The Nature and Origins of Japanese Imperialism : A Re-interpretation of the 1873 Crisis

A controversial account that highlights Japan's twentieth-century imperialism, tracing it back to economic imperatives at the root of the 1873 crisis.

On returning from their two-year mission to the West, Prime Minister Iwakura and other leaders objected strongly to policy changes instituted in their absence by the caretaker government. There followed a bitter power struggle - the 1873 seihen (political crisis) - which split the nation and led into the 1877 Civil War. The nominal issue was seikan (''Let''s attack Korea!''), a doctrine already well established before the 1868 Meiji Restoration. The Iwakura side opposed seikan but having emerged victorious in 1873 it proceeded to grab Japan''s great mines for its own members. In 1874 it sent a military expedition against Taiwan and in 1875 forcibly ''opened'' Korea. Japan''s modern myths and self-image flow from this period. The years 1866-72 began with the assassination of the rightful Emperor by Iwakura and his Satsuma allies. It ended with the 1873 seihen which consolidated their power. At issue were political and economic control of Japan, a struggle which would decide who would lead the coming charge into Asia. Japanese imperialism began, as it was to continue, as economic imperialism.
This book sets the events of the years around 1873 in a broad context. It demonstrates that the theme of aggressive and economic-inspired expansion runs throughout Japanese history, from as early as the late-sixteenth century, or possibly earlier, through the period of militarism and imperialism to die present day. Another important argument put forward here is that much writing about Japan - including both writing by Westerners and by the Japanese themselves, and most notably in school history textbooks - has played down the true extent and nature of Japanese imperialism.