Page:EB1922 - Volume 31.djvu/689

Rh

the Sacred Dragon," coupled with his personal failing health, made the path of Prince Katsura's renewed political life im- measurably thorny and arduous. He found the Lower House unexpectedly untractable. Mr. Ozaki's resolution of no confi- dence caused a tremendous sensation; riotous mobs demolished the offices of the Kokumin, which newspaper had been loyally supporting the ministerial programme. No choice was left Kat- sura but to tender his resignation.

As soon as Prince Katsura became unfettered from official duties, he essayed to demonstrate his sincere aspirations for the constitutional development of the Empire by starting a political party, the Rikken Doshikai (the Constitutional Comrades Asso- ciation). Under this banner there rallied all the members of the Chuo Club, and a majority of the members of the Kokuminto (the National party). But before the realization of his hopes Katsura died in the following December. The Yamamoto Cab- inet which followed (Feb. 20 1913) was short-lived, owing to the unfortunate " naval scandal," involving the arrest and trial of high officials in the navy ; the Siemens-Schuckert Co. had dispensed bribes in connexion with the building of a Japanese warship.

After the refusal of Prince I. Tokugawa, and the abortive at- tempt by Visct. Kiyoura, to form a Cabinet, Count Okuma, the " grand old man " of Waseda, undertook, on April 14 1914, to stand at the helm of the Empire, backed by the legacy of Katsura, the Doshikai, and Baron Kato, the leader of that party, was entrusted with the portfolio of Foreign Affairs. It fell to the lot of this Cabinet to deal with the invitation of Great Britain to join in the World War under the Anglo- Japanese Alliance.

In Nov. 1915 the enthronement of the Emperor was conducted with the time-honoured imposing ceremonies at Kyoto, and the whole nation was en fete for seven days.

Premier Okuma, in tendering his resignation on account of in- different health, in the summer of 1916, recommended Visct. Kato, who had yielded the charge of Foreign Affairs to Visct. Ishii and was outside the Cabinet, to be his successor. At that moment, however, the Genros are reported to have intervened, and, in spite of the fact that Kato's new party, the Kenseikai (the Constitutionalists), which was an amalgamation of the Doshikai, the Chuseikai and Koya Club, commanded a majority in the diet, Marshal Terauchi was appointed premier on Oct. 9. This alleged irregular development excited the hostility, not only of the Kenseikai, but of the general public, and ended in an antagonistic attitude on the part of the diet towards the new Government. Parliament was dissolved, and a general election took place on April 20 1917. The result was a signal victory for the Government party, the Seiyukai winning 157 seats, whilst the number of the Kenseikai dwindled from 204 to 117.

Actuated by the desire, in view of the war, to effect unity of all shades of opinions, Premier Terauchi's ingenuity brought forth soon after his instalment in office the Temporary Diplomatic Investigation Council (Rinji Gaiko Chosa Kai), where leaders of all political parties were represented. Kato was invited to join, but refused on the ground that he could not associate himself with the idea of establishing a responsible body for external affairs outside of the Cabinet itself.

The " rice riot " and the ensuing serious disturbances, and strikes which raged like wild-fire in various parts of Japan in the summer of 1918, sealed the fate of the Terauchi Cabinet, which tendered its resignation in the middle of September.

By that time democratic ideas had been gaining strength on account of the war and internal social unrest. Moreover, the manner in which the Terauchi Cabinet was installed had its due reaction. The people demanded that the next administration should be more in keeping with the spirit of the parliamentary system. Mr. Takashi Hara, the leader of the Seiyukai in suc- cession to Marquis Saionzi, was entrusted with the task of form- ing a new Cabinet, as the first commoner to hold the office of premier in Japan. The ministers, except those holding the port- folios of War and the Navy, were, for the first time, a body of party politicians more or less free from the bureaucratic savour which had always clung to the former administrations. Inciden- tally, a new Ministry that of Railways was included in the

Cabinet. In March 1918, in response to the popular demand, a political reform bill was passed, lowering the property qualifica- tion of voters to the payment of a direct national tax of three yen instead of ten yen. The number of electors was thus more than doubled, increasing from 1,450,000 to 3,000,000. The people were, however, not satisfied, and a year of popular clamour for the universal suffrage followed. In Feb. 1920 a universal suffrage bill was at last introduced by the Opposition in the House of Rep- resentatives. But, on the ground that no election on the basis of extended franchise had as yet taken place and consequently it was premature to make any further attempt at suffrage reform, the diet was immediately dissolved. The nation was called upon to express its opinion on the matter by the general election of May 10. The result was a decided victory for the Seiyukai, the Goverment party, which secured 280 seats, whilst, the Ken- seikai registered no.

FOREIGN RELATIONS

Having emerged victorious from the Russo-Japanese War, Japan was relieved from the long nightmare that Korea might be engulfed in the Russian hegemony and constitute a permanent menace to her national safety; moreover, the wrong done to her by the three- Power intervention in wresting from her the natural fruits of her victory in the Chino- Japanese War the Liaotung peninsula was fully and conclusively avenged. But the Rus- sian grip on N. Manchuria and Mongolia was not only unabated but, on the contrary, became signally tightened. There were even fears of a renewed clash between the quondam foes. States- manship, however, counselled Japan and Russia to come to a friendly entente in 1907. There was made a similar understand- ing between Japan and France in the same year. Further, the complicated post-war situation in Manchuria was decisively, if not definitely, disposed of by the Chino- Japanese understand- ings of 1909. In 1910 and 1916 more defini'/e agreements were reached between Japan and Russia with the view of maintaining the status quo of Manchuria. Korea was, in the meantime, made a Protectorate of Japan, and the gradual development of affairs in that country led to the final annexation. The Anglo-Japanese alliance, which had been not only the keystone of Japan's foreign relations, but the mainstay of the general tranquillity of East Asia, was renewed (1911). Whilst Japan's position in the Far East be- came thus more or less reassuring, the dark cloud of anti-Japanese sentiment, on the Pacific coast of the United States, loomed up on the horizon. China's revolution in 1911, instead of bringing immediate peace and liberty to the denizens of the Celestial Empire, divided the nation into two irreconcilable camps, and contributed temporarily to the political instability of the Extreme Orient. To the neighbouring Japan, this meant an exacting bur- den upon her diplomatic wisdom and tact. When Japan was, on the one hand, racking her wits how to cope with the quicksand situation in China and, on the other, how to safeguard Japanese residents against discriminatory treatment in the west of Amer- ica, the fateful Aug. of 1914 came to pass.

Japan's part in the World War dwindles into insignificance in face of the stupendous efforts of other great Powers espousing the Allied cause. But she contributed what little she could with her very limited national strength and resources. Her geograph- ical situation, however, afforded her, from the economic point of view, a position of vantage. In pre-war days she was still struggling in financial straits as a result of her Russian conflict, but she came out of the World War with overflowing coffers, even if these coffers were of modest dimensions. At the Peace Conference in Paris, she lost her issue on the question of racial dignity, but her claims with regard to Shantung and the South Sea Islands were recognized; and her position among the great World Powers was assured. But her immediate outlook in 1920-1 bristled with difficulties and complexities: China had refused to negotiate Japan's offer to restore Shantung; the Washington Government would not be persuaded to the Japanese point of view on the Yap question; several states on the Pacific coast of America were vying with each other to abridge the civil rights of Japanese residents; Korean malcontents abroad were in a