| NOTA |
(*)(trans. by Gordon Mark Berger) (★)(Mutsu Munemitsu´s ´Kenkenroku´, a memoir of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95, illuminates a pivotal moment in East Asian history when the destinies of Japan, China, and Korea converged. Japan´s victory in the war began its era of expansionism onto the Asian continent and marked its recognition by the great powers of the West. As Japan´s foreign minister during the war, Mutsu felt constrained to defend his diplomatic policies from the period preceding the conflict to the climactic moment of the triple intervention, when Russia, France, and Germany forced Japan to rescind the territories it had won at the negotiating table. Refusing to obscure his country´s motives behind the customary veil of late-nineteenth-century rhetoric extolling the virtues of imperial loyalty and national selflessness, Mutsu provides a candid appraisal of Japan´s interests both in Korea and on the continent at the outset of the war. He characterizes the military conflict and Japan´s successes on the battlefield as outgrowths of a clash between civilization --as represented by Japan-- and an outmoded adherence to decadent traditionalism-- as embodied by China and Korea. And finally, he asserts that the triple intervention was the result not of Japan´s diplomatic miscalculations but rather of an overly jingoistic public opinion and of the vagaries of European diplomacy which, Mutsu emphasized, Japan had little power to control. This book is one of the remarkably few ´inside´ accounts by Meiji statesmen, and it is a revealing record of the decision-making and diplomatic maneuvering of the period. It is one of the most important memoirs in modern Japanese history, and this translation makes available to English readers a vital source for the study of late-nineteenth century East Asia. Copiously annotated, with extensive cross-referencing to the confidential diplomatic correspondence and materials Mutsu himself drew on, the translation serves also as a valuable research guide to the history of Japanese foreign policy during the early stages of Japanese imperialism. Gordon Mark Berger is Director of the University of Southern California East Asian Studies Center and Professor of Japanese History.) |
BASE de DATOS, Biblioteca del Centro Cultural de la Embajada de Japon
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