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This important book, which many will regard as controversial,
argues convincingly that the Japanese imperialism of the first half
of the Twentieth Century was not a temporary aberration. The author
looks at the detail of the great crisis of 1873 and shows that the
prospect of economic gain through overseas expansion was the
central issue of that year's political struggles. He goes on to
show that Japan had a long, earlier history of aiming for economic
expansion overseas; and that Japan's Twentieth Century imperialism
grew out of this. In addition, he argues convincingly that much of
the writing about Japan has played down the true extent and nature
of Japanese imperialism.
The 1873 "Seihen", or great political crisis, was at first sight a
purely political struggle. A caretaker government had been
governing Japan for two years; its leaders objected strongly when
Prime Minister Iwakura and his colleagues returned from their great
mission to Europe and North America to demand policy changes. In
particular, they objected to the dropping of plans for an invasion
of Korea. This book demonstrates that much more was at stake: the
continued dominance of the great western clans (Satsuma and
Choshu); control of the armed forces; the question of whether the
government was subject to the rule of law; and most importantly,
the economic spoils of Japanese expansion into Hokkaido, and
potential expansion elsewhere, the most imminent possibility being
Korea. "Let's attack Korea!" was the slogan of the losing faction
in the 1873 struggle. As the author shows, this slogan and its
associated policies were quietly adopted by the victors. Donald
Calman sets the events of the years around 1873 into a much wider
context showing that the thread of aggressive,
economically-inspired overseas expansion runs through Japanese
history both earlier and later. This book should be of
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