Visual Source 19.4: Japan, China, and Europe: A Reversal of Roles

969

Behind Japan’s modernization and Westernization was the recognition that Western imperialism was surging in Asia and that China was a prime example of what happened to countries unable to defend themselves against it. Accordingly, achieving political and military equality with the Great Powers of Europe and the United States became a central aim of Japan’s modernization program.

Strengthening Japan against Western aggression increasingly meant “throwing off Asia,” a phrase that implied rejecting many of Japan’s own cultural traditions and its habit of imitating China as well as creating an Asian empire of its own. Fukuzawa Yukichi, a popular advocate of Western knowledge, declared:

970

We must not wait for neighboring countries to become civilized so that we can together promote Asia’s revival. Rather we should leave their ranks and join forces with the civilized countries of the West. We don’t have to give China and Korea any special treatment just because they are neighboring countries. We should deal with them as Western people do. Those who have bad friends cannot avoid having a bad reputation. I reject the idea that we must continue to associate with bad friends in East Asia.21

Historically the Japanese had borrowed a great deal from China—Buddhism, Confucianism, court rituals, city-planning ideas, administrative traditions, and elements of the Chinese script. But Japan’s victory in a war with China in 1894–1895 showed clearly that it had thrown off the country in whose cultural shadow it had lived for centuries. Furthermore, Japan had begun to acquire an East Asian empire in Korea and Taiwan. And its triumph over Russia in another war ten years later illustrated its ability to stand up to a major European power. The significance of these twin victories is expressed in Visual Source 19.4, a Japanese image created during the Russo-Japanese War and titled The Japanese Navy Uses China as Bait to Trap the Greedy Russian.

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Visual Source 19.4 Japan, China, and Europe: A Reversal of Roles (Artist Unknown, Japanese. Publisher: Manzai kan. The Avarice and A Trap of Wisdom from the series Laughing Stock. Japanese, late Meiji era, about 1904–05. Color lithograph; ink on card stock. Overall: 8.8 x 13.8 cm (3 7/16 x 5 7/16 in.). Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Leonard A. Lauder Collection of Japanese Postcards. 2002.3504. Photograph © 2014 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.)
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