Japan's Imperial Diplomacy: Consuls, Treaty Ports, and War in China, 1895-1938

3 The Japanese Consul in China

The Japanese Consul in China 3 Japan’s advance to imperialist power status began in the late Meiji, partly fueled by competition with Western Great Powers in Asia and stimulated by the models of imperialism set by these same powers. But Japan’s drive for expansion, at least in terms of China, soon exceeded the model set by the extraterritorial rights of Western nations, indicating other forces internal to Japan at work. The Gaimushò agents in Chinese treaty ports for many decades mediated the tensions between the conflicting Japanese desires to conform, at least outwardly, to accepted imperialist status in the ports while at the same time surpassing the Western powers in domination of China affairs. These diplomats walked a tightrope between the fluctuating but consistent domestic demand for greater Japanese dominance in China and the international pressure to conform to the more limited rules of the treaty system in China. These diplomats also suffered the greatest challenge to the orthodox Kasumigaseki tradition, whose continuing emphasis on Western expertise and relations with the West was in excess of their importance. Thus, the Gaimushò as institution, especially its elite leadership, was afflicted with a myopic vision of the growing im- 80 The Japanese Consul in China portance of the “China problem.” Gaimushò response to the emerging issue of China was slow and inadequate, though after 1931 the new demand of younger diplomats for greater China focus finally brought the China service diplomats into greater play in the decision -making at the center. In the 1920s, however, China service diplomats represented their ministry in the growing complexity of Japanese institutions and interest groups active on the continent, where the interagency strife later so evident at the center in Tokyo was already being played out in the many treaty ports of China. These men better realized just how much the Foreign Ministry’s future depended on the outcome of decisions regarding China. The men who were appointed Japanese consuls in China gained valuable firsthand experience of the threat that rival agencies posed to Gaimushò authority in China matters. The more articulate of these consuls argued in writings and speeches that their ministry must not allow the office of Japanese consul to be further transformed into an outright colonial agency. Their resistance, although rooted in the Kasumigaseki tradition of Anglo-American international diplomacy, also grew out of observation of the realities of the changing Chinese political economy and of the optimal role for Japanese national interests on the continent. A true understanding of their position therefore requires an examination of the role of the Japanese consul in Japanese treaty port imperialism, especially as the unequal treaty system deprived China of vital aspects of its sovereignty. Japan officially gained most-favored-nation status vis-à-vis China with the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895. But in fact, even before the treaty, the Japanese Foreign Ministry, through its consulates in China (and Korea), had been expanding the advantages offered to Japan under international law and its practice in East Asia. Japanese expansion of the privileges of extraterritoriality, begun in Korea, continued after 1895 in China. Japan’s version of treaty port administration evolved in tandem with Japan’s growing presence and stake in Chinese economy and society. Just as in the case of the other Great Powers, the key agency of the Japanese informal empire was the Japanese consulate. In contrast to other Great Power consulates, however, the Japanese consulate had to The Japanese Consul in China 81 contend with other of its own national agencies vying for advantage and control in Chinese affairs.1 The legal and political structure of the Japanese informal empire in China rested on delicate balances of power with competing Chinese, Western, and domestic challengers . The consuls who headed the offices did their best to perform the increasingly impossible task of mediating and maintaining these balances. The Job of Consul In the ancient Western world, a system evolved whereby small foreign enclaves, such as small communities of Greeks or Romans surrounded by alien cultures in the Middle East, were allowed to choose a representative from their ranks to act as magistrate, or consul, to adjudicate disputes according to the laws of their mother country. As the role of consul evolved in diplomatic practice, most of his political, judicial, and even diplomatic functions were gradually shorn, leaving him mostly responsible for issuing visas and regulating his country’s commercial concerns.2...