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The British Role in the Meiji Restoration: A Re-interpretive Note

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Gordon Daniels
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Extract

It is an historical commonplace that the renewal of Western diplomatic contact with Japan, after the Tokugawa seclusion, seriously disturbed the Japanese political system, and contributed to the Meiji Restoration. Undoubtedly foreign demands for commercial and diplomatic privileges, combined with the presence of warships and military garrisons, cut sharply into the minds of all politically conscious Japanese, and added to the bitterness of internal conflict. But in the past numerous historians have gone much further than these general statements, and drawn far more specific conclusions about the policies and impact of Britain in these crucial years.

Type
Articles
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 2 , Issue 4 , July 1968 , pp. 291 - 313
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1968

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References

1 See e.g., (a) Fairbank, J. K., Reischauer, E. O., Craig, A., East Asia: The Modern Transformation, Boston, Mass., 1965, pp. 222–23Google Scholar, ‘… the French Minister, Léon Roches,… worked energetically for a restoration of shogunal power under French influence. As a result of his efforts, a French school was opened at Yokohama, a naval dockyard built at Yokosuica nearby, and large quantities of weapons were imported. Not to be outdone, the British Minister, Sir Harry Parkes, who had played a large role in the opening of China, supported Satsuma with information and arms’. (b) Comité Japonais des Sciences Historiques, Le Japon au XIe Congrès International des Sciences Historiques à Stockholm, Tokyo, 1960, pp. 160–61Google Scholar, ‘It has long been recognized that the Meiji Restoration was influenced and motivated by foreign relations beginning with the Opening of Japan. Most scholars, however, insisted that it was left to Japan to decide at the time of the Restoration whether she should have the Emperor or the Shogun as her sovereign. Takashi Ishii has refuted this theory arguing that the Imperial Rule was established under the strong influence of British policy toward Japan’. (c) Satow, E. M., A Diplomat in Japan, London, 1921, pp. 299–300Google Scholar, ‘On the way we met the chief, who had come out to have a look at the Tycoon, to whose downfall he had contributed as far as lay in his power’.

2 See Satow, E. M., A Diplomat in Japan, London, 1921;Google Scholar and Redesdale, Lord (Mitford, A. B.), Memories, 2 vols., London, 1915.Google Scholar

3 As an example of the suspicions of France and Russia see FO Japan 55, enclosure in no. 108, Winchester to Russell, 23 June 1865.Google Scholar

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17 The author is extremely grateful to Professor W. G. Beasley and Mr R. L. Sims of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, for their valuable help in clarifying the course of the Osaka negotiations. Japanese and English versions of the talks differ drastically. For sources which cite a direct threat see Nihon Gaikö Nenpyō Nerabini Shuyö Bunsho, Vol. I, Tokyo, 1955, p. 44;Google ScholarIsshinshi, 6 Vols., Tokyo, 1939–1941, Vol. 4, p. 275;Google ScholarOgasawara Iki no Kami Nagamichi, Tokyo, 1943, pp. 344–54.Google ScholarFor the contrary view see Satow, E. M., A Diplomat in Japan, p. 151 FO Japan 57, enclosure 2 in no. 66, Parkes to Russell, 27 November 1865.Google Scholar

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24 Ibid.

25 Ibid.

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