rather better not to do anything. In that case, what should be done about the future of Japan? The only choice is to follow the natural trend and to guide it to our country's advantage. Yokoi Shonan said that "Great people are clearsighted, they follow the universal trend in everything."326 Truly, indeed. Being a humble student from the country, I have no claim from the outset upon anyone for anything, and nurture no grudge whatsoever. Is there any need for me to agonize or to lament by my own choice, or

The Future Japan, A Conclusion

183

to wish to imitate the young man of Lo-yang?3271 am not unaware of the advantages of following the gentlemen in power, and chanting hymns of praise for the world opened up by the Restoration, and receiving their favours along with everybody else. I am not unaware of the ease of catering to public taste and going with the stream of public opinion which changes from morning to evening just like the drifting clouds and the rising wind. I am not unaware of the delight of being engaged in adventurous undertakings, wearing a sword and striding a thousand miles, making no distinction as to whether the principle is right or wrong, or whether the means is good or bad. Although I am not unaware of the advisability of thinking in the same way that others think, speaking the same thing that others speak, and doing the same thing that others do in order to be accepted by society, yet I regret to say that I cannot deceive Heaven, I cannot deceive people, and I cannot deceive myself. Even if I wish to deceive myself, how can I not feel ashamed, deep in my mind, toward my patriotic and righteous elders? For this reason, incompetent as I am, dragging out my halberd and drawing up in line, I wish to present some of my opinions. John Bright has said: I believe there is no permanent greatness to a nation except it be based upon morality. I do not care for military greatness or military renown. I care for the condition of the people among whom I live. There is no man in England who is less likely to speak irreverently of the Crown and Monarchy of England than I am; but crowns, coronets, mitres, military display, the pomp of war, wide colonies, and a huge empire, are, in my view, all trifles light as air, and not worth considering, unless with them you can have a fair share of comfort, contentment, and happiness among the great body of the people. Palaces, baronical castles, great halls, stately mansions, do not make a nation. The nation in every country dwells in the cottage; and unless the light of your constitution can shine there, unless the beauty of your legislation and the excellence of your statesmanship are impressed there on the feelings and condition of the people, rely upon it you have yet to learn the duties of government.328

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My motive is as above. I desire that glory and peace shall rest upon our Imperial House. I desire that our country shall prosper. I desire that our government shall be consolidated and stable. Certainly in the sincerity of these hopes, I believe that I stand second to no one. I believe that the nation is those who dwell in the cottage; I thus believe that unless they can have security, freedom, and happiness, the country will not exist even for a single day. In order for the people who dwell in the cottage to share these benefits, I believe that our society should be made an industrial society and, as an inevitable consequence of this, a democratic society. In other words, I believe that adopting peace, to make our country a commercial and democratic country, is indeed the best means to maintain our national livelihood; to preserve for ever the glory of our Imperial House, the prestige of the country, and the solidarity of the government. The great programme for the future of our country precisely lies in the implementation of this single means. I believe in the above; how is it possible for me to remain silent? Even if people wish to accuse and charge me, I shall contentedly submit to their accusations and charges. This is because my conscience is as clear as the sun, and sooner or later surely the time will come, in any case, for me to express myself. I am afraid, nonetheless, that if our people are hesitant in following the world trend, those blue-eyed and red-bearded peoples will intrude, like rough waves, upon our country and drive our people to the islands in the sea, and a democratic society in a great commercial nation created by the Aryans will come to be seen in our homeland! If the above is to be feared, I hope that further additions to the tremendous force of the great Restoration Reform will be made promptly and resolutely. If we cannot do what the Westerners do, they will aspire to do it in our stead. At that time, will it not be too late to recall the candid advice of this 'young man of Lo-yang'?

N O T E S

1.

Fukuzawa Yukichi (1835-1901), educator, publicist, and philosophe (he has been called "the Voltaire of Japan"), took the lead in promoting Western knowledge in Japan from the late Tokugawa years onwards. He was the founder of the famous Keio Gijuku (now Keio University) in Tokyo, and of the newspaper Jiji Shimpo. Bummeiron no gairyaku has

been translated by David A. Dilworth and G. Cameron Hurst (Tokyo: Sophia University Press, 1973). 2.

Nakae Chomin (1847-1901), prominent advocate of freedom and popular rights. He was known as "the Rousseau of the Orient" for his translation of Rousseau's Contrat social and his dissemination of the idea of natural rights in Japan. His Sansuijin keirin mondo has been translated by Nobuko Tsukui (New York and Tokyo: Weatherhill, 1984). (The "Drunkards" of Chomin's title should not be understood literally; in fact he presented them as most serious proponents of different political tendencies.)

3.

Soho had three older sisters and the famous writer Tokutomi Roka was his younger brother.

4.

Rai San'yo was the nom de plume of Rai Jo (1781-1832), an imperial loyalist historian and poet. His Nihon gaishi (1827) became the most popular historical work in nineteenth-century Japan. 185

186

Notes

5.

Yokoi Shonan (1809-1869), a scholar and reformer who rose to national prominence in the late Tokugawa period. Like Soho, Shonan came from Kumamoto; his wife was one of Soho's aunts, and Soho's father was among Shonan's devoted disciples. Soho was thus profoundly influenced by Shonan, and apparently had access to his unpublished manuscripts.

6.

Leroy Lansing Janes (1838-1909) taught at Kumamoto Yogakko from 1871 to 1876, and thereafter at Osaka Eigakko until his return to the United States in the following year. For an excellent study of his career, see F. G. Notehelfer, American Samurai: Captain L. L. Janes and Japan (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1985).

7.

Richard Cobden (1804-1865), politician and leader of the Anti-Corn Law League, and John Bright (1811-1889), likewise a reforming politician, advocated free trade and a laissez-faire economic system. They led what was known as the "Manchester school" because of the early support of manufacturers in that city for their ideas.

8.

Tokutomi Soho, Soho jiden (Autobiography of Tokutomi Soho) (Tokyo: Chuo Koronsha, 1935; hereafter cited as Jiden), p. 92.

9.

Fukuchi Gen'ichiro (1841-1906), journalist, political critic, essayist, and playwright. His pen-name was Fukuchi Ochi. As the chief editor and president of the newspaper Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun from 1874 to 1888, he was an advocate of government policies. For a good study of his career, see James Huffman, Politics of the Japanese Press: The Life of Fukuchi Gen Ichiro (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1980).

10.

Jiden, p. 224.

11.

Ibid., p. 225.

12.

Cited in Kano Masanao, "Tokutomi Soho" in Nagahara Keiji and Kano Masanao, eds., Nihon no rekishika (Historians in Japan) (Tokyo: Nihon Hyoronsha, 1976), p. 28.

13.

Doshisha Oe Gijuku Tokutomi Soho shiryoshu (Collection of Materials on Tokutomi Soho [during his Years] at Doshisha and Oe Gijuku), edited by Hanatachi Saburo, Sugii Mutsuro, and Wada Mamoru (Tokyo: San'ichi Shobo, 1978), p. 142. This compendious collection of materials for Soho's life in this period, with excellent explanatory notes, is exceptionally useful.

Notes 14.

187

Yoshida Shoin (1830-1859), a samurai from Choshu domain, who studied military techniques and other Western sciences, but failed in his attempt to smuggle himself abroad and was briefly imprisoned. Deeply committed to pro-imperial ideals, he inculcated them through his instruction at Shoka Sonjuku. He was executed for having planned to assassinate a Shogunate emissary in Kyoto, but before his death expressed his views in a number of writings including the Yushitsu Bunko (Prison Manuscript). Not long after the publication of The Future Japan, Soho wrote a biography of Shoin (1893). For an abridged translation of this biography, see "The Life of Yoshida Shoin", translated by Horace E. Coleman, Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, XLV, part I (1917),

pp. 119-88. 15.

Francois Guizot (1787-1874), minister in a number of French governments before 1848, and author of extensive works on European history.

16.

Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859), Whig politican, historian, poet, and essayist, author of History of England, 5 vols. (1849-61). Soho expressly acknowledged the great influence of Macaulay's thought and style upon his own writings.

17.

Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859), best known for his study of Democracy in America (1835-40). Soho acknowledged that he was greatly impressed by Tocqueville's work; his annotated copy of the 1875 London edition of the translation by Henry Reeve is preserved in the Kisui Archive of the Minamata Municipal Library.

18.

Taguchi Ukichi (1855-1905), an economist and cultural historian, known as the Japanese Adam Smith. He founded his own journal Tokyo Keizai Zasshi (Tokyo Journal of Economics), modelled on the British journal The Economist. It was under the auspices of Taguchi's journal that Shorai no Nihon was first published; Taguchi's preface to the second edition is translated in the appendix of the present volume.

19.

Jiden, p. 192.

20.

According to Wada Mamoru, the first draft had no title ("Itsudai"); the second draft was "Shorai no Nihon zairyo" (Materials for The Future Japan); both are included in Doshisha Oe Gijuku Tokutomi Soho shiryoshu.

See Wada, "Kaisetsu, Meiji juyonen—Meiji jukyunen", ibid., pp. 839-57. 21.

For further information on Macaulay's influence on Soho's view of the inaka shinshi see Imai Hiroshi, Meiji Nihon to Igirisu kakumei (Meiji Japan

188 Notes and the English Revolution) (Tokyo: Kenkyusha, 1974), chap, III, pp. 90-117. 22.

Japan Mail, n.d. The review is included in Wada Mamoru and Ariyama Teruo, eds., Tokutomi Soho Min'yusha kankei shiryoshu (Materials on Tokutomi Soho and the Min'yusha) (Tokyo: San'ichi Shobo, 1986), p. 97.

23.

Indeed, until the end of his life, Soho remained a strong proponent of imperial ideals for Japan. These were most eloquently expressed in his writing of the 100-volume Kinsei Nihon kokuminshi (A History of the Modern Japanese Nation), which he began in 1918 and which took him thirty-four years to finish. Before and during the Second World War, he also actively wrote and spoke in support of Japan's war effort. When the Nihon Bungaku Hokokukai (Japanese Literary Patriotic Association) and the Dai Nihon Genron Hokokukai (Great Japan Press Patriotic Association) were established in 1942, he served as the president of both. Because of Soho's role as a wartime ideologue, he was decorated in 1943 with the Cultural Order; after 1945, however, he was placed under house arrest for some time by the occupying forces. He continued to write, nonetheless, completing his History and recording his recollections, almost until the last days of his life. For an account of Soho's post-liberal career, and the significance of the History, see Vinh Sinh, Tokutomi Soho (1863-1957): The Later Career (Toronto: University of Toronto-York University Joint Centre on Modern East Asia, 1986), and John D. Pierson, Tokutomi Soho, 1863-1957: A Journalist for Modern Japan (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1980).

24.

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), the most prominent writer of the "Utilitarian" school which regarded happiness as an absolute value. His essays On Liberty (1859) and Utilitarianism (1862) are the classic statements of nineteenth-century liberal political thought.

25.

Jiden, p. 209.

26.

A helpful catalogue of the Western books in this collection has recently been published: Seikido Bunko, Yosho mokuroku (Catalog of Foreign Books in the Seiki-do Collection formed by eminent Tokutomi Soho, now in the Ochanomizu Library), compiled by the Ochanomizu Library Ishikawa Cultural Enterprise Foundation (Tokyo: Ochanomizu Library, 1986).

27.

Dokusho kyujunen (Tokyo: Dai Nihon Yubenkai, 1952).

Notes

189

28.

See also Hanatachi Saburo, Tokutomi Soho to Oe Gijuku (Tokutomi Soho and Oe Gijuku) (Tokyo: Perikansha, 1982).

29.

Herbert Spencer (1820-1903), English sociologist and philosophical writer; the Political Institutions was published in London in 1882, thus representing the most up-to-date social thought available from the West when Soho was writing. It is interesting evidence of the prestige of Spencer in Japan that he was personally consulted by Kaneko Kentaro, an envoy of the Japanese government, on the framing of the Meiji Constitution promulgated in 1889.

30.

Sir George Sansom, The Western World and Japan (New York: Vintage Books, 1973), p. 433. For a study of Spencer's impact on Meiji Japan, see Yamashita Shigekazu, Supensa to Nihon kindai (Spencer and Modern Japan) (Tokyo: Ochanomizu Shobo, 1983).

31.

For further information, see Pierson, Tokutomi Soho; Kenneth Pyle, The New Generation in Meiji Japan: Problems of Cultural Identity, 1885-1895

(Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1969); Peter Duus, "Whig History, Japanese Style: the Min'yusha Historians and the Meiji Restoration", Journal of Asian Studies, vol. xxxIII, no. 3 (1974); and Vinh Sinh, "The Achievement of a Nationalist Historian: Tokutomi Soho (1863-1957)" in John S. Brownlee, ed., History in the Service of the Japanese Nation (Toronto: University of Toronto-York University Joint Centre on Modern East Asia, 1983). 32.

Adam Smith (1723-1790), Scottish economist and moral philosopher; he published his An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations in 1776.

33.

It was with the same sense of urgency, at about the same period of time, that Fukuzawa Yukichi's Datsuaron (Departure from Asia; 1885) and Nakae Chomin's Sansuijin keirin mondo (1887) were written.

34.

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), British philosophical writer and historian.

35.

Su Tung-po's real name was Su Shih (1036-1101); he was a Chinese poet, essayist, painter, and calligraphist.

36.

Information on the kambun styles is drawn from the article by Murayama Yoshihiro, "Kambunmyaku no mondai—Seio no shogeki no naka de" (Issues in Various Kambun Styles—In the Midst of the Impact of Contact with the West), Kokubungaku kaishaku to kansho

190

Notes

(Interpretation and Appreciation of Japanese Literature), vol. xxv, no. 10 (Aug. 1980), pp. 40-44. 37.

In the Oxford English Dictionary, s.v.

38.

Soho probably encountered this poem of Ts'ao Sung (fl. c. 870-920) in an anthology of T'ang poetry.

39.

From "A Protest in the Sixth Year of Ch'ien Fu".

40.

The use of such rhetorical devices as these in East and West merits further inquiry beyond the scope of this introduction. For a detailed treatment of rhetoric in Asian culture, see Robert T. Oliver, Communication and Culture in Ancient India and China (New York:

Syracuse University Press, 1971). For an excellent discussion of different rhetorical patterns, see William J. Brandt, The Rhetoric of Argumentation (New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1970), pp. 116-71. 41.

HenryVIII,actIII,scene ii, line 446. A phrase often used by Soho, in the Min'yusha publications as an epigraph, and elsewhere. In Soho's time the play was usually attributed entirely to Shakespeare.

42.

John William Draper (1811-1882), American scientist and historian. In his History of the Intellectual Development of Europe (New York: Harper &

Brothers, 1863), vol. II, p. 400, Draper says that "China is passing through the last stage of civil life in the cheerlessness of Buddhism". The exact source of Soho's reference is not clear. Soho's copy of Draper's book is in the Seikido Collection, Ochanomizu Library. 43.

Ienari, the eleventh Tokugawa shogun, was elevated to the shogunate as a child in 1787, and ruled personally from 1793 to 1837, dying in 1841. He had the longest term in office of any of the Tokugawa line.

44.

The protagonist in Muso Byoe Kocho Monogatari (The Tale of a Butterfly Dreamer) a prose fiction by Takizawa Bakin (1767-1848).

45.

From the poem "Waking from Drunkenness on a Spring Day" by the famous Chinese poet Li Po (701-762).

46.

The story claimed that Lu Sheng borrowed a pillow from a Taoist to sleep. During his brief nap Lu Sheng had a dream of rising to wealth and honour.

47.

According to the Chinese legend, one day on his way to the mountain to cut wood, Wang Chih saw two children playing chess. He stopped to

Notes

191

watch. When he realized that he should go home, such a long time had passed that his axe-handle had rotted away. 48.

Presumably the first three allusions are to, respectively, the German chancellor Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898); the English sociologist and philosopher Herbert Spencer; and the American man of letters and exponent of New England transcendentalism, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), of whose poetry Soho was very fond. The last reference may possibly allude to Henry Thomas Buckle (1821-1862), whose History of Civilisation in England appeared between 1856 and 1861 and was widely read by Japanese intellectuals in the early Meiji years; Buckle, however, describes freedom as a unique possession of "Europeans".

49.

Arabi Pasha (1839-1911), an Egyptian nationalist who fought for his country's independence, was defeated in 1882 by the British, who sent him into exile. He was allowed to return to Egypt in 1901.

50.

The expression rido in Japanese is derived from Ssu-ma Ch'ien's biography of Sun Tzu in the Shih chi. Soho uses it again in Chapter xv.

51.

Po Yi and Shu Ch'i were brothers. When the Shang dynasty was overthrown by the King Wu of Chou, the two refused to eat the grain of Chou and went into hiding on the Mount Shouyang. There they lived on ferns and eventually starved to death. They became symbols of loyalism.

52.

Also called Yen Yuan (521-490 B.C.); a favourite disciple of Confucius.

53.

Antisthenes (c. 455-c. 360 B.C.) was a devoted follower of Socrates.

54.

This anecdote is found in Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, tr. R. D. Hicks (London and New York: Heinemann and G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1925), vol. II, p. 21.

55.

Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755), French political philosopher; author of De I'Esprit deslois(1750).

56.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797), British statesman and political philosopher.

57.

Lorenz von Stein (1815-1890), a German political economist who became professor at the University of Vienna, 1855-88. His conservative theories on government influenced Ito Hirobumi (1841-1909), a leading statesman and an architect of the Meiji Constitution, who had met him on his study tour of Europe in 1882.

192 Notes 58.

'Industrial organ' and 'military organ' are the terms used by Spencer in his Political Institutions.

59.

Actually Confucius mentioned a third factor: "sufficient confidence of the people". See the Analects, chap. VII, 12.

60.

Nihon gaishi, vol. I, book VI ("Heiji").

61.

Ibid.

62.

The Roman scholar Gaius Plinius Secundus, known as Pliny the Elder (A.D. 23-79); his Historia naturalis was considered an authoritative work on scientific matters throughout the Middle Ages.

63.

Natural History,XVIII,19. The passage is rendered as follows in H. Rackham's version (London and Cambridge, Mass.: Heinemann and Harvard University Press, 1950): "The fields were tilled in those days by the hands of generals themselves, and we may well believe that the earth rejoiced in a laurel-decked ploughshare and a ploughman who had celebrated a triumph." Vol. v, p. 201.

64.

Manlius Curius (d. 270 B.C.) distinguished himself in the Samnite and Sabine wars and came to be considered a model of Roman incorruptibility and simplicity of life.

65.

This anecdote is told by Cicero, De Republica 3, 40.

66.

This idea is developed in dialogue form in his Charon by the Greek satirist Lucian (second century A.D.). See Lucian, tr. A. M. Harmon (London and New York: Heinemann and the Macmillan Co., 1919), vol. II, pp. 422-23. The editors are grateful to Mr. Leo Miller of New York for pointing out this source. In English, a similar observation was made by Gibbon; see Robert Christy, Proverbs, Maxims and Phrases of All Ages

(New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons [1888]), p. 562. 67.

Ezekiel 27:3-9 (Authorized Version). Soho may have been led to this quotation by his reading of Spencer's account of Tyre in The Principles of Sociology, vol. I, chap, x, "Social Types and Constitutions".

68.

"Compulsory" and "voluntary" co-operation are terms used by Spencer in his Political Institutions.

69.

Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), English philosopher, founder of Utilitarianism. The charge that his ideas were based on expediency, repeated by Soho, was made by Spencer.

Notes

193

70.

A paraphrase of Isaiah 65:25.

71.

Louis Napoleon (1808-1873), French politician, nephew of Napoleon I, who himself reigned as Emperor Napoleon III from 1852 to 1871. He published Idees napoleoniennes (1839) and various other writings, but the quotation given by Soho seems to have come from a secondary source.

72.

Paraphrased from Mencius' reply to his disciple Kung-sun Ch'ow, in Mencius, "Kung-sun Ch'ow", part I.

73.

Soho drew this phrase from Spencer, and Spencer's capitalization has accordingly been followed in the present translation.

74.

Victor Hugo (1802-1885), French poet and novelist, who was recognized as "the most powerful mind of the romantic movement". The quoted passage, typical of Hugo's denunciations of Napoleon III, was perhaps found by Soho in one of the many obituary articles on Hugo which had recently been published when Soho was writing this book.

75.

Sun Tzu (fl. early fourth century B.C.), Chinese military strategist, author of the The Art of War. Soho's quotation is condensed from chapter II ("Waging War"). 2.78 modern li are equivalent to a mile.

76.

Augustus Caesar (63 B.C.-A.D. 14). The conferral of imperium on him in 27 B.C. may be taken as the beginning of the Roman emperorship.

77.

The Wealth of Nations, book v, chap. I, part 1.

78.

Shih Huang-ti (c. 259-210/209 B.C.), the "First Emperor", founder of the Ch'in dynasty, when China was first unified.

79.

The information here is taken from part II of an editorial entitled "Saihi fusoku O tsugunafu wa rikukaigumpi O gensuru ni ari" (The way to make up the deficit in the budget is to cut down army and navy expenses) which appeared in the 31 March 1886 issue.

80.

Bismarck, who had become minister-president of Prussia in 1862 and chancellor of the German Empire at its foundation (for which he was largely responsible) in 1871, was certainly the most imposing figure in European politics in Soho's time; his sudden dismissal by Emperor William II in 1890 could hardly have been foreseen.

81.

Helmuth von Moltke (1800-1891), chief of the Prussian and German General Staff, architect of Prussian victories over Denmark, Austria, and France.

194 Notes 82.

Henry John Temple, Viscount Palmerston (1784-1865), between 1830 and 1865 British Foreign Secretary, Home Secretary, and twice Prime Minister, responsible for the British "Opium War" against China (1840-41); and Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield (1804-1881), who as British Prime Minister (1868 and 1874-80) favoured a policy of aggrandizing the British Empire.

83.

Jules Ferry (1832-1893), twice French Prime Minister (1880-81 and 1883-85). The French conquest of Annam (now Vietnam) was completed during his term of office, in 1885.

84.

Soho's reference to the Indian Ocean is inexact, as Courbet actually died on shipboard near the Pescadores.

85.

Charles George ("Chinese") Gordon (1833-1885), famous for his campaigns in China and the Sudan.

86.

Ts'ao Sung. See note 38 to the Introduction.

87.

The allusions are to the "Arrow War" in China (1860-64); the Crimean War (1853-56); the Afghan War (1878-80); the Zulu War (1879); and the Egyptian War (1882).

88.

Letter to Rev. Thomas Rippon, September 25, 1882, in H. J. Leech, ed., The Public Letters of the Right Hon. John Bright, M.P. (London: Sampson, Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, 1885), pp. 272-73.

89.

One of the five most famous mountains in China. Located in Shantung province.

90.

See note 57 to Chapter I.

91.

John Pym (1584-1643), parliamentary opponent of Charles I.

92.

"My lords, parliaments without parliamentary liberties are but a fair and plausible way into bondage." Speech on the impeachment of Strafford, March 22, 1641; quoted by John Forster, John Pym, in Lives of Eminent British Statesmen (London: Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia, 1837), vol.III,p. 160. Cf. Forster's The Debates on the Grand Remonstrance, November and December 1641 (London: John Murray, 1860), p. 53.

93.

Martin Luther (1483-1546), Protestant Reformer. The tone of Soho's allusion to him here was perhaps influenced by his early education at Doshisha.

Notes

195

94.

Leo X (1475-1521), pope from 1513, who excommunicated Luther.

95.

Shang Chun was the courtesy name of Shang Yong, a legal scholar from the state of Wei. The Warring States period (also called the Chan-kuo period) during which he lived lasted from 475 to 221 B.C. In later life he worked for Ch'in and was the initiator of various legal and tax reforms under Ch'in Hsiao-kung.

96.

"Song of the War Chariot", by Tu Fu (701-762), one of China's greatest poets. Translated by Liu Wu-chi, in An Introduction to Chinese Literature (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1966), p. 83.

97.

Letter to Frederic Passy, June 22,1885, printed in The Daily News, July 2, 1885, and reprinted in the International Arbitration and Peace Association Monthly Journal, vol. I, no. 13 (July 31,1885), p. 132.

98.

Bright's original text reads: "international law . . . consists of opinions and precedents for the most part, and is very unsettled . . . . [W]e have carried maritime law, by our own powerful hand, to a pitch that has been very oppressive to foreign, and especially so to neutral nations." From a speech delivered on December 4, 1861, printed in James E. Thorold Rogers, ed., Speeches on Questions of Public Policy by John Bright, M.P. (London: Macmillan and Co., 1868), vol. I, p. 189. Soho used the edition of 1880; his copy is preserved in the Seikido Collection, Ochanomizu Library.

99.

Matthew 5:44.

100. The passage in Carlyle reads as follows: "Was this, then, of all the things mankind had some talent for, the one thing important to learn well, and bring to perfection, this of successfully killing one another?" Past and Present, book IV, chap, III; ed. Douglas Jerrold (London: J. M. Dent and New York: E. P. Dutton, 1960), p. 252. Soho's paraphrase fails to bring out the ironic implications of Carlyle's sentence in its context. 101. William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898), four times British Prime Minister. 102. An expression used in Mencius, "Tsin hsin", part II. 103. Chan-kuo Ts'e, "The Book of Ch'in". This book was among the textbooks used by Soho in his teaching at Oe Gijuku. 104. The term used to designate the problems arising from the weakness of

196 Notes the Ottoman Empire in the nineteenth century, which gave rise to rivalry between Russia and the Hapsburg Empire, and about which Britain and France were also concerned because their communications with the East ran through Turkish territory. 105. Sir Rutherford Alcock (1809-1897), the first British consul-general in Japan (1859-1865). He arranged for British, American, French, and Dutch ships to bombard and destroy the shore batteries of the Choshu domain. He was the author of many works on Japan, among them The Capital of the Tycoon (1863), still widely read in Japan. 106. An aphorism found in the I Ching, "Ch'ien Kua". 107. Robert Arthur Talbot, third Marquess and Earl of Salisbury (1830-1903), Prime Minister 1885-86, 1886-92, and 1895-1902; the reference is to his first term of office. 108. Abdur Rahman (1844-1901), amir of Afghanistan from 1880 to 1901. The validity of Soho's information on the Amir's policy of temporizing between Britain and Russia can be seen from later events. 109. From Han Yu (768-824), "Sung Hu Ying Chou hsu". 110. Samuel Greene Wheeler Benjamin (1837-1914), United States minister to Persia from 1883 to 1885, author of several books and numerous periodical articles. The quotation is from his Persia and the Persians (London, 1887), p. 483. The first sentence and the identification of Herat were not included in Benjamin's text. 111. Thomas Campbell (1777-1844), Scottish poet. The passage is from "The Pleasures of Hope" (1799); text taken from J. Logie Robertson, ed., The Complete Poetical Works of Thomas Campbell (London: Henry Frowde, 1907), p. 13. 112. The Jinno Shotoki was written by Kitabatake Chikafusa (1293-1354) at the time when Japanese allegiance was divided between northern and southern imperial courts, in order to support the legitimacy of the latter. 113. Translated by H. Paul Varley, in A Chronicle of Gods and Sovereigns: Jinno Shotoki of Kitabatake Chikafusa, part I (New York: Columbia University Press, 1980), p. 72. The original Japanese text can be found in Jinno shotoki, Masukagami, Nihon bungaku taikei (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1965), p. 57.

Notes

197

114.

From a speech given in London, October 8, 1849, in John Bright and James E. Thorold Rogers, eds., Speeches on Questions of Public Policy by Richard Cobden, M.P. (London: Macmillan and Co., 1878), p. 404. Soho used the edition of 1880; his copy is preserved in the Seikido Collection, Ochanomizu Library.

115.

From Mencius, "T'eng Wen-kung", part II.

116.

Cheng was a medium-sized state in ancient China, located in the present province of Hunan.

117.

Ch'un-ch'iu Tso-chuan, "Yin Kung".

118. William Edward Hartpole Lecky (1838-1903), Irish historian and ardent patriot, well-known as the historian of rationalism and European morals. 119. History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe, 4th edn. (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1870), vol. II, p. 227. 120.

Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533-1592), author of the Essais; Francis Bacon, Viscount St. Albans (1561-1626), Lord Chancellor, essayist, and pioneer of scientific philosophy; and Francois-Marie Arouet (1694-1778), whose pen-name was Voltaire, litterateur of the French Enlightenment.

121. William Pitt the Elder (1708-1788), Prime Minister 1756-61 and 1766-68. 122.

Presumably an allusion to Pitt's speech in the House of Commons on December 9, 1762, when he was out of office, denouncing the terms of the Peace of Paris as permitting French commercial revival.

123. Jean-Baptiste Say (1767-1832). Author of Traite d'economie politique (1803) and other works advocating, among other things, unrestricted trade among nations. 124.

Soho is apparently paraphrasing, or quoting a paraphrase, of a passage which reads in part: "For the last two centuries, where war has not been made to gratify the childish vanity of a nation or a monarch, the bone of contention has always been, either colonial sovereignty, or commercial monopoly." Say condemned such war as "a vain pursuit of a costly and delusive good". A Treatise of Political Economy, translated from the fourth edition of the French by C. R. Prinsep (Philadelphia: Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger, 1880), p. 342.

125.

A phrase from the I Ching, "Chi tz'u hsia".

198

Notes

126. Mencius, "Liang Hui-wang", part I. 127.

Wealth of Nations, book IV, chap. III.

128. Ibid. 129. A phrase from Genesis 1:3. 130. Sir James Mackintosh (1765-1832), philosopher of the Scottish Enlightenment; best known as the author of The Law of Nature and Nations (1799). 131. Dissertation on the Progress of Ethical Philosophy, chiefly during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, 3rd edn. (Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, 1862), p. 185. 132. George Stephenson (1781-1848), whose first successful railway locomotive ran in 1814 and who constructed the Stockton and Darlington railway which opened in 1825. 133. Samuel Smiles (1812-1904). Although Soho did not specify the name of Smiles's work, it appears to be his Lives of the Engineers, 3 vols. (London: John Murray, 1861-62). Vol. III is an account of George and Robert Stephenson. 134. Ernest Werner von Siemens (1816-1892), who demonstrated an electric railway in Berlin in 1879. These two paragraphs are paraphrased from Mulhall, p. 78. 135. A paraphrase from Mulhall, p. 71. 136. A paraphrase from Mulhall, p. 72. 137. Sir William Fothergill Cooke (1806-1879) and Sir Charles Wheatstone (1802-1875). 138. Sir Francis Ronalds (1788-1873), whose telegraphic instrument made use of synchronously revolving discs. 139. Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521), Portuguese navigator in Spanish service, who commanded the first European expedition to sail across the Pacific. 140. This is a reminiscence of Draper, Intellectual Development of Europe, vol. II, pp. 170-73. Soho fails to indicate that Magellan was killed in the Philippines more than a year before the completion of the voyage.

Notes

199

141. From the poem "Sung mi-shu Ch'ao Chien" (Sending off the Secretary Ch'ao Chien) by the T'ang poet Wang Wei (701-761). 142. Ferdinand de Lesseps (1805-1894) was the engineer responsible for the construction of the Suez Canal between 1859 and 1869. 143. Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727). 144. It is unclear where Soho obtained this anecdote, the authenticity of which is not readily apparent. 145. Principles of Sociology, vol. I, chap. IX ("The Regulating System"). 146. An expression used in Ssu-ma Ch'ien, Shih chi, "The Hereditary Houses". 147. From the poem by Po Chu-i (772-846), "Ch'u-chiang tsao ch'iu" (Early Autumn on the Ch u River). 148. An anthology of 1,100 best poems since the Man'yoshu (Collection of Myriad Leaves), the compilation of which began under imperial auspices in 905 and was completed in 922. 149. In the original text, Soho uses an expression derived from Shu ching, "Hung fan". 150. Apparently a paraphrase by Soho based on Macaulay's essay on Ranke's History of the Popes. 151. Leon Gambetta (1838-1882), Prime Minister of France from 1881 to 1882. 152. From the poem "Tsui hou hsi t'i shih", by the T'ang poet Po Chu-i (772-846). 153. An expression used in Shih chi, "The Biographies of the Moneymakers". 154. An expression found in Ssu-ma Ch'ien's "Letter to Jen An". Also used in Chapter VI. 155. Henry Bence Bence (fl. early nineteenth century), co-author with John Lay of Report of a Mission from the Blything Union to Ascertain the Probable Employment of the Agricultural Labourer and his Family in the

Manufacturing Districts (Halesworth: T. Tippell, 1836). 156. Daniel Webster (1782-1852), American lawyer, politician, and Secretary of State in 1841-43 and 1850-52; known for his advocacy of business interests.

200

Notes

157.

This passage is not included in Webster's Works (New York, 1851).

158.

Itagaki Taisuke (1837-1919), a samurai from Tosa, active as a politician in the Meiji and Taisho periods; after resigning from the government in 1874 he became an advocate of representative government and leader of the Freedom and People's Rights Movement. He was also the founder of the Jiyuto (Liberal Party).

159.

Emile Acollas (1826-1891), French political philosopher and politician, known for his progressive ideas. Appointed by the Commune as Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Paris. Founder of the journal La Science politique (1878) and author of numerous works on civil law.

160.

"Oko jikken no jitsujo" (The Actual Situation of Europe as Seen by Myself)/ speech given to the Kansai Jiyu Kondankai (Kansai Liberal Forum); a few words in Soho's text vary slightly from the printed version in Kurita Motokazu, ed., Sugiyama Tetsuri, reviser, Meiji takuron shimpen(A New Anthology of Outstanding Discourses of the Meiji Era) (Tokyo: Rakuseisha, 1882), pp. 21-23.

161. See on this expression note 154 to Chapter v. 162.

Soho here echoes the expression of Jesus in Matthew 13:32.

163. Also cited in Herbert Spencer, The Principles of Sociology, vol. II, chap,XVIII("The Industrial Type of Society"). 164.

The Wealth of Nations, book v, chap. I, part 1.

165.

Mulhall, The Progress of the World, p. 51.

166.

Ibid.

167.

George Richardson Porter (1792-1852).

168.

Porter's original text reads as follows: "England has long stood preeminent for the skill of its inhabitants in manufactures of various kinds. But for the skill, and the extraordinary degree of development which it has experienced during the past half century, it is not possible to conceive that this country could have made the financial effort which enabled us to carry on the long, and, beyond all precedent, the expensive war of the French Revolution." The Progress of the Nation, in its Various Social and Economical Relations, from the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century. New edn. (London: John Murray, 1851), p. 167.

Notes

201

169.

Source unidentified.

170.

Lycurgus (possibly lived between the eleventh and eighth century B.C.) was the reputed author of the militaristic Spartan constitution; his name was used from the fourth century B.C. as a byword for a legislator.

171. Solon (c. 640-560 B.C.), Athenian statesman and legislator, reformed the constitution in 592-91 B.C., abolishing the exclusive control of government by the aristocracy. 172. Tao Chih (contemporary with Confucius) was a notorious brigand. Cf. Chuang-tzu, "Tao Chih"; Hsiin-tzu, "Ch'uan hsueh". 173. Yao and Shun were legendary Chinese emperors, famous for their benevolence and good government, whose names are indicative of a golden age. 174. Arthur Wellesley (1769-1852), first Duke of Wellington. 175.

Horatio Nelson (1758-1805), Viscount Nelson.

176.

Tenri jindo, a term popularly used in the Meiji period.

177. James Watt (1736-1819), whose improved steam engine was patented in 1769. 178. Mikhail Dmitriyevich Gorchakov (1793-1861), commander-in-chief of the Russian army in the Crimean War. 179.

From Ch'ang Chien's (fl. 749) poem "Chai hsia ch'u".

180.

T'ao Chou-kung was the nickname of Fan Li (5th century B.C.), a native of Yueh who served as minister under Kou Chien, and was responsible for Yueh's victory over Wu. Following this Fan Li wisely withdrew from political life, but is said to have amassed a fortune three times over. For this reason the name of T'ao Chou-kung is used to describe people who know the arts leading to success.

181. Hon. Henry Billings Brown (1836-1913), a judge of the state of Michigan who became an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court in 1890; an expert on Admiralty law who made frequent visits to Europe. 182.

The first two sentences of this passage are quoted in International Arbitration and Peace Association Monthly Journal, vol. I, no. 3 & 4 (SeptemberOctober, 1884), p. 27. The remainder has been retranslated from Soho's version.

202

Notes

183.

Democracy in America, tr. Henry Reeve (London: Longmans, Green, 1875), vol. I, chap. XVIII ("Reflection on the Causes of the Commercial Prosperity of the United States"). The first part of Soho's citation is a paraphrase, the second a direct quotation.

184.

Speech given on 15 January 1846 at the Free Trade Hall, Manchester. In Francis W. Hirst, ed., Free Trade and Other Fundamental Doctrines of the Manchester School (London: Harper and Brothers, 1903), p. 229.

185.

From the poem "Ch'un yeh yen t'ao li wuen hsu" (Prelude to a Banquet in a Cherry Garden on a Spring Night), by Li Po.

186.

On the basis of Genesis 10:8-12 Nimrod came to be considered the earliest founder of an authoritarian state.

187.

Romulus was the legendary founder of Rome (traditionally in 753 B.C.).

188.

Menes (fl. c. 3100 B.C.), the first king of unified Egypt.

189.

Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus (c. 235-183 B.C.), the Roman commander responsible for defeating the Carthaginian general Hannibal (247-c. 183 B.C.).

190. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) has been credited with promoting democratic government in his Du Contrat social (1762), and even helping to cause the French Revolution. 191. In James E. Thorold Rogers, ed., Speeches on Questions of Public Policy by John Bright M.P., vol. II, pp. 127-28. 192.

An expression used in Mencius, "Kung-sun Ch'ou", part I.

193. Remark attributed to Louis XIV before the Parlement of Paris, April 13, 1655. 194.

An expression first found in Hsun-Tzu, the collected writings of the great Confucian scholar Hsun Tzu (fl. 298-238), and often used by later writers in China and Japan.

195.

Sung shih, "The Biography of Ch'en Liang".

196.

Hugo's original text reads as follows: "Messieurs, dans la crise que nous traversons . . . on se demande: 'Qui est-ce qui fait tout ce ravage? Qui est-ce qui fait tout le mal? quel est le coupable? qui faut-il punir? qui faut-il frapper?' Le parti de la peur, en Europe, dit: 'C'est la France.' En France, il dit: 'C'est Paris.' A Paris, il dit: 'C'est la presse.' L'homme

Notes

203

froid qui observe et qui pense dit: 'Le coupable, ce n'est pas la presse, ce n'est pas Paris, ce n'est pas la France; le coupable, c'est 1'esprit humain!'" From his speech to the French Assembly, July 9, 1850, published under the title "La Liberte de la Presse". The text may be found in Hugo's Oeuvres completes (Paris: Robert Laffont [1985]), vol. x, p. 268. 197. The original passage in Spencer reads: "A nation which, besides its occasional serious wars, is continually carrying on small wars with uncivilized tribes—a nation which is mainly ruled in Parliament and through the press by men whose school-discipline led them during six days in the week to take Achilles for their hero, and on the seventh to admire Christ—a nation which, at its public dinners, habitually toasts its army and navy before toasting its legislative bodies; has not so far emerged out of militancy that we can expect either the institutions or the characteristics proper to industrialism to be shown with clearness." The Principles of Sociology, vol. II, chap,XVIII("The Industrial Type of Society"). 198. Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus (c. 169/64-133 B.C.) and Gaius Sempronius Gracchus (153-121 B.C.). 199. In the original, keiki-naru, a term found in Shih chi, "Biography of Chang I"; Chang I was regarded as one of the most articulate rhetoricians of ancient China. 200. Randolph Churchill (1849-1895). 201. The original phrase, kora rokuroku, is from Shih chi, "The Biography of Lord P'ing-Yiian". 202. An allusion to Mencius's story (Mencius, "T'eng Wen-kung", part II) about a man who, when rebuked for stealing chickens every day, promised to reform by stealing only one a month. Soho's use of this story implies that he considered Gladstone aware of his wrongdoing, but unable fully to correct it. 203. The story of K'ung Ming (or Chu-ko Liang), who arranged before his death for a wooden image of himself to frighten his enemy Ssu-ma I, is found in San Kuo Chih Yen-I, chap. CVI. 204. Expressions used in Mencius, "Teng Wen-kung". 205. The nearest equivalent to this passage in Mill's writings appears to be

204 Notes the following, from the opening chapter of Representative Government: "The forces, it is contended, on which the greater political phenomena depend, are not amenable to the direction of politicians or philosophers . . . . Whatever is the strongest power in society will obtain the governing authority; and a change in the political constitution cannot be durable unless preceded or accompanied by an altered distribution of power in society itself." Utilitarianism, Liberty, Representative Government (London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1910), p. 182. Soho may have paraphrased from memory; he does not note that Mill was not endorsing this line of argument. 206. The original terms pe-hsueh and ch'un-yang are the names of two well-known ch'in (Chinese guitar) melodies of great difficulty. 207. Reports of this meeting were carried in The Daily News, February 23, 1882, and The Guardian, March 1,1882. Soho, however, appears to have used a Japanese source. 208. An extensive report of this meeting is given in the International Arbitration and Peace Association Monthly Journal, vol. I, no. 3-4 (SeptemberOctober 1884), p. 23. Soho evidently quoted from a Japanese source which differed in some details from this report (e.g. Madame Fischer was from Berlin, not London; von Buhler had recruited forty new members for the Association, rather than members in the Reichstag, etc.). 209. John Morley (1838-1923), Viscount Morley of Blackburn. A copy of his The Life of Richard Cobden (1882) was given to Soho by Baba Tatsui (1850-1888), an early exponent of civil rights in Japan; it introduced Soho for the first time to the ideas of the Manchester School. 210. Source unidentified. 211. One ri is equivalent to 2.44 miles. This would give an area of 177,381 square miles for Japan; the accepted figure, however, is 145,841 square miles. 212. Exodus 3:8, 17, and several times elsewhere in the Old Testament. Soho could have been reminded of the expression by its use on page 60 of James William Gilbart, Lectures on the History and Principles of Ancient Commerce (London, 1847), a book quoted later in this chapter. 213. One cho is 0.992 hectares or 10 tan, or 100 se, or 3,000 bu. 214. One kamme is 8.267 kilograms, or 1,000 momme.

Notes

215.

One koku is 180 litres.

216.

One kan is 3.75 kilograms, or 1,000 momme.

217.

One kin is 160 momme.

205

218. Cited in Spencer, The Principles of Sociology, vol. II, chap.XVIII("The Industrial Type of Society"). 219.

An expression from Sun Tzu, The Art of War.

220.

Theodore Dwight Woolsey (1801-1889), American educator and political scientist and president of Yale University (1846-71), author of Introduction to the Study of International Law (1860) and Political Science (1878). His works in English as well as in Japanese translation were widely read in early Meiji Japan.

221. Political Science or the State Theoretically and Practically Considered, 2 vols. (New York: Scribner, Armstrong & Company, 1878), vol. II, p. 517. 222.

Nihon gaishi, vol. x ("Go Hojo shi").

223. James William Gilbart (1794-1863), an expert on banking and author of Lectures on the History and Principles of Ancient Commerce (1847). Apparently Soho used the Japanese translation of Gilbart's book, Kodai shogyo shi (1883). This quotation is taken from Lecture III. 224.

Lectures on the History and Principles of Ancient Commerce, pp. 117-18.

225.

An expression used in Ssu-ma Ch'ien's Shih chi and in Han Fei Tsu. The long sleeves of a traditional Chinese robe assist the wearer to move gracefully.

226.

These lines were cited by Soho from the Charter Oath, proclaimed in the name of Emperor Meiji in April, 1868.

227. Mencius, "Liang Hui-wang", part I, chap. VII. 228. Joseph Cook (1838-1901), an American author; he visited Japan on a round-the-world lecture tour in 1880, delivering twelve lectures largely attended by Japanese students, teachers, and public men. 229.

Otomo Sorin (1530-1587) was a daimyo of distinguished family who at the height of his career was military governor of much of Kyushu. He sent missions to the Portuguese in India in 1551 and 1553 and was baptized in 1578; he has been credited with helping to organize the

206

Notes

mission of four Japanese youths to Europe in 1582, though it now appears that his part in this was small. Gamo Ujisato (1556-1595) was a daimyo who successively served Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi and acquired extensive domains; when he was baptized in 1585 the Jesuits considered him their most powerful ally at court, but he lost interest in Christianity when it came under the disapproval of Hideyoshi in 1587. Date Masamune (1567-1636), a powerful daimyo of Sendai domain, permitted Christian missionary work in his domain. Wishing to establish relations with Spain and to trade with Mexico, in 1613 he sent Hasekura Tsunenaga via Mexico to Rome. 230. The word used is ryokuhatsu, literally "green hair", an expression found in the poetry of Li Po, alluding to black hair glistening in the light so as to appear green. 231. Hasekura Tsunenaga (1571-1622) led the embassy sent in 1613 by his lord Date Masamune to Mexico City, Madrid, and Rome. Audiences were granted to Hasekura with the Mexican viceroy, King Philip III of Spain, and Pope Paul V. His mission was a failure, however, for by the time he returned to Japan after his seven-year voyage, Christianity had been prohibited by the Tokugawa Shogunate. 232. The Keicho era was 1596-1615. 233. Soho here neglects the circumnavigations of Drake and others, as well as the Spanish establishment of the eastward galleon route between Manila and Acapulco almost half a century before Hasekura's voyage. 234. The central part of present Vietnam. 235. Fujiwara Shuku (1561-1619), also known as Fujiwara Seika. 236. This was compiled by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and published in 1882. The translation of the first four sentences is based on that in Theodore de Bary et al., compilers, Sources of Japanese Tradition (New York, 1968), vol. I, p. 340. 237. Kinji. Soho also used the term kinsei to designate the period of Japanese history since the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate, which he considered "modern", as in the title of his hundred-volume Kinsei Nihon kokuminshi, "National History of Modern Japan". 238. In the original text Soho uses the terms bushi and koto-naru bushi (translated "samurai" and "high-ranking samurai"). It is possible that

Notes

207

by so doing he may have intended to avoid making all samurai equally responsible for the social inequities he describes. His view of the social gradation of the samurai deserves further investigation. 239. An expression used in Ssu-ma Ch'ien's Shih chi, "The Hereditary House of Confucius". 240. Cf. Galatians 6:7. 241. A distinctively Japanese thick fabric with elegant designs, woven using golden and other brightly coloured threads. 242. Kutani is located in Ishikawa prefecture; its pottery became well-known in the early years of the Tokugawa period. 243. The Mausoleum at Nikko was built in the north-eastern environs of Tokyo by the third Tokugawa Shogun Iemitsu for the worship of the founder of the Shogunate, Ieyasu; it was completed in 1636. 244. The Warring Period was 1467-1568. 245. Mikawa province was located in the eastern part of the present Aichi Prefecture, where Tokugawa Ieyasu came from. 246. An expression used in Chung-yung (Doctrine of the Mean), one of the Four Books of the Confucian classics. 247. The nickname "Ironside" seems to have been first applied to Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) by his Royalist opponents, and then transferred to his cavalry regiment in the English Civil War. 248. Matsudaira Sadanobu (1758-1829), the daimyo of Shirakawa and a senior councillor of the Tokugawa Shogunate; initiator of the Kansei reforms (1787-93), which attempted to vitalize the Tokugawa economy through strict financial retrenchment, sumptuary laws, and a revival of the moral code of the samurai class. 249. Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616), founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate which lasted from 1603 to 1867. 250. The shamisen is a three-stringed, plucked musical instrument like the banjo. 251. Waka are short poems consisting of five lines with 31 syllables. 252. Renga are linked verses.

208 Notes 253. Haikai are humorous renga poems from which the more serious haiku (17-syllabled poems) were derived. 254. Source unidentified. 255. This passage is included in Chuang-tzu, section X ("Rifling Trunks"). Cited from The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu, translated by Burton Watson (New York: Columbia University Press, 1968), p. 110. 256. Expressions used in Sun Tzu's The Art of War, chaps. V ("Shih", Energy) and IV ("Hsing", Tactical Dispositions) respectively. 257. Meng Pen and Wu Huo, two men of ancient China who were known for their great physical power. Meng Hen served the state of Ch'i, and Wu Huo the state of Ch'in. 258. Marcus Porcius Cato (234-149 B.C.), Roman statesman of austere principles. Being an intensely proud Roman, he showed distrust for things Greek and was concerned with the extravagant style of life which was prevalent in his time. 259. Mizuno Tadakuni (1793-1851), daimyo of the Hamamatsu domain and initiator of the Tempo Reforms, which were along the lines of the Kansei Reforms. 260. An expression used in Li chi (The Book of Rites), "Li ch'i", and Mencius, "Liang Hui-wang", part I. 261. From Sun Tzu, The Art of War, chap. IV ("Hsing"). 262. According to Sun Tzu in his book The Art of War, these are three basic factors necessary to win a war. 263. Tao Te Ching, chap. LXXX ("Tu li", Isolation). Soho has modified the text. 264. Cf. Chuang-tzu, "Ch'iu shui" and Hsun-tzu, "Ch'iang kuo". 265. The Genki and Tensho eras were 1570-1591. 266. An expression used in the Mencius, "Tsin hsin", part II. 267. "Zen hekoyo", a popular song of young Satsuma samurai, the words of which were transcribed or perhaps arranged by Rai San'yo and may be found in Kizaki Aikichi and Rai Seichi, eds., Saiyu ko (Hiroshima: Rai San'yo Sensei Iseki Kenshokai, 1932), p. 252. 268. Cf. Li chi, "T'an Kung", part II. This saying is popularly used in Japan.

Notes

209

269. From "Song of the Farmers", by the Chinese poet Wang Chien (768-830?). 270. Principles of Political Economy (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1909), "Preliminary Remarks", p. 14. 271. An expression used in Kuan-tzu, "Hsin shu", part II. 272. An expression used in Mencius, "Hao-tzu", part I. 273. A kabunakama was a monopolistic association of merchants in the same trade of a type sanctioned by both the Shogunate and the daimyo during the Tokugawa period. 274. Published by Okurasho Kirokukyoku (Record Office of the Ministry of Finance) in 1875, pp. 984-987. The first two sentences are a paraphrase. 275. Soho's notion of "inheritance" apparently came from his reading of Spencer, in whose view inheritance was a characteristic of a militant type of society. See Principles of Sociology, vol. II, chap, XVII ("The Militant Type of Society"). 276. Like inheritance, "precedence" is a concept which Soho apparently derived from his reading of Spencer, ibid. 277. Dazai Shundai (1680-1747), a Confucian scholar of the Tokugawa period, and one of the most brilliant students of Ogyu Sorai. 278. Joruri, a traditional Japanese puppet play, which became popular during the Tokugawa period. 279. The earliest version of Meiboku sendai hagi was written by Nagawa Kamesuke in 1777. The plot is based upon a succession dispute at the Sendai domain in the 1660s. Two scenes are in the kabuki repertory. 280. Soho's ideas about officialism as a legacy of feudalism apparently derived from Spencer's account of militant society. 281. Cf. Matthew 19:24. 282. Chinese capital during the Ch'in dynasty. 283. Chinese capital during the following Former Han dynasty. 284. Arai Hakuseki (1657-1725), Confucian scholar, historian, and leading shogunate official during the second decade of the eighteenth century, who was well-known for his enlightened views.

210 Notes 285. Presumably Soho referred to the letter dated July 7, 1853, delivered by Perry to the Shogun. The content there, however, is a little different. Cf. Dai Nihon komonjo, Bakumatsu gaiko kankei monjo (Tokyo: Tokyo

Teikoku Daigaku, 1904-), vol. I. 286. Cf. Exodus 14:21-23. 287. Matsudaira Yoshinaga (1828-1890), also known as Matsudaira Shungaku, daimyo of Fukui domain. His ideas differed sharply from those of Ii Naosuke, the Elder of the Shogunate government, over the issues of the Shogunal succession and the signing, without the sanction of the Emperor, of the Harris Treaty. 288. The four domains were Satsuma, Choshu, Tosa, and Hizen, located in south-western Japan, which provided leadership in the restoration of imperial rule. 289. These three ports were Yokohama, Shimoda, and Hakodate. 290. Hatamoto, direct vassals of the Shogun. 291. Submitted by Shonan on November 28,1867. 292. Chao I (1727-1812), Chinese historian in the Ch'ing dynasty, author of Notes on the Twenty-two Dynastic Histories which was one of the young Soho's favourite books. 293. These three were considered the "three heroes of the Meiji Restoration". Saigo Takamori (1827-1877), a samurai from Satsuma domain; Kido Takayoshi (1833-1877), also known as Kido Koin, a samurai from Choshu domain; and Okubo Toshimichi (1830-1878), like Saigo a samurai from Satsuma domain, all took leading parts in the overthrow of the Shogunate and the establishment of the Meiji government. 294. Ii Naosuke (1815-1860), Elder of the Tokugawa government from 1858, was responsible for concluding the Harris Treaty of that year without the approval of the Emperor; he took drastic measures to suppress those who opposed his policy, in consequence of which he was assassinated. Tokugawa Nariaki (1800-1860), daimyo of Mito, a leader of the pro-Emperor and anti-foreign movement, was a vocal opponent of Ii's policy over Shogunal succession and the conclusion of the Harris Treaty. Fujita Toko (1806-1855), a samurai from Mito domain, was a dominant figure in the pro-Emperor movement.

Notes

211

295. Sakuma Shozan (1811-1864), a progressive scholar of Western learning in the late Tokugawa years, devoted himself to exploring the way by which Japan could preserve her security and independence from encroachments by the Western powers and was well-known for his motto "Eastern ethics and Western technique". On Yoshida Shoin, see note 14 to the Introduction. 296. Yanagawa Seigan (1789-1858), a poet from Mito domain, was active in the pro-Emperor movement. On Yokoi Shonan, see note 5 to the Introduction. 297. Two domains which supported the Tokugawa Shogunate and fought against the pro-imperial Satsuma and Choshu forces at Toba-Fushimi outside of Kyoto in early 1868. 298. On the Lord of Echizen, see note 287 to the present Chapter. 299. A reminiscence of Mencius, "T'eng Wen-kung", part II: "Dwelling in all below heaven's wide house; standing on all below heaven's true base . . . . " Tr. Leonard A. Lyall (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1932), p. 86. 300. Literally "above the ninth heaven and under the ninth earth", an expression found in Sun Tzu, The Art of War, chap. IV ("Hsing"). 301. Paraphrased from Plutarch, Life of Caesar, 11. Soho owned the Dryden translation of Plutarch's Lives of Illustrious Men (New York, 1880); his copy is in the Seikido Collection in the Ochanomizu Library. 302. The three metropolises were Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka. 303. The five ports were Yokohama, Shimoda, Hyogo (now Kobe), Niigata, and Hakodate. 304. A phrase from Confucius, Analects, book II ("Wei Chang"), chap. IX; tr. James Legge (Shanghai, 1923, reprinted New York, 1966), p. 17. 305. An idiom used in Huai Nan Tzu's Yuan Tao Hsun (The Cosmic Spirit). 306. The Paektu Mountains are a range bordering Korea and China. 307. China. 308. William Penn (1644-1718), the Quaker, founder of the Colony of Pennsylvania, and upholder of his denomination's policy of pacifism. 309. An expression used in Li chi (Book of Rites), book IX ("Chiao t'eh sheng").

212 Notes 310. An expression used in Shih ching (The Book of Odes), "Wei-feng". 311. Wu Shan is a high mountain in Chekiang Province, China. 312. Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.). 313. Timur (1336-1405), also known as Tamerlane, Turkic commander of Islamic faith, best known for his conquests from India and Russia to the Mediterranean Sea. 314. Li K'uei is one of the one hundred and eight rebellious heroes of a widely popular fourteenth-century Chinese novel, Shui-hu chuan (The Water Margin); as the story goes, they banded together on a marsh-girt mountain called Liang Shan Po in Shantung Province. "Black Whirlwind" was among the various pen-names Soho used in his early years. 315. Soga monogatari, a famous mediaeval prose tale of revenge. 316. Sun, the Japanese inch, about 1.19 inches. 317. Shaku, the Japanese foot, about 0.994 feet. 318. Francis Lieber (1800-1872), German-born U.S. political philosopher, and the author of Manual of Political Ethics, 2 vols. (1838-39), On Civil Liberty and Self-government, 2 vols. (1853), and Code for the Government of Armies

in the Field (1863). Lieber is best known for his contribution to the formulation of the laws of war. 319. Bummei no riki, a popular term in the early years of the Meiji period, used to designate such technological facilities as telegraphs, railways, and gaslight, newly introduced from the West. 320. Shun was one of the legendary model emperors of ancient China. He is said to have gone often to farm at Li-shan, a mountain in Shantung Province. The story is referred to in Mencius, "Wan Chang", part I. 321. Presumably a reference to Zoroaster or Zarathustra (dates unknown, but 7th century B.C. or earlier); Zoroastrianism envisaged a cosmic struggle between Ahriman and Ahura Mazda, spirits of darkness and light respectively. 322. Hara Chunei (1830-67). His real name was Ichinoshin. A retainer of the Mito domain, who later served the last Shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, as adviser.

Notes

213

323. An expression found in Analects, book IV ("Li jen"). 324. John Milton (1608-1674), Puritan poet and statesman; author of Paradise Lost (1667). Soho so admired Milton's poetry as to write an elaborate work on Milton together with the T'ang poet Tu Fu. 325. John Hampden (1594-1643), Parliamentary leader well known for his opposition to Charles I's levy of ship money. 326. Part of a poem included in Shonan do shiso (Draft of an Anthology of Shonan's Poetry), in Yamasaki Masatada, ed., Yokoi Shonan iko (Unpublished Manuscripts of Yokoi Shonan) (Tokyo: Nisshin Shoin, 1942), p. 885. 327. Ku I (202-169 B.C.), talented man of letters in Lo-yang, who from his youth expressed indignation at the state of current politics. He achieved great fame through his elegant prose and poetry. Soho also alluded to him in the final section of his first book, Youth of Japan in the Nineteenth Century and their Education. 328. Cited from a speech given by John Bright on October 29, 1858, at the Town Hall of Birmingham. In Speeches on Questions of Public Policy by John Bright, M.P., ed. James E. Thorold Rogers, vol.II,p. 397.

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SUGGESTED READINGS

THE FOLLOWING SELECT BIBLIOGRA-

phy of books and articles in English is provided for readers who may wish to find out more about Tokutomi Soho and some other representative Japanese intellectuals who in the first two decades of the Meiji era articulated views about Japan and her place in the modern world. Blacker, Carmen, The Japanese Enlightenment: A Study of the Writings of Fukuzawa Yukichi. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1964. Braisted, William, trans, with an introduction, Meiroku Zasshi: Journal of the Japanese Enlightenment. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1976. Craig, Albert M., "Fukuzawa Yukichi: The Philosophical Foundations of Meiji Nationalism", in Robert E. Ward, ed., Political Development in Modern Japan. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1968. Dardess, Margaret B., A Discourse on Government: Nakae Chomin and his Sansuijin keirin mondo. An Essay and Introduction. Occasional Paper No. 10, Program in East Asian Studies, Western Washington State College. Seattle, Wash.: Western Washington State College, 1977. 215

216

Suggested Readings Duus, Peter, "Whig History, Japanese Style: the Min'yusha Historians and the Meiji Restoration". Journal of Asian Studies,XXXIII,3 (1974). Fukuzawa Yukichi. Autobiography. Translated by Eiichi Kiyooka. New York: Columbia University Press, 1966. , An Outline of a Theory of Civilization, translated by David A. Dilworth and G. Cameron Hurst. Tokyo: Sophia University Press, 1973. Hall, Ivan P., Mori Arinori. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1973. Havens, Thomas. Nishi Amane and Modern Japanese Thought. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1969. Hane, Mikiso, "Nationalism and the Decline of Liberalism in Meiji Japan". Studies on Asia, 4 (1963). , "The Sources of English Liberal Concepts in Early Meiji Japan". Monumenta Nipponica,XXIV,3 (1969). Huffman, James L. Politics of the Meiji Press: The Life of Fukuchi Gen'ichiro. Honolulu: The University of Hawaii Press, 1980. Irokawa, Daikichi. The Culture of the Meiji Period. Translation edited by Marius B. Jansen. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1985. Ito Takashi and George Akita, 'The Yamagata-Tokutomi Correspondence: Press and Politics in Meiji-Taisho Japan". Monumenta Nipponica,XXXVI,4 (Winter 1981). Jansen, Marius B., ed. Changing Japanese Attitudes Toward Modernization. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1965. , "Japanese Views of China in the Meiji Period", in Albert Feuerwerker, ed. Approaches to Modern Chinese History. Berkeley, Cal.: University of California Press, 1967. Kosaka Masaaki, ed. Japanese Thought in the Meiji Era. Translated and adapted by David Abosch. Tokyo: Toyo Bunko, 1958. Maruyama Masao, "Fukuzawa, Uchimura, and Okakura: Meiji Intellectuals and Westernization", in Irwin Scheiner, ed., Modern Japan: An Interpretative Anthology. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1974.

Suggested Readings

217

Matsuzawa Hiroaki, "Varieties of Bumtnei Ron (Theories of Civilization)", in Hilary Conroy, Sandra T. W. Davis, and Wayne Patterson, eds., Japan in Transition: Thought and Action in the Meiji Era,

1868-1912. Cranbury, N.J.: Associated University Presses, 1984. Miwa, Kimitada, "Fukuzawa Yukichi's 'Departure from Asia': A Prelude to the Sino-Japanese War", in E. Skrzypczak, ed., Japan's Modern Century. Tokyo: Sophia University Press & Charles E. Tuttle, 1968. Nagai Michio, "Herbert Spencer in Early Meiji Japan". Far Eastern Quarterly,XIV,1 (1954). Nakae Chomin, A Discourse by Three Drunkards on

Government,

translated by Nobuko Tsukui; edited, with an introduction, by Nobuko Tsukui and Jeffrey Hammond. New York and Tokyo: Weatherhill, 1984. Pierson, John, Tokutomi Soho, 1863-1957: A Journalist for Modern Japan.

Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1980. Pyle, Kenneth B., The New Generation in Meiji Japan: Problems of Cultural

Identity, 1885-1895. Stanford, Cal.: Stanford University Press, 1969. Pittau, Joseph, Political Thought in Early Meiji Japan, 1868-1889.

Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1967. Sansom, George B., The Western World and Japan: A Study in the Interaction of European and Asiatic Cultures. London: The Cresset

Press, 1950. Tokutomi Soho, "The Life of Shoin Yoshida, being a Translation from the Japanese Life of Shoin Yoshida by Mr. Ichiro Tokutomi", trans, by H. E. Coleman. Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, XLI (1917). Vinh Sinh, Tokutomi Soho (1863-1957): The Later Career. Toronto:

University of Toronto-York University Joint Centre on Modern East Asia, 1986. Yamashita Yoshikazu, "Herbert Spencer and Modern Japan", in Hilary Conroy, Sandra T. W. Davis, and Wayne Patterson, eds., Japan in Transition: Thought and Action in the Meiji Era, 1968-1912. Cranbury,

N.J.: Associated University Presses, 1984.

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I N D E X

Abdur Rahman, Amir, 54 Acollas, Emile, 74 Afghanistan, 54 Alcock, Rutherford, 52 Alexander the Great, 89,172 Annam, 55-56 Anti-Aggression League, 110 Antisthenes, 25 Arabi Pasha, 20 Arai Hakuseki, 157 aristocratic society, 95-96, 99-100,103, 105-106,108,113,138,176-177 Asia, geography of, 48 Augustus, Caesar, 36 Australia, 125

Campbell, Thomas, 55 Carlyle, Thomas, xxxiv, 46 Cato, M. P., the Elder, 143

Bacon, Francis, 61 Bagehot, Walter, xxv, 77 Beaconsfield, Lord, 41,106-107 Bence, Henry Bence, 72 Benjamin, Samuel G. W., 54 Bentham, Jeremy, 36, 84 Bismarck, Otto von, 41-42, 46, 51, 71, 80-81, 85-86 Bright, John, xvi, xxii, xxvi, 41, 45-46, 101,106-107,109,183 Britain, conquests of, 54 foreign policy, 79 Brown, Henry Billings, 88 Burke, Edmund, 25 Burma, 55-56

Date Masamune, 128 Dazai Shundai, 152 democracy, xxix, 5,101-105,107 democratic society, 96-97, 99,103,106, 112-114,138,159,177,184 Doshisha, xvi Draper, J. William, xxv Draper, John William, xxx, 16

Chan-kuo ts'e, xxiii

Chao I, xxiii, 164 China, 125 Chu Hsi, xv Churchill, Randolph, 107 Cobden, Richard, xvi, xxii, xxv, xvii, 59, 79, 90,106-107,109 Confucius, xxiii, xxiv, 26 Cook, Joseph, 126 Cooke, William F., 66 Cromwell, Oliver, 139 Curius, Manlius, 27

Eastern Question, 52, 55 Europe, geography of, 48 Ferry, Jules, 41 free trade, xxix, 63, 90,122 Freedom and Popular Rights Movement, xxxi Freeman, Edward A., xxv

219

220

Index

Fujita Toko, 165 Fujiwara Shuku, 128 Fukuchi Gen'ichiro, xvii, xxxiv Fukuzawa Yukichi, xiii, xxxiv Futabatei Shimei, xxi

Meiji Restoration, 127,159, 164-165 national entity, 119-120 Tokugawa period, 82,127,129, 137,140,143-144,147,157

Gambetta, Leon, 71 Gamo Ujisato, 128 German Empire, 42, 80-81 Gilbart, James William, 123 Gladstone, William Ewart, 50,107,169 Gorchakov, Mikhail Dmitriyevich, 85 Gordon, Charles George, 41 Gracchus, Tiberius and Gaius, 107 Green, John Richard, xxv Guizot, Francois, xix

Kido Takayoshi, 164-165

Hampden, John, 182 Hannibal, 97 Hara Chunei, 177 Hasekura Tsunenaga, 128

Macaulay, Thomas Babington, xix, xxi, xxv, xxxiv, xx, 70 Mackintosh, James, 63 Magellan, Ferdinand, 69 Manchester school, xvi, xxix, xvii manufacturing, 72 Matsudaira Sadanobu, 140,143 Meiji Restoration, 183 Mencius, xxiii, xxiv Menes, 97 militant society, xxvii, xxviii, xxxiii, 30, 133,141-142,147,159 military organ, 26-27, 30, 41, 46, 59, 71, 77, 96, 98-99,108,138,144,154, 171 Mill, John Stuart, xxii, xxv, 109,148, 173 Milton, John, 182 Mizuno Tadakuni, 143 Moltke, Helmuth von, 41 Montaigne, Michel Eyquem de, 61 Montesquieu, Charles de Secondat, baron de, 25,103-104 Morley, John, xxv, xvii, 110,113 Moses, 121 Mozume Takami, xxxiv Mulhall, Michael G., xxv, xxviii, 37-38, 64, 66-69, 72, 79

heiminshugi, xxi, xxviii

Hugo, Victor, 36,104 Imperial House, 184 India, 54, 56 industrial organ, 26-27, 30, 59, 71, 77, 82, 96, 99,103,171,182 industrial society, xxvii, xxviii, xxix, xxxi, xxxiii, 5, 30,63,159,184 Inoue Kowashi, xix International Arbitration and Peace Association, 39, 88,110-111 Ireland, 50 Itagaki Taisuke, 74 Janes, Leroy Lansing, xv Japan, as a commercial nation, 117, 120,126 domestic conditions, 119 early society, 26 external conditions, 120 geographical conditions, 119-120, 122-124 Meiji reforms, 158-159,167,177, 184

Lao Tzu, 146 Law of Nations, 46 Learned, Dwight W., xv, xix Lecky, William E. H., 60 Lesseps, Ferdinand de, 69,125 Lieber, Francis, 173 Luther, Martin, 43 Lycurgus, 80, 97

Index

Nakae Chomin, xiv, xxi, xxxviii, 9-10 Napoleon, Louis, 36,41, 85-86,113, 172

Nelson, Viscount, 82 newspapers, 68 Newton, Isaac, 69 Niijima Jo, xv, xxi, xxxviii, 11-12 Nimrod, 97 Okubo Toshimichi, 164-165 Otomo Sorin, 128 Palmerston, Lord, 41 peace, xxix, xxxi, 5, 86-88 Penn, William, 171 Perry, Matthew, Commodore, 158-159 Pitt, William, 61 Pliny, 27 Plutarch, xxv Porter, George Richardson, 79 postal systems, 66, 70 Pym, John, 42,182 Rai San'yo, xv, xxv, xxxiv, 26-27,123, 145 railways, 65, 69 Robertson, William, xxvi Robinson Crusoe, 114,146 Roman Empire, 38 Rome, 27,141,143 Romulus, 97 Ronalds, Francis, 66 Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, 99,103-104 Russia, 79 foreign policy, 51-52 Saigo Takamori, 164-165,182 Sakuma Shozan, 165,182 Salisbury, Lord, 54,107 samurai, 127,133-137,139,141-142, 144,153,164,176 Say, Jean-Baptiste, 61 Scipio, 97 Shakespeare, William, 107 Shih Huang-ti, 39, 97 shipping, 64, 69 Siberia, 125

221

Siemens, Ernest Werner von, 65 Smith, Adam, xxvi, xxix, xxx, 38,62, 78, 85-86 Smith, Goldwin, xxvi Solon, 80 Sparta, 80, 97,133 Spencer, Herbert, xxii, xxvi, xxvii, xxix, xxx, xxxi, xxvi, 70,105,110,173 Ssu-ma Ch'ien, xv, xxv steam engine, 63-64 Stein, Lorenz von, 25,42 Stephenson, George, 65 Sun Tzu, xxv, xxxiii, 36 survival of the fittest, 50,174 Taguchi Ukichi, xix, xxi, xxv, xxvii, xxxviii, xxvi, 7-8,142 telegraphy, 66, 69 Timur, 172 Toshisen, xxv

Tocqueville, Alexis de, xix, xxiii, xxvi, xx, 90 Tokugawa Ieyasu, 129,140 Tokutomi Iichiro, see Tokutomi Soho Tokutomi Soho, ii early life and education, xiv, xvii early writings, xix interest in journalism, politics, and history, xvi later career, xxii publication of The Future Japan, xix, xxii reception of The Future Japan, xx, xxxi style of writing, xxxiv ton 'ya, 149

trade, 128,135,148 and war, 61 principle of, 85, 87 Ts'ao Sung, xxxvi Tsubouchi Shoyo, xxxiv Turkey, 50 Tyre, 28, 89, 97 Uchimura Kanzo, xxi Uete Michiari, xxxviii United States, 89,112,125 foreign policy, 88-89

222

Index

Voltaire, 61, 69 Washington, George, 172 Watt, James, 85 Webster, Daniel, 74 Wellington, first Duke of, 82 Wheatstone, Charles, 66

Woolsey, Theodore Dwight, 123,173 world trend, xxviii, 11-12,117,127, 143,160,165,177,181-182,184 Yokoi Shonan, xv, xxii, 160,164-165, 182 Yoshida Shoin, xviii, xix, 165,182

This book is set in Adobe Postscript Palatino, which reproduces a design originally created by Hermann Zapffor the firm ofStempel in Frankfurt in 1950-51, and named in honour of the writing master Giovanbattista Palatino, whose work on calligraphy was published at Rome in 1540; the type's classic proportions recall the designs of the Renaissance. This book was designed by Joanne Poon and Nicholas Wickenden, and typeset using the University of Alberta's "Textform" text formatting system. The calligraphic rendering of the words Shorai no Nihon on the title and chapter title pages is reproduced from the cover of the fourth edition (1887). The jacket illustration is taken from a wood-block print of the first railway in Japan, opened in 1872, which connected Tokyo and Yokohama. From the Ishiguro Collection; reproduced with the permission of the Gakken Company.