Twentieth Century Chronicle

Page 205

Therefore, although British politicians tried their best to win over the increasingly powerful Japan, attempting to make Japan the maintainer of the British Empire's order in East Asia, they never gave a positive response to the revision of the Anglo-Japanese Treaty. The reason why Inoue's Rokumeikan diplomacy was abandoned was not because of public opposition. Public opposition was merely a convenient excuse for these politicians. In reality, it was because Ito and others finally realized that international diplomacy depends on national strength, not friendly relations between nations.

It was precisely because of the failure of the Rokumeikan diplomacy that Japan resolved to invest all its resources in national defense and use force to break free from the order imposed on Japan by the great powers through treaties. The Qing Dynasty, however, failed to grasp this point, still attempting to ease relations with its Western allies and hoping to maintain its tributary system in Asia with the help of Western warships and cannons, which led to its swift defeat by Japan.

Before the Sino-Japanese War, the British genuinely wanted to maintain the old tributary system in Asia. This way, as long as Britain controlled Qing China, it could issue orders to the entire East Asian region without worrying about other European powers disrupting the British Empire's ruling order in East Asia.

However, Japan's desperate attack shattered the British dream, completely collapsed the old order in Asia, and gave European powers an excuse to intervene in East Asian affairs. This forced the British to change their minds and choose Japan as one of the pillars of the British East Asian order.

Although the Russo-Japanese War was Japan's pledge of allegiance to Britain, the results of Japan's victory left even the Japanese themselves somewhat bewildered. While Japan paid a heavy price in this war, its battlefield victories were magnificent. Given sufficient material support, Japan's military might on land and at sea would not have been inferior to that of the European powers.

Japan's achievements in the Russo-Japanese War exceeded all British pre-war predictions, rendering all of Britain's post-war diplomatic plans obsolete. If the Chinese had not also demonstrated victories comparable to the Japanese army, Britain's envisioned balance of power in Asia would have been shattered.

However, the situation in East Asia remains an extremely thorny problem for the British, as both Japan and China have demonstrated unexpected military prowess in this war, and the belligerent mentality displayed by China's emerging power has caught the British off guard. In the past, the British believed that the only threat to India was Russia, but after the Boxer Protocol, the threat from China to India had been eliminated.

The British expedition to Tibet was not motivated by fear of the Chinese, but rather by fear that Russia would seize this land, which held a commanding position over India. This judgment was based on an assessment of Russia's conquests of Central Asia and its infiltration of Outer Mongolia and Xinjiang. Therefore, the British believed that Tibet should be brought under British Indian rule before Russia could act, thus depriving Russia of its pretext for entering Tibet.

However, what the British did not expect was that this routine attack on Tibet, which was an extremely ordinary colonial war operation for the British Empire and did not even receive support from London, would directly trigger a crisis of British rule on the Indian subcontinent.

Admittedly, India's crisis stemmed primarily from the nationalist sentiments fueled by the brutality of British rule. However, without Chinese military action on the Indian subcontinent, the British Indian government would not have lost control of the three northeastern states. The Chinese, with their small force, defeated the massive British Indian army on the Indian subcontinent, teaching the Indian people a lesson and further bolstering their resolve to resist British rule.

According to Itō, the Chinese military operations in India had a similar effect to the two Opium Wars waged by the British against China, both exposing the central government's facade of strength masking weakness and thus arousing the resistance of the dominant ethnic group. The Sino-British conflict in Tibet had a far greater impact on the British than the Battle of Cam Ranh Bay, where Japan nearly annihilated the Russian European fleet.

Because the British had never considered the Russian fleet an adversary, they naturally didn't find such a victory particularly remarkable. What surprised them was that the Japanese could also achieve such a victory, nothing more. However, the Chinese military operations in India completely disoriented the British. From the Indian subcontinent to Burma, there was a long land border between China and British India. If a conflict broke out between China and Britain, the British might be able to occupy the Chinese coast, but the British Indian government might be doomed.

Occupying the Chinese coast could not sustain Britain in the long term, because without the manpower and resources provided by British India, the British Empire could not sustain a prolonged war with a nation of hundreds of millions of people in the Far East. And losing control of the Indian subcontinent would mean the end of the British Empire's global dominance.

In other words, the Chinese used this war to send a warning to the British Empire: China was capable of taking the British Empire down with it. And even after the British Empire collapsed, the Chinese would still be able to protect their homeland. The British had no solution to this dire prospect; their only recourse was to relocate the headquarters of the British Indian government to the interior of northern India, thus distancing themselves from the Chinese.

Therefore, as Lin Xinyi pointed out to him, this war caused the Asian order to completely slip out of control. Britain could not even deal with the Chinese, let alone face the challenges of the Germans in Europe and the constant probing of the American Navy in the Atlantic. Therefore, the British needed the Anglo-Japanese Alliance more than Japan.

Japan and China should unite to continuously test Britain's limits, and then rebuild the East Asian order within Britain's bounds. This new East Asian order would not only abolish the various unequal treaties imposed on East Asian nations by European powers, but also re-establish the principles of East-West interaction, freeing Eastern nations from the realm of European colonization.

For Japan, the biggest advantage is that it can freely address the drawbacks of excessive centralization brought about by the unified national system, and promote the process of political democratization. While the unified national system highly concentrates administrative power, thereby greatly improving administrative efficiency, its biggest problem is that if the leader chooses the wrong direction, the entire country will head straight for disaster.

For example, Yamagata's current ideas, in Ito's view, are a kind of fanaticism. But what's worrying is that Yamagata can really turn this fanatical idea into the will of the nation. This is the fundamental reason why he leaned towards the Kuomintang after the Sino-Japanese War, trying to correct the drawbacks of the national unity system. In fact, he was not, as Yamagata imagined, misled by the ideals of political democracy, but rather believed that political democracy could put a steering wheel on the current national system, or at least a brake.

Outsiders often say he's too politically fickle, but Ito believes his political ideals have remained consistent; he simply prescribes different remedies for the ills of contemporary Japanese politics. During the overthrow of the shogunate, to dismantle the corrupt rule, it was natural to uphold the Emperor and expel foreigners. Seeing the world's progress, opening the country was inevitable. The various factions debating opening the country and expelling foreigners led to a desire for a unified national system. However, this unified system became a burden for Japan, making changing it the most pressing issue for the country.

Those outsiders only saw his fickleness, but not the reasons behind it, which greatly troubled Ito. In fact, since the deaths of Okubo and Kido, the only person he could discuss politics with was a young man. Others were either intimidated by his status as a senior figure and dared not speak freely, or lacked the insight to understand the issues he was thinking about. Only Hayashi Shinji, this young man, could always pinpoint the problems of the time, not only understanding his thoughts but also providing him with a lot of inspiration.

It's truly sad that even a close friend like Yamagata, with whom he's worked for decades, still doesn't understand what he truly wants. Ito Hirobumi also knows that Yamagata was stubborn in his youth, and in recent years has become even more obstinate; even an old friend like himself can't change the ideas that are already firmly ingrained in Yamagata's mind.

Therefore, he did not criticize Yamagata for imitating the ideas of European colonialism. After all, it took him a long time to accept Hayashi Shin-yi's persuasion, and he further confirmed Hayashi Shin-yi's correct views on the Korean issue. Otherwise, he would not have been able to completely abandon the worldview of learning from the West that he had been ingrained in him since his youth.

According to Lin Xinyi, European colonialism was essentially based on the history of the Crusades. Europeans conquered the non-Christian world outside Europe under the guise of missionary work, and ideologically gained the recognition of European Christian culture. Whether it was Protestant or Catholic, it was only meaningful in terms of the method of conquest, but there was no objection to the conquest itself.

As for Japan's so-called learning from Western colonialism, as an Eastern country with a non-Christian culture, European countries could not accept Japan's Shinto culture ideologically. In addition, given that Japan was not a white race, acknowledging Japan's conquest would mean that the Japanese massacre of Christian countries was also a legitimate act.

Therefore, colonial wars waged by non-European countries could neither gain the recognition of European countries nor incur the hatred of the colonized peoples, ultimately leading to Japan's isolation from the world. Hayashi Shin-yi also told a story about a bat that tried to gamble between birds and beasts, ultimately being seen as a traitor by both sides.

Ito Hirobumi did not initially fully agree with Hayashi Shin-yi's views. He felt that Hayashi Shin-yi was too idealistic. The Europeans he knew believed in Darwinism, and that the survival of the strong and the extinction of the weak was the truth of the world. How could Europeans criticize Japan for moral reasons? And how could those weaker nations expect Europeans, who were more ruthless than Japan, to uphold justice?

However, in North Korea, he truly experienced the reality that Lin Xinyi had pointed out: North Koreans actually believed that Americans and British could help them uphold justice, and although the US and British governments had given up their interests on the Korean Peninsula, ordinary Americans and British citizens refused to obey their own governments' promises and continued to help North Koreans resist Japanese rule.

North Korea's anti-Japanese propaganda was all under the protection of American businessmen and European churches. Japan, aside from lodging protests with various countries, could not directly target these foreigners for fear of diplomatic repercussions. In this way, these foreigners effectively possessed special power in North Korea, thus making North Koreans more inclined to align themselves with them.

In Korea, a conservative, traditional Confucian country, before Japanese control, Koreans generally kept their distance from all foreign religions and showed little affinity towards foreigners. However, after Japan entered the Korean Peninsula, the number of Koreans converting to Christianity suddenly increased, and there were also many voices advocating for establishing diplomatic relations with Western countries, bypassing Japan.

During the Sino-Japanese War, Koreans' support for the Japanese army was nowhere to be seen in Korea today. Conversely, Koreans who once viewed the Qing Dynasty as an oppressor are now beginning to reminisce about the Ming Dynasty's assistance to Korea in fighting against Japanese pirates. Behind these sentiments lies the fact that the Korean people now regard Japan as their primary enemy.

Ito Hirobumi sought to seize the position of the first Governor-General of Korea because he feared that if the army controlled the post, it would adopt the same hardline policies as in Taiwan, thereby angering the Korean people. Compared to Taiwan's population of only 250 million, the Korean Peninsula had ten times that number, and being connected to the mainland, Japan's rule in Korea could become the beginning of its decline if it attracted the attention of neighboring countries.

However, his assessment of the Korean character ultimately fell short of Hayashi Shin-yi's. A policy of appeasement could only gain acceptance of Japanese rule from a portion of the Korean gentry, not from all Koreans. Especially after the Resident-General's Office began consolidating Korean land, the yangban (aristocratic class) and peasants exhibited strong resistance. Korea was rapidly distancing itself from Japan; even those Korean elites who had attempted to learn from Japan's civilizing policies began abandoning Japan and turning to other countries.

After serving as Governor-General of Korea for nearly a year, Ito Hirobumi felt no sense of accomplishment. Instead, he increasingly sensed the growing resentment among the Korean people under Japanese rule towards resistance. The Korean people, who had previously viewed the Yangban (aristocratic class) and the royal family as pests, were now clamoring for the royal family and Yangban to lead the resistance against Japan.

The result of Japan's rule over Korea over the past year was the bridging of social contradictions and divisions within Korea, creating a unified Korean nation with a strong anti-Japanese consciousness. However, the Korean king was too selfish; his hatred for Japan did not outweigh his fear of the righteous armies in the north who were revolting and dividing the land among the landlords. Therefore, he failed to unite the anti-Japanese forces in both North and South Korea.

The anti-Japanese forces in southern Korea, advocating for the monarchy, and the Democratic Revolutionary Alliance in northern Korea could not agree on the issue of dealing with landlords, thus giving Japan the opportunity to divide, encircle, and suppress the anti-Japanese forces in both the north and south. Northern Korea is mostly mountainous, and although the Democratic Revolutionary Alliance could effectively outmaneuver the Japanese army, the north's economy was too weak and could only survive by relying on external supplies. Southern Korea, on the other hand, is mostly plains and agricultural areas, which were also key areas for the Japanese army to control and eliminate anti-Japanese armed forces.

Therefore, although Japan nominally controlled the Korean Peninsula, its actual control was limited to the southern and northern coastal plains; it couldn't penetrate the mountainous areas at all. Ito Hirobumi sensed that the Korean anti-Japanese movement was escalating, and Japan would not only be unable to gain any benefits from Korea but would also have to send supplies from its own mainland to Korea to suppress the Korean resistance. His worst fears came true; even though he seized the position of Governor-General of Korea from the army, he couldn't prevent this worst-case scenario from unfolding, and Hayashi Nobuyoshi's prediction had become reality.

Chapter 675

Chapter 675

After much deliberation, Ito Hirobumi finally steered the conversation back to the main topic. He cleared his throat and said to Yamagata, "You should know why I'm here. I made it very clear when I came to see you last time. Do you still not want to respond?"

Yamagata's attention immediately focused. He looked at Ito warily, and after a few moments of contemplation, he complained with a hint of dissatisfaction: "In order to defend the security of the empire, the army needs to risk their lives on the battlefield and fight against powerful enemies."

After winning the war, they now want to strip these meritorious officials of their military status, claiming the country can't afford to support so many soldiers. This decision is incomprehensible not only to the officers and soldiers below, but also to me. Does this mean the empire's future security will depend on politicians who treat the army as the enemy?

I cannot agree with the plan to reduce the army's size. The 19th Division is the army's bottom line; there is no such thing as a 17th Division.

Ito knew that the hint of dissatisfaction in Yamagata's tone was not directed at him, but rather a way to get him to relay his dissatisfaction back to the palace.

Logically, he should have followed Yamagata's wishes, relayed the army's dissatisfaction to His Majesty, and then persuaded His Majesty to accept the army's position in order to ensure the army's support for the government.

The army's stance was so important to the government because the Meiji Restoration policy could only be sustained through the brutal exploitation of farmers.

Before the Sino-Japanese War, Japan's fiscal revenue was approximately 5700 million taels of silver, with land tax accounting for 75.2%, or about 4275 million taels. In contrast, the Qing Dynasty's fiscal revenue was 8900 million taels, with land tax amounting to only 3300 million taels. Japan's arable land area was actually only 6% of China's, which meant that Japanese farmers paid more than ten times the taxes of Chinese farmers.

Of course, in reality, the degree of exploitation suffered by farmers in the two countries is not that different, because Japan levies taxes based on land, and those without land do not have to bear such a heavy land tax, while China transfers a large amount of tax revenue to self-cultivating farmers and tenant farmers.

However, even when comparing actual tax payments, Japanese farmers pay at least three times more taxes than Chinese farmers.

In this context, the number of peasant uprisings in the early Meiji period exceeded the number of peasant uprisings during the 200-year rule of the Tokugawa Shogunate.

So how did the Meiji Restoration government of Japan survive? The answer is the support from the military.

The government spared no effort in winning over the military. When Saigo led more than 600 officers to resign in Meiji 6, the government immediately increased military spending to 17.1% of fiscal revenue. Ten years later, military spending doubled to 23.5% of fiscal revenue. By the time the Sino-Japanese War broke out, military spending had reached 27% of fiscal revenue that year. The Treaty of Shimonoseki required Qing China to pay 2.315 million taels of silver in a one-time indemnity. After deducting war expenses, Japan netted nearly four years' worth of fiscal revenue, which greatly eased domestic social tensions.

Therefore, the Meiji government actually relied on the military rather than officials to govern the country, which was also the key reason why the feudal lords, who represented the military, were unwilling to relinquish power.

After all, this country was established under the strong suppression of the army. Now that the peasants want to take over the power of the country through parliamentary elections, how can the warlords accept this?

Yamagata's expression of dissatisfaction actually represented the military's discontent with the current government's decisions, demanding that the Emperor clarify his stance in order to resolve the conflict between the military and the government.

The so-called common sense is that governments that want to reduce military spending are usually those who sympathize with the political parties in parliament or government, and the army's cabinet is unlikely to support cutting military spending.

The problem is that this cabinet was also established by the military, albeit a naval one. Yamagata's discontent doesn't represent the will of the entire military, but only the army's position. Under these circumstances, Itō naturally wouldn't follow Yamagata's plan.

Ito remained silent for a few seconds before taking a document from his briefcase and pushing it in front of Yamagata, saying, "This is Prime Minister Yamamoto's governing strategy for this cabinet, which he submitted to His Majesty. His Majesty asked me to bring it to you for your perusal and to offer some feedback."

Yamagata Aritomo observed Ito's expression for a moment before hesitantly picking up the document in front of him and beginning to read it. The small tea room quickly fell silent, with only the sound of the wind outside and the rustling of the paper being turned. From the fact that Yamagata was turning the pages more slowly, Ito knew that Yamagata must have understood the contents of the document.

Sure enough, a moment later Yamagata angrily threw down the document and said, "Shouldn't such a major national policy as foreign policy be consulted with the elders before being submitted to His Majesty? What is Yamamoto trying to do by submitting this directly to His Majesty? Is he planning to bypass the elders and establish a dictatorship?"

Yamagata actually had something even more infuriating, but he couldn't say it on this occasion: the East Asian security cooperation mechanism advocated by Yamamoto had not been formally discussed by the Navy and the Army at all. If His Majesty approved this document, it would be tantamount to the Navy making a new defense policy for the Army, which was simply a provocation against the Army.

However, Ito was not a member of the military, so Yamagata could not complain about this in front of him. After all, the problems of the military should be resolved internally by the army and navy, and political forces should not be allowed to interfere, otherwise the military's independent status would be broken.

Ito didn't share Yamagata's direct experience, although he knew that this document would inevitably cause dissatisfaction among the army, because the navy had almost unified diplomatic, defense, and economic issues into a single approach, which meant that others could only follow the navy's line of thinking and could not put forward their own opinions within this approach.

It's understandable that the Army is angry. After all, the Army's position has never been threatened like this before. Other groups have always compromised with the Army's demands. In fact, other political groups have been compromising with the military in their struggles, which has become a kind of inertia. Although they may have some opinions about the plan, they will eventually succumb to the general trend.

Therefore, he overlooked Yamagata's anger towards the navy. However, even if he knew this, he wouldn't take it to heart, because the discord between the army and navy was exactly what he wanted to see. Otherwise, he wouldn't have supported Saigo in separating the navy from the army and navy. The mutual restraint between the army and navy was the key to maintaining national stability.

Therefore, Ito observed Yamagata's expression and further explained the Imperial Household's position: "Strictly speaking, Prime Minister Yamamoto did not break the rules of politics. He merely informed His Majesty of his ideas on how to govern during his term, rather than submitting a new diplomatic policy of the cabinet to His Majesty. Since it was not a new diplomatic policy, there was naturally no need to inform the elders first."

In fact, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is currently unaware of Prime Minister Yamamoto's diplomatic strategy, and they are still striving to uphold the diplomatic policies left behind by Komura and others. This includes ensuring the Empire's control over the Korean Peninsula and exerting influence over Manchuria and coastal regions.

This old imperial foreign policy led to a border confrontation between the empire and China and the Republic of Chita, which is also the root cause of the ongoing instability in the northern mountainous region of North Korea.

Therefore, if Prime Minister Yamamoto truly intended to act unilaterally in foreign policy, he wouldn't have first presented his ideas to the Imperial Household Department. Instead, he would have made de facto adjustments to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' foreign policy, establishing them as a fait accompli before submitting a report to His Majesty. In that case, the elder statesmen would naturally be excluded from discussions on foreign policy. Your anger over this is truly unnecessary.”

Yamagata stared at Ito, his face contorted with anger, and said, “Unnecessary? If His Majesty hadn’t approved this plan, would you have brought it to me? Is my opinion still important now? I don’t believe you can’t see that this diplomatic plan has essentially interfered with the direction of the Empire’s defense policy and is an overreach of government authority over military affairs. How can the Army accept such a government decision imposed upon it?”

Ito was momentarily speechless, not because he had nothing to say, but because he didn't know how to explain Yamagata's logic.

Every country's foreign policy needs to be coordinated with its defense policy. A foreign policy without the coordination of a defense policy simply cannot be implemented. For example, the army, in order to launch an operation against Russia, worked with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to promote the establishment of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, which is an example of the defense policy interfering with the foreign policy.

In fact, Ito opposed both the establishment of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance and the war against Russia. Even Yamagata himself was not very determined to go down this path. However, the mainstream of the military supported going to war with Russia, and in the end, the diplomatic policy compromised with the defense policy.

It makes no sense that defense policy can demand cooperation from diplomatic policy, but refuses to allow diplomatic policy to demand cooperation from defense policy; this is simply a dishonest act.

Of course, the army's blockheads wouldn't consider whether such double standards are reasonable; they only know that such double standards have existed in the past and should naturally continue to exist in the future.

However, in the past, the government compromised with the military because it could not maintain its rule without the army. Now, Japan has initially resolved the crisis of national subjugation through two world wars. At this time, everyone believes that easing domestic conflicts is more important than continuing to strengthen the military. It is time for the military to make concessions to the government.

However, it is clear that the Japanese military, which claims to be the national army, does not place the interests of the military below those of the nation. The military still wants to maintain the national policy of prioritizing military affairs. Therefore, Yamagata was able to say so naturally and without contradiction that the government cannot impose its policies on the military.

In this situation, Ito knew that it would be futile to talk to Yamagata about Western political common sense, because Yamagata simply did not recognize these Western political rules. After all, Yamagata advocated the theory of Japanese exceptionalism, so Japan would not be bound by so-called Western political principles. This meant that Ito could not persuade the other party with the fundamental principles of Western legal systems.

Calming himself down, Ito finally spoke: "His Majesty once highly praised an article, titled 'Benevolence and Courtesy.' Do you remember it?"

Yamagata was silent for a moment, then nodded and said, "Yes, I remember this article was written by the Navy, right? It does cater to some of His Majesty's ideas, but what does that have to do with the issue we are discussing now? You're not telling me that this document was written by the author of Renhe Li, are you? Even if that's the case, it only shows that His Majesty values ​​this person, and it has nothing to do with today's events."

Yamagata actually suspected that the document Yamamoto submitted to His Majesty was written by Hayashi Shin-yi. After conducting a thorough investigation of Hayashi Shin-yi, he naturally remembered that the other party was also the author of the article "Rin-wa Rei" (仁和礼), which allowed Hayashi Shin-yi to receive a medal before graduating from the Naval Academy.

Yamagata also understands why Emperor Meiji liked the article "Ninwa Rei" (仁和礼). This article advocated a harmonious order under the emperor's rule, not only for the domestic situation but also implicitly suggesting that he should replace the Chinese emperor as the supreme ruler of Asia.

For soldiers, reform was for strengthening the army; for the people, reform was for enriching the country; but for Your Majesty, what matters is order, not reform.

After the country opened its doors, Western history was introduced into the country. The French Revolution beheaded Louis XVI, and Cromwell beheaded the King of England. Therefore, His Majesty was actually very wary of reform, fearing that a Napoleon or Cromwell might emerge in the country, or even worse, a Parisian mob-style revolution.

The reason why Hayashi Nobuyoshi was able to gain the Emperor's approval with such an article was not only because the ideas in the article were very much in line with His Majesty's ideas on governing the country, but also, most importantly, because of Hayashi Nobuyoshi's status as a naval cadet. A naval cadet who believed that order was more important than a strong military was naturally more conducive to His Majesty's control over the army. This is why Hayashi Nobuyoshi's article was selected as a textbook for the Gakushuin Academy. His Majesty used this to express his expectations for the army and his desire to restrain the army's desire for war.

If Hayashi Nobuyoshi had only written this article and hadn't done what followed, then the key point of the matter was that the Emperor had selected promising young talents for the navy, thereby clarifying his views on the military. If Hayashi Nobuyoshi had later achieved success, this would have been a celebrated story of Emperor Meiji's discerning eye for talent.

However, Hayashi Nobuyoshi clearly didn't follow this popular storyline. Before being given priority training by the navy, he chose a path of independent development and successfully gained the recognition of the navy. At this point, everyone forgot that Hayashi Nobuyoshi had once gained the Emperor's approval with an article, and only focused on what he had done for the navy.

For example, when Ito mentioned the article "Ninwa Rei", the first thought that came to Yamagata's mind was that it was written by Hayashi Nobuyoshi of the Navy, not by Hayashi Nobuyoshi, the young officer appreciated by His Majesty.

Itō was quite surprised by Yamagata's vigilance, as he rarely saw Yamagata show such vigilance towards people outside his own generation. This actually meant that Hayashi Shinji had made Yamagata feel a certain threat, which was why Yamagata was taking it so seriously.

During his year away from Tokyo, Ito felt that Tokyo's politics had undergone new changes, which made him consider resigning from his position as Governor-General of Korea. After realizing that he could not convince the Koreans to truly accept the idea of ​​Japan-Korea annexation, Ito thought about leaving Korea and returning to the central government. After all, his political influence came from Tokyo, not from the position of Governor-General of Korea. Since he could not prove his political ideals through Japan-Korea annexation, leaving Korea to preserve his reputation was the best option.

These thoughts flashed through Ito's mind, but he quickly gathered his attention and focused on Yamagata, saying, "What I want to talk about is the article itself, not the author."

As you probably know, for thousands of years, East Asia has maintained a stable order: the Chinese system of "all under heaven," with the Chinese emperor as the ruler of the world, and all other nations outside of China as the emperor's vassals. The Mongol Yuan and Manchu Qing dynasties undermined the legitimacy of this system because they were of non-Han descent, not of the Chinese emperor's bloodline.

Through the two Opium Wars, European powers completely defeated the Qing Dynasty, the suzerain state of China. As a result, the already illegitimate Chinese empire disintegrated, which is the fundamental reason why Korea, rather than the Qing Dynasty, assisted my country in the Sino-Japanese War.

The result of the Sino-Japanese War was the complete disintegration of the old order in East Asia and the beginning of the establishment of a diplomatic system centered on Europe. This is also the origin of the Chinese slogan of "leaving Asia and joining Europe".

Simply put, the Chinese world order has disintegrated, and the traditional East Asian order no longer exists. If my country does not join the European-centered world treaty diplomatic system, it will be isolated from the world. my country's national strength is not enough to resist the power of an entire treaty world. This is the origin of the Chinese diplomats' advocacy of "leaving Asia and joining Europe".

The merit of Renhe Li's article lies in its proposal to establish a new East Asian order centered on Japan. This new order would restore the original Chinese-led world order and create a self-protective situation against the European-centered treaty system.

If this new East Asian order can be successfully established, then we will no longer need to shout about leaving Asia and joining Europe, because we ourselves are part of the new world order.

The diplomatic policy proposed by Prime Minister Yamamoto was essentially a further concrete measure for this new East Asian order. Although Yamamoto put forward new ideas on the Imperial Defense Policy, as a former Minister of the Navy, I do not believe that Prime Minister Yamamoto overstepped his bounds. This plan actually shows that Prime Minister Yamamoto integrated political and military strategies, rather than political strategy suppressing military strategy.

His Majesty also believes that the East Asian security cooperation mechanism established with Japan and China at its core has not only eliminated the confrontation between Japan and China, but also provided a solid foundation for the establishment of a new order in East Asia.

In a world rife with conflict, maintaining peace in East Asia would be highly beneficial for Japan…

Chapter 676

Chapter 676

　Hirobumi Ito's sudden attack caught Yamagata off guard. When he read the document, he only thought that the navy was up to something. In fact, by the end of the war, there had been a clear divergence between the army and navy on national security strategies.

Before the Sino-Japanese War and its outcome, Japan faced pressure from both land and sea. At sea, it faced European powers such as Britain and the United States, while on land, it faced Qing China and Russia. Comparatively, the pressure from land was greater than the threat from sea.

After all, Western countries are far from East Asia. Even if they wanted to occupy Japan, they would need to consider the input and output. However, for their land neighbors, even if they didn't target the Japanese archipelago, simply isolating Japan from the mainland would deprive Japan of any possibility of development. Japan is a densely populated island nation with scarce resources and prone to geological disasters, a fact acknowledged by all countries. Therefore, after the United States opened Japan's doors, it only wanted to gain some commercial benefits and had no intention of occupying Japan.

The Japanese initially talked about expelling the barbarians, but later advocated opening the country. On the one hand, they saw the huge gap in national power between Japan and European countries, and on the other hand, in the process of learning industrialization from Europe, the Japanese realized that their homeland lacked high-quality iron ore, which is the most important resource for industrialization.

European industrial civilization was built on iron and coal. Kyushu Island has some decent coal mines, but Japan doesn't have a single iron ore mine that can meet the needs of industrialization. The initial failure of Japanese investment in the steel industry was because the Japanese wanted to achieve a self-sufficient economy and tried to find an iron ore mine on their own soil for steelmaking. As a result, they discovered that Japan's iron ore mines couldn't even meet the needs of small steel mills with an annual output of a few thousand tons.

The industrial model of establishing factories near resource-rich areas proved unworkable in Japan because Japan's domestic resources were not abundant enough. As a result, the pro-open-door policymakers gained further support and became active expansionists. The essence of this expansionism was that Japan's industrialization required resources from overseas, so Japan needed to expand overseas as quickly as possible to acquire resources and markets.

By the end of the 19th century, most European countries had basically completed their initial industrial base. When industrial civilization spread to East Asia, all the stateless territories in the world that could be colonized had already been divided up by European powers. The remaining colonizable targets were countries composed of weak ethnic groups. Although weak, they had their own culture and governance system. At this time, Japan could only reach its neighbors on the East Asian continent.

For example, the Joseon Kingdom may appear to be an independent country, but it has always been a member of the Chinese system and was protected by the Chinese emperor. Especially since the Ming Dynasty, the tributary relationship between Joseon and China has been even closer. If the Manchus had not been a dynasty established by non-Han people, Joseon would actually have been more willing to unite with China.

Before the Sino-Japanese War, some yangban (aristocratic families) in the Joseon Kingdom were also advocating for the unification of China and Korea, and had the support of Yuan Shikai. However, the anti-Qing tradition in Korea since the late Ming Dynasty, coupled with the fact that some Korean elites saw the huge changes after the Meiji Restoration in Japan, and the fact that the Joseon royal family was unwilling to lose its power, gave Japan the opportunity to launch the war.

Therefore, Japan's slogan when launching the war was not to seize Korea from Chinese rule, but to support the Korean Kingdom's independence from Manchu rule. This gave the Koreans the opportunity to introduce Russian influence into the peninsula to counter Japan. Even Japan, which had just defeated the Qing Dynasty in the war, was unable to annex the entire Korean Peninsula at that time and had to grant the Korean Kingdom considerable autonomy.

From the Sino-Japanese War to the end of this war, Japan was the weaker party in its East Asian neighbors, China and Russia. The gap in national power between Japan and these two neighbors was enormous, with Japan only possessing a certain degree of military capability. Faced with these two neighboring powers, cooperation between the army and navy naturally outweighed differences. Whether in continental or maritime policy, Japan's survival was paramount; a dead Japan cannot be discussed in terms of defense policy.

However, after this war, both China's and Russia's naval forces were defeated by Japan. Russia couldn't even fully preserve its Far Eastern territories. At this point, Japan's national defense and security situation improved significantly, and the threat from land was largely eliminated. As a result, a clear divergence emerged in the strategic directions of the army and navy.

Frankly speaking, the sudden escalation of the differences between the army and the navy was inseparable from Japan's unexpected great victory in this operation. Before the outbreak of the war, Japan never thought that the navy could annihilate the main force of the Russian navy with almost no losses. The original plan before the war was that the navy would sacrifice itself to gain control of the sea in East Asia, and then the army would fight the Russian army with all its might on land, forcing Russia to recognize Japan's special status on the Korean Peninsula.

However, the situation is now quite the opposite. Although the army has won several battles on land, none of them have forced the Russian army to give up the war. On the contrary, the Chinese surprise attack on the Trans-Siberian Railway line has completely demoralized the Russian Far East Corps. At sea, the Japanese navy, which originally intended to perish together with the Russian navy, has achieved a brilliant victory. Even the British have commented that the Royal Navy is no match for them.

The outcome of this war completely reversed the balance of power between the army and navy within the military. The navy believed that the victory was mainly due to the annihilation of the main Russian naval force in the naval battle; otherwise, the army would have been unable to defeat the main Russian Far East forces occupying northern Manchuria. Moreover, although the navy achieved a great victory at sea, its strength was not significantly diminished. In contrast, while the army achieved some results on land, its losses in personnel and supplies were also staggering. This led the navy to question the army's strategic vision.

Given the outcome of the war, the army's advocacy for continued expansion into the mainland, attempting to bring Manchuria, Mongolia, and the Russian Far East under Japanese rule, was clearly unconvincing to the navy, which believed the army lacked the capability. Although the Russian Far East forces were nearly annihilated, the war also gave China a glimmer of hope for recovery. At least the Chinese troops advancing from Inner Mongolia to Outer Mongolia were no less formidable than the Russian army, and were unlike the cowardly Qing army.

Therefore, the Navy's main question about the Army's continental policy was that since the Army could not even achieve its pre-war strategic goal of annihilating the main force of the Russian Far East Army and forcing Russia to sue for peace, what made the Army believe that it could defeat a resurgent traditional land hegemon in East Asia and thus bring Manchuria and Mongolia under Japanese rule?

Historically in China, every new dynasty established through war has had a strong desire to control its northern territories. Apart from the Song Dynasty, which was founded by a rebellion of the imperial guards, no other legitimate Chinese dynasty has ever lost its influence over the Manchurian and Mongol regions. For the Central Plains dynasties, the area within the Great Wall was their core territory, while the Manchurian and Mongol regions were frontier areas that transcended the status of outer vassal states, holding a higher position than Xinjiang, Tibet, and the Three Xuan and Six Wei regions.

A declining Qing dynasty might reluctantly accept Japanese influence in Manchuria and Mongolia, but a resurgent continental power could not tolerate Japan extending its influence into its border regions—this was the lifeline theory that the army itself adhered to. In other words, the army's ambitions in Manchuria and Mongolia would inevitably provoke a confrontation between a resurgent China and Japan.