Treaty of Shimonoseki

“ Never did a country make herself more abject in her acceptance of a vassal’s position. And the only line of argument that can be used to prove that that condition did not hold till the treaty of Shimonoseki was signed in 1895, is in China’s occasional disavowal of it, to shield herself from responsibility for Korea’s acts.
The Japanese had been keeping watch of events that were transpiring during these troublesome times, and at this juncture an envoy came from the island empire announcing, as between friends, the name of the new Japanese year. ”

“ From the time (1895) when Russia, with the co-operation of Germany and France, dictated to Japan a cardinal alteration of the Shimonoseki treaty, Japanese statesmen seem to have concluded that their country must one day War with Russia. cross swords with the great northern power. Not a few European and American publicists shared that view. But the vast majority, arguing that the little Eastern empire would never invite annihilation by such an encounter, believed that sufficient forbearance to avert serious trouble would always be forthcoming on Japan’s side. ”

“ Each Power feared that China would be gobbled up by a rival, or that at least a partition of the vast Chinese Empire was at hand. Consequently, when China was beaten in her war with Japan, and made the unfavourable treaty of Shimonoseki, the European Powers were ready to appear as helpers in time of need. ”

“ She, the titular mistress of the world, grovelled thus at the feet of Powers to whom she would not, even then, in plain words, have conceded equality. And when assistance eventually came it was imposed on her by external force. She could make no conditions.
The revolution which the revised treaty of Shimonoseki effected in the international status of China was naturally first realised by those who had brought it about. ”

“ It was now again found possible for him and his talented wife to recommend themselves to the large body of men and women whose feeling the Japanese had in one way or another alienated, and slowly but surely to undermine the latter’s influence in Seul. [494] The successful coercion of Japan by the three Powers after the treaty of Shimonoseki must also have gone far toward reducing the prestige of Japan in the eye of the Koreans, who are singularly susceptible to the influence of events of this nature. ”

“ Japan announced its withdrawal on May 5 and completed it by December 1895. Russia then occupied the area in December 1897 and "leased" the territory as Kwantung in March 1898.↑ This map was not published, as Article 3 was suppressed by the convention of November 8, 1895.↑ This indemnity was increased to 230 million upon Japan's agreement to withdrawal from Fengtien.↑ This treaty of commerce and navigation was agreed upon July 21, 1896.↑ That is, May 8, 1895.↑ That is, April 17, 1895. ”

“ All Treaties between Japan and China having come to an end as a consequence of war, China engages, immediately upon the exchange of the ratifications of this Act, to appoint Plenipotentiaries to conclude with the Japanese Plenipotentiaries, a Treaty of Commerce and Navigation and a Convention to regulate Frontier Intercourse and Trade. ”

“ In the United States of America he met with a cordial reception, the president promising to consider favorably the question of revision, and Congress showing a disposition to return America's share of the indemnity unjustly exacted from Japan in connection with the Shimonoseki affair. (The indemnity was actually returned twelve years later.) In European countries, also, the ambassador was courteously received, but failed to obtain any serious attention for the subject of treaty revision. The embassy returned to Japan in 1873. ”

“ One undesigned benefit resulted from the Shimonoseki expedition. Just as the bombardment of Kagoshima had taught the daimyō of Satsuma the folly of resisting western armaments, so now the daimyō of Chōshū had learned by an expensive experience the same bitter lesson. For the future these two powerful clans might therefore be counted on, not only to oppose the moribund government of Yedo, but to withstand the folly of trying to expel the foreigners who by treaty with an unauthorized agent had been admitted into the country. ”

“ American needs in the Orient, pp. 173-186.
American progress in the Far East, pp. 187-207.
Russian opinions of American institutions, pp. 385-400.
Appendix: Treaty of Shimonoseki, by which southern Manchuria was ceded to Japan. Mikado's rescript withdrawing from Manchuria. The (reputed) Cassini convention. The Russo-Manchurian railway agreement. Anglo-Russian agreement respecting spheres of influence in China. Treaty of offensive and defensive alliance between Great Britain and Japan. Specimen of the regulations concerning foreign joint stock companies operating in Russia. ”

“ China cedes to Japan in perpetuity and full sovereignty the following territories, together with all fortifications, arsenals, and public property thereon:
(a) The southern portion of the province of Fengtien within the following boundaries: [n. 1] The line of demarcation begins at the mouth of the River Yalu and ascends that stream to the mouth of the River An-ping, from thence the line runs to Feng-huang, from thence to Hai-cheng, from thence to Ying-kow, forming a line which describes the southern portion of the territory. The places above named are included in the ceded territory. ”

“ War indemnity to Japan. China agrees to pay to Japan as a war indemnity the sum of 200,000,000 Kuping Taels; [n. 3] the said sum to be paid in eight installments. The first installment of 50,000,000 taels to be paid within six months, and the second installment of 50,000,000 to be paid within twelve months, after the exchange of the ratifications of this Act. ”

“ The inhabitants of the territories ceded to Japan who wish to take up their residence outside the ceded districts shall be at liberty to sell their real property and retire. For this purpose a period of two years from the date of the exchange of ratifications of the present Act shall be granted. At the expiration of that period those of the inhabitants who shall not have left such territories shall, at the option of Japan, be deemed to be Japanese subjects. ”

“ The independence and integrity of Korea, as a fully independent Empire, have been fully recognized by all the Powers, and the inviolability of this fundamental principle was confirmed by Article 1 of the Shimonoseki treaty, and by the agreement especially concluded for this purpose between Japan and Great Britain on January 30, 1902, as well as by the Franco-Russian declaration of March 16, 1902. ”

“ A people which, voluntarily or otherwise, renounces its hold upon its land is on the downward path. Nothing else could show so plainly the national vitality of Japan as her tenacious purpose to get back Port Arthur taken from her by the Shimonoseki treaty in 1895. ”

“ When, therefore, after the second Peace of Shimonoseki, Japan was compelled to relinquish all her possessions on the mainland and to console herself for her shattered hopes with a few million taels, every Japanese knew that the lost booty would at some time or other be demanded from Russia at the point of the sword. With the millions paid by China as war indemnity, Japan procured a new military armament, built an armored fleet and slowly but surely taught the nation to prepare for the hour of revenge. ”

“ 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 American navy is conspicuous by its absence, unless a venerable wooden side-wheeler represents the might of the world’s most boastful country. A fleet of otter schooners flies the American flag, and enjoys seal-hunting in the Northern Ocean without disturbing international relations. A mole and protected harbor with stone docks is being built with the money only lately returned to Japan by the United States, after being shamefully withheld for a quarter of a century, as our share of the Shimonoseki Indemnity Fund. ”

“ One constantly meets over here with the theory that the foreigner must conform to the methods of the Orient, but this is always advanced as an excuse for following a bad custom. It is impossible to convince China that our ideal is a better one than hers unless that ideal is embodied in action. When our country admitted that the indemnity collected from Japan after the Shimonoseki affair was excessive, and returned it, she made a deep impression upon the Japanese. ”

“ It can hardly be expected that the Government will so warily guide the helm of state as to clear the shoals which beset their course on all sides. On the north and north-east, Russia, who used her influence successfully in modifying the Treaty of Shimonosaki and who guaranteed part of the indemnity exacted by Japan, has not failed to advance her interests by obtaining a concession to continue her Trans-Siberian railway through Chinese territory to the seaboard ”

“ In 1883 the United States returned the indemnity received at the time of the Shimonoseki affair—an example of international equity almost unique at the time but subsequently paralleled in American relations with China. The one serious difficulty existing in the relationships of the United States with both China and Japan resulted from an unwillingness to receive their natives as immigrants when people of nearly every other country were admitted. The American attitude had already been expressed in the Chinese Exclusion Act. ”

“ They do not know that since Shimenoseki we have prepared for this. They do not know that they have not a secret from us. They do not know that the whole course of the war is already planned here—here—by Japan. ”

“ Just at that time the troops of Chosiu, which had been stationed in the neighbourhood of Kioto for some months, fought against the troops under the Shogunate and were defeated. In the meantime, the combined fleets of England, France, the United States, and Holland, made their entry into the straits of Shimonoseki. Before the youthful Ito and Inouyé had succeeded in persuading their Prince and compatriots to adopt pro-foreign policy, Shimonoseki was bombarded. Peace was concluded, which was greatly due to the endeavours of Ito and Inouyé and their bosom friend Takasugi. ”

“ It need not be thought strange that there is an anti-foreign sentiment in China. Was there not an anti-foreign sentiment in Japan forty years ago? The Shimonoseki affair was not unlike the Boxer trouble, except that it was less fatal to life, but it exerted a large influence in the overthrow of the shogun and in the restoration of the emperor. Just as in Japan the old finally gave way to the new, and progress took the place of stagnation, so in China the old must give way to the new.
Advance is inevitable and the world need not fear the result. ”

“ Again the shōgun’s administrative competence proved inadequate to exact reparation, and a squadron, composed chiefly of British men-of-war, proceeding to Shimonoseki, demolished Chōshū’s forts, destroyed his ships and scattered his samurai. In the face of the Kagoshima bombardment and the Shimonoseki expedition, no Japanese subject could retain any faith in his country’s ability to oppose Occidentals by force. ”

“ With the Mikado's sanction of the treaties of 1858–1861, it no longer became the patriotic duty of loyal Japanese to strive for the expulsion and extermination of the foreigners. For the first time in seven years, foreign affairs were divorced from domestic politics. On the one hand, all Japanese were free to take advantage of the material and moral contributions of the West, and on the other the treaty powers were freed from a dangerous dependence upon the Shogunate. ”

“ Closer association with foreigners had revealed the prospect of certain benefits to be derived from foreign trade, while the fighting at Kagoshima and Shimonoséki had been an object-lesson to many, whose reading of history had given them inflated ideas of the strength of their country. There were, also, among the leaders men who were aware not only of the military weakness of Japan, as compared with foreign nations with whom treaties had been concluded, but of the importance of introducing changes on the lines of Western civilization in many branches of administration. ”

“ Such is the case on our side.'
—'That point is now wholly cleared up in the eyes of the world,' said the duchess. 'The Russians certainly ought not to grumble endlessly over the milk which they themselves spilled!'
—'I may remind you of a still more fresh instance of the unscrupulousness of the Russians themselves. At the time of the ratification of the treaty of Simonoseki, did not the Russian admiral commanding the Pacific fleet propose to the French admiral commanding the French fleet in the same water to attack and destroy the Japanese fleet by a deliberate surprise! ”

“ At the end of that time Shimonoseki surrendered unconditionally, and an indemnity of three million dollars was claimed from the Shogun, and eventually paid.
For the next two years the Shogun’s Government was busy trying conclusions with the Daimio, but as he had raised a large force of the common people, and drilled these in Western fashion, he easily held his own. British and French troops meanwhile were permanently stationed at Yokohama to guard foreign interests. ”