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298 The Foreign Threat: Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

The document discusses the changing foreign policy situation in Japan in the 1860s. Radical factions like Choshu who wanted to expel foreigners had been discredited by their military weakness compared to Western powers. The debate shifted from whether to allow foreigners to how to negotiate with them under unequal treaties. When Parkes arrived in 1865 seeking ratification of the treaties, the bakufu asked to delay payments of an indemnity from earlier conflicts but foreign powers did not want to lose trade revenue.

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103 views1 page

298 The Foreign Threat: Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

The document discusses the changing foreign policy situation in Japan in the 1860s. Radical factions like Choshu who wanted to expel foreigners had been discredited by their military weakness compared to Western powers. The debate shifted from whether to allow foreigners to how to negotiate with them under unequal treaties. When Parkes arrived in 1865 seeking ratification of the treaties, the bakufu asked to delay payments of an indemnity from earlier conflicts but foreign powers did not want to lose trade revenue.

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298 THE FOREIGN THREAT

Choshu, the hotheads, who had been willing to risk the consequences of
attempting to expel the foreigners for the sake of political gains, had
been discredited by the demonstrable disparity of strength between
their domains and the West. Their successors took a more realistic view
of what was feasible in foreign affairs. Moreover, an attempted coup
d'etat in Kyoto in August 1864, spearheaded by Choshu men and
checked after heavyfightingby troops from Satsuma and Aizu, had led
to the deaths or flight of most of the radical leaders associated with the
court. As a result, the whole tone of the foreign policy discussions
changed. The few members of the court - including Emperor Komei -
who still clung to ideas of expulsion found themselves isolated and
increasingly helpless. Thus although antiforeign sentiment remained a
tactical weapon for use in the domestic struggle, the only real policy
question to which it had relevance from this time on was not whether,
but in what way, Japan should come to terms with the "unequal"
treaties. This was demonstrated in 1865, when Parkes made his bid for
their ratification by the emperor.
Parkes's experience before coming to Japan had been entirely in
China. He was a good Chinese linguist; he had served as one of the
commissioners administering Canton when it was occupied by British
and French forces during the Arrow war; and he had been British
consul in commercially the most important of the Chinese treaty ports,
Shanghai. He was, therefore, both a well-informed and a convinced
exponent of the kind of policies that had built up Britain's position of
dominance on the China coast. These defined his objectives. For the
means of attaining them he relied heavily on the advice of Alcock,
under whom he had served when young and who had been his prede-
cessor at Shanghai as well as in Edo. Alcock's views we have already
touched upon. Parkes largely inherited them.
In April 1865, about two months before Parkes arrived, the bakufu
had informed the foreign representatives that it did not wish to exer-
cise the option of opening Shimonoseki instead of paying the indem-
nity of $3 million. Simultaneously, however, it asked that the payment
of the second and subsequent installments of the indemnity be de-
layed, because it was having difficulty in raising so large a sum. The
foreign envoys referred this request to their governments. Winchester,
the British charge, reporting it to Russell, took the opportunity to
argue for a different approach entirely. As he saw it, the money for the
indemnity could be raised only by imposts on the trade, which would
be much to Britain's disadvantage. He therefore proposed that Britain
offer to waive two-thirds of the indemnity, in return for the following

Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008

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