뉴스레터

With the spread of radios and televisions in Japan from achieving rapid economic growth, the Meiji Restoration's centennial anniversary was celebrated through the popularization of period dramas and historical novels during the 1960s. For instance, Shiba Ryotaro's novel "Ryoma Goes" (Ryoma ga yuku) serialized in the newspaper Sankei Shimbun for five years between 1962 and 1966 was at the forefront of the Japanese public’s surging interest in historical themes as it became dramatized and broadcasted by NHK in 1968. “Clouds Above the Hill” (Sakano ueno kumo) is another novel by Shiba Ryotaro set against the Russo-Japanese War that was a sensational hit during the five years it was serialized between 1968 and 1972. Amidst such a boom of historical themes, the glorification of the Meiji period played a definitive role in ingraining deep into the Japanese psyche the notion that the Meiji Restoration symbolizes success and glory.

Around the same time, the Japanese theory of modernization emerged, deeming as a success the modernization Japan achieved since the Meiji Restoration and recommending Japan’s case as a model for underdeveloped or developing countries in Asia. This gave a boost of confidence to the Japanese. This period is also when Japan began to deny its past aggressions by justifying them as wars of self-defense, which gave rise to the affirmative theory on the Greater East Asian War. And at the height of these movements was the 1968 Meiji centennial celebrations through which the Japanese government paraded the success of Japan’s modernization. Memories of the Meiji Restoration’s success and glory that took root since the 1960s are still very much alive in Japan. And fifty years later, Japan led by the Abe administration is now back to rekindling such memories upon the Meiji Restoration’s 150th anniversary.

The Meiji Spirit as Japan’s Strength

Before delivering his seventieth postwar anniversary statement in 2015, the Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo visited his hometown Yamaguchi. There he mentioned that “Terauchi Masatake and Sato Eisaku from Yamaguchi each became Japan’s prime minister fifty years and a hundred years after the Meiji Restoration.” He then vowed to secure another term as prime minister by 2018 and strive for Japan’s revival upon the Meiji Restoration’s 150th anniversary. Prime Minister Abe indeed succeeded in extending his term as he recently became re-elected in September for the third time as leader of the Liberal Democratic Party. This means he will not only oversee the celebrations of the Meiji Restoration’s 150th anniversary on October 23, 2018 but will remain in power beyond the 2020 Tokyo Olympics until September 2021.

The reason Prime Minister Abe has been emphasizing the Meiji Restoration’s 150th anniversary is because he needs to achieve firm national unity in order to carry out the constitutional revision he has been considering as his lifelong task. This intention has also been made evident through what the Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide said as he explained the purpose of a commemoration project to celebrate the Meiji Restoration’s 150th anniversary. “The anniversary is like a major turning point. It is highly important to learn about the Meiji Restoration’s spirit and remind ourselves of Japan’s strength.”

The Japanese government installed within the cabinet secretariat a separate office dedicated to planning and promoting initiatives to celebrate the Meiji Restoration's 150th anniversary. The office's primary goal is to further advance Japan as a nation by helping its upcoming generation learn about the Meiji spirit and the developments that unfolded since the Meiji Restoration. The office thus began to launch projects involving the collection, organization, and disclosure of material about the Meiji Restoration or the introduction of technologies and cultural legacies from the Meiji period. As such, local governments and civic organizations all over Japan have followed suit by launching initiatives of their own.

What, then, does the Meiji spirit and Japan's strength involve? In his speech delivered at a diet session in January 2018, Prime Minister Abe again referred to the Meiji Restoration. "Countless human resources were fostered in the new Meiji Era and they became the driving force for the rapid modernization of Japan, at a time when the country was being threatened by the technologically superior nations of the West in what could be deemed a 'national crisis.'"

It is, of course, an undeniable fact that the Meiji Restoration was what enabled Japan to become the only Asian country to succeed in modernizing itself. However, we must not forget that Japan's modernization was achieved in tandem with its invasion of other Asian countries. Under the motto "building national prosperity and military power," the Meiji government launched its invasion of Asian countries by sending an expedition to Taiwan in 1874. Japan went on to gain control over Taiwan through the First Sino-Japanese War and then forcibly annexed Korea through the Russo-Japanese War. When World War I broke out, Japan took part and secured its interests in China, but this led to the Mukden Incident, the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Pacific War, and eventually the fall of Imperial Japan.

From the beginning of the Meiji Restoration to the fall of Imperial Japan, the first half of the 150-year Meiji history was besmirched with aggression and war for seventy-seven years. Turning a blind eye to this first half and focusing only on the "Meiji spirit" and "Japan's strength" can only be seen as a grave distortion of history. Government discussions to prepare for the Meiji Restoration's centennial celebrations in 1968 included comments on the negative side of the 100-year history, voicing the need to "humbly reflect upon past wrongdoings" and "redress the concerning reality of nature and humanity being ruined by highly developed material civilizations." On the other hand, the Abe administration's Meiji Restoration celebrations include no attempts to reflect on past wrongdoings, revealing its regressive perception of history

The Meiji Industrial Revolution and Shoka sonjuku

It is necessary to note that all the initiatives aimed at celebrating the Meiji Restoration's 150-year history are based on the historical perception communicated through the seventieth postwar anniversary statement Prime Minister Abe made on August 14, 2015. Among those initiatives was one aimed at listing the academy Shoka sonjuku (松下村塾) run by Yoshida Shoin (吉田松陰) as a UNESCO World Heritage site, which was achieved in July 2015.

Yoshida was the spiritual leader of the "Revere the Emperor, Expel the Barbarians" movement. And the academy he taught at produced other major historical figures who grew up in the Choshu domain such as Ito Hirobumi (伊藤博文) and Yamagata Aritomo (山県有朋). Promoting the birthplace of the Japanese argument to conquer Korea so that it may be listed as a world heritage makes one wonder what Japan truly intends to achieve while attempting to pass on the Meiji period's glorious legacies.

Among those joining in this movement to glorify the Meiji Restoration is NHK. Between January and December of 2015, the broadcasting network aired a year-long period drama titled Burning Flower (花燃ゆ). The drama featuring the "Revere the Emperor, Expel the Barbarians" movement revolved around Yoshida Shoin and a pupil of his at Shoka sonjuku named Kusaka Genzui (久坂玄瑞) and thereby inculcate the Japanese government's view of the Meiji Restoration as a success.

Nowadays the Japanese are being steered toward perceiving the Meiji Restoration as an anti-bakufu movement led by low-ranking samurais loyal to the emperor that launched the modernization of Japan. Shiba Ryotaro's works add a mythic layer to that perception and their entertaining dramatization by NHK made it easier for it to naturally settle down within the Japanese awareness.

Historical Perception of the Seventieth Postwar Anniversary Statement

Through his seventieth postwar anniversary statement on August 14, 2015, Prime Minister Abe generalized colonial rule as a worldwide trend at the time and even pointed out how the Russo-Japanese War gave courage to many in Asia and Africa.

After Shiba Ryotaro's Clouds Above the Hill enjoyed nationwide popularity, NHK produced a remake of the dramatized myth set against the Russo-Japanese War that aired over the course of three years from 2009 to 2011. The story portrayed Japan's victory in the war as key to the glory of the Meiji period, which is the Meiji spirit and Japan's strength the Japanese government is referring to. And it is true that Japan's victory in the Russo-Japanese War had a significant impact upon independence movements and resistance against powers in colonies throughout Asia. China's Sun Yat-sen and Mao Zedong, India's Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, and Vietnam's Phan Bội Châu all admitted that they were moved and buoyed by Japan's victory.

However, their expectations and hopes turned into feelings of betrayal and frustration as Japan laid bare its imperialistic motives after the Russo-Japanese War. Mahatma Gandhi of India sharply remarked in 1907 that "it is the British flag which is waving in Japan and not the Japanese." In 1909, Phan Bội Châu of Vietnam criticized that Japan is pandering to the white race as it oppresses the yellow race. Hence, from the perspective of Asia, what Japan remembers as an honorable victory was the beginning of Japanese colonial rule and the prelude to Japanese invasions of mainland China and other Asian countries.

If Japan looks away from the aforementioned historical facts and chooses to remember the 150-year Meiji history purely as an era of success and glory, it will only rouse stronger anti-Japanese sentiments in Korea and China as they each commemorate the centennial of the March First Independence Movement and the May Fourth Movement in 2019.

The past 8th of October marked the twentieth year since the Korean President Kim Dae-jung and the Japanese Prime Minister Obuchi Keizo announced the Korea-Japan Joint Declaration vowing to develop mutual understanding and cooperation. Through the declaration, Prime Minister Obuchi expressed his deep remorse and heartfelt apology for causing tremendous damage and suffering during Japan's colonial rule of Korea. President Kim expressed his high regard for the efforts postwar Japan made for democracy and peace. The two tried to build a foundation of mutual exchange between Korea and Japan to develop a future-oriented relationship. Although historical issues entangled with political interests have caused the spirit of the joint declaration to fade over time, the two countries should continue to keep it in mind as they try to understand one another through exchange. Unfortunately, as long as Japan chooses to selectively hold on to only the glorious memories of modern Japan, conflicts over historical issues in East Asia will never become resolved.