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

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  Speaker 1: Section thirty six of the Story of Japan. This is
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  Speaker 1: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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  Speaker 1: The Story of Japan by Robert van Bergen. Japan's Progress.
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  Speaker 1: The rebellion was subdued, but at great expense. Fifty thousand
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  Speaker 1: valuable lives had been lost, and more than five hundred
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  Speaker 1: millions of dollars had been spent before this dangerous revolt
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  Speaker 1: was stamped out. And what had been taught by it
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  Speaker 1: two lessons which the government must take to heart. The
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  Speaker 1: first was that the Samurai as a class must remain
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  Speaker 1: the rulers of Japan. The next was that such national
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  Speaker 1: customs as did not interfere with the progress and future
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  Speaker 1: greatness of their country must not only be left untouched,
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  Speaker 1: but be fostered and encouraged. Okubo, who by his energy
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  Speaker 1: had conduced not a little to the defeat of Satsuma,
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  Speaker 1: was considered a traitor to his clan, and no one
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  Speaker 1: was astonished when he was attacked in his carriage in
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  Speaker 1: Tokyo and assassinated. Although many mourned his loss, this murder
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  Speaker 1: proved how desperate was the samurai's spirit, and from this
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  Speaker 1: time all the officers were filled by members of this class,
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  Speaker 1: while a reaction commenced under their leadership, tending toward the
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  Speaker 1: preservation of Japanese laws, habits, and customs without hindrance to
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  Speaker 1: the improvement of army and navy, the building of railroads,
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  Speaker 1: and the developing of the resources of the country. The
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  Speaker 1: couge members of the cabinet or council had died or retired,
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  Speaker 1: and the government was actually in the possession of the samurai.
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  Speaker 1: But the most prominent of these, who were not actually
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  Speaker 1: members of the cabinet, clamored for more influence. I have
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  Speaker 1: shown you the numerous good qualities of the samurai, the
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  Speaker 1: love for their country, their courage, and unselfishness. But while
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  Speaker 1: these characteristics are common to them, they have also another
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  Speaker 1: which is equally conspicuous, and that is conceit. A great
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  Speaker 1: many of them believe that they and they alone are
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  Speaker 1: able to rule the country, and each one is impatient
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  Speaker 1: because he is not at once appointed prime minister. Several
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  Speaker 1: newspapers had been established in Tokyo and elsewhere, and the samurai,
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  Speaker 1: who soon recognized the influence of public opinion took good
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  Speaker 1: care that these papers came under their control. They now
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  Speaker 1: could and did clamor openly for more influence. Why don't
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  Speaker 1: you establish a parliament and give us a constitution, they
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  Speaker 1: asked His majesty The Turno, mentioning the Emperor with expressions
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  Speaker 1: of the greatest reverence, was good enough to promise us
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  Speaker 1: this spoon. It is you, the Emperor's advisers, who prevent him.
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  Speaker 1: You are traitors to him and to your country. The
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  Speaker 1: ministers could and did suspend such papers, but others sprang
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  Speaker 1: up and repeated the complaint over and over again. The
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  Speaker 1: ministers had the good sense not to be too sensitive
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  Speaker 1: to these remarks and to decline handing the government over
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  Speaker 1: to these self constituted critics. But a number of the
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  Speaker 1: Samurai began at last to believe that they had a
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  Speaker 1: real grievance, and the government was compelled in eighteen eighty
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  Speaker 1: to promise that a constitution would be given and a
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  Speaker 1: parliament established within ten years from that time. The clamoring
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  Speaker 1: samurai had to be satisfied with this, but there were
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  Speaker 1: other ways in which to keep themselves prominently before their
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  Speaker 1: fellow clansmen, and one of these was by the agitation
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  Speaker 1: of revision of the treaties. I have told you several
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  Speaker 1: times that the Samurai all the people of Japan in
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  Speaker 1: a just and humane manner, but in return they expect
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  Speaker 1: the deepest reverence and implicit obedience. Now, when the first
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  Speaker 1: treaties were made, very little was known of the Japanese
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  Speaker 1: by foreigners. But the ministers of foreign nations did know
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  Speaker 1: that they had no written laws, that torture could be
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  Speaker 1: applied at the option of the judge, and that a
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  Speaker 1: certain number of blows was a mild and moderate punishment.
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  Speaker 1: Under these circumstances, they refused, of course, to allow their
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  Speaker 1: fellow citizens to be brought before native judges, and it
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  Speaker 1: was stated in the treaties that foreigners should be judged
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  Speaker 1: only according to their own laws and before the consuls
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  Speaker 1: appointed by their government. These treaties should have been revised
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  Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy two, but although the Japanese had been
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  Speaker 1: at work to establish a code of written laws, the
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  Speaker 1: foreign ministers were not satisfied that their fellow citizens would
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  Speaker 1: obtain justice, and the revision of the treaties was constantly postponed.
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  Speaker 1: This roused the Japanese samurai to anger. Why may we
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  Speaker 1: not judge those proud, arrogant foreign merchants who imagine themselves
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  Speaker 1: as good, if not better than a samurai. The government,
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  Speaker 1: although it appeared to exert itself to the utmost, was
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  Speaker 1: not in reality anxious to have jurisdiction over foreigners. It
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  Speaker 1: knew that in a case of a foreigner against a samurai,
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  Speaker 1: not a judge in Japan, where every judge belongs to
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  Speaker 1: the Samurai class dare give a judgment in favor of
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  Speaker 1: the foreigner. And it knew also that foreign governments were
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  Speaker 1: in the habit of seeing their subjects protected in their rights.
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  Speaker 1: But the samurai as a class did not take this
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  Speaker 1: point of view. They wanted to be able to humble
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  Speaker 1: those proud foreigners and to avenge themselves for the slights
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  Speaker 1: to which some of them had been exposed. Count Okumar,
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  Speaker 1: then Prime Minister, had a dynamite bomb thrown under him,
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  Speaker 1: which wounded him so severely as to render amputation of
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  Speaker 1: a leg necessary. These events show how much of our
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  Speaker 1: civilization had been acquired by the Japanese. Count Tito went
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  Speaker 1: to Europe to study the different constitutions, and when he
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  Speaker 1: returned he prepared one after the law of the German Empire,
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  Speaker 1: Japan was to have a diet, as the German Congress
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  Speaker 1: is called, consisting of two houses, as does our own congress.
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  Speaker 1: The House of Representatives was to be elected by the people,
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  Speaker 1: but the samurai would take good care that none but
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  Speaker 1: members of their class should take a seat. This was
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  Speaker 1: not very difficult, for the people were really well pleased
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  Speaker 1: to attend to their own business and leave the duty
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  Speaker 1: of governing, that is, making laws and executing them to
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  Speaker 1: their old time masters, who had nothing else to do
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  Speaker 1: and plenty of experience. Besides, the House of Lords, corresponding
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  Speaker 1: to our Senate, consisted of hereditary members, such as princes
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  Speaker 1: of the blood, that is, princes related to the emperor,
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  Speaker 1: and the highest couge and daimio. The other nobles were
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  Speaker 1: elected by members of their own rank, but the emperor
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  Speaker 1: had the right to appoint members for special services. This
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  Speaker 1: and the fact that several samurai had received titles equal
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  Speaker 1: to or even higher than their own former lords, rendered
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  Speaker 1: it highly probable that the nobles would vote as the
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  Speaker 1: samurai decided, But to make this still more certain, they
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  Speaker 1: appointed members of their own class as stewards in the
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  Speaker 1: residences of the couge daimio and even of the imperial princes,
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  Speaker 1: who were to receive the salaries, pensions, or revenues of
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  Speaker 1: these nobles and disperse them. They found calls for doing
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  Speaker 1: so in the fact that some nobles, unaccustomed to think
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  Speaker 1: or act for themselve, and never having been allowed to
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  Speaker 1: spend money, were found, upon receiving a more or less
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  Speaker 1: large sum, to commit extravagances, promising speedy impoverishment. The nobles
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  Speaker 1: did not object any more than the common people, and
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  Speaker 1: so the samurai could influence, if not control, the votes
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  Speaker 1: of their employers. The Promise Constitution was duly published in
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  Speaker 1: eighteen eighty nine. The Teno took the oath to his
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  Speaker 1: divine ancestors, and the diet was opened with great festivities.
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  Speaker 1: The houses met, and for novices in parliamentary debate did
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  Speaker 1: very well. Of course, the heat of discussion would sometimes
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  Speaker 1: lead to breaches of that politeness for which the Japanese
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  Speaker 1: samurai are celebrated. But the odd spectacle was offered of
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  Speaker 1: an overwhelming majority in the opposition without its members being
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  Speaker 1: able to agree among themselves. This was owing to the
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  Speaker 1: humble opinion hidden in each breast that the owner was
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  Speaker 1: the only man for the occasion, and that he, for
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  Speaker 1: the glory of Japan, should at once be appointed Prime Minister.
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  Speaker 1: The members of the Cabinet were constantly attacked in the
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  Speaker 1: debate for a long time. The revision of the treaties
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  Speaker 1: was their apparent cause. But England signed the revised treaty
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  Speaker 1: in eighteen ninety four. Other nations did the same, and
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  Speaker 1: foreigners living in Japan will be placed under Japanese jurisdiction
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  Speaker 1: when the new treaties go into effect, that is on
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  Speaker 1: July the sixteenth, eighteen ninety nine, and as Section thirty
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  Speaker 1: six