A History of Japan: From Stone Age to Superpower (99 page)

BOOK: A History of Japan: From Stone Age to Superpower

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26
As seen in Turgenev’s
Rudin
or Goncharov’s
Oblomov
. In modern popular terms, the ‘superfluous man’ is very similar to the Charlie Brown figure who always seems to miss out. In Japanese literature of the day, see the under-achieving protagonist of the novel
Ukigumo
(Drifting Clouds, 1887–89), by Futabatei Shimei (1864–1909).

27
Fukuzawa travelled to America and Europe on several official missions, and was so strongly associated with westernisation that at one stage all books about the west were, regardless of author, popularly known as ‘Fukuzawa books’ (
Fukuzawa-bon
). As early as 1858, while still in his early twenties, he founded the institution that was later to become Kei
University, where he promoted his views. In his earlier years he was associated with human rights, but in later years came to apply his self-help views in a more aggressively nationalistic way, advocating Japanese imperialist expansion in Asia. Over time he became increasingly anti-western. He is also noted for his advocacy, from 1881, of a view that Japan should cease to consider itself a part of Asia (‘
Datsu-A ron
’). Fukuzawa’s life and writings are discussed in detail in Blacker 64.

28
Fukuzawa 1872/1969, p1.

29
The term is popularly but incorrectly attributed to Darwin himself. In a 1902 Maruzen Bookstore survey of 78 prominent Japanese men as to their choice of the most influential writing of the nineteenth century, Darwin’s
Origin of Species
(1859) had 23 votes, while ‘the philosophy of Spencer’ had 15.

30
A convenient printing of this letter is given as an appendix in Hearn 1904, pp481–4. The letter was first published on 18 January 1904, in
The Times
of London, a month after Spencer’s death. As he had predicted, it caused an outrage.

31
See Yamaguchi 83, p151, for this and other prohibitions imposed on foreigners.

32
See Hirakawa 89, pp467–8. Not all foreign advisers, at least early on, were westerners, for in 1872 as many as 43 out of 160 foreigners employed by local governments were Chinese. Many of these were advisers on techniques for firing tea, which was a major export of early Meiji. See Morris-Suzuki 94, p66.

33
Hirakawa 89, p468.

34
Beauchamp 83, p311.

35
Hirakawa 89, p469.

36
See Mita 92, pp244–7.

37
It was conveniently overlooked that this latter phrase was used to no avail in China.

38
The role of education in the inculcation and harnessing of desired values during Meiji is treated in detail in Mita 92, pp224–94, which includes a detailed analysis of textbooks of the day. Mita also discusses Meiji ‘successism’ in general. Gluck 85, esp. pp102–27, also discusses Meiji education.

39
Tight centralised control of school texts is still a very major issue in present-day Japan.

40
Eight years earlier, in 1882, Yamagata had been responsible for the issuing of an
Imperial Rescript for Soldiers and Sailors,
which was to become a sort of prototype for the 1890 rescript. It had stressed the over-riding importance of loyalty to the emperor. The main text of the 1882 rescript is given in Tsunoda 64, v.2, pp198–200, and the 1890 rescript pp139–140.

41
Gluck 85, pp38–9, p103, and esp. p151.

42
This is the title of Gluck 85.

43
Cooper 83, p308. There were similar suggestions to adopt the English language, and so forth, all in the cause of Japan’s acceptance by the west.

44
Uchimura Kanz
(1861–1930) was a prime example of this. He despised the idea of denominations, and was also a strong nationalist who insisted on the need for a ‘Japanese Christianity untainted by western influence’. See Cooper 83, p309. The present-day popularity of Christian-style weddings, which now account for almost half of all weddings in Japan, should be seen simply as a particularised social fashion and not confused with genuine Christianity.

45
The liberal Nakae Ch
min (1847–1901) was one. He had studied in France, was much impressed by Rousseau and French and British liberal thought, and promoted popular rights through his prolific writings.

46
Rikken Kaishint
was also sometimes translated as the Progressive Party or Progressive Reform Party. From this point on, to the present, Japanese political parties were to form, unform, reform, and change their name with bewildering frequency (particularly during the 1890s). To avoid confusion I have deliberately tried to avoid unnecessary detail here.

47
For details of political novels see Nakamura 68, Ch. 2. Their heroes were mostly successful politicians from world history, and their themes the political processes by which success was achieved. Regarding ‘home-grown’ constitutions, many village councils produced their own suggested versions of a constitution. See ‘The Meiji Revolution’ in the
Pacific Century
video series, and Gibney 92, pp96–7.

48
Itagaki had been one of those thwarted by the overturning of Saig
’s 1873 proposal to invade Korea. Okuma was a well-known personal rival of It
Hirobumi, and was being eclipsed by him.

49
Reischauer and Craig 79, p168.

50
The German general-staff system had been adopted from 1878. In matters of command the chief of staff was answerable only to the emperor, who was the supreme commander, and not to the government or even the army minister. Drafts for the legal code initially favoured the French model, but this was gradually displaced by the German, which dominated the code finally issued in 1896.