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30 - Story of Japan by Robert van Bergen · Story of Japan

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  Speaker 1: Section thirty of the Story of Japan. This is a
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All libervox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: The Story of Japan by Robert van Bergen. Japan in
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  Speaker 1: Perry's time. We must now look at Japan as it
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  Speaker 1: was when Commodore Perry was on his way to tell
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  Speaker 1: its government. You can no longer refuse the hand of
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  Speaker 1: friendship we are holding out to you. It is absurd
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  Speaker 1: to suppose that, because of a mere whim, our ships
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  Speaker 1: will avoid your shores. We do not propose to take
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  Speaker 1: any advantage of you, but we ask you to sell
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  Speaker 1: us what we need, and you can, if you wish,
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  Speaker 1: buy from us what you may need at any rate.
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  Speaker 1: We do not propose to stay away from your country
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  Speaker 1: simply because you would like us to. Parry, as we
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  Speaker 1: have seen, was the right man to carry this message.
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  Speaker 1: For two hundred and fifty years, the descendants of Iyeyasu
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  Speaker 1: had ruled over Japan. During all this time, there had
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  Speaker 1: been peace at home and abroad. Owing to the strict laws,
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  Speaker 1: the perfect system of spying, and the exclusion of foreigners.
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  Speaker 1: The people worked hard and made a living, but as
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  Speaker 1: they could not sell in the markets abroad, they received
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  Speaker 1: very little pay. There was, however, no poverty, that is,
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  Speaker 1: suffering from want, nor was there any great wealth. If
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  Speaker 1: the people had enough rice, vegetables, fish, and clothing to
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  Speaker 1: cover themselves, what more did they require. Thus the great
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  Speaker 1: masses of the people were contented and happy. But how
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  Speaker 1: about the samurai. For some two hundred and fifty years
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  Speaker 1: their swords had been sheathed. They had busied themselves with
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  Speaker 1: the affairs of their clans, but that did not occupy
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  Speaker 1: all their time. To be sure, they could pay and
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  Speaker 1: receive calls from their friends, and show their intimate knowledge
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  Speaker 1: of the ceremonies inseparable from a tea party. They knew
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  Speaker 1: exactly the deference due to a person and the number
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  Speaker 1: of compliments he was entitled to. But even the acquisition
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  Speaker 1: of this knowledge left them considerable leisure, and they spent
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  Speaker 1: it in reading the samurai from the time of Nobunaga, who,
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  Speaker 1: as we have seen, made war upon the ambitious monks
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  Speaker 1: held Buddhism in contempt. They turned to the study of
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  Speaker 1: the pure Shinto religion, which regards the Teno as divine
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  Speaker 1: and worships the ancestors as gods. But when they began
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  Speaker 1: to study the history of their country, when they understood
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  Speaker 1: that this regiate in Nido before whom they were compelled
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  Speaker 1: to bow was only a usurper, and that the Teno,
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  Speaker 1: and the Teno only was the lawful ruler of Japan,
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  Speaker 1: they looked around for means to deny the authority of
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  Speaker 1: the regent. A very large number of the samurai read
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  Speaker 1: with absorbing attention the history of Japan completed under the
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  Speaker 1: second Daimyo of Mido, who was a descendant of Iyeyasu,
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  Speaker 1: and another history written by Rai Sanyo, wherein it was
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  Speaker 1: shown that the loyalty of the samurai was due to
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  Speaker 1: the Tenho, was also extensively studied. The reading of these
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  Speaker 1: books made them all the more impatient of the Tokugawa rule.
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  Speaker 1: Were we less brave and less stout than our fathers,
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  Speaker 1: they would ask, why must our swords remain sheathed? Who
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  Speaker 1: is responsible for these long years of contemptible peace? Why
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  Speaker 1: can we not subdue Korea, which by law of conquest
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  Speaker 1: belongs to Japan. There was deep dissatisfaction among the samurai,
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  Speaker 1: and while they were not able to express all they
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  Speaker 1: felt of one thing. They were very sure that they
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  Speaker 1: no longer wanted the descendants of Iyeyasu to rule over them.
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  Speaker 1: The great daimyo of the South, those of Satsuma, Choshu,
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  Speaker 1: and Tosa, were especially hostile to the regent. The trade
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  Speaker 1: with Holland, which was very profitable, was for the benefit
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  Speaker 1: of the Yido government. Through the Hollanders, the Regent could
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  Speaker 1: know what was passing abroad. He could order the latest
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  Speaker 1: guns and cannon, and thereby acquire the means to keep
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  Speaker 1: the daimyo in submission. All these daimyo encouraged, therefore, the
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  Speaker 1: reading of these books, and urged their men to arouse
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  Speaker 1: the Yamato Damashii, that is, the spirit of old Japan
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  Speaker 1: among the people. But the Regate and Yido could afford
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  Speaker 1: to laugh at all this discontent so long as the
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  Speaker 1: daimyo remained divided among themselves. Even and if the most
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  Speaker 1: powerful among them should dare deny his authority, eighty thousand
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  Speaker 1: of his own samurai were prepared to punish a rebel,
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  Speaker 1: and besides the loyal daimyo descendants of Iyeyasu or of
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  Speaker 1: his generals were ready to take up arms in his defense.
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  Speaker 1: There was only the fear that the disaffected daimyo might unite,
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  Speaker 1: that they might march upon Kyoto and obtain the sacred
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  Speaker 1: person of the Emperor. Then and then only would there
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  Speaker 1: be an end to the Tokugawa rule. Kyoto was the
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  Speaker 1: key to the situation. But there was a strong garrison
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  Speaker 1: composed of the samurai of the most loyal clan guarding
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  Speaker 1: the palace, and the admittance to Kyoto was strictly prohibited
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  Speaker 1: to any of the southern daimyo. So long as the
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  Speaker 1: emperor remained in the power of the Tokugawa, all was well.
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  Speaker 1: The court nobles, who and what were they? Paupers glad
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  Speaker 1: enough to be fed from the crumbs of the region's bounty.
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  Speaker 1: But how about the regia himself? Was he the same able,
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  Speaker 1: self reliant man that Yeyasu, the founder of the se house,
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  Speaker 1: had been. No, the Tokugawa had gone the way of
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  Speaker 1: all the rulers of Japan. Seven regents had succeeded from
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  Speaker 1: the direct line, and then successors had been adopted. For
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  Speaker 1: a long time, the descendants of Yeyasu had been shadow regents,
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  Speaker 1: puppets in the hands of ambitious prime ministers who trusted
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  Speaker 1: to their spies to maintain their power. Dissatisfaction existed everywhere.
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  Speaker 1: But while the great majority of samurai would have been
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  Speaker 1: well pleased to see the authority restored to the emperor,
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  Speaker 1: the ablest among them desired to be his personal advisers.
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  Speaker 1: In other words, they wished for themselves the power held
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  Speaker 1: by the Tokugawa. Satsuma thought that it would be better
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  Speaker 1: for Japan if he should be regent. The other great
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  Speaker 1: daimyo had probably the same idea regarding themselves, and their
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  Speaker 1: keirai or councilors, thought how much better it would be
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  Speaker 1: if they could direct the affairs. But neither daimyo nor
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  Speaker 1: samurai had any idea of personal gain. They honestly believed
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  Speaker 1: they were right, and they would have been pleased to
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  Speaker 1: accept this power without any salary, except just enough to
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  Speaker 1: secure the absolute necessities of life for themselves and their families.
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  Speaker 1: It was sure to go hard with the government of Ido.
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  Speaker 1: When the opportunity for action came. Hundreds of Samurai were
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  Speaker 1: ready to sever the connection with their clan and turn
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  Speaker 1: ronan if they could thereby assist in overturning the Tokugawa.
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  Speaker 1: What cared they if harakiri must inevitably follow they were
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  Speaker 1: prepared for it. Were not the graves of the forty
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  Speaker 1: seven Freelances kept green in the memory of the people,
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  Speaker 1: And would not they also be celebrated in song and story.
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  Speaker 1: What greater desire could a true samurai have than to
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  Speaker 1: die in the service of his clan and his lord.
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  Speaker 1: Many of the samurai were not so ignorant as they seemed.
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  Speaker 1: Some of them had studied Dutch. And although all the
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  Speaker 1: books on board a Dutch vessel arriving at Nagasaki were
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  Speaker 1: supposed to be stored in chests and kept under lock
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  Speaker 1: and key in possession of the Regent's officers, to be
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  Speaker 1: returned only when the ship was ready to this did
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  Speaker 1: not prevent the inquisitive and studious Japanese from obtaining possession
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  Speaker 1: of some of them. And these barbarian vessels that were
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  Speaker 1: coming so repeatedly, notwithstanding the Regent's prohibition, would they insist
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  Speaker 1: upon breaking the laws of Japan. Was it not true
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  Speaker 1: that the King of Holland had sent a letter advising
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  Speaker 1: the Regent to enter into a treaty with these hairy
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  Speaker 1: bearded strangers. And was it not true also that these
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  Speaker 1: same barbarians had dared invade the soil of China and
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  Speaker 1: compelled that great empire to grant their demands. Would they
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  Speaker 1: also dare come with an armed force to sacred Japan,
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  Speaker 1: the country of the Gods, and profane the land destined
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  Speaker 1: for the Japanese. Or would the Tokugawa at Iido repeat
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  Speaker 1: the disgrace inflicted upon Japan by the cowardly Ashikaga. These
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  Speaker 1: were the questions that agitated the Samurai, those four hundred
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  Speaker 1: thousand men who had been and were then at once
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  Speaker 1: the head and the arms of the country, who ruled
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  Speaker 1: as well as defended it. They were thinking and watching
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  Speaker 1: the well instinctively that the time for action was drawing nigh,
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  Speaker 1: and all of them were sure that the Samurai of
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  Speaker 1: Japan would be able when the time came to give
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  Speaker 1: a lesson to the barbarians. They wished to have their
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  Speaker 1: coast's defenses strengthened, and requested the Yido government to attend
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  Speaker 1: to this. No notice was taken of this request. The
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  Speaker 1: councilors of the Regent, troubled about affairs at home, hoped
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  Speaker 1: and trusted that foreign powers would continue to respect their
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  Speaker 1: absolute refusal to enter into intercourse with them. Every foreign
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  Speaker 1: vessel entering the Japanese waters was received by officers who
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  Speaker 1: were naturally Tokugawa men, that is, men belonging to the
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  Speaker 1: clan of the regent, and while many of them were
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  Speaker 1: in favor of more liberal measures, they were loyal to
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  Speaker 1: those who stood at the head of their clan and
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  Speaker 1: were prepared to carry out their orders. Captains of such
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  Speaker 1: foreign vessels could not judge, therefore, of the actual feeling
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  Speaker 1: prevailing among the Japanese, since these men represented only the
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  Speaker 1: Tokugawa clan. When at last compulsion made the regent the
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  Speaker 1: demands of the self invited guests, the Tokugawa samurai were
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  Speaker 1: fully satisfied, but not so those of other clans. They
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  Speaker 1: could not and did not deny that, since the Tokugawa
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  Speaker 1: regent had taken it upon himself to exclude foreigners, another
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  Speaker 1: regent of the same house could rescind or abolish this
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  Speaker 1: law by his own authority. What they did object to
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  Speaker 1: was the manner in which permission to trade with and
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  Speaker 1: to reside in Japan had been obtained. That a regent
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  Speaker 1: of Japan should have submitted to demands from foreigners without
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  Speaker 1: striking a blow. Had he granted the requests of petitioners,
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  Speaker 1: and had he opened such ports as would have given
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  Speaker 1: to every day meya the opportunity to profit by this intercourse,
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  Speaker 1: the Tokugawa regents might have secured another lease of government.
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  Speaker 1: But the government of Yido thought that they would be
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  Speaker 1: able to isolate these newcomers as they had the Dutch,
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  Speaker 1: and so opened only such ports as belonged to the Tokugawa.
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  Speaker 1: This caused the hatred both against the Yido government and
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  Speaker 1: the foreigners, and the many murders of innocent men by
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  Speaker 1: self appointed it aventures ends of Section thirty