Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852’1912 Read Online Free PDF Page A

Maebara discovered that his secret supplies of ammunition in Hagi had been dumped into the sea, he knew he had no chance of success. He decided to go to T ō ky ō and offer his reasons for having staged a rebellion. He and a handful of his men slipped out of Hagi but were captured on November 5. The rest of the Junkoku Army was crushed by land and sea forces of the government.
    Samurai with similar views in other places who had been sympathetic to the rebels abandoned their plans to revolt, realizing it would be futile. On December 3 leaders of the failed rebellions in Kumamoto, Akizuki and Hagi, were tried and executed. The samurai rebellions were over for the time being, but peasant revolts in Ibaraki and Mie made it clear how much dissatisfaction still lingered in the country.
    On December 31 Kido Takayoshi, the most outspoken member of the administration, sent a memorandum to Prime Minister Sanj ō Sanetomi and Minister of the Right Iwakura Tomomi in which he blamed inept administration of the laws for recent revolts by samurai and peasants. However, he said, the ultimate blame lay elsewhere: ever since the crisis of 1873, most of the troubles plaguing the country had originated in Satsuma. As examples of this pernicious influence, he mentioned Satsuma’s advocacy of the conquest of Korea and of Taiwan. The government was always in the position of having to follow Satsuma’s lead. Kido’s harsh interpretation of the actions of the Satsuma samurai may be explained in terms of his Ch ō sh ū background, but surely that was not all; he sympathized with peasants who, faced with poverty and hunger because of unsettled conditions, had no other way to express their frustration than by arming themselves with bamboo spears.
    Kido proposed a six-point program intended to promote the welfare of the peasant class. One point urged an end to using government money for unnecessary construction, thereby freeing funds to help people in economic distress. Another point declared that the people should not be bound, without first consulting them, by rules and regulations that had been promulgated. Kido concluded by expressing impatience with those who favored delay in opening a parliament on the grounds that the people were not ready for it. They said they favored gradual rather than precipitous change, but they themselves did not hesitate to impose decrees without considering whether or not these decrees were enlightened or appropriate; if that was not precipitous, what was it? 14
    The day after Kido sent his memorandum, the New Year ceremonies for 1877 were performed at the palace in exact conformity to tradition. The emperor was now in his twenty-sixth year. On January 4 he announced that land taxes would be reduced from 3 to 2.5 percent in the hopes of bringing relief to the people. Kido Takayoshi commented in his diary, “I have long requested this action, so I am grateful. My only hope now is that the Imperial purpose will be fully realized, and that it will lead to the well-being of the people.” 15 This reduction in state revenues would result in a curtailment of some state services, and the emperor urged officials to practice strict economy.
    Behind the emperor’s decision, we can detect the presence of Ō kubo Toshimichi, who on December 27, 1876, had sent a memorandum to Sanj ō Sanetomi in which he declared that it was absolutely essential to relieve the plight of the peasants. Not only had the new government done nothing to help the peasants, but it had not even spared the time to consider their problems. The peasant revolts that had lately broken out in various parts of the country were evidence of their unhappiness. It was the duty of the government, which had always insisted that agriculture was the foundation of the state, to enable the peasants to make a decent living. 16 Ō kubo proposed lowering the tax to 2 percent, predicting that the relief afforded to the farmers would bring about general prosperity. The 2.5