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The Iwakura Mission in Britain: an Assessment of Aims, Objectives and Results

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The Iwakura Mission in Britain: an Assessment of Aims, Objectives and Results 1 The Iwakura Mission in Britain: an assessment of aims, objectives and results (Received 20 November 1997) Kyushu Institute of Technology Ian RUXTON Introduction ' This paper describes the itinerary and some of the results of the Iwakura Mission's visit to Britain in 1872. It was first read at the History Section of the European Association for Japanese Studies 8th Annual Conference in Budapest, 27-30 August 1997. A longer and more detailed version is planned to appear in a book of the History Section papers to be published at a later date. The Iwakura Mission arrived at Liverpool on board the Cunard steamer OlymPus on 17 August 1872. It stayed in Britain for a total of 122 days, leaving London for Paris on December 16th. This mission was the most important and largest of all the Japanese missions sent to Western countries between the end of the Edo Period and the beginning of the Meiji Era, that is, between 1860 and 1873. It was the first official diplomatic mission abroad since the Meiji Restoration, the first Japanese mission designed according to Western diplomatic principles, and perhaps the first mission in world history to include such a large proportion of a country's leadership.i) In the official record A true account of the tour in America and EaroPe of the SPecial Embassy (Tokumei Zenleen Taishi Bei-O Kairanlikki) compiled by the Confucian scholar Kume Kunitake (1839-1931) and published in 1878 under the auspices of the Grand Council of State (Dojokan), the total number of pages devoted to the tour of Britain was 443. This was 46 pages more than the total for the United States of America which was only 397, despite the fact that 205 days (i.e. 83 days more than in Britain) were spent in the USA. The reasons for this are probably twofold: first, there was simply less of interest to report on in the United States which was still recovering from the devastation of the American Civil War which had ended only seven years before; second, the Mission had failed to bring appropriate credentials to present to the American government, as Secretary of State Hamilton Fish pointed out to them. Other countries in Europe received less than half the number of pages devoted to Britain (Germany, France) and in some cases less than one quarter (Italy, Russia). The total number of days spent in each of these countries was also less than that spent in Britain.2) The aims of the Mission's members were: to achieve recognition for the new imperial regime; to initiate a renegotiation of the treaties which had been signed with foreign powers (or at least to find out the reforms necessary as preconditions for renegotiation) ; and to judge for themselves the achievements of western societies with a view to adopting those parts of value to Japan.3) This paper will concentrate mainly on the third objective, as this was the most important one in the visit to Britain, and a satisfactory renegotiation of the unequal treaties was not achieved until 1894. The ambassadors and their assistants were responsible for three different sets of enquiries. One was to study the law and government, and to examine British political institutions including both Houses of Parliament. This task was undertaken mainly by Kume Kunitake himself.`) The second was to study the economic structure including industry, transport and communications, banking, currency and taxation and how these all affected trade. The third was to examine education in all its aspects, together with the equipment and training of military and naval personnel. These lines of enquiry had all been suggested by Guido Verbeck in his BriefSleetch first presented to Okuma in June 1869.5) The principal British cities and areas visited were: London, Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, The Scottish Highlands, Newcastle, Bradford, Halifax, Sheffield, Burton-upon-Trent, Birmingham, Coventry, Warwick, Worcester and Chester. However the Mission did not travel everywhere en masse. Occasionally splinter groups formed, and Kido Takayoshi (1833-77) briefly visited Dublin with three other members of the Mission, while three experts in mining and mineralogy (including Oshima Takato who had studied the reverbatory furnace before the Restoration and later worked on the problems of iron-smelting at Kamaishi) visited the Cornish tin-mines, and even went as far as the Welsh coal mines near Cardiff. Red Carpet Treatrnent Each country visited by the Mission, including the USA, Britain, France, Germany, Holland and Russia mounted a comprehensive programme designed to impress the Japanese with its enterprise and achievements. Every host-country was eager to entertain such a distinguished delegation and show off its modern industry and infra -structure. Swift steamships and steam trains running at up to 100 km/h, comprehensive rail networks, efficient post office and telegraph systems were all on display to impress the visitors who constantly discussed among themselves what they had seen. In Britain the main railway lines which exist today were already in place. The kinds of questions which were uppermost in the minds of the visitors were: The lwakura Mission in Britain: an assessment of aims, objectives and results 3 did industrialisation depend on an educated population for its success? Who was responsible for the financing and development of trade and industry ? Was the educated elite responsible for Western industrial supremacy? Although Britain had many visitors from abroad at this time who were greatly impressed by what they saw, few can have received such careful attention as the Iwakura Mission, with comprehensive and well-ordered tours undertaken on a daily basis. The Times noted with typical understatement on 7 December 1872: t{as they came to learn, and found no obstacles in the way of acquiring information, we may hope that their satisfaction is substantially complete". It was the CCindustrial grand tour" of the north of England and Scotland, inspecting key factories and being entertained frequently by eminent local industrialists, which brought home the strength of the manufacturing base on which British imperial power rested. Throughout the visitors were accompanied by the British Minister in Japan Sir Harry Parkes (who was on leave) and one of his consular officials, W.G.Aston who acted as interpreter. Major-General Alexander was seconded by the British government to supervlse arrangements. London and the South of England (August 17th - September 29th) i, During the early weeks in the South of England the Japanese delegation made it a priority to see army manoeuvres and equipment, and naval installations. The British had begun to train the Japanese navy in 1867, so there was a particular interest in naval matters.6) On August 26th Parkes, Alexander and Aston escorted the Mission to Blandford Forum in Dorset. The next day they observed troops drilling, a sight which Kido found spectacular. Field camp equipment, provisions storehouses, bridges, the telegraphy system, a printing press and a courier office were all on display. The next day the Mission was in Portsmouth as guests of the Royal Navy. They boarded a midshipmen's training vessel, and observed the manufacture of bricks, a dock under construction, and a steel warship, H.M.S.Monarch, being made. (At that time steel ships were newly invented. Steel was lighter and stronger than iron, but corroded more easily. On the deck of the Monarch there were four 700-pound guns housed in steel shields). nyx, ' On August 29th the Mission witnessed a demonstration of the firepower of big guns on a warship, and the court martial of two naval officers. The captain of H.M.S.Hercules ordered a nineteen-gun salute to be fired, and the party went inside one of three forts placed in the sea. They were structures surrounded by three-foot iron walls on top of stone bases. On August 30th six battalions of troops drilled in front of the Mission's hotel, a fort equipped with forty guns was visited, and a soldiers' camp. The party returned to London by train that day. Back in London there was a great variety of things to see and places to visit. On August 31st Kido went to a photography studio and Madame Tussaud's waxwork museum which had been established in Baker Street in 1835. He boarded the carriage of Napoleon I and found it equipped with numerous interesting devices. On September 3rd Iwakura led the party to see Buckingham Palace, and the next day they looked in on every single room of the Houses of Parliament. On September 7th the Mission was taken to Windsor Castle. They were astonished by the splendour of the state rooms and their contents, and took a carriage ride through the grounds. Someone told Kido that the road through the grounds was over 200 miles in length, an obvious exaggeration which he recorded in his diary. Three days later there was an important visit to the Woolwich cannon factory. Kido was impressed and wrote as follows: t{We took a steamship from Westminster Bridge down the Thames to the factory; the huge size of the bridges over the river is astonishing. About 11 we looked over the Woolwich cannon foundry. There are about 700 workers. We did not see any such factory with so much activity in America....we went to various , ' departments to see the manufacture of cannon, gun carriages, shells, and rifle bullets. Altogether some 8,OOO workers are employed in this factory daily. Wages are Åí4 weekly for craftsmen of the first class; Åí2 per week for those of the middle class; and Åí1 per week for those of the bottom class. Several cannon captured from the Chinese and from the Russians at Sebastopol were displayed." The cannons were all made of steel.
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