Mutsu Munemitsu and the Revision of the "Unequal Treaties" (Diplomatic History, Japan, Britain).

Abstract

Mutsu Munemitsu is a famous and controversial figure in modern Japanese history because he was firmly in charge of the foreign policy of Japan during three of its most important milestones: the revision of the "unequal treaties", the Sino-Japanese War and the Triple Intervention. Most historians agree that the revision of the treaties was a watershed in Japan's history because it represents both a culmination of a national crusade to rid the country of the humiliating treaties and also the birth of a proud and independent nation. It was Mutsu who planned and executed the scheme that brought about the completion of that crusade. Mutsu cultivated his status as a self-made man who was an outsider to the centers of power in Meiji Japan. But, it was because he possessed equally important relations to the Choshu side of the Meiji oligarchy and the Tosa faction of the Jiyuto political party that he was able to wield the enormous political power necessary to suppress opposition to the government's policies and to placate and manipulate the arrogant and suspicious British into revising their treaty with Japan. This study examines the political climate of the early 1890's and reconstructs the actual negotiations that led to the conclusion of the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of 1894 using primary Japanese and British diplomatic sources as well as Mutsu's extensive and c and id correspondence. It corrects the common misconception found in English language scholarship that Mutsu's roles in treaty revision and in the management of Japan's foreign policy were incidental.