RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 16 RICHARD J. SMITH policies, the Meiji government managed to avoid most of the difficulties that had plagued the Chinese effort to use foreign assistance efficiently. Building on the foundation of pre-Meiji experience, Western-trained and Western-oriented leadership,24 and strong central government direction and support, Japan made rapid strides in the modernization of her military after 1868. A leading figure in this effort was Yamagata Aritomo, who became Vice Minister of Military Affairs upon his return to Japan after a year-long tour of Europe in 1869-1870.25 With French advice and assistance, the Meiji government created an Imperial Guard in 1871, which not only made possible the abolition of the feudal han in the same year, but also set the stage for the introduction of conscription in 1872. By 1875, the Japanese had established a centralized military academy at Tokyo, with branch schools in veterinary medicine and other subjects.26 At the same time, numerous officers were sent abroad for further military education.27 By 1893, Japan had a total of sixteen military schools instructing over 2,600 students per year.28 Overseas-educated officers returned in a steady stream to assist in teaching these individuals. In 1878, following the Satsuma Rebellion (1877), the Japanese established an independent General Staff on the German model. This marked the eclipse of the French in Japanese military affairs and the rise of Germany. Presseisen attaches profound significance to this development: "So long as French influence prevailed, Japan's army remained under unified civilian control, her law code owed much to French legal opinions, and her government might have evolved toward a liberal, parliamentary system. After Germany's triumph the command structure, the constitution, and the Imperial Court followed the German ideological style.” 19 The outstanding contributions of Jacob Meckel's German military mission to Japan in 1885 have been described in detail by Presseisen,30 The salient point is that by the early 1890's, Japan had built a modern, centralized army and had eliminated the need for further foreign military assistance. China, meanwhile, had done neither. The Sino-Japanese War underscored the stark contrast between the Chinese and Japanese reform efforts.31 Armies, like individuals, can both reflect and effect change in society. Sir Lewis Namier has offered the opinion that "the social ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q STUDY OF MODERNIZATION IN CHINA & JAPAN 23 23 See Umetani Noboru, "Foreign Nationals Employed in Japan during the Years of Modernization," East Asian Cultural Studies, 10.1 (March, 1971). 24 Ibid., 5-6. 25 See Roger Hackett, "The Meiji Leaders and Modernization: The Case of Yamagata Aritomo," in Marius Jansen, ed., Changing Japanese Attitudes toward Modernization (Princeton, 1965). 26 Yamagata Aritomo, "The Japanese Army," in Okuma Shigenobu, comp., Fifty Years of New Japan (New York, 1909), 206. 27 Ibid., 206. 28 Ibid., 206-208. 29 Presseisen, vii; also chapters 2 and 4. 30 Ibid., esp. 135-136. As a professor at the Army Staff College and an adviser to the General Staff, Meckel helped to reorganize the Army Ministry, refine the General Staff, improve the system and content of Japanese military education, and develop the Japanese system of logistics and medical services. In addition, he helped restructure the army into divisions and taught the Japanese "the demands of full-scale mobilization, which included a strategic railroad network, a new conscription act, and improved staff exercises." 31 Mary Wright, The Last Stand, 220-221; Rawlinson, 167-204; Presseisen, 139-143; Hsü, The Rise of Modern China (New York, etc., 1975), 418-420; Yamagata Ariyoshi, "The Army," in Albert Stead, ed., Japan by the Japanese (London, 1904), 107-109; etc. 32 Cited in Roger Hackett, "The Military: Japan," in Robert E. Ward and Dankwart Rustow, eds., Political Modernization in Japan and Turkey (Princeton, 1964), 328. 33 Ike Nobutaka, "War and Modernization," in Robert Ward, ed., Political Development in Modern Japan (Princeton, 1968), 209. 34 Hackett, "The Military," 346-348. 35 See, for example, Ike, 196; also Shibusawa Keizo, ed., Japanese Life and Culture in the Meiji Era (translated and adapted by Charles Terry; Tokyo, 1958), 303-309, esp. 308-309. 36 Hackett, "The Military," 335. 37 Ogawa Gotaro, The Conscription System in Japan (New York, 1921), chapter 3. 38 Shibusawa, 306-307. 39 H. Paul Varley, Japanese Culture: A Short History (New York, 1973), 163-164. 40 Donald Keene, "The Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95 and Its Cultural Effects in Japan," in Donald Shively, ed., Tradition and Modernization in Japanese Culture (Princeton, 1971). 41 Ogawa, part 2. 42 See Harry T. Oshima, "Meiji Fiscal Policy and Economic Progress," in William Lockwood, ed., The State and Economic Enterprise in Japan (Princeton, 1968), esp. 372. See also Shibusawa, 305, 315; Fairbank, et al., 199-200; Ike, 205. ================================================================================