Payson Jackson Treat

“ This was not understood by the first foreign representatives at the court of the Shogun. They emphasized the importance of foreign rights and foreign relations, but the Japanese were far more concerned with the internal struggle, at times stained with blood, between the Shogunate and the supporters of the imperial house. As long as this interrelation of foreign and domestic affairs continued, there could be little hope of peaceful intercourse, for the lives of foreigners were sacrificed to serve some political end. ”

“ He would open intercourse with foreign countries, encourage reciprocal relations, exchange ministers, encourage shipping, remedy internal weaknesses, develop the national resources, and make military preparations. Believing in a worldstate, he felt, as a loyal Japanese, that the Mikado alone was "so noble and illustrious as to command universal vassallage". "To have such a ruler over the whole world is. ”

“ When our power and national standing have come to be recognized, we should take the lead in punishing the nation which may act contrary to the principle of international interests; and in so doing, we should join hands with the nations whose principles may be found identical with those of our country. ”

“ There were faults on both sides, but unquestionably the most offense was given by some of the pioneers of commerce and the first seamen to visit the ports. Blood was soon shed. In the next few years there were several attacks upon foreigners and two attacks upon the British legation. These outrages fall into two categories, those committed by the Japanese as reprisals for wrongs done, and those committed for political reasons—either to involve the Shogunate in war with the foreigners or else to destroy some of the hated barbarians whose presence in Japan was deemed a pollution. ”

“ It was forced, therefore, to recede from its former wise position that the exclusion laws should be annulled for the best interests of Japan, and so fell back to the equivocal view that the treaties were but temporary evils which could not be avoided, that the Shogunate did not desire to cultivate friendly relations with the foreign powers, and that as soon as adequate armaments were prepared the barbarians would be expelled. ”

“ It should be remembered, therefore, that at this time the Shogunate advocated foreign intercourse as a sound national policy.
At first Hotta was almost successful, but the hostile court nobles (kuge) compelled the kuambaku (imperial prime minister) to alter the text of the Mikado's reply, so that it denounced the foreign policy of the Shogunate, and demanded, that the opinions of the Three Houses of the Tokugawa family [11] and of the daimyos be consulted before again asking for the imperial sanction. [12] Lord Hotta, baffled, returned to Yedo on June 1. ”

“ At Kyoto the hostile party was in the ascendant. At the first conference between the Mikado and the Shogun the latter accepted the imperial commands to expel the barbarians, using peaceful negotiations if possible, but if this did not succeed then they were to be swept away. [30]
Even after this agreement, the Shogunate officials hoped that they might prolong the negotiations and eventually find some outlet from the impasse in which they found themselves. But the opposition very shrewdly refused to trust the Yedo party. ”

“ The foreign representatives were now beginning to realize vaguely that the "ecclesiastical emperor" in Kyoto was a more powerful personality than they had been led to believe. On December 13, 1859, Mr. Harris warned the Shogunate officials that if they failed to observe the treaties and a war ensued, the powers would then negotiate directly with the representatives of the Mikado. [21] But Harris always believed that the Mikado had given his consent to the treaties. ”

“ The growth of these demands paralleled the rise of the antiforeign opposition and furnished arguments against the greedy and insulting foreigners. The maximum demands, in the Richardson case, came, moreover, at a most inopportune time.
The opposition to the Shogunate, using the unpopularity of its foreign policy as an issue, had rapidly increased. Kyoto, formerly neglected by the feudal lords, now teemed with daimyos under the leadership of powerful western feudatories, the daimyo of Choshiu, and the father of the daimyo of Satsuma. ”

“ The commercial treaties, therefore, had been negotiated without the imperial approval, and the enlarged foreign relations then inaugurated were agreed to be but temporary. Hence the anti-Shogun, anti-foreign factions had ammunition close at hand. With increasing insistence they demanded that the period of temporary intercourse be brought to a close and that the loyal patriots unite to drive the barbarians into the sea. ”

“ In Kyoto there was great excitement. The leading Shogunate officials urged the court to ratify the treaties, lest war between Japan and the allied powers ensue. [52] But the conservatives were not easily convinced. This proceeding would rob them of their mightiest weapon against the Shogunate. On the 19th Lord Abe and Lord Matsumai were dismissed from the roju on orders from the Mikado. This news reached the representatives, and they were convinced that a conservative reaction had set in at Kyoto. ”

“ This proposal won the approval of Earl Russell and he at once undertook to gain the consent of the other treaty powers.
With the United States he had no difficulty; Holland, while preferring the indemnity, was ready to agree to the British proposal if the other powers would do so; but France flatly refused, asserting "that money was a substantial penalty which once received could not be recalled, whereas permission to trade at Shimonasaki might be rescinded at any moment", and later that the powers had no choice in the matter so long as Japan was willing to pay the indemnity. ”

“ The Osaka demonstration won for the powers two of their three demands without their yielding a penny of the indemnity. The refusal to open Hiogo and Osaka was a small loss, for these cities would be opened in any case on January 1, 1868. The tariff was revised by the Yedo Convention of June 25, 1866, and remained in force until the treaties of 1894, in spite of all the Japanese efforts for revision after 1872. But the most important of the concessions was the Mikado's ratification of the treaties. ”

“ A man of less initiative and assurance would doubtless have followed the letter of his instructions, but Parkes intended to carry out their spirit as well. Wrongly interpreting a statement in one of Russell's despatches to mean that the French foreign minister had agreed that the four representatives in Japan should decide as to whether the three conditions should be accepted as a substitute for two-thirds of the indemnity, he at once summoned his colleagues to a conference. ”

“ As he waited week after week, he is said to have threatened to go to Kyoto himself and there negotiate directly with the Mikado. [13] When Hotta finally arrived, Harris was persuaded to agree to a further postponement, until September 4. In the meantime. Lord Ii Kamon-no-Kami, who had been appointed tairo or regent, hoped that he might be able to gain the approval of the imperial court.
At this time there was a further complication in the Yedo administration. It arose over the question of the succession to the office of Shogun. The incumbent, Iesada, was dying without an heir. ”

“ Moreover, it did not intend to permit direct intercourse between Choshiu, a feudal fief, and the treaty powers. In the negotiations which took place at Yedo and Yokohama and which resulted in the convention of October 22, one of the first points to be raised by the foreign representatives was that the Shogun should secure the Mikado's sanction of the treaties, and a promise was given that every effort would be made to secure this ratification. ”

“ This opened a new and interesting phase of Japanese foreign relations. In turn, Choshiu fired upon a French and a Dutch ship of war, and then foreign shipping avoided the straits. The American minister sent down the Wyoming to destroy the offending vessels, and the French admiral later destroyed some of the batteries. For over a year the foreign ministers discussed the situation at Shimonoseki. The straits were closed by Choshiu, the Shogun was unable to open them, and Choshiu was actually in open rebellion against him. ”

“ If this was the case, he then asked, what was the use in delaying the negotiations "for what appears to be a mere ceremony", and he was told "that it was this solemn ceremony that gave value to it". [8] He proposed, therefore, that they complete their work, but postpone signing the treaty until the end of sixty days. ”