In June 1870, a well-known diplomatic conflict occurred in China, the Tianjin Teaching Case. Because of the negative impact of dealing with this lesson case, Zeng Guofan's reputation and career began to decline. Considering the boiling public discontent, the imperial court decided to let his student Li Hongzhang take over the case. Zeng was discouraged and died in Nanjing more than a year later. The Qing Empire entered the era of Li Hongzhang's diplomacy. Of course, all this is seen by Japan, which is only a sea away from China. At this time, Japan's Meiji Restoration was in its third year.
Take the initiative to revise the contract: fool Li Hongzhang
In order to get rid of Japan's bullying by foreign powers, Emperor Meiji never forgot the grand wish he made when he ascended the throne three years ago: "open up thousands of miles of waves" and "proclaim the prestige of the country in all directions." How can we achieve this? "If we lose Europe, we will take Asia," and we should first become an Asian power and dominate Asia. This was the origin of modern Japan's continental policy.
The persimmon is pinched softly first, and Japan at this time did not dare to talk to China with a "fist". Therefore, the Meiji government planned to first control the vassal states of the Qing Empire, Korea and the Ryukyus, to increase national strength, and then call China. At the end of 1868, Emperor Meiji sent an envoy to Korea with a "national letter" to declare that he wanted to establish diplomatic relations. As a result, touched a nose of ash. The reason is simple, because the Japanese "national letters" contain the words "emperor" and "敕", and according to Joseon's rebuttal to Japan, these words were only eligible to be used by Qing emperors.
When the news reached Japan, the reformists were very annoyed, and they quickly set off a "conquest of Korea" (invasion of Korea) in Japan, and the loudest shout was Kido Takayoshi (known as the "Three Heroes of the Meiji Restoration" along with Saigo Takamori and Okubo Toshimitsu). However, if we want to pry open the door of the DPRK by force, we must first ask the "suzerain" whether it will agree. So Japan turned its attention to China. To this end, at the beginning of 1870, the Japanese foreign affairs department established the principle of Korea: "After signing a contract with the Qing government first, and after the Japanese and Qing are equal, Korea will naturally retreat to the lower position, return from China, pass by the Joseon royal city, and then sign the Japan-Korea treaty." The so-called strategy of distant friendship and close attack was used to make it impossible for the Qing court to assist Korea. This is the purpose of the Meiji government's proposal to establish diplomatic relations with China, and it also means the launch of its mainland policy.
In August and September 1870, because of the Tianjin teaching case, China's people's hearts fluctuated, and the imperial court was also anxious about it. Seeing this opportunity, Japan sent Yanagihara Maemitsu, a high-ranking foreign minister, to China, saying that it wanted to sign a treaty of trade with the Qing government, but in fact it was to explore the possibility of signing a treaty. The arrival of Yanagihara Maeguang caused a lot of discussion among the Qing government. Although China was vulnerable in the war with the Western powers, ceding land and paying reparations, the emaciated camel was bigger than the horse, and Japan was not qualified to sit on an equal footing with China, let alone bargain for a treaty. At that time, Yinghan, the governor of Anhui, was the first to stand up against it, and in his words, Japan was a small country with only the share of tribute and submission.
In view of this, the Prime Minister's Yamen for National Affairs (hereinafter referred to as the "Prime Minister's Yamen"), which is in charge of foreign affairs, rejected Japan's request on the grounds that trade between China and Japan had already been established. Yanagihara Maeguang did not give up, and ran to Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang and other places to lobby for the importance of signing the contract.
At Li Hongzhang's place, Yanagihara used both soft and hard: "Britain, France, and the United States are strong in trade with the mainland, and I am unwilling, and it is difficult to resist alone...... However, the mainland is the closest to China, and it is advisable to get along first, so as to work together. He also hinted that if China did not agree to sign the contract, Japan would ask the Great Powers to help.
When it comes to uniting against the great powers, it really hits Li Hongzhang's soft underbelly. He believes that this is a good solution, "even if you can't rely on foreign aid, you can still get in touch with each other." Therefore, he vigorously instigated Prime Minister Yamen to agree to sign a contract with Japan, "enveloping it or using it for my use, and if it refuses, it will be my enemy." I did not know that not long ago, on behalf of the Meiji government, Okubo Toshitsu flattered the British and French envoys stationed in Japan on the Tianjin teaching plan: If Britain and France send troops to China, Japan is willing to help them with food and salaries. Prime Minister Yamen finally adopted Li Hongzhang's opinion, played the Qing Emperor and was approved.
In July 1871, Japan sent Date Sojo, the secretary in charge of finance, to Tianjin to begin negotiations with Li Hongzhang on the signing of the agreement. As a result, the treaty plan proposed by the Japanese was based on the Sino-German treaty, which not only had a clause of "equal dispersion" but also attempted to obtain all the rights obtained by the Western powers in China. This greatly surprised and angered the Qing government.
After several consultations, the two sides finally reached an agreement on the basis of China's plan and initialed two treaties, the "Sino-Japanese Treaty of Reconciliation" and the "Sino-Japanese Trade Charter." This is the first treaty signed by China on the basis of so-called equality in modern times. However, this is more meaningful for Japan: Japan has succeeded in achieving its coveted reciprocal status with China. As a result, it has achieved a nominal superiority over North Korea.
Invasion of Taiwan in disguise: killing two birds with one stone
Because the Sino-Japanese Treaty of Reconciliation was signed in the version provided by China, the Meiji government, which was so displeased with the intentions, that Date Munejo, who had come to negotiate with China, was dismissed after returning to Japan. So, they fantasize about changing all the time.
Less than half a year, in December 1871, Japan found an excuse to stir up trouble. At that time, 66 Ryukyuan people who had come to China to pay tribute and trade were caught in a hurricane on their way back to China, and their ships drifted to Taiwan, and the Taiwanese Gaoshan tribe mistakenly believed that it was an enemy invasion and killed 54 of them by mistake. When the Qing government heard of the incident, it protected and compensated the 12 people who had escaped, and sent them back to the Ryukyus. However, when Japan got the news, it insisted that the Ryukyuan people were Japanese nationals and wanted to avenge them.
In October 1872, Japan openly declared Ryukyu a vassal state of Japan in order to make its name known. The Qing government did not react to Japan's move at the time, and Japan did not inform the Qing government.
In November 1873, the Japanese Foreign Secretary Vice-Minister Tanetomi Shima and Deputy Envoy Yanagihara Maemitsu came to China to congratulate Emperor Tongzhi on his pro-government, so as to test China's attitude and formulate a plan to invade Taiwan by force. When he was talking with Li Hongzhang in Tianjin, he deliberately only involved North Korea, but he ordered Yanagihara to go to the Prime Minister's Yamen to negotiate the killing of the Ryukyu people. Mao Changzhao, the prime minister's minister of the Yamen, replied: "The murderers are all born to the Tibetan (Taiwanese Gaoshan tribe who do not obey the Qing government), so they are left out of it." Yanagihara Maemitsu took out the word "put it out of context" and told Prime Minister Yamen: If your country does not govern Tibet, Japan will punish the islanders. Therefore, the argument of "people from outside the world" has become a pretext and basis for Japan to send troops to Taiwan.
At that time, a riot broke out in Japan in which lower-ranking samurai forced the government to invade Taiwan and conquer Korea, and Emperor Meiji instructed Secretary of the Interior Okubo Toshitsu and Secretary of Treasury Shigenobu Okuma to study and evaluate the attack on Taiwan. Based on this, the two drew up a nine-point "Outline for the Disposal of Taiwan's Tibetan Land", the core content of which is how to invade Taiwan.
At the same time, US Minister to Japan de Lang instigated that "the Japanese Government is hostile to each other with the Chinese and Korean governments" and recommended American Lee Sende as an adviser to take part in the invasion of Taiwan and create conditions for the United States to control Taiwan in the future. Based on Li Xiande's suggestion, Okubo Ritsu vigorously instigated the government to requisition Taiwan. As a matter of fact, from the beginning of the invasion of Taiwan to the Sino-Japanese War, the United States has always been an accomplice in Japan's aggression against China.
In April 1874, Japan had already formed a 3,600-strong invasion force against Taiwan, and Saigo was appointed as the "Governor of Taiwan's Tibetan Affairs", with Li Xiande as an adviser, and rented an American ship to transport troops. While ordering the army to be deployed on 2 May, Japan sent Yanagihara Maemitsu to China to "explain" that Taiwan had "no hostile intentions" toward China.
The Qing government still received news from the British minister to China, Witterma, that Japanese soldiers had invaded Taiwan. Later facts proved that the Sino-Japanese negotiations on the issue of the Japanese invasion of Taiwan were carried out precisely when the Japanese army relied on force and the Qing government wanted to extricate itself from the crisis of war by "following the treaty."
At a time when Prime Minister Yamen "did not dare to be convinced," the vanguard of the Japanese army had already landed in Taiwan and conducted pre-war reconnaissance. Seeing that the Qing government was not aware of the actions of the Japanese troops invading Taiwan by 11 May, the Japanese Government believed that this was an opportunity to implement the established delaying measures. It was not until 29 May that the Qing government felt that the situation was serious, and decided that Li Hongzhang would be in charge of diplomatic representations and Shen Baozhen would be in charge of leading troops to Taiwan.
Besides, the Japanese invasion of Taiwan, since the landing of Sheliao in Taiwan, has not been bargained, first met with strong resistance from the Gaoshan anti-Japanese faction, and later, the invasion of Taiwan broke out of the epidemic, coupled with the arrival of the troops led by Shen Baozhen, Saigo Congdao, who was full of ambition at this time, only hoped that the Japanese government would withdraw its troops as soon as possible.
In July, Emperor Meiji sent Yanagihara Maemitsu to Beijing to negotiate. The main purpose was to seek compensation for the cost of the army and the ownership of the occupied land. Japan hopes to take this opportunity to "sever the ties between the two Ryukyus." After Li Hongzhang met Yanagihara Maemitsu in Tianjin, he criticized Japan's breach of contract: "On the one hand, we sent troops to our territory, and on the other hand, we called people to make peace, and we talked about reconciliation and did not do anything to make peace." "Negotiations between the two sides have reached an impasse.
In fact, the Japanese also know that now is not the time to tear their faces with China. In August, Japan appointed Okubo Toshitsu, who was the main warlord, as a special envoy to China to make representations in order to intimidate and engage in diplomatic blackmail in order to expand the war and demand that the Qing government give up its sovereignty over the eastern territory of Taiwan. This time, the Qing government chose to spend money to eliminate the disaster. However, Japan asked for 2 million taels of silver, but the Qing government refused to accept it. Negotiations are again at an impasse.
Later, Li Hongzhang remembered the old method: let the foreign powers intervene to mediate. At this time, the British minister to China, Wittoma, stood up, but he was just "pulling the sidelines". Okubo Ritsu paid a special night visit to Wittoma. "The most taboo thing for the Chinese government is the issue of the name of the money," he said. Okubo said, "I understand." In the end, the Qing government decided to pay 500,000 taels of silver to Japan.
In October 1874, China and Japan signed the "Beijing Article" in Beijing on the invasion of Taiwan, acknowledging that Japan's dispatch of troops to Taiwan was a "righteous act to protect the people" and that "China does not refer to it as a no." Not only that, but the treaty also said that "Taiwan's 'Shengbo' had wantonly harmed Japan's vassals," which was tantamount to tacitly acquiescing that Ryukyu was Japan's territory, leaving endless troubles for future Sino-Japanese negotiations. Of course, the Qing government also had to pay 100,000 taels of money to the "Home of Former Japanese Refugees" and 400,000 taels to compensate Japan for the cost of "repairing roads and building houses" in Taiwan.
On the second day of the signing, Okubo Ritsu left Beijing for Shanghai, took 100,000 taels of silver from the Shanghai customs and brought it to Taiwan, and discussed the withdrawal of troops with Saigo Komichi. Okubo's diplomatic activities were warmly praised in Japan.
After the Meiji Restoration, the first negotiations between China and Japan ended with China's defeat.
Japan's invasion of Taiwan and the results of its handling have caused great damage to China. One is to push the Ryukyus to Japan; The second is to let the whole world see that a small country like Japan can openly launch aggression against China. The British, Leo Culk, said the event "advertised to the world that there was a rich empire here that was willing to pay but not to war." After this incident, Li Hongzhang also embarrassedly realized that Japan "serves me falsely and truthfully, and sincerity is an eternal great trouble for China." Japan sent troops to Taiwan and succeeded by chance, which gave rise to a trend of "contempt for China" in its country. In February 1875, Japan's Shimbun magazine published a report entitled "The Great Success of the Taiwan Incident," in which it said, "The Pigtail Slave (contemptuously known as China) finally gave in. More than 400 states have been in the bag, and Prince Gong and Li Hongzhang are like children, so there is nothing to be afraid of", and as for the Qing Dynasty's compensation, it was said that "this matter has caused it to lose its (Asian) first name and lose face in front of other countries".
Annexation of the Ryukyus: Calling for China
Japan's invasion of Taiwan was originally a plan to kill two birds with one stone, and while invading Taiwan, it was also looking for a "basis" for annexing the Ryukyus. Before the ink was dry, Japan immediately attacked China on the Ryukyu issue.
In May 1875, Japan sent troops to the Ryukyus and proposed to the Ryukyu King Shotai that from now on he would not be allowed to pay tribute to China and be canonized by the Qing emperor; It is necessary to accept the title of Emperor Meiji, use the name of the Meiji era, and practice Japanese etiquette, criminal law, etc. As a vassal state of China, Ryukyu had always accepted the canonization of China, and now Japan suddenly brought troops to issue such a threat, and Shotai said that he could not accept it.
In order to force the Ryukyu king to submit, the Japanese side often resorted to intimidation. According to the "Ryukyu Experience", during the negotiations with the Ryukyuan people, Michiyuki Matsuda, the Japanese chief of internal affairs, "shouted angrily and was extremely harsh, as if he were a three-foot child." Moreover, because the two sides could not reach a consensus, Matsuda Michiyuki often did not allow the Ryukyu officials to rest, and this arrogant and unreasonable attitude caused the Ryukyu officials participating in the negotiations to be "mentally sleepy, physically exhausted, drunk, and pale, and could only sigh."
In the face of Japan's arrogance, the Ryukyu King Shotai had no choice but to turn to China for help, and in October 1876, he sent his envoy Hayashi Shigong and his courtier Xiang Tokuhiro and others to China secretly on a small boat. However, due to the fact that the boat was sailing against the wind, it had to evade Japanese surveillance on the way, and it was not until the end of April 1877 that it arrived in Fujian.
The situation of the Ryukyus and the letter of distress were reported to the Prime Minister Yamen by He Jing, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, but the Prime Minister Yamen was cautious about whether to help the Ryukyus relieve the crisis, because the Qing government was already afraid of Japan because of the previous Japanese invasion of Taiwan.
In November of that year, China sent Minister He Ruzhang, Deputy Envoy Zhang Sigui, and Counselor Huang Zunxian to Japan for the first time. As soon as He Ruzhang arrived in Japan, Ryukyu officials secretly asked for an interview. Through understanding, He Ruzhang understood the sinister intentions of the Japanese, so he immediately wrote a report and suggestions for dealing with it in China.
In the report, He Ruzhang analyzed the situation in Japan, believed that Japan could not and did not dare to start a war with China, and put forward the famous "Three Strategies for the Ryukyus": the best policy, send warships to the Ryukyus to deter Japan; If you don't listen, unite with the Ryukyus and attack Japan inside and outside; The next step was to invoke international law and ask the ministers of various countries to comment on mediation and let the Japanese give in.
He Ruzhang advocated the adoption of the upper and middle strategies, that is, to adopt a tough attitude towards Japan. But Li Hongzhang chose the next strategy. In the end, Premier Yamen adopted Li Hongzhang's pedantic view, causing China to miss the best opportunity to counterattack Japan.
During the negotiations, fearing that the development of events would be unfavorable to them, Japan categorically announced the abolition of the Ryukyu Kingdom in February 1879 and changed it to Okinawa Prefecture and replaced it with the Japanese Era. In June, Shotai was forced to go to Tokyo, and the Ryukyu Kingdom was destroyed.
He Ruzhang immediately suggested that the Qing government prepare for war in the coastal provinces and withdraw its envoys to Japan to show its determination to negotiate. However, under the influence of Li Hongzhang, Prime Minister Yamen was not interested in He Ruzhang's suggestion, and only adopted a perfunctory attitude of "only refuting the two words with reason"; during this period, the news of the destruction of the Ryukyus came to the Qing government, and the Qing government and the opposition were both shocked and stunned, and the Ryukyu envoy Xiang Dehong, who was asking Li Hongzhang for help in Tianjin, could not help but cry when he heard the bad news. He wrote to Li Hongzhang to ask the Qing government to help restore the country, vowing that "I do not want to be a Japanese subordinate in life, and I do not want to be a Japanese ghost in death, even if I am broken in my head, I will not give up", saying that the Ryukyu officials and people rely on the Chinese military might and will be able to work together to drive the Japanese out of the country.
However, this did not change the attitude of Li Hongzhang and Premier Yamen. At this time, the Qing government was worried about the Sino-Russian Ili issue, and where did it still bother to ask about the Ryukyu issue. The Ryukyus, who had no ability to resist, perished in the process of the Qing government's "reasoning and rebuttal" to the Japanese government.
Later, the Qing government felt that it had lost face on the Ryukyu issue, and when former US President Grant was visiting China, Li Hongzhang, who had always advocated "using razing to defeat razing," had found a treasure and strongly invited him to intermediate. The Japanese also seized this opportunity to mix the Ryukyu issue with the revision of the treaty, hoping to obtain more benefits in China through diplomatic blackmail.
There was no way, and the Qing government finally adopted what Li Hongzhang thought was a clever "method of delay", that is, to put aside the negotiations on the Ryukyu issue and wait until he had enough strength to talk about it in the future. Soon, Japan expanded into Korea, and both China and Japan were attracted to the Korean issue, and the Ryukyu issue was never mentioned again, and the Qing government had acquiesced in Japan's annexation of the Ryukyus.
Layout of North Korea: Waiting for an opportunity to provoke a war
In the course of negotiations on the invasion of Taiwan and the Ryukyus, Japan has gradually figured out the mentality of the Qing government that wants to save face and is afraid of causing trouble. At the same time, North Korea began to attract the attention of Britain, Russia, the United States and other great powers. In the course of this series of negotiations, Japan not only learned to take advantage of the contradictions and conflicts of colonial interests of the great powers, but also fully experienced the advantages of following the great powers, so Japan planned to directly implement the policy of invading the mainland in Korea. At the time of the struggle between the Korean Daeyuan Jun and the Min Concubine Party, Japan immediately sent people to the DPRK again to negotiate with the "national credentials" with the words "emperor" and "edict" that the DPRK did not want to see, but the DPRK government still refused to accept it. This time, Japan directly sent warships Kasuga and Unyang to sail into Ganghwa Island in September 1875 under the pretext of surveying the sea route, destroying the North Korean fort and single-handedly creating the Ganghwa Island Incident.
After that, Japan sent people to Korea to negotiate and sent Mori Youli to China to test the attitude of the Qing government. In order to avoid entanglement with Japan, Prime Minister Yamen went so far as to say to Mori that although the DPRK is subordinate to China's vassalage, all political and religious prohibitions in its own place are under the dictatorship of the country itself, and China has never heard of it. The Japanese repeated the old trick and interpreted this sentence as "Korea is not subordinate to China." In this regard, the Prime Minister's Yamen could not find any solution.
Not only that, Li Hongzhang even proposed that "Jun" (Prime Minister Yamen) send a letter to the DPRK government to "be patient and angry" (referring to the Ganghwado incident) and receive the Japanese envoy with courtesy. Under this attitude of the Qing government's non-intervention and "peace of mind", Korea was forced to sign the unequal Treaty of Ganghwa with Japan in February 1876. The tacit attitude of the Qing government towards this treaty was tantamount to encouraging Japanese aggression.
Since then, Japan has tried its best to invoke this treaty and exclude China in its representations with Korea. In 1882, the Imwu Mutiny broke out in Korea to expel the Japanese forces. The Japanese government took advantage of this incident to further control Korea and obtained the right to station 1,000 troops in Korea. Yukichi Fukuzawa, who supports mainland policy, happily said that the Japanese diplomats have caught up with the West in their shrewdness and skill, and "can only praise them." In 1875, Yukichi Fukuzawa wrote a book entitled "A Compendium of the Theory of Civilization," in which he called for a change of discipline and learning from Europe and the United States. As the best-selling book in Japan that year, the book had a brainwashing spiritual impact on Japanese society.
The Qing government immediately sent Ding Ruchang to lead three ships to Incheon, and Wu Changqing led six battalions of the Qing army (3,000 people) to Korea, which strengthened China's strength in Korea. In order to deal with China, the Japanese Government has actively pursued a policy of arms expansion and warfare. Aritomo Yamayama, an influential figure in the Japanese Army, spared no effort to advocate war preparations and incite the government and the opposition to oppose China. In 1881, Japan's military budget had reached 27% of the annual budget, and it was difficult to increase military spending, but the Meiji government was determined to increase military spending by means of "extraordinary taxes", even if it "aroused the resentment of the people" and "did not cause deep concern." Japan's military preparations for the Sino-Japanese War can be said to have begun with the Renwu Mutiny in Korea.
Shortly after the Renwu Mutiny, in December 1884, Japan took advantage of the fact that the Sino-French War was in full swing and the Qing government had no time to take care of Korea, and instigated Kim Yujun and other "Kaihua Party" people to launch a coup d'état to challenge China.
In both cases, Japan's military superiority was deeply stimulated, and its diplomatic concessions encouraged Japan. Japan then sent Hirobumi Ito and Saigo as plenipotentiary envoys and deputy envoys to Beijing to negotiate the Korean incident, with the aim of eliminating China's right to send troops to Korea.
Ito Hirobumi knew that Li Hongzhang was not familiar with modern diplomacy and was afraid of things, so he finally forced the Qing government to choose to break the fortune and avoid disasters again and agreed to compensate the refugees. However, in order to save the face of the imperial court, the money could only be allocated to the DPRK, and the DPRK would come forward to compensate for it. In view of this, the Qing court and its ministers signed the "Treaty of Tientsin" with Japan without principle or stand, stipulating that China and Japan should withdraw their troops from Korea at the same time, and if they want to send troops to Korea in the future, "they should first exchange documents and instructions." Promising Japan the same right to send troops to Korea as China was Li Hongzhang's biggest failure in the negotiations on the Treaty of Tientsin. It was through this treaty that Japan found a pretext for realizing its aggression against Korea in its continental policy, thus provoking the First Sino-Japanese War.
It is worth noting that from the Renwu Mutiny to the Kashin Coup, Japan's "contempt" for China in the spiritual field has been strengthened, and its "fear" and "hostility" in the military and economic fields have also escalated greatly.
To this end, Japan embarked on the reorganization of its armaments. On the army side, German instructors were specially hired and brigades (brigades) were established as basic combat units in wartime. By the early 90s of the 19th century, the Japanese Army had increased to 220,000 men; On the naval side, stimulated by China's purchase of two giant ironclad ships, Dingyuan and Zhenyuan, Japan had drawn up a total of six naval expansion plans by 1886. The assault built 8 main ironclad ships, and installed the cannon with a length of 12 meters and a caliber of 32 cm on a small ship of 4,200 tons to deal with the Dingyuan and Zhenyuan ships of the Beiyang Fleet, which became a strange story in the history of shipbuilding in the world at that time. In order to raise military expenses for the expansion of the navy, Emperor Meiji issued 1 million yen of naval bonds and allocated 300,000 yuan of domestic funds to the navy. In terms of command, a base camp was set up as the supreme command body in wartime, presided over by the emperor, and the government had no right to intervene; There is also the dispatch of a large number of military spies to China to steal intelligence from the Qing government and the Beiyang Fleet. The Japanese General Staff was even able to see the secret files of the Prime Minister's Yamen, and even knew better than the Qing government how many troops each of China's provinces might draw to fight. Before the outbreak of the First Sino-Japanese War, Japan also drew detailed military topographic maps of Korea, the three northeastern provinces of China, and the Bohai Bay. The Japanese Army's Deputy Chief of Staff, Kawakami Koroku, even went to Korea and China in April 1893 to verify the information collected by the spies, and did not return to China until July.
Moreover, around 1890, in order to incite militaristic sentiment in Japan, Aritomo Yamayama also proposed the notorious "sovereignty line" and "interest line", and the spearhead was openly pointed at Korea and China. From 1891 to 1893, three 4,000-tonnage cruisers Itsukushima, Matsushima, and Yoshino were completed, and the Hashidate, Akitsuzu and other cruisers were also to be completed in 1894. Based on this, in June 1894, the Ito Hirobumi cabinet established a policy of war against China.
Surprise victory: Japan goes to extreme conceit
In order to dispel the Japanese people's concerns about military expansion, in 1879, the "Tokyo Spiritualist Society" was renamed the "Yasukuni Shrine" and was managed by the Japanese military to induce the people to believe in the "living god" emperor and let the people "pay homage."
But until the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in 1894, Japan's contempt and fear of China coexisted. Mutsu Munemitsu, the foreign minister at the time, said: "Before the victory of the battles of Pyongyang and the Yellow Sea, the people of the mainland were secretly anxious about the final victory or defeat. "Many Japanese people also don't understand why Japan, as a student, should make a big deal out of its own teacher, China. According to the Meiji Taisho Records of Observations, Toshiro Ikukata, who lived in Numata Kamishu, was 12 years old when the First Sino-Japanese War began. He has a treasured Chinese screen in his home, and on the roller coaster of his hometown's annual summer festival, life-size figures of Chinese heroes such as Liu Bang and Xiang Yu stand tall, and he has been taught Chinese classics by his parents and teachers. He did not understand why Japan should be an enemy of such a country. "At that time, no one in Japan dared to say that they were superior to the Chinese, and we only hoped that we would not lag too far behind China." ”
However, the outcome of a war can change a country's international standing and national image. During the war, a total of 1,114 military reporters from 66 Japanese newspapers reported on the progress of the war, the course of the battle, the number of casualties on both sides, the spoils of war captured, the disposal of prisoners, and the situation on the battlefield. This played a decisive role in the Japanese people's historic reversal from "admiration" to "contempt" for China.
In a series of war reports, the Japanese people were lucky at first about the successive victories of the Japanese army and navy, but with the frequent victories in the war, their self-confidence increased, and by the time they captured Arthur, they were convinced that Japan was superior to China. After the collapse of the Beiyang Fleet, Japan no longer saw China in its eyes, and the call for an attack on Beijing became even louder. Mutsu said: "Before the victory in Pyongyang and the Yellow Sea, the people who were secretly worried about the victory or defeat of the war now have no doubt about the victory of the war, but are concerned about when the Japanese flag of the mainland will be planted at the head of Beijing. ”
In the propaganda that the Japanese army will win every battle and China will lose every battle, the Japanese people "turned into an extremely contemptuous mentality for China", and all strata were intoxicated with the joy and boast of the victors, and used insulting words such as "Shina people", "pig-tailed slaves", "pig's tails", and "Chinese red deer (bastards)" in order to vent their former inferiority complex toward China and the feelings suppressed by Europe and the United States.
After the Battle of the Yellow Sea, Japanese children insulted the losers as "Shina" when they played running competitions and sumo wrestling games. In a game called "face", masks such as "Surrender of the Chinese Army", "Mainland Cavalry Ravaging the Dolphin Army", and "Sinking the Qing Ship in the Yellow Sea" were popular for a while. Even among adults, liars are reviled as "the government of China" and braggarts are ridiculed as "Li Hongzhang".
After the First Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese people changed from "extreme inferiority" to "extreme conceit," and a sense of "great nation" and "great nation" developed in which they regarded themselves as "powerful countries."
The unexpected victory made the whole country of Japan ecstatic and celebrated, and the national conventions to celebrate the victory of the Japanese army were filled everywhere. After the First Sino-Japanese War, tens of thousands of Japanese people gathered in Ueno Park in Tokyo, there is a lake in the park called the Ninja Pond, the Japanese copied the two ships of Zhiyuan and Dingyuan with wood in a ratio of 1:1, and then the people shouted the slogan: "Sink Dingyuan, sink Zhiyuan", and then throw the torch to the boat, see the two big ships burning with raging fire, the Japanese people raised their hands high, and enthusiastically carnivaled.
It can be said that the First Sino-Japanese War, which defeated the "old power" of Shangbang, also ignited the so-called "patriotism" of the Japanese, who began to regard the fight for the emperor as the supreme glory. In his Autobiography of Hanmura, the Japanese critic Hanmura wrote, "In the repertoire of the First Sino-Japanese War staged in various places, as soon as the Japanese stage actors who played Chinese soldiers appeared on the stage, some audience members threw peanut shells and orange peels at them, and some actors could not bear it anymore and even shouted at the audience on stage, 'We are also patriotic Japanese.'" ”
After reaping the tremendous benefits of military expansion, the Japanese people fell into a collective frenzy, and the support for the war rose rapidly, which became the "social foundation" for Japan's continuous policy of aggression against China in modern times. As Mutsu Munemitsu said, "The sound of triumphant songs can be heard everywhere; The feeling of pride and complacency is unconsciously revealed. The desire for the future is growing...... The people of the whole country only know how to attack, attack, and the rest do not listen. ”
Two years after the end of the First Sino-Japanese War, Mutsu Munemitsu died. But his prophecy came true.
Monopoly "Manchu and Mongolia": Intended in China
After the First Sino-Japanese War, Japan's political and military circles, in the extreme expansion of their desire to be the leader of the Oriental Alliance, developed the illusion that "China will perish." Even among the people, the "concept of China's demise" and the argument of invading China were pervasive. Japanese political scientist Sakuzo Yoshino recalled: "After the Restoration, the Chinese people stopped respecting the Shina, the teacher who first introduced the cultural relics system, and it was difficult to insult only by force, but through this war, even this bit of dignity was tragically peeled off." The Westerners are wrong to say that the sleeping lion is dead. ”
In order to ensure its status as the "leader of the Oriental Alliance," Japan attempted to deal a heavy and brutal blow to China by ceding land and paying reparations, so that it could not make a comeback. Japan's Reform Party proposed that in addition to the land cession, it should also "collect financially enough compensation to bring it to its knees" so that China would "never turn over and never take revenge." The Liberal Party also put forward the following peace conditions to prevent China's re-emergence: cede Shengjing Province and Taiwan; compensation of 500 million yuan to Japan; Before the reparations were paid off, the Japanese troops were stationed in various important places in China, and the military expenses were borne by China. The above main ideas were incorporated into the Sino-Japanese negotiations by the Japanese government and implemented in the Treaty of Shimonoseki.
However, after 1896, the once-prosperous "Oriental Alliance Theory" was frustrated by the "intervention of the three countries to return Liao". The Liaodong Peninsula forcibly intervened because of the respective interests of Russia, Germany, and France, and Japan had to withdraw its Japanese troops stationed on the Liaodong Peninsula after demanding a "ransom fee" of 30 million taels of silver from China. The boiled duck flew, which made the whole country of Japan resentful, and the Japanese even hung four words at the main entrance of the shrine: Lie down and taste the gall.
In April 1903, Russia made seven unreasonable demands to China, to the effect that Manchuria was Russia's sphere of influence, and Japan, Britain, and other countries had no right to interfere with it. While attending the funeral of the Qing Dynasty's Minister of Military Aircraft Rong Lu, the Japanese minister to China, Yasuya Uchida, learned of the contents of the seven demands put forward by Russia and urgently sent a telegram to the Japanese Government. This explosive news not only aroused great uneasiness in Japanese public opinion and political circles, but also made the Chinese students studying in Japan extremely indignant. The Japanese Government seized the opportunity to take advantage of the anti-Russian psychological sentiment of the Chinese people to once again promote the doctrine of rejuvenation, and to vigorously propagate that "Asia is the Asia of Asians."
On February 8, 1904, the Russo-Japanese War broke out when the Japanese repeated their old trick and attacked the Russian ship in Port Arthur without declaring war. In such a war of aggression that took place on Chinese soil in order to fight for the rights and interests of colonial China, the Japanese government demanded that the Qing government remain neutral and allow Japan and Russia to fight.
In the end, the war ended with a complete victory for Japan. According to the agreement, Russia, which had lost the war, transferred to Japan the Luda in northeastern China and the railway between Changchun and Luda, as well as the southern half of Sakhalin Island, which had invaded China in the early days. As for Japan's demand for compensation of 3 billion yuan for Russia's sky-high military spending, the Russian side only responded: "If you don't ask for money, you will fight again if you don't accept it." "Because Japan could not afford to fight again, it had nothing to gain. However, Japan's defeat of Russia established its political and military position as a world power and hegemony in Northeast Asia, and its "Oriental Alliance" turned from a dream to a reality. In the same year, Britain, the world's largest hegemon at the time, upgraded the Japanese Legation in London to the Japanese Embassy. The following year, the same was true in the United States, Germany, and France.
Moreover, after the Russo-Japanese War, Japan achieved the de facto annexation of Korea and replaced Tsarist Russia in Northeast China, which was regarded as Japan's "line of interest." In 1906, Japan could not wait to establish the notorious invading agency "South Manchuria Railway Company", which took a strong step towards the realization of its continental policy.
Of course, Japan was not satisfied with the rights and interests of South Manchuria (the southern half of the three northeastern provinces of China) that it had snatched from Russia, and wanted to swallow up the whole of "Manchuria" (Northeast China and Inner Mongolia) and use it as a base to spy on the whole of China. As early as when Sun Yat-sen was raising funds for the revolutionary army in Japan, the president of the Japanese Women's Association, known as the "Meiji Murasaki Shikibu," asked Utako Shimoda, "Did you intend to cede Manchuria to Japan when the revolution was successful?" This question revealed the true purpose of many Japanese who intervened in the Chinese revolution at that time. After the Xinhai Revolution, Japan began to plan for Manchurian independence, and in 1916, Japan planned the second Manchurian and Mongolian independence movement. Although both times failed, Japan's desire to dominate the world did not die, and in 1927 it finally threw out "Tanaka Soto", which contained a detailed plan. It was in accordance with this plan that the "September 18 Incident" in 1931 completely set the Japanese militarists on the road of 14-year aggression against China.
Since the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese have been tempting, pestering, arrogant, and scheming, and the Japanese have fully enjoyed the pleasure of frequently succeeding in dealing with China. Since the First Sino-Japanese War, Japan has paid reparations, ceded land, plundered, and diverted internal contradictions, and the whole country has tasted the benefits of aggression against China. As a result, the mainstream of Japanese political, military, and even intellectual circles denied the positive significance of the reform and revolutionary movements that China set off successively to save the country and survive, such as the Wuxu Reform, the New Deal at the end of the Qing Dynasty, the Xinhai Revolution, and the National Revolution. The "view of contempt for China" escalated into the "subjective view of the Oriental Alliance" and the "view of China's demise", which eventually evolved into the root cause of the understanding that led to the continuous implementation of the policy of aggression against China and the subsequent launch of the war of aggression against China in modern times. The temptation of profits, erroneous perceptions, reactionary policies, and criminal military aggression eventually led Japan to the road of no return in constantly waging wars of aggression against China, and ultimately led to Japan's complete defeat in World War II.
——(From the 2nd issue of "Literature and History Expo" in 2019)