Japanese Never Have Known Invasion,
► But They Once Lost A War With Korea
FIRST CALLER—In 1846 Commodore James Biddle with the U.S.S. Columbus and Vincennes
entered Tokyo Bay. Nine years earlier the Morrison, an unarmed ship that attempted to land
shipwrecked sailors, had been fired upon by the forts. Biddle was treated with more respect.
The Japanese brought him supplies, but would not allow him to land.
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<5
By THOMAS A. BOYNTON
Before World War II, Japan
never was successfully invaded,
but Japanese who boast that their
country, never has lost a foreign
war ignore the face that sank a
thousand ships.
The face—not that of beautiful
1 Helen of Troy but of an ugly tur
tle—was the steel battering ram
on the bows of the world’s first
>
ironclad warships. With his “tor
tise boats,” the Korean Admiral
Yi-Sun Sin twice within four
years defeated Japan.
In 1592, the Japanese Shogun
Hideyoushi looked at Korea as the
high-road into China. That year
he successfully invaded Korea.
Then Yi-Sun Sin, with his iron
clads, wrecked the Japanese sup
ply lines. The Japanese sued for
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peace.
Two years later, however, Hi
deyoshi came back in greater
force, destroying the bulk of the
Korean navy. Yi-Sun Sin joined i
I
forces with the Chinese fleet and !
I
again nipped off the enemy’s sup- ■
plies. Hideyoshi again# recalled his j
troops. The homeward bound'
ships were intercepted by Yi-Sun j
Sin’s tortoise boats, equipped with
flame throwers. Some 250,000 Jap-;
anese were killed and hundreds j
of their vessels were dstroyed. So !
sound was the defeat that for 200 j
years no Japanes was permitted
to leave his home islands.
Mongolians supported by Chi
nese and Koreans, led by the Mon
gol Kablai Khan, made invasion
attempts in 1274 and 1281. Winds
and high waves engulfed the ships
and the invaders were completely
defeated.
The Japanese date their begin
ning from the accession of Emper
or Jimmu Tenno in 660 B.C. They
say Emperor Hirohito is his direct
descendant.
Believed to have stemmed from
Asiatic and South Pacific island
people, the early Japanese were
split into many hostile clans as a
result of conflict of religions—
Shintoism, ancestor worship, and
Confucianism and Buddhism. Feu
dalism also got an early start.
There were three great political
changes in Japanese history—the
7th century’s Taika reformation,
the samurai shogunate dictator
ship which began in 1192 and the
1868 imperial restoration by Meiji.
Under Taika’s rule the samurai,
Japan’s military caste, was born.
As feudalism took a new hold, the
a
samurai fought first for the lords
and then* for power. Both central
and local governments weakened.
Out of the shogunate, in power
for 685 yars came the abandon
ment of polygamous marriages,
wider trade with China, war with
the Mongolians some Japanese mi
gration, and broader educaiton.
The lords grew wealthy and Jap
anese pirates plundered the Asia
tic coast.
Samurai rule failed as interna
i
tional trade dwindled. In 1825
Japan was closed to foreigners.
Twelve years later, the American 1
ship Morrison, bringing home a
shipwrecked Japanese crew, was
bombarded and forced to return
to China without landing.
Foreign fleets then persuaded
Japan again to open her ports to
traders. English and French agree
ments were signed in the 1840s.
Russia was next. Then came Com
modore Perry and Consul General1
Townsend Harris who gained!
trade and settlement treaties. La
ter came Prussia, Switzerland and
Belgium. Japan became a world
marke.
When Emperor Meiji mounted
the throne in 1867, Japan headed
toward modernization. Meiji
seized all reins of government
from the shogunate. He moved to
Tokyo, removed class distinction,
abolished feudalism and set up a
modern government, put down re
bellion, and sent a commission
abroad to study means for estab
lishing a Japanese constitution.
But while making Japan a world
power, Meiji also started the na
tion on the road to conquest.
To drive the Chinese out of Kor
ea, he declared war on China in
1894 and acquired Formosa the
Boko islands and Liaotung penin
sula. In 1895 Japan sold Liaotung
back to China for 45 million yen.
China’s indemnity put Japan on
the gold standard.
Under pressure of an Anglo
Japanese accord and U. S. declar
ations, Russia had promised to re
turn Manchuria to China. Instead,
in 1903, she increased her armies
and fortified Port Arthur, then in
vaded northern Korea. Japan at
tacked the next year, defeating
the Russian navy and land forces.
In the treaty, Japan assumed
dominaion of Korea and took the
southern half of Saghalien. More
important she took the rights to
Russia’s interests in the Chang
chun railway and coal interests in
Manchuria. In 1906 Port Arthur
was made a Japanese naval sta
tion.
Japan entered World War I on
the allied side but her participa
tion was limited. She occupied the
Marshalls, Marianas and Caro
lines—and held them as mandates
after the war.
Japan’s place as a first-rate
naval power was assured by the
World War. But Nippon was set
on controlling Asia. She invaded
Manchuria in 1931-32 and in 1933
quit the League of Nations, turn
ing her back on the Occident.
From then on, the path was
clear. The “China Incident,” grow
ing out of a night clash between
Sino-Japanese forces at the Marco
Polo bridgfe July 7, 1937, sent the
Japanese streaming into China
from annexed Manchukuo. When
Germany conquered France, Jap
an invaded French Indo-China
and proclaimed herself a part of
the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo axis. U. S.
aid to China was extended as
Japanese credits were frozen.
“Economic strangulation” then
was given as Japan’s excuse for
war.
The bean that provides the
greatest number of calories these
days is Dad’s.
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