The Japanese Acquisition of Maritime Technology from the United Kingdom

4 The Japanese acquisition of maritime technology from the United Kingdom Masami Kita In the middle of the nineteenth century, American wooden sailing ships were very active in the Asia-Pacific area and virtually dominated trade in the Yantze (Haviland, 1958). Britain was then at war with both India and China. British ships were also made of wood so it was difficult for them to make the long voyage to the Far East. The invention of the iron steamship and the screw propeller led to the end of the wooden sailing ship. In 1854, the British navy held a trial to com- pare the efficiency of the paddle wheel and the screw propeller. The screw won (Cucari and Angelucci, 1975). There were opportunities for Scottish business men in the Asian market as it opened up. Due to the rapid progress and expansion of the Scottish iron industry, Glasgow became the centre of world pig-iron production. This was the result of J.B. Neilson’s hot blast smelting method. The West of Scotland was the heart of British heavy industry. At that time Britain was the workshop of the world (Moss and Hume, 1977). From the middle of the nineteenth century, when the monopoly of the British East India Company was abolished and the Opium War was over, many business opportunities arose in Asia and Scottish merchants flocked to take advantage of the new openings from India to the Far East (Kita, 1998). Trade across the Atlantic region was controlled by merchants from Liverpool, Bristol and else- where in England, so Asia was a lucrative new market Scottish traders could explore to their advantage. They could benefit from the progress of Scottish iron smelting, railway engineering and shipbuilding and the most recent technological developments made at Anderson College, Glasgow, and Glasgow and Edinburgh universities (Moss and Hume, 1979). By the late nineteenth century, Japan under the Tokugawa regime had followed a policy of ‘Sakoku’ for over two centuries, closing itself to all foreign trade except that of the Dutch and Chinese at the port of Dejima in Nagasaki (Umemura and Yamamoto, 1989). But Western powers gradually and increasingly sought to open trade. In June 1853, Commander M.C. Perry of America came to Uraga with five ships to ask the Japanese government to open their ports. The following month, Commander Putiatin Efim V. of Russia’s Far East fleet came to Nagasaki to ask for a treaty (Yokoi, 1988). Sir J. Stirling of the British East India Company fleet also sought a treaty in October 1854 (Miyanaga, 1981). Japanese acquisition of maritime technology 47 In September 1853, recognizing the superiority of Western vessels, the Tokugawa government abolished the prohibition on building vessels over 500 koku (50 tons) and established the first official shipyard at Uraga. The first ship, Hoshou-maru, was launched the following year. Then the Tokugawa government started an iron works at Akiura, Nagasaki, a shipyard at Kamitsukuri, Nagasaki and engineering works at Yokohama and Yokosuka. They wanted to produce their own ocean-going ships but were not successful (Teratani, 1989). They established shipyards at 14 local han (clans) to produce their own ocean-going vessels without success. Japan lacked the necessary knowledge and experience. Under the Tokugawa government’s closed-door policy, Japanese shipwrights were not permitted to make large ships for overseas trade and could only make flat-bottomed ships for carrying rice over short distances. A breakthrough came for the ship workers of Japan when the Russian vessel, Diana, drifted ashore at Heta on the Izu Peninsula in November 1854 and Japanese workmen were used to repair it under the supervision of a Russian naval architect. Those engineers and workers at Heta were to become the naval engineers of the Meiji government (Ishii, 1989). The international environment around Japan In 1859, J.B. Harris of America and Lord Elgin of the UK signed an Amicable and Trade Agreement with Japan, and the seaports of Nagasaki, Yokohama, and Hakodate were opened to foreign ships and people (Oliphant, 1860). W. Keswick of P&O rushed from Shanghai to Nagasaki to open the first trade route between Shanghai and Nagasaki and appointed T.B. Glover, an Aberdonian, to represent Jardine & Matheson at Nagasaki (Howarths and Howarths). A French Navigation Company, MI (Cie des Services Maritimes des Messageries Imperiales), came to Yokohama in 1862 and, in 1865, and sent an officer to explore the possibility of a route between Shanghai and Yokohama. The company changed its name to Cie des Messangeries Maritimes (MM) in 1873. In 1863, an American company, Pacific Mail (PM) opened a route from San Francisco to Yokohama and Hong Kong and this was extended to Shanghai (Imazu, 1989). America originally wanted to use Hakodate as a base port for the American Pacific trade. This American initiative affected the British and French Shanghai routes considerably. But fortunately for Britain and France, the American Civil War hit America’s trade in the Pacific (Yamamoto, 1980; Isii and Sekiguchgi, 1982). International factors lay behind the opening of a new phase of commerce with Asian countries in the late nineteenth century. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 and the completion of the trans-America railway speeded up the movement of goods and people to Asia. Consequently, two new steamship companies were established in the Far East. The formation of Hambourg American (HA) Line in 1872 and Occidental & Oriental Steam Ships (O&O) in 1875 caused fierce competition on the regular route from San Francisco to Hong Kong via Yokohama. In addition, the telegraph was introduced at that time. Both The Great Northern Telegraph via Siberia and the Great Eastern Telegraph via India were extended to the Far East (Tsunoyama, 1988). Lord Kelvin laid the cable line to America across the Atlantic 48 Masami Kita in 1866. In 1871, the sea cable between Shanghai, Nagasaki and Vladivostock was laid and in 1872 the cable line between India and Australia was completed. The telegraph network began in London and ended in Tokyo, ushering in a new era of transport and communication (Hosoya and Tanaka, 2000; Herman, 2002). The technological transition from feudal Japan to modern Japan A Dutch doctor, Dr P.F.B. Siebold of the Dutch East India Company’s Japan branch, who stayed in Japan from 1823 to 1829, made Japan aware of what was happening abroad. He also enabled Westerners to learn about Japan (Miyazaki, 1997). Under his influence, the Tokugawa government tried seriously to learn about the advanced technologies of the Western powers and asked the Netherlands to help. In 1855, the Tokugawa government set up the Nagasaki naval school using the paddle-steamer Soembing, presented by the Dutch government. These Japanese ratings were taught by Dutch naval officers like P. Rijicken and Huijssen Van Kattendijke. There were about 70 Japanese ratings there such as Rintaro Katsu, Tomoatsu Godai and Takeaki Enomoto who became leaders in Meiji Japan after the Restoration (Mizuta, 1974). In 1857, the ship Kanrin-maru together with the equipment for repairing ships was presented to the Nagasaki naval college. Engineers were also sent headed by H. Hardes. However it soon closed and the Kaigun Sourensho (navy training acad- emy) was moved to Edo. In 1856, the Chikusho-chosho (school of learning) was established to teach Western knowledge. In 1863 it changed its name to the Kaisei school (Oukubo, 1986). In 1863, the Tokugawa government sent the Chitose-maru to Shanghai to begin trade there. France in collaboration with the Tokugawa government, sent engineers, led by F.L. Verny, to build the first Western lighthouse at Kannonzaki in 1869. It also sent instructors to start a new Japanese army (Brunton, 1900). After the Meiji Restoration, the new Japanese government favoured British technology and engineers. R.H. Brunton, a Scottish engineer, was the first ‘Oyatoi’ (foreign employee) of the new government. He was invited to Japan with E. Gilbert from the Stevenson Company of Edinburgh, where the Northern Light Commission Table 4.1 The Oyatoi of the Meiji government (1871–98) Year Britain America France Germany Total numbers in Japan 1871 119 16 50 8 214 1875 277 56 98 33 527 1879 132 37 33 22 262 1883 65 16 7 21 132 1887 76 37 11 43 195 1891 63 31 10 29 155 1895 31 16 8 12 70 1898 37 14 10 22 100 Source: Umemura, N. (ed.) (1985) Kindaika-no-suishinsha-tachi (Leaders of Industrialisation of Modern Japan after Meiji), p. 203. Table 4.2 Distribution of Oyatoi among governmental departments in the Meiji period (1868–1900) Kobu Monbu Fuken Kaigun Naimu Rikugun Kaitakusi Okura Dajyokan Others Total (industry) (education) (local gmt) (navy) (interior) (army) (pioneer) (finance) (cabinet) Britain 533 86 119 118 26 2 4 38 11 77 1,034 France 90 39 27 69 2 75 1 20 59 19 401 America 13 105 94 12 15 56 13 3 35 351 Germany 24 93 38 8 43 16 5 6 1 43 279 China 46 7 17 1 5 13 1 4 95 Philippines 69 4 3 76 Dutch 1 12 21 5 3 2 7 51 Italy 10 2 2 1 7 2 3 27 Russia 8 1 5 1 2 16 Canada 3 7 111 Austria 1 2 1 1 1 1 3 4 0 11 Switzerland 1 3 4 1 1 10 Denmark 8 1 1 10 Portugal 1 2 1 2 6 Belgium 3 2 5 Malaya 1 4 5 Sweden 2 1 3 Korea 2 2 Spain 1 1 Norway 1 1 Finland 1 1 Mongol 1 1 Others 2 1 3 Total 825 367 315 215 117 108 88 88 83 194 2,400 Source: Umetani, N.

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