J. Morris

“ HIS MAJESTY THE EMPEROR OF JAPAN
At the head of the list of Makers of Modern Japan stands by right the name of the illustrious ruler, not merely in virtue of his imperial position, but of the supreme efforts which throughout his reign of thirty-eight years to the present time he has made to raise the status of his country among nations and to confer upon his subjects the blessings of enlightened government. ”

“ Had it still been the custom for monarchs to head their forces in the field his Majesty Mutsuhito, as all his loyal and dutiful subjects know, would have mounted his charger and led his hosts to battle with as great a zest as did ever one of his predecessors on the throne in the fighting days of old. That happiness being denied him, he sat at his desk in his headquarters at Hiroshima for sixteen hours a day while his troops, for eight months, waged war a decade ago with the Chinese in Manchuria and Shantung. ”

“ If Admiral Enomoto was the first to obtain the title by having handled a modern Japanese fleet in actual warfare, it will be acknowledged that Admiral Togo has caused his own doings to be for ever associated with the later developments of Japan’s sea-power, and that it is his name which will descend to posterity as that of the commander who, by his skilful leading and marked ability, combined with personal attributes of a kind to inspire the loftiest esteem and even affection in all those who came into contact with him, made the Japanese fleet the tremendous fighting machine that it is to-day. ”

“ The profound respect, verging upon adoration, paid in Japan to the occupant of the Throne is ascribable to an absolute conviction, pervading the minds of all classes of his Majesty’s subjects, that their ruler is a monarch who personally studies the welfare, the happiness, and real [6] comfort, of his people. The feeling that the sovereign takes an almost paternal interest in the well-being of those whom he governs is so universal in Japan as practically to constitute a feature of Japanese national life. It is shared by all, rich and poor, young and old, the noble and the lowly. ”

“ The years devoted to the task of evolving a constitution that should suffice for the nation’s needs and be acceptable to the ruler who had pledged himself to bestow this inestimable boon on his subjects, an act of spontaneous generosity in the sovereign for which his people have never ceased to record their gratitude, were years to which the Marquis looks back with infinite pride and pleasure. ”

“ In this encounter between the forces of Choshiu and the Shogun the Satsuma clan stood aloof, possibly as the result of private negotiations between the clan leaders, for there were at this time several persons making their way to the front who were destined at no very remote date to play the most important parts in the affairs of the nation. On the Choshiu side were Ito and Inouye, on the Satsuma side were Saigo and Okubo, all men whose names will never fade in the history of their country’s emancipation from feudalism. ”

“ Although the idol of the samurai, and constantly mixed up in political affairs, as was indeed almost unavoidable in that stage of the national progress, when every prominent man was intimately concerned with one party or another, it was nevertheless contrary to Saigo’s personal tastes to figure as a Government official, and he would infinitely have preferred to roam the hills of Satsuma or Osumi, gun in hand, than to take part in State functions. ”

“ The prerogatives of the Crown had to be secured from excessive interference by the governed,—the government must be absolutely free to employ all the nation’s resources. Without this clear perception of the attributes of sovereignty at the outset, it might have been difficult to have brought all Japan’s strength to bear in the critical situations which have in later years arisen. As matters stand, however, the direct rule of the sovereign, though in some respects the idea of limited monarchy is preserved, remains practically unfettered, and the supreme control rests in the Emperor’s own hands. ”

“ Whether we look to the growth of civilisation, the increase of political and commercial relations, the spread of science, or the establishment of constitutional freedom, we are amazed at the almost fabulous progress of Japan in the last forty years. ”

“ It is the fundamental principle which accounts for Japan’s rise: she has never hesitated to adopt anything that she has found to be good; she has ever tried to swim with the current of human progress; she has never shrunk from any sacrifice in eradicating that which she has found to be bad. The voice of the people can make itself heard in the management of public affairs and it was the same Rescript, as Count Okuma always declares, which gave to the country the keynote of a liberal form of administration, when the Emperor bade his subjects “settle affairs by public opinion.” ”

“ The assembly of the combined squadrons in the bay was an imposing spectacle, and Admiral Togo, with his staff-officers, visited the sacred shrines of the Imperial ancestors, at Yamada, which is near Toba harbour. Hundreds of thousands of the people had assembled from far and near. Admiral Togo was the recipient of the greatest honours that his admiring countrymen could pay, both there and afterwards at Tokio, where they gathered absolutely to the number of a quarter of a million to bid him welcome on his safe return to his home. ”

“ The late war was not one of race against race, or of religion against religion, and the victory of Japan points to the ultimate blending into one harmonious whole of the ancient and modern civilisations of East and West. ”

“ Shinto is now only a cult, but it embodies the principle on which the moral teaching of the Japanese substantially is based, and it still has for its chief function the performance of rites in memory of the imperial ancestors. Shintoism has neither creed nor dogma,—it inculcates patriotism and loyalty. It enjoins upon all the virtue of courage, the cultivation of the strictest sense of honour, and the universal practice of courtesy and consideration. ”

“ The policy which commended itself to Japan at that epoch was certainly not inspired by a mere love of change, nor by any pronounced preference for foreign ways, nor was it ascribable to a passion for learning, in the abstract, but it was directly prompted by a well-grounded political incentive to action that has never lost its hold on the minds of Government or people, and is indubitably as strong to-day as when its principles were first assented to by the nation at large, close upon forty years ago. ”

“ Foreigners, with Okubo, were never the enemies of Japan, but people with whom, on the other hand, it should be to the national interest to cultivate a permanent friendship. That their good will should be secured for the reformed system of government which he foresaw would ultimately have to replace that of the oppressive Baku-fu,—an administration based upon an anachronic feudalism,—was always with him a matter of real concern, and to obtain it he devoted his whole energies. ”

“ The next few years of Marquis Ito’s strenuous life were spent in active preparation for the still more onerous duties that were to fall to his lot when Japan should be in a position to take her place as one of the leading nations of the earth, by right of her advancement in all the arts and sciences that tend to make a people great and powerful. ”

“ In the memorable battle at Fushimi, seven miles from Kioto on the Osaka road, Saigo was leader of the imperial [210] troops opposed to those of the Tokugawa Shogunate, and exhibited on that occasion marked military genius as well as great personal bravery. His coolness under fire was ever a subject of intense admiration to his comrades, and it was conspicuous in this fiercest of engagements, lasting for three days, at the very outset of the Meiji era. ”

“ In past years her arm has not always been long enough to extend support to her subjects over-sea, but it is Japan’s aim, as it is that of Britain, to convince the rest of the world that while she repudiates most vigorously the idea that she seeks territorial aggrandisement or covets the recognition of an unchallenged supremacy in the Far East, she at all times resents the slightest attempt to trespass on what are regarded by her statesmen as the boundaries of her national safety. ”

“ He is essentially a man of active habits, and betrays in no marked degree the weight of years or the strain of his long-continued and invaluable services to his nation. He feels a justifiable pride in the achievements of the Japanese army and navy, for he was among the first to perceive that if Japan would take her stand among the powers of the world she must provide herself with, first of all, the means to add weight to her arguments in the council. ”

“ Madame Togo has said that when he went to join the United Squadrons a short time prior to the outbreak of hostilities in 1904, he merely asked her to be kind enough to take care of his dogs.
Even for a Japanese the Admiral is short, and rather stout, of figure, and people marvel when they see him that [309] he can be “the great Togo, the Nelson of Japan.” But the energy of the man is revealed in his quick, piercing glance. He is a strict disciplinarian, and a hater, above all things, of display, or of public homage. ”

“ The stability of Japanese finance during the nine years which have passed since that Law came into force, and especially throughout the terrible ordeal that it has lately undergone during the time that Japan has been at war with one of the Great Powers of Europe, affords an incontestible proof of the soundness of Count Matsukata’s judgment, and the nation is indebted to him for the perseverance and fortitude that he displayed in carrying his scheme, despite all opposition, to a successful conclusion. ”

“ Every fief had its college for the education of the youthful samurai, but they rarely aspired to literary excellence or renown, preferring the more robust accomplishments of archery and swordsmanship to the ability to pen an essay or compose a stanza, even though it were but one of the orthodox thirty-one syllabled kind that every gentleman was supposed to be able to produce at will. Kido’s energy was unbounded, his patriotism unquenchable. ”

“ Her Majesty the Empress has been for thirty-seven years the devoted consort of the ruler, and is esteemed throughout the imperial dominions as the very embodiment of all the womanly virtues. While the Emperor is immeasurably concerned with the welfare of the army and navy, her Majesty takes the utmost personal interest in the Red Cross Society, and continually works for the benefit of the hospitals, her greatest happiness consisting in identifying herself with or aiding with her own hands the undertakings of charitable institutions. ”

“ An ardent believer in the efficacy of military training, and a most enthusiastic supporter of the principles of universal military service, as the sole security of a nation against foreign aggression, Oyama now found himself, by the force of circumstances, compelled to take the field against one to whom he was closely related, and who had been the consistent upholder of an identical policy, if not, indeed, its originator,—as far as Japan was concerned,—and who had himself occupied the post of Minister of War in the first State Council of the Meiji era. ”