by Donald Keene
When the provisions of the peace treaty were published in the Japanese press, there was a great outcry. A “people’s mass meeting” was planned for September 5 at Hibiya Park to discuss the rejection of the treaty and the impeachment of the cabinet ministers, but the police would not permit demonstrators to enter the park. The protesters, some 30,000 in number, broke through the barricades erected around entrances to the park, and the outnumbered police could not control them. Troops were called out to protect the palace, ministries, and foreign legations.
The noise of the clashes in the park could be heard in the palace, and the emperor, unable to sit tranquilly in his chair, paced back and forth listening to the tumult. Suddenly there was a sound of rifle fire; the military police were firing pistols to intimidate the protesters. The emperor, normally so impassive, was extremely agitated by the noise outside.49 Soon afterward, Prime Minister Katsura rushed to the palace to report on the situation, and that night the emperor repeatedly sent chamberlains to discover the latest developments.
The demonstrations continued for two more days. On the second day, the protesters set fires, burned ten or more streetcars, and stormed from place to place burning police boxes. Martial law, declared for Tōkyō and vicinity, was not lifted until November 29. There were smaller-scale meetings of protest in other Japanese cities. Heavy rains on the third day of riots discouraged the demonstrators, and the situation returned to normal.
The demonstrations against the treaty were widely reported abroad, sometimes as manifestations of xenophobia or anti-Christian sentiment, although this was quickly denied by competent foreign observers in Tōkyō. President Roosevelt thought that the Japanese government was to blame for having allowed the public to expect Russia would pay a large indemnity.50 Sure that peace was desirable and proud to have had a part in obtaining it, he wrote to Minister Takahira, “You have crowned a great war by a great peace.”51
Chapter 56
The first alliance between Japan and England, signed in 1902, was for a period of five years, but in 1905, while the treaty was still in effect, it was modified and extended. During the Russo-Japanese War, the British aided the Japanese in various ways, the most important of which was selling munitions, without which the Japanese could not have fought the war.1 The British kept the Japanese informed when they sighted Russian warships, and they also had been instrumental in preventing ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet (which might have reinforced the naval forces sent against Japan) from passing through the Dardanelles.2 But Britain’s announced policy during the war was one of strict neutrality and officially did not favor Japan.3
Japan was nevertheless well aware of the importance of the alliance. In December 1904 Sir Claude M. MacDonald, the British minister in Tōkyō, reported that in talks with Prime Minister Katsura Tarō and Foreign Minister Komura Jutarō, both had said that “if Japan was successful in war, she would seek for a closer alliance with England.”4 Britain was also eager for a renewal of the alliance, as may be inferred from various suggestions made to the prime minister: that in the interests of strengthening ties between the two countries, Britain present the Order of the Garter, its highest honor, to the emperor; that the post of minister to Japan be raised to the ambassadorial level; and that Britain offer to renew the alliance for another five years.
On February 12, 1905, at a dinner given by the Japanese foreign minister to celebrate the third anniversary of the alliance, Komura not only proposed a toast to the health of King Edward VII in the customary manner but also expressed the hope that the alliance would grow in strength and solidity. The British were uncertain just how seriously Komura’s speech should be taken, but Claude Lowther, a Conservative member of Parliament, urged the government on March 29 to renew the alliance on a firmer basis because he believed it was “the only possible means by which we could secure retrenchment and efficiency with safety to the Empire.”
Lowther was worried by the threat that Russia posed to India. Now that the Russians had built, at great expense, railways that enabled them to move quickly to the Indian frontier an army of more than 500,000 men, the most economical means of defending India was with Japanese troops. He advised that the treaty not be merely renewed but be given a new character: in the event that either country’s Asian possessions were attacked, they should mutually help each other—Great Britain with its fleet and Japan with its army. This arrangement would relieve Great Britain of the upkeep of an Indian army, which had threatened to become an intolerable burden on British taxpayers. It would also save Japan the expense of building a fleet.5
It is difficult to imagine the Japanese government consenting to send a Japanese army to the north of India in order to protect the British Empire from a Russian attack, but nonetheless, Japan was extremely eager to continue the alliance. Its main advantage to the Japanese was that it seemed the best way to discourage Russia from staging a war of revenge; it would also “neutralize the schemes which were being devised by the Russians and French at present to form a European union to oppose Japan under the banner of the Yellow Peril.”6
Some members of the British government, believing they could overcome Japanese reluctance to defend India, proposed that in the event that Russia threatened the northern Indian frontier, Japan be asked to supply 150,000 troops. They clung to the belief that Japanese help in India would be no more than a fair exchange for British naval support and acquiescence in whatever moves Japan might make in Korea.
The Japanese naval victory in the battle of the Tsushima Strait greatly strengthened the Japanese negotiators’ bargaining position. The final agreement, signed on August 12, 1905, in London, bound the two powers for ten more years and imposed a measure of cooperation in disputes arising in East Asia, India, and countries east of India. There were no secret clauses, and Japan did not promise to send soldiers to India, but it recognized Britain’s special interests in all that concerned the security of the Indian frontier.7 The treaty, though signed while peace negotiations were in progress at Portsmouth, had little influence on the conference.
Soon after the new treaty had been negotiated, Prime Minister A. J. Balfour announced the resignation of his ministry. Before leaving office, however, the Conservatives honored Japan by raising the British legation in Tōkyō to an embassy. France, Germany, Italy, and the United States followed this example, symbolic recognition that Japan had emerged as a first-class power. As a second mark of respect for Japan, the government recommended that the Order of the Garter be conferred on the emperor. Edward VII had earlier resisted a similar proposal on the grounds that the Garter could not be given to a non-Christian sovereign, but in 1903, for political reasons, the order had been conferred on the shah of Persia despite the king’s opposition. Taking advantage of this precedent, the government insisted on making the offer to the emperor, and the king had no choice but to acquiesce. He appointed Prince Arthur of Connaught to head the mission that would confer the decoration, on February 20, 1906.8
Among the members of the distinguished delegation was Lord Redesdale (A. B. Mitford), who had served as an interpreter at the British legation in Tōkyō from 1866 to 1870. His joy at returning to Japan was conveyed in the opening pages of his book-length report The Garter Mission to Japan:
Never did the winter sun rise in greater glory than it did on the 19th of February 1906, when H.M.S. Diadem, Captain Savory, carrying Prince Arthur of Connaught and the Garter Mission to Japan, steamed at daybreak into the harbour of Yokohama. Never did it shine upon a fairer scene. The King’s standard was flying at the main; the buildings on shore and the vessels in the bay, blue as that of Naples, were all dressed; eleven great warships thundered out a Royal welcome, their bands playing “God Save the King”; in the distance was the pine-clad Hakoné range, beautiful as my recollection of it; but, best of all, Fuji, the Peerless Mountain, covered with snow and glittering in the morning rays, was lifting its mystic cone to heaven, without a cloud to mar the grace of its outline; for the goddess of the mountain, �
�the princess that causes the trees to blossom,” had risen in her beauty to give us a foretaste of the greeting which the spirit of old Japan was making ready for the messengers of her friend and ally, King Edward the Seventh.9
Redesdale was absolutely delighted by the welcoming crowd along the streets of Yokohama:
The streets were very crowded; every soul in the place must have turned out to line them—the grown-up people behind, the children in front according to their stature, the best place belonging by prescriptive right to the tiniest. Every child was armed with two flags, one Japanese and one English, which were waved most conscientiously, and then there arose such a shouting of “Banzai” from shrill treble and deep bass!10
The members of the mission boarded a train that took them to Shimbashi, where a ceremony took place
which must have stirred to their profoundest depths the hearts of all the Japanese who witnessed it. Never before, since the first creation of Japan, was such a compliment paid as that which awaited Prince Arthur. Surrounded by the Crown Prince and all the other Princes of the Blood, the Emperor had come in person to greet his guest. This august Sovereign, whom his subjects revere as something, if not actually divine, at any rate far removed above the rest of mankind, had come, for the first time in all the history of the country, publicly to acclaim a foreign prince…. When the Emperor so warmly shook hands with the Prince it was a message to his people which said in unmistakable terms, “This is MY friend.”11
Like every other king, prince, or president who ever met Emperor Meiji, Prince Arthur was convinced that the emperor had never displayed such friendship and respect toward any predecessor. Redesdale also congratulated himself: “I was the only European present who could remember the old days of mystery and seclusion in which the Emperors of Japan had lived for upward of eight centuries.”12 He was obviously deeply impressed by the emperor, seen again after forty years: “From all that we can gather, the strength which is written in his face is his great characteristic. His whole time, so the Japanese statesmen tell us, is given to public work. His few leisure moments he solaces with writing poetry.”
The ceremony of the conferring of the Order of the Garter was imposing.13 This order of knighthood, founded in the fourteenth century by King Edward III, had its origins (at least according to legend) in a court lady’s garter that fell to the palace floor. The king, retrieving the garter, offered it to the lady. Some of those present laughed, but the king rebuked them in French, “Honni soit qui mal y pense” (Shame on anyone who thinks ill of it!), a phrase inscribed on the decoration.
The order, as Prince Arthur informed the emperor, is restricted to the king, the Prince of Wales, and twenty-five knights and is recognized as the most noble British order of knighthood. In addition to the British knights, it has been the custom to confer the dignity on those emperors, kings, and princes who are in special and peculiar amity or alliance with the king of England.
Meiji was not overawed. He seemed pleased at first when he was informed that he would receive the decoration and accepted, but later he summoned the imperial household minister, Tanaka Mitsuaki, and told him, “I can’t stand receiving British envoys. Tell them not to come.”
The stunned Tanaka said, “But Your Majesty has accepted. You can’t decline it now. Prince Connaught will already have left his country. Such an act would violate the trust that must prevail among allies in matters affecting them both. It is absolutely impossible. All Your Majesty can do now is to await the prince and receive him.”
The emperor was by no means pleased by these words, but he fell silent and issued no further commands. His reluctance to meet Prince Arthur probably had nothing to do with the prince himself or his country; rather, the emperor had come to dislike receiving foreign guests. He was always in a bad mood before an audience, and he often rebuked members of his staff for arranging it. But once the guest arrived, the emperor never revealed the slightest displeasure; on the contrary, those whom he received were invariably impressed by his sincere affability.14
Even after he reluctantly agreed to receive Prince Arthur and accept the Garter, the honor seems not to have meant much to the emperor. When Saionji Kinmochi, who had replaced Katsura Tarō as prime minister in 1906, asked the emperor to go to Yokohama to meet the prince’s ship, he refused, saying there was no precedent. He agreed to go only as far as Shimbashi Station. This gesture, though much less than what Saionji had requested, had struck Redesdale as being “an act of kingly hospitality most graciously conceived, most graciously carried out.”
The emperor’s resistance continued to the end. His protocol officer informed him that the recipient of the Garter must not wear any other decorations at the ceremony, but the emperor insisted on wearing several Japanese decorations. He finally removed the Order of the Chrysanthemum, but kept the eighth-grade Paulownia Leaf pinned to his chest, as if to assert the importance of Japanese decorations.
Redesdale did not mention this violation of the etiquette of the Garter, nor did he mention the awkward incident that occurred during the conferment. As the prince was buckling the Garter below the emperor’s knee, the pin pricked his finger, and the decoration was stained with his blood. The prince, who was only twenty-three, was obviously nervous, but the emperor seemed quite unperturbed by the sight of blood. The chamberlain Hinonishi Sukehiro related how, once the ceremony had ended, the emperor, still wearing the hat and other insignia received during the ceremony, left the Hall of Ceremonies and retired to his private quarters. He removed the hat, and as he passed it to a palace lady, he gave a great laugh, as much as to say “Nanda, konna mono wo” (What am I supposed to do with such a thing?)15 At lunch that day with Sue-matsu Kenchō (an adviser to the Privy Council) and others, the emperor related what had happened and expressed admiration for Prince Arthur’s composure. Later, he showed Suematsu and a few others the bloodstains.16
That evening, the emperor paid the obligatory return visit to Prince Arthur. According to Lord Redesdale, he expressed great admiration of the ceremony and of the smoothness with which it had been conducted, diplomatically avoiding mention of the mishap. Then, producing a lacquer box, he took from it the ribbon and star of the Order of the Chrysanthemum and with his own hands put the ribbon over the prince’s shoulder and pinned the star to his breast. Once again, Lord Redesdale was overcome: “Never before, not even in the case of the Crown Prince, has His Majesty deigned to invest a recipient. As a rule he has handed the box containing the Insignia unopened. Sometimes he has gone so far as to open it. But no man save Prince Arthur alone can boast that the Emperor put on the ribbon or fixed the star for him.”17
That evening the emperor gave a state dinner in honor of Prince Arthur and the Garter mission. Prince Arthur led the way to the banquet hall with Princess Arisugawa; next came the emperor wearing the star and collar of the Garter and leading Princess Higashi Fushimi; and after them, the rest of the princes and princesses. The dinner, according to Lord Redesdale, was excellent and not too long:
As soon as the sweet course was reached, the Emperor rose and gave the toast of the King of England, which was drunk in all solemnity, the band playing “God Save the King.” Shortly afterward Prince Arthur got up and wished “health, long life, and prosperity to His Majesty, the Emperor of Japan,” and now burst forth the stately National Anthem of Japan. This, it may be noted, is the first occasion upon which an Emperor of Japan has ever proposed a toast.18
Redesdale concluded his description of the day in these exhilarated tones:
So ended a memorable day, a day which has broken all records and established many precedents, a day of happy augury, marking a new epoch in the relations between the two countries. Some forty years ago I was looking with a Japanese gentleman at a map of the world on Mercator’s projection; pointing to England in the west and Japan in the east, he said, “Look at those two island kingdoms! are they not like the two eyes in a face? If they could only see together!” That pious wish of a man who has been dead for many
years has now been realised—realised, it may be hoped, as a security for peace, at any rate in the Far East.19
On February 24 a program of entertainment was given in honor of Prince Arthur of Connaught at the Kabuki Theater. It opened with a kabuki play specially written for the occasion by Masuda Tarō, which concludes with the Englishman Miura Anjin20 marrying a Japanese girl named Otsū. The ceremony ends with a geisha dance and a song of welcome to the young prince. The final words, according to Redesdale, were
Now the two countries unite in love for ever, and ever, and ever.
Chorus—Wakamiya Welcome
Yoi, Yoi, Yoiya, Sa.21
The festivities officially ended with the emperor visiting the Kasumigaseki Detached Palace on February 26 to say goodbye to Prince Arthur, but the prince remained in Japan until March 16 in order to sightsee in Kyōto, Nara, Kyūshū, and Nikkō.
The renewal of the alliance with Britain changed Japan’s relations with Korea. The Japanese had been worried that the powers might object if wartime measures in Korea were developed into a policy of permanent occupation, but Britain had made it plain that it would not cause any difficulties. The power most sympathetic to Korea, the United States, also indicated that it was willing for Japanese influence to prevail in Korea.22 On November 2 the emperor sent for Itō Hirobumi and commanded him to travel to Korea as a special ambassador. Itō was to take this letter from Emperor Meiji to Emperor Kojong:
The emperor of Great Japan respectfully addresses his dear friend His Majesty, the emperor of Korea.
In order to complete the defenses of the empire and to maintain peace throughout East Asia, I was recently obliged to open hostilities with a neighboring country and, after twenty months of warfare, was finally able to achieve peace. During this time Your Majesty always shared my joys and sorrows, and the peoples of both countries experienced together the dangers and comforts. I am accordingly sending as special ambassador a man I trust, Marquis Itō Hirobumi, of the senior second rank of Grand Merit, the president of the Privy Council, to report to Your Majesty the achievement of an honorable peace. It will give me the greatest pleasure if he is granted a personal audience with Your Majesty at which he can convey without concealment the sincerity of my earnest wishes for the future peaceful relations between our two countries. I believe that we have reached a point where we must expect that relations between our two countries will become closer than ever. The defenses of Your country unfortunately are not yet sufficient, and the foundations of self-defense are still not solid. This has meant that they have been inadequate to secure peace throughout East Asia, a situation that Your Majesty and I have both had the occasion to deplore. For this reason, a treaty was concluded last year between our two countries that delegated responsibility for the defense of your country to mine. Even though, happily, peace has been restored, it is extremely important to make the union between our two empires firmer than ever, in order to maintain peace permanently and to prevent future troubles in East Asia. I have instructed my government to establish and execute the appropriate measures. I promise Your Majesty that the security and dignity of Your imperial house will not suffer in the slightest but will be safely preserved. Hoping that Your Majesty, giving profound consideration to tendencies in the world and considering the welfare of Your country and people, will vouchsafe to listen to my most sincere advice, I pray for Your Majesty’s happiness and the tranquillity of Your imperial house.23
