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J. R. Seeley in Japan, 1880s–1940s
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 October 2022
Abstract
This article explores how the late nineteenth-century British historian J. R. Seeley was ‘used’ in Japan. The focal points are three translations of his The expansion of England, published in 1899, 1918, and 1942. By placing each translation in context, I attempt to clarify the ideological moves made by those who produced the translations. In the context of the first translation, Seeley was a historian who offered a vision of Japan's future. In the second context, however, he became a lens through which present-day British policy could be understood. In the third context, he became an unintentional detractor of Britain's past colonial policies in India. Through a comparative examination of these three translations, this article uncovers both the ‘potential’ of Seeley's imperial history, which anglophone reception of his work had not exhausted, and the ‘creative’ aspect of translation, thus contributing to intellectual history on both the local and global levels.
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References
1 Katō Shūichi, ‘Meiji shoki no hon'yaku: Naze, nani o, ikani yakushita ka’ (‘Translation in the early Meiji era: why, what, and how’), in Nihon kindai shisō taikei ix: hon'yaku no shisō (Japanese modern ideas series ix: ideas of translation) (Tokyo, 1991), p. 342. In referring to Japanese authors, this article follows the convention of placing the last name before the first name, except when the authors have chosen the reverse. Owing to spatial constraints, it was necessary to omit the original Japanese scripts. For the convenience of those who read Japanese, a list of original spellings of the books, articles, and names mentioned in this article can be found at https://independent.academia.edu/%;E6%;8B%;93%;E4%;B9%;9F%;E5%;8F%;A4%;E7%;94%;B0.
2 Yano Fumio, ‘Yakusho dokuhō’ (‘An instruction for reading translations’), in Nihon kindai shisō taikei ix, p. 281.
3 The bibliographic details of the three translations are as follows: Shīrē, Eikoku bōchō shiron: zenpen, trans. Sekigushi Ichirō and Toki Kōtarō, published by Nihon Shōgyō sha, Tokyo, 17 July 1899; Shīrē, Eikoku bōchō shiron, trans. Katō Seishirō, published by Kōbōshi kankō kai, Tokyo, 28 Mar. 1918; Shīrī, Eikoku hatten shiron, trans. Furuta Tamotsu, published by Daiichi shobō, Tokyo, 20 Oct. 1942.
4 Hirose Reiko, Kokusui shugi sha no kokka nin'shiki to kokka kōsō (Nationalists’ view of international affairs and their visions of the state) (Tokyo, 2004), pp. 335–6; Nakagawa Mirai, Meiji nihon no kokusui shugi shisō to ajia (Meiji Japan's nationalistic thought and Asia) (Tokyo, 2016), pp. 249–50.
5 Seeley, J. R., The expansion of England: two courses of lectures (London, 1914; orig. edn 1883), p. 10Google Scholar.
6 Dusinberre, Martin, ‘J. R. Seeley and Japan's Pacific expansion’, Historical Journal, 64 (2021), pp. 70–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
7 By using the term ‘ideological’, I mean the discourse that legitimizes or delegitimizes particular political principles or actions. See Quentin Skinner, The foundations of modern political thought (2 vols., Cambridge, 1978), i, pp. xii–xiii.
8 Jenco, Leigh K. and Chappell, Jonathan, ‘Introduction: history from between and the global circulations of the past in Asia and Europe, 1600–1950’, Historical Journal, 64 (2021), pp. 1–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at p. 6.
9 Seeley, Expansion of England, p. 1.
10 Ibid., p. 10.
11 Ibid., p. 127.
12 T. B. Macaulay, ‘Mill's essay on government’ (1829), in The miscellaneous writings and speeches of Lord Macaulay (London, 1871), p. 162. John Kenyon, The history men: the historical profession in England since the Renaissance (London, 1983), p. 172.
13 Cobden, Richard, The political writings of Richard Cobden (2 vols., London, 1903), i, p. 222Google Scholar.
14 Seeley, Expansion of England, p. 128.
15 Ibid., pp. 73–9.
16 Deborah Wormell, Sir John Seeley and the use of history (Cambridge, 1980), pp. 156, 160.
17 Seeley, Expansion of England, p. 13; Wormell, Sir John Seeley, p. 158.
18 Duncan Bell, Reordering the world (Princeton, NJ, 2016), pp. 291–2.
19 Seeley, Expansion of England, pp. 262–4, 270.
20 Ibid., p. 257.
21 W. R. Stead, ed., The last will and testament of Cecil John Rhodes (London, 1902), p. 190.
22 For the following description, I am drawing on David J. Worsley, ‘Sir John Robert Seeley and his intellectual legacy: religion, imperialism, and nationalism in Victorian and post-Victorian Britain’ (PhD thesis, Manchester, 2001), pp. 226–7.
23 A. P. Newton, A hundred years of the British empire (London, 1940), pp. 240–1, cited in Worsley, ‘Sir John Robert Seeley’, p. 225.
24 Japanese imperialism itself is a classic research topic: see, for example, Ramon H. Myers and Mark R. Peattie, eds., The Japanese colonial empire, 1895–1945 (Princeton, NJ, 1984); W. G. Beasley, Japanese imperialism 1894–1945 (Oxford, 1987). Recently, however, several excellent works on Japanese expansion have been written from the perspective of settler colonialism. See Shiode Hiroyuki, Ekkyosha no seijishi: Ajia taiheiyō ni okeru nihon'jin no imin to shokumin (A political history of cross-border people: Japanese immigration and colonization in the Asia-Pacific) (Nagoya, 2015); Uchida, Jun, ‘From island nation to oceanic empire: a vision of Japanese expansion from the periphery’, Journal of Japanese Studies, 42 (2016), pp. 57–90Google Scholar; Sidney Xu Lu, The making of Japanese settler colonialism: Malthusianism and trans-Pacific migration, 1868–1961 (Cambridge, 2019); Eiichiro Azuma, In search of our frontier: Japanese America and settler colonialism in the construction of Japan's borderless empire (Oakland, CA, 2019).
25 Lu, Making of Japanese settler colonialism, pp. 3–7.
26 ‘Tōhō kyōkai setsuritsu shui’ (‘The purpose of establishing the Oriental Society’), Tōhō kyōkai hōkoku, 1, cited in Asai Sachiko, ‘Nissin sensō kaisen zenya no tōhō kyōkai’ (‘The Oriental Society before the First Sino-Japanese War’) (PhD thesis, Aichi Shukutoku, 2013), p. 17.
27 Gotō Shinpei, Nihon bōchō ron (The expansion of Japan) (Tokyo, 1916), p. 5.
28 On Seeley's political theology, see Bell, Reordering the world, ch. 11.
29 Hirowatari Shirō, Soyeda Juichi-kun shōden (A short biography of Mr Soyeda Juichi) (Tokyo, 1924), p. 10.
30 Juichi, Soyeda, ‘Shīrī sensei no seikyo o oshimu’ (‘Mourning for Professor Seeley’), Kokka gakkai zasshi (Journal of the Association of Political and Social Sciences), 9 (1895), pp. 270–8Google Scholar, at p. 273.
31 See Juichi, Soyeda, ‘Kokka to shūkyō’ (‘The state and religion’), Kokka gakkai zasshi 8 (1894), pp. 13–24Google Scholar, at p. 17; Juichi, Soyeda, ‘Kokka no shōchō seisui’ (‘The rise and fall of the state’), Kokka gakkai zasshi 13 (1899), pp. 20–34Google Scholar, at p. 25.
32 Watanabe Hiroshi, Meiji kakumei, sei, bunmei: seiji sisou shi no boken (The Meiji revolution, gender, and civilization) (Tokyo, 2021), ch. 8.
33 Ukita Kazutami, ‘Teikoku shugi no seisaku to dōtoku’ (‘The policy and morality of imperialism’) (1905), in Rinri teikoku shugi (Ethical imperialism) (Tokyo, 1909), p. 129.
34 Ibid., pp. 129–31.
35 Ukita Kazutami, ‘Yakusha jo’ (‘Translator's preface’), in Toraichike, Gunkoku shugi seiji gaku [Heinrich von Treitschke, Politik] (Tokyo, 1920), p. 4.
36 Eugene Soviak, ed. and trans., and Tamie Kamiyama, trans., A diary of darkness: the wartime diary of Kiyosawa Kiyoshi (Princeton, NJ, 1999), p. 108. This entry is cited in Dusinberre, ‘J. R. Seeley’, p. 96.
37 Yonehara Ken, Kindai nihon no aidentyityi to seiji (Identity and politics in modern Japan) (Kyoto, 2002), p. 173. Christopher L. Hill argues that Sohō never ‘converted’ from internationalism to nationalism, though he does not deny that Sohō ‘renounced laissez-faire commonerism for social intervention and imperialism’ (Christopher L. Hill, National history and the world of nations: capital, state, and the rhetoric of history in Japan, France, and the United States (Durham, NC, 2008), pp. 171–2).
38 Tokutomi Sohō, ‘Jimu ikkagen’ (‘My opinion for contemporary issues’) (1913–14), in Uete Michiari, ed., Tokutomi Sohō shū (Tokyo, 1974), p. 290.
39 Yushi Ito, Yamaji Aizan and his time: nationalism and debating Japanese history (Folkestone, 2007), p. 123; Sakamoto Takao, Yamaji Aizan (Tokyo, 1988), p. 131.
40 Yamaji Aizan, ‘Yo ga iwayuru teikoku shugi’ (‘My idea of so-called imperialism’) (1903), in Oka Toshirō, ed., Minyūsha shisō bungaku sōsho: Yamaji Aizan shū (2) (The ideas and literature of Minyūsha series: the collected works of Yamaji Aizan (2)) (Tokyo, 1985), p. 325.
41 Nakagawa, Meiji nihon, pp. 41–4.
42 Inagaki Manjirō, ‘Senshi Shīrē no gakuha oyobi sono shincho eikoku gaikō seiryakushi o yomu’ (‘The late Professor Seeley and his school, and reading his new book The growth of British policy’), Waseda gakuhō, 1 (1897), pp. 12–32, at p. 15.
43 Ibid., pp. 16–18.
44 Inagaki Manjirō, Tōhōsaku dai ippen (Eastern policy: part 1) (Tokyo, 1891).
45 Ibid., pp. 90–1, 125.
46 Ibid., p. 137.
47 Inagaki Manjirō, Nan'yo chōsei dan (A talk on the long march to the South Sea) (Tokyo, 1893), pp. 11–19, 31.
48 Inagaki Manjirō, ‘Senshi Shīrē no gakuha oyobi sono shincho eikoku gaikō seiryakushi o yomu (shōzen)’ (‘The late Professor Seeley and his school and reading his new book The growth of British policy (part 2)’), Waseda gakuhō, 2 (1897), pp. 15–31, at pp. 26–7.
49 Shīrē, Eikoku bōchō shiron: zenpen, trans. Sekigushi Ichirō and Toki Kōtarō (1899, Tokyo). The term zenpen in the title of this first translation means ‘the first half’ or ‘part 1’, implying that the publisher and translators originally intended to publish the Expansion's second part. However, the second part does not appear to have ever been published.
50 Inagaki Manjirō, ‘Eikoku bōchō shiron jo’ (‘Preface to The expansion of England’), in Shīrē, Eikoku bōchō shiron, unpaginated [pp. 1–3]. The copy of this translation in the National Diet Library (accessible online) lacks Inagaki's preface. I used the copy in Keio University Library.
51 Ibid., unpaginated [p. 4].
52 Yamaji Aizan, ‘Shosai no seiji ron’ (‘Politics in studies’) (1903), in Yamaji Aizan shū (2), p. 340, emphasis in original, translated in Dusinberre, ‘J. R. Seeley’, p. 96.
53 Soyeda, ‘Shīrī sensei’, p. 271.
54 Soyeda, ‘Kokka no shōchō seisui’, p. 34.
55 Sekiguchi Ichirō, Risō no daigishi (The ideal representatives) (Tokyo, 1902), pp. 17–19.
56 Ibid., p. 20.
57 Yoshino Sakuzō, ‘Min'pon shugi kosui jidai no kaisko’ (‘Reminiscences of the time of the propagation of democracy’), in Matsuo Takayoshi, ed., Kindai nihon shisō taikei 17: Yoshino Sakuzō shū (Modern Japanese ideas series 17: the collected works of Yoshino Sakuzō) (Tokyo, 1976), p. 434.
58 Murakawa Kengo, ‘Jo’ (‘Preface’), in Reoporudo Fon Ranke, Sekai shiron shinkō roku, trans. Murakawa Kengo (Leopold von Ranke, Über die Epochen der neueren Geschichte) (Tokyo, 1918), p. 9.
59 Matsumiya Shun'ichiro, ‘Kobōshi kankō no shusi’ (‘The aim of publishing “the rise and fall history series”’). This is attached to the last few pages of every book in this series.
60 Asahi Shimbun Morning Edition (Tokyo), 16 Sept. 1917, p. 1.
61 Kato Seishirō, ‘Hanrei’ (‘A general note’), in Shīrē, Eikoku bōchō shiron, trans. Kato Seishirō (Seeley, The expansion of England) (Tokyo, 1918), p. 1.
62 Soejima Michimasa, ‘Jo’ (‘Preface’), in ibid., p. 6. On this preface, see also Cho Seunggu, Chōsen minzoku undō to soejima michimasa (The Korean national independent movement and Soejima Michimasa) (Tokyo, 1998), pp. 21–5.
63 Soejima, ‘Jo’, p. 4.
64 Ibid., p. 7.
65 Ibid., pp. 3–4.
66 Katō, ‘Hanrei’, p. 1.
67 Soejima, ‘Jo’, p. 6.
68 Nanbara Shigeru, Rōyama Masamichi, and Yabe Teiji, Onozuka Kiheiji: hito to gakumon (Onozuka Kiheiji: his life and work) (Tokyo, 1963), p. 48.
69 Onozuka Kiheiji, Seijigaku taikō (A grammar of politics) (2 vols., Tokyo, 1903), i, unpaginated [last few pages]. Yanaihara Tadao, ‘Jukō nōto: Onozuka hakase seijigaku’ (‘A note of lectures: Dr Onozuka's political science’), in Tadao Yanaihara's colonial materials collection, http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12000/38520, pp. 9, 10, 17, 33, 42 (PDF page number) (accessed 24 Sept. 2022).
70 Onozuka Kiheiji, ‘Eikoku ni okeru teikoku shugi to Shīrī no gakusetsu’ (‘Imperialism in Britain and Seeley's theory’) (1915), in Ōshū gendai seiji oyobi gakusetsu ronshū (Collected papers on contemporary European politics and theory) (Tokyo, 1916), pp. 250–1.
71 Soejima, ‘Jo’, p. 18.
72 Ibid., p. 12. This expression appears in Seeley, Expansion of England, p. 334.
73 Soejima, ‘Jo’, pp. 12–17.
74 Tonooka, Chika, ‘Reverse emulation and the cult of Japanese efficiency in Edwardian Britain’, Historical Journal, 60 (2017), pp. 95–119CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
75 Dusinberre, ‘J. R. Seeley’, p. 95.
76 Eri Hotta, Pan-Asianism and Japan's war, 1931–1945 (New York, NY, 2007), pp. 24, 105–6, 231; Saga Takashi, Ajia shugi zenshi (A whole history of Asianism) (Tokyo, 2020), p. 192.
77 Yukawa Hayato, ‘Higashi ajia o meguru nichibei kankei: 1930 Nendai no gaimushō ni yoru tōa shin chitsujo no mosaku’ (‘US–Japan relations in the 1930s: the role of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the pursuit of a new world order in East Asia’) (PhD thesis, Kobe, 2005), ch. 1.
78 Matsui, Ken'ichi, Datō eikoku (Defeating the British) (Hamamatsu, 1939), preface.
79 Kageyama Tetsuo, Eikoku shokumin seisaku shi (The history of British colonial policy), ed. Kokusai Keizai Gakkai (Tokyo, 1940), p. 1.
80 Matsuura Masataka, ‘Dai tōa’ sensō wa naze okita no ka: han-ajia shugi no seiji keizai shi (Why did the ‘Greater East Asia War’ break out? A political economic history of Pan-Asianism) (Nagoya, 2010), pp. 236–7.
81 Tsuruhashi Monten, Rōkai eikoku o abaku (Exposing cunning Britain) (Tokyo, 1938), p. 13; Momo Minosuke, Indo wa uttaeru (India complains) (Tokyo, 1941), pp. 26–34.
82 Nihon seinen gaikō kyōkai, ed., Indo o horobosu eikoku: igirisu no indo shihai to sono tsumi (Britain destroying India: Britain's invasion of India and its sins) (Tokyo, 1939), p. 3.
83 Kawabata Fukuichi, Ajia no shūjin: eikoku no indo shinryaku shi (A prisoner in Asia: a history of the British invasion of India) (Tokyo, 1941), unpaginated [page between ‘Introduction’ and table of contents].
84 Kageyama, Eikoku shokumin, pp. 300–1.
85 Ibid., p. 285.
86 Tokutomi, Iichiro (Sohō), Kōkoku hisshō ron (The unfailing victory of our empire) (Tokyo, 1944), p. 107.
87 Shinjō Fūtei, ‘Kokoro no kuni’ nihon to ‘mono no kuni’ eikoku! (The ‘spiritualist’ Japan and the ‘materialist’ Britain!) (Kyoto, 1938), pp. 274, 283–4.
88 Ishida Kenji, Kindai eikoku no shodanmen (Aspects of modern Britain) (Kyoto, 1944), pp. 389, 390. This author seems to refer to the last few pages of ch. 4, ‘How we govern India’, in the Expansion of England, where Seeley argued, ‘if, by any process, the population should be welded into a single nationality … [then at] that moment all hope is at an end … of preserving our Empire’ (pp. 270–1).
89 J. R. Shīrē, ‘Indo seihuku ron’ (‘The conquest of India’), anonymous translation, Naigai keizai gaikan (Survey of Domestic and Foreign Economy), 138 (1942), pp. 51–6, at p. 51.
90 For a general introduction to Ōkawa, see Ōtsuka Takehiro, Ōkawa Shūmei: aru fukko kakushin shugisha no shisō (Ōkawa Shūmei: a conservative innovationist's vision) (Tokyo, 2009; orig. edn 1995), p. 106.
91 Christopher W. A. Szpilman, ‘The dream of one Asia: Okawa Shūmei and Japanese pan-Asianism’, in H. Fuess, ed., The Japanese empire in East Asia and its post-war legacy (Munich, 1998), pp. 52–3.
92 Ōkawa Shūmei, Beiei tōa shinryaku shi (A history of Anglo-American aggression in East Asia) (Tokyo, 1942), p. 123.
93 Ibid., p. 129.
94 Ōkawa Shūmei, Fukkō ajia no shomondai (Issues of reconstructed Asia) (Tokyo, 1922), p. 12.
95 Ōkawa Shūmei, Kinsei yōroppa shokumin shi (The history of modern European colonization), in Ōkawa Shūmei zenshū kankōkai, ed., Ōkawa Shūmei zenshū (Collected works of Ōkawa Shūmei) (7 vols., Tokyo, 1961–74), v, pp. 349–50.
96 Ōkawa Shūmei, Fukkō indo no seishinteki konkyo (The moral basis of resurrected India) (Tokyo, 1924), pp. 10–11, 66.
97 Ōkawa Shūmei, Ajia kensetsu sha (The builders of Asia) (Tokyo, 1941), p. 281.
98 Ōkawa, Beiei tōa, p. 128.
99 Ōkawa Shūmei, ‘Sīri no eikoku hatten shiron to sono jidai haikei’ (‘Seeley's Expansion of England and its historical background’), in Ōkawa Shūmei zenshū, iv, pp. 532, 531. This essay is classified under the category of his Gyōchisha period (1925–32), but as the editors did not indicate where and when the essay first appeared, the details are unclear.
100 Furuta Tamotsu, ‘Yakujo’ (‘Translator's preface’), in Shīrī, Eikoku hatten shiron, trans. Furuta Tamotsu (Tokyo, 1942), p. 1. Only Furuta's version translates the term ‘expansion’ as hatten (development) rather than bochō (expansion). The reason for this change is unclear. However, as far as I can find, Ōkawa was the only writer who, before Furuta, referred to the title of Seeley's book as ‘hatten’. Therefore, the choice of this term, or the translation itself, may have been influenced by Ōkawa's works or Furuta's interaction with him. Dusinberre discusses the distinction between kakuchō (expansion) and bochō (Dusinberre, ‘J. R. Seeley’, pp. 92–3).
101 Furuta, ‘Yakujo’, pp. 3–4.
102 Ibid., pp. 5–6.
103 Hasegawa Ikuo, Bishu to kawabukuro: Daiichi Shobō Hasegawa Minokichi (Good wine and a leather bag: Daiichi Shobō Hasegawa Minokichi) (Tokyo, 2006), pp. 333–6.
104 Asahi Shimbun Morning Edition (Tokyo), 26 Oct. 1942, p. 1.
105 Nagao Sakurō, Nihon shokumin seisaku no dōkō (Trends in Japanese colonial policy) (Tokyo, 1944), pp. 4, 455–6. On Nagao's argument, see also Mark R. Peattie, ‘Japanese attitudes toward colonialism, 1895–1945’, in Myers and Peattie, eds., Japanese colonial empire, pp. 124–5.
106 Hidekatsu, Nakamura, ‘Eikoku hatten Shiron, Shīrī gencho, Furuta Tamotsu yaku’ (‘Seeley, The expansion of England, translated by Furuta Tamotsu’), Rekishigaku kenkyū (Journal of Historical Studies), 106 (1943), p. 70Google Scholar.
107 Matsuura,‘Dai tōa’ sensō, p. 5; Hotta, Pan-Asianism, p. 106.
108 Ogura Toraji, Taiei sen to hi-appaku minzoku no kaihō (The battle against Britain and the emancipation of the oppressed peoples) (Tokyo, 1939), p. 25.
109 Cemil Aydin, The politics of anti-Westernism in Asia: visions of world order in Pan-Islamic and Pan-Asian thought (New York, NY, 2007), p. 196.
110 Pocock, J. G. A., Political thought and history: essays on theory and method (Cambridge, 2009), ch. 9Google Scholar.