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Japan Overseas Expansion
Historically, Japan's main foreign preoccupation has
been
China. The Korean Peninsula, a strategically located
feature
critical to the defense of the Japanese archipelago,
greatly
occupied Japan's attention in the nineteenth century.
Earlier
tension over Korea had been settled temporarily through
the Treaty
of Kanghwa in 1876, which opened Korean ports to Japan,
and through
the Tianjin Convention in 1885, which provided for the
removal from
Korea of both Chinese and Japanese troops sent to support
contending factions in the Korean court. In effect, the
convention
had made Korea a co-protectorate of Beijing and Tokyo at a
time
when Russian, British, and United States interests in the
peninsula
also were on the increase. A crisis was precipitated in
1894 when
a leading pro-Japanese Korean political figure was
assassinated in
Shanghai with Chinese complicity. Prowar elements in Japan
called
for a punitive expedition, which the cabinet resisted.
With
assistance from several Japanese nationalistic societies,
the
illegal Tonghak (Eastern Learning) nationalistic religious
movement
in Korea staged a rebellion that was crushed by Chinese
troops.
Japan responded with force and quickly defeated China in
the First
Sino-Japanese War (1894-95). After nine months of
fighting, a
cease-fire was called and peace talks were held. The
victor's
demands were such that a Japanese protectorate over China
seemed in
the offing, but an assassination attempt on Li Hongzhang,
China's
envoy to the peace talks, embarrassed Japan, which then
quickly
agreed to an armistice. The Treaty of Shimonoseki
accomplished
several things: recognition of Korean independence;
cessation of
Korean tribute to China; a 200 million tael (Chinese
ounces of
silver, the equivalent in 1895 of US$150 million)
indemnity to
Korea from China; cession of Taiwan, the Penghu Islands,
and the
Liaodong Peninsula (the southern part of Manchuria) to
Japan; and
opening of Chang Jiang (Yangtze River) ports to Japanese
trade. It
also assured Japanese rights to engage in industrial
enterprises in
China.
Having their own imperialist designs on China and
fearing
China's impending disintegration, Russia, Germany, and
France
jointly objected to Japanese control of Liaodong.
Threatened with
a tripartite naval maneuver in Korean waters, Japan
decided to give
back Liaodong in return for a larger indemnity from China.
Russia
moved to fill the void by securing from China a
twenty-five-year
lease of Dalian (Dairen in Japanese, also known as Port
Arthur) and
rights to the South Manchurian Railway Company, a
semioffical
Japanese company, to construct a railroad. Russia also
wanted to
lease more Manchurian territory, and, although Japan was
loath to
confront Russia over this issue, it did move to use Korea
as a
bargaining point: Japan would recognize Russian leaseholds
in
southern Manchuria if Russia would leave Korean affairs to
Japan.
The Russians only agreed not to impede the work of
Japanese
advisers in Korea, but Japan was able to use diplomatic
initiatives
to keep Russia from leasing Korean territory in 1899. At
the same
time, Japan was able to wrest a concession from China that
the
coastal areas of Fujian Province, across the strait from
Taiwan,
were within Japan's sphere of influence and could not be
leased to
other powers. In 1900 Japanese forces participated in
suppressing
the Boxer Uprising, exacting still more indemnity from
China.
Japan then succeeded in attracting a Western ally to
its cause.
Japan and Britain, both of whom wanted to keep Russia out
of
Manchuria, signed the Treaty of Alliance in 1902, which
was in
effect until in 1921 when the two signed the Four Power
Treaty on
Insular Possessions, which took effect in 1923
(see Diplomacy
, this
ch.). The British recognized Japanese interests in Korea
and
assured Japan they would remain neutral in case of a
Russo-Japanese
war but would become more actively involved if another
power
(probably an allusion to France) entered the war as a
Russian ally.
In the face of this joint threat, Russia became more
conciliatory
toward Japan and agreed to withdraw its troops from
Manchuria in
1903. The new balance of power in Korea favored Japan and
allowed
Britain to concentrate its interests elsewhere in Asia.
Hence,
Tokyo moved to gain influence over Korean banks, opened
its own
financial institutions in Korea, and began constructing
railroads
and obstructing Russian and French undertakings on the
peninsula.
When Russia failed to withdraw its troops from
Manchuria by an
appointed date, Japan issued a protest. Russia replied
that it
would agree to a partition of Korea at the thirty-ninth
parallel,
with a Japanese sphere to the south and a neutral zone to
the
north. But Manchuria was to be outside Japan's sphere, and
Russia
would not guarantee the evacuation of its troops. Despite
the
urging of caution by most genro, Japan's hardliners
issued
an ultimatum to Russia, which showed no signs of further
compromise. War broke out in February 1904 with Japanese
surprise
attacks on Russian warships at Dalian and Chemulpo (in
Korea, now
called Inch'on). Despite tremendous loss of life on both
sides, the
Japanese won a series of land battles and then decisively
defeated
Russia's Baltic Sea Fleet (renamed the Second Pacific
Squadron) at
the Battle of Tsushima in May 1905. At an
American-mediated peace
conference in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Russia
acknowledged
Japan's paramount interests in Korea and agreed to avoid
"military
measures" in Manchuria and Korea. Both sides agreed to
evacuate
Manchuria, except for the Guandong Territory (a leasehold
on the
Liaodong Peninsula) and restore the occupied areas to
China. Russia
transferred its lease on Dalian and adjacent territories
and
railroads to Japan, ceded the southern half of Sakhalin to
Japan,
and granted Japan fishing rights in the Sea of Okhotsk and
the
Bering Sea.
Japanese nationalism intensified after the
Russo-Japanese War,
and a new phase of continental expansion began after 1905.
Politically and economically, Korea became a protectorate
of Japan
and in 1910 was formally annexed as a part of the empire.
By means
of the South Manchurian Railway, Japanese entrepreneurs
vigorously
exploited Manchuria. By 1907 Russia had entered into a
treaty
arrangement with Japan whereby both sides recognized the
other's
sphere of influence in Manchuria.
Data as of January 1994
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