Part 33

The traditional story of prehistoric Japan indicates that the first recorded emperor was an over-sea invader, whose followers must therefore have possessed some knowledge of ship-building and navigation. But in what kind of craft they sailed and how they handled them, there is nothing to show clearly. Nine centuries later, but still 500 years before the era of surviving written annals, an empress is said to have invaded Korea, embarking her forces at Kobe (then called Takekura) in 500 vessels. In the middle of the 6th century we read of a general named Abe-no-hirafu who led a flotilla up the Amur river to the invasion of Manchuria (then called Shukushin). All these things show that the Japanese of the earliest era navigated the high sea with some skill, and at later dates down to medieval times they are found occasionally sending forces to Korea and constantly visiting China in vessels which seem to have experienced no difficulty in making the voyage. The 16th century was a period of maritime activity so marked that, had not artificial checks been applied, the Japanese, in all probability, would have obtained partial command of Far-Eastern waters. They invaded Korea; their corsairs harried the coasts of China; two hundred of their vessels, sailing under authority of the Taiko's vermilion seal, visited Siam, Luzon, Cochin China and Annam, and they built ships in European style which crossed the Pacific to Acapulco. But this spirit of adventure was chilled at the close of the 16th century and early in the 17th, when events connected with the propagation of Christianity taught the Japanese to believe that national safety could not be secured without international isolation. In 1638 the ports were closed to all foreign ships except those flying the flag of Holland or of China, and a strictly enforced edict forbade the building of any vessel having a capacity of more than 500 _koku_ (150 tons) or constructed for purposes of ocean navigation. Thenceforth, with rare exceptions, Japanese craft confined themselves to the coastwise trade. Ocean-going enterprise ceased altogether.

Things remained thus until the middle of the 19th century, when a growing knowledge of the conditions existing in the West warned the Tokugawa administration that continued isolation would be suicidal. In 1853 the law prohibiting the construction of sea-going ships was revoked and the Yedo government built at Uraga a sailing vessel of European type aptly called the "Phoenix" ("Howo Maru"). Just 243 years had elapsed since the founder of the Tokugawa dynasty constructed Japan's first ship after a foreign model, with the aid of an English pilot, Will Adams. In 1853 Commodore M. C. Perry made his appearance, and thenceforth everything conspired to push Japan along the new path. The Dutch, who had been proximately responsible for the adoption of the seclusion policy in the 17th century, now took a prominent part in promoting a liberal view. They sent to the Tokugawa a present of a man-of-war and urged the vital necessity of equipping the country with a navy. Then followed the establishment of a naval college at Tsukiji in Yedo, the building of iron-works at Nagasaki, and the construction at Yokosuka of a dockyard destined to become one of the greatest enterprises of its kind in the East. This last undertaking bore witness to the patriotism of the Tokugawa rulers, for they resolutely carried it to completion during the throes of a revolution which involved the downfall of their dynasty. Their encouragement of maritime enterprise had borne fruit, for when, in 1867, they restored the administration to the Imperial court, 44 ocean-going ships were found among their possessions and 94 were in the hands of the feudatories, a steamer and 20 sailing vessels having been constructed in Japan and the rest purchased abroad.

If the Tokugawa had been energetic in this respect, the new government was still more so. It caused the various maritime carriers to amalgamate into one association called the _Nippon-koku yubin jokisen kaisha_ (Mail SS. Company of Japan), to which were transferred, free of charge, the steamers, previously the property of the Tokugawa or the feudatories, and a substantial subsidy was granted by the state. This, the first steamship company ever organized in Japan, remained in existence only four years. Defective management and incapacity to compete with foreign-owned vessels plying between the open ports caused its downfall (1875). Already, however, an independent company had appeared upon the scene. Organized and controlled by a man (Iwasaki Yataro) of exceptional enterprise and business faculty, this _mitsubishi kaisha_ (three lozenge company, so called from the design on its flag), working with steamers chartered from the former feudatory of Tosa, to which clan Iwasaki belonged, proved a success from the outset, and grew with each vicissitude of the state. For when (1874) the Meiji government's first complications with a foreign country necessitated the despatch of a military expedition to Formosa, the administration had to purchase 63 foreign steamers for transport purposes, and these were subsequently transferred to the mitsubishi company together with all the vessels (17) hitherto in the possession of the Mail SS. Company, the Treasury further granting to the mitsubishi a subsidy of £50,000 annually. Shortly afterwards it was decided to purchase a service maintained by the Pacific Mail SS. Company with 4 steamers between Yokohama and Shanghai, and money for the purpose having been lent by the state to the mitsubishi, Japan's first line of steamers to a foreign country was firmly established, just 20 years after the law interdicting the construction of ocean-going vessels had been rescinded.

The next memorable event in this chapter of history occurred in 1877, when the Satsuma clan, eminently the most powerful and most warlike among all the former feudatories, took the field in open rebellion. For a time the fate of the government hung in the balance, and only by a flanking movement over-sea was the rebellion crushed. This strategy compelled the purchase of 10 foreign steamers, and these too were subsequently handed over to the mitsubishi company, which, in 1880, found itself possessed of 32 ships aggregating 25,600 tons, whereas all the other vessels of foreign type in the country totalled only 27 with a tonnage of 6500. It had now become apparent that the country could not hope to meet emergencies which might at any moment arise, especially in connexion with Korean affairs, unless the development of the mercantile marine proceeded more rapidly. Therefore in 1881 the formation of a new company was officially promoted. It had the name of the _kyodo unyu kaisha_ (Union Transport Company); its capital was about a million sterling; it received a large subsidy from the state, and its chief purpose was to provide vessels for military uses and as commerce-carriers. Japan had now definitely embraced the policy of entrusting to private companies rather than to the state the duty of acquiring a fleet of vessels capable of serving as transports or auxiliary cruisers in time of war. But there was now seen the curious spectacle of two companies (the Mitsubishi and the Union Transport) competing in the same waters and both subsidized by the treasury. After this had gone on for four years, the two companies were amalgamated (1885) into the _Nippon yusen kaisha_ (Japan Mail SS. Company) with a capital of £1,100,000 and an annual subsidy of £88,000, fixed on the basis of 8% of the capital. Another company had come into existence a few months earlier. Its fleet consisted of 100 small steamers, totalling 10,000 tons, which had hitherto been competing in the Inland Sea.

Japan now possessed a substantial mercantile marine, the rate of whose development is indicated by the following figures:--

Year. Steamers. Sailing Vessels. Totals. Number. Tons. Number. Tons. Number. Tons.

1870 35 15,498 11 2,454 46 17,952 1892 642 122,300 780 46,065 1,422 168,365

Nevertheless, only 23% of the exports and imports was transported in Japanese bottoms in 1892, whereas foreign steamers took 77%. This discrepancy was one of the subjects discussed in the first session of the diet, but a bill presented by the government for encouraging navigation failed to obtain parliamentary consent, and in 1893 the Japan Mail SS. Company, without waiting for state assistance, opened a regular service to Bombay mainly for the purpose of carrying raw cotton from India to supply the spinning industry which had now assumed great importance in Japan. Thus the rising sun flag flew for the first time outside Far-Eastern waters. Almost immediately after the establishment of this line, Japan had to engage in war with China, which entailed the despatch of some two hundred thousand men to the neighbouring continent and their maintenance there for more than a year. All the country's available shipping resources did not suffice for this task. Additional vessels had to be purchased or chartered, and thus, by the beginning of 1896, the mercantile marine of Japan had grown to 899 steamers of 373,588 tons, while the sailing vessels had diminished to 644 of 44,000 tons.

In 1897 there occurred an event destined to exercise a potent influence on the fortunes not only of Japan herself but also of her mercantile marine. No sooner had she exchanged with China ratifications of a treaty of peace which seemed to prelude a long period of tranquillity, than Russia, Germany and France ordered her to restore all the continental territory ceded to her by China. Japan then recognized that her hope of peace was delusive, and that she must be prepared to engage in a struggle incomparably more serious than the one from which she had just emerged. Determined that when the crucial moment came she should not be found without ample means for transporting her armies, the government, under the leadership of Prince Ito and with the consent of the diet, enacted, in March 1896 laws liberally encouraging ship-building and navigation. Under the navigation law "any Japanese subject or any commercial company whose partners or shareholders were all Japanese subjects, engaged in carrying passengers and cargo between Japan and foreign countries or between foreign ports, in their own vessels, which must be of at least 1000 tons and registered in the shipping list of the Empire, became entitled to subsidies proportionate to the distance run and the tonnage of the vessels"; and under the ship-building law, bounties were granted for the construction of iron or steel vessels of not less than 700 tons gross by any Japanese subject or any commercial company whose partners and shareholders were all Japanese. The effect of this legislation was marked. In the period of six years ended 1902, no less than 835 vessels of 455,000 tons were added to the mercantile marine, and the treasury found itself paying encouragement money which totalled six hundred thousand pounds annually. Ship-building underwent remarkable development. Thus, while in 1870 only 2 steamers aggregating 57 tons had been constructed in Japanese yards, 53 steamers totalling 5380 tons and 193 sailing vessels of 17,873 tons were launched in 1900. By the year 1907 Japan had 216 private ship yards and 42 private docks,[6] and while the government yards were able to build first-class line-of-battle ships of the largest size, the private docks were turning out steamers of 9000 tons burden. When war broke out with Russia in 1904, Japan had 567,000 tons of steam shipping, but that stupendous struggle obliged her to materially augment even this great total. In operations connected with the war she lost 71,000 tons, but on the other hand, she built 27,000 tons at home and bought 177,000 abroad, so that the net increase to her mercantile fleet of steamers was 133,000 tons. The following table shows the growth of her marine during the ten years ending 1907:--

Steamers. Sailing Vessels. Totals.

Gross Gross Gross Year. Number. Tonnage. Number. Tonnage. Number. Tonnage.

1898 1130 477,430 1914 170,194 3044 648,324 1899 1221 510,007 3322 286,923 4543 467,930 1900 1329 543,365 3850 320,572 5179 863,937 1901 1395 583,532 4026 336,528 5471 920,060 1902 1441 610,445 3907 336,154 5348 946,600 1903 1570 663,220 3934 328,953 5504 992,173 1904 1815 798,240 3940 329,125 5755 1,127,365 1905 1988 939,749 4132 336,571 6170 1,276,320 1906 2103 1,041,569 4547 353,356 6700 1,395,925 1907 2139 1,115,880 4728 365,559 6867 1,481,439

With regard to the development of ship-building in Japanese yards the following figures convey information:--

NUMBERS OF VESSELS BUILT IN JAPAN AND NUMBERS PURCHASED ABROAD

Built in Japan. Purchased abroad.

Year. Steamers. Sailing Vessels. Steamers. Sailing Vessels. 1898 479 1301 194 9 1899 554 2771 199 12 1900 653 3302 206 7 1901 754 3559 215 6 1902 813 3585 220 6 1903 855 5304 233 8 1904 947 3324 277 8 1905 1028 3508 357 11 1906 1100 3859 387 11 1907 1150 4033 419 12

In the building of iron and steel ships the Japanese are obliged to import much of the material used, but a large steel-foundry has been established under government auspices at Wakamatsu in Kiushiu, that position having been chosen on account of comparative proximity to the Taiya iron mine in China, where the greater part of the iron ore used for the foundry is procured.

Seamen.

Simultaneously with the growth of the mercantile marine there has been a marked development in the number of licensed mariners; that is to say, seamen registered by the government as having passed the examination prescribed by law. In 1876 there were only 4 Japanese subjects who satisfied that definition as against 74 duly qualified foreigners holding responsible positions. In 1895 the numbers were 4135 Japanese and 835 foreigners, and ten years later the corresponding figures were 16,886 and 349 respectively. In 1904 the ordinary seamen of the mercantile marine totalled 202,710.

Education of Mariners.

There are in Japan various institutions where the theory and practice of navigation are taught. The principal of these is the _Tokyo shosen gakko_ (Tokyo mercantile marine college, established in 1875), where some 600 of the men now serving as officers arid engineers have graduated. Well equipped colleges exist also in seven other places, all having been established with official co-operation. Mention must be made of a mariners' assistance association (_kaiin ekizai-kai_, established in 1800) which acts as a kind of agency for supplying mariners to shipowners, and of a distressed mariners' relief association (_suinan kyusai-kai_) which has succoured about a hundred thousand seamen since its establishment in 1899.

Maritime Administration.

The duty of overseeing all matters relating to the maritime carrying trade devolves on the department of state for communications, and is delegated by the latter to one of its bureaus (the _Kwansen-kyoku_, or ships superintendence bureau), which, again, is divided into three sections: one for inspecting vessels, one for examining mariners, and one for the general control of all shipping in Japanese waters. For the better discharge of its duties this bureau parcels out the empire into 4 districts, having their headquarters at Tokyo, Osaka, Nagasaki and Hakodate; and these four districts are in turn subdivided into 18 sections, each having an office of marine affairs (_kwaiji-kyoku_).

Competition between Japanese and Foreign Ships.

Competition between Japanese and foreign ships in the carriage of the country's over-sea trade soon began to assume appreciable dimensions. Thus, whereas in 1891 the portion carried in Japanese bottoms was only 1½ millions sterling against 12½ millions carried by foreign vessels, the corresponding figures in 1902 were 20½ millions against 32¼ millions. In other words, Japanese steamers carried only 11% of the total trade in 1891, but their share rose to 39% in 1902. The prospect suggested by this record caused some uneasiness, which was not allayed by observing that while the tonnage of Japanese vessels in Chinese ports was only 2% in 1896 as compared with foreign vessels, the former figure grew to 16% in 1902; while in Korean ports Japanese steamers almost monopolized the carrying trade, leaving only 18% to their foreign rivals, and even in Hong-Kong the tonnage of Japanese ships increased from 3% in 1896 to 13% in 1900. In 1898 Japan stood eleventh on the list of the thirteen principal maritime countries of the world, but in 1907 she rose to the fifth place. Her principal company, the Nippon yusen kaisha, though established as lately as 1885, now ranks ninth in point of tonnage among the 21 leading maritime companies of the world. This company was able to supply 55 out of a total fleet of 207 transports furnished by all the steamship companies of Japan for military and naval purposes during the war with Russia in 1904-5. It may be noted in conclusion that the development of Japan's steam-shipping during the five decades ended 1907 was as follows:--

Tons.

At the end of 1868 17,952 At the end of 1878 63,468 At the end of 1888 197,365 At the end of 1898 648,324 At the end of 1907 1,115,880

Open Ports.

There are 33 ports in Japan open as places of call for foreign steamers. Their names with the dates of their opening are as follow:--

Name. Date of Opening. Situation.

Yokohama 1859 Main Island. Kobe 1868 " Niigata 1867 " Osaka 1899 " Yokkaichi " " Shimonoseki " " Itozaki " " Taketoyo " " Shimizu " " Tsuruga " " Nanao " " Fushiki " " Sakai " " Hamada " " Miyazu " " Aomori 1906 " Nagasaki 1859 Kiushiu. Moji 1899 " Hakata " " Karatsu " " Kuchinotsu " " Misumi " " Suminoye 1906 " Izuhara 1899 Tsushima. Sasuna " " Shikami " " Nafa " Riukiu. Otaru " Yezo. Kushiro " " Mororan " " Hakodate 1865 " Kelung 1899 Formosa. Tamsui " " Takow " " Anping " "

_Emigration._--Characteristic of the Japanese is a spirit of adventure: they readily emigrate to foreign countries if any inducement offers. A strong disposition to exclude them has displayed itself in the United States of America, in Australasia and in British Columbia, and it is evident that, since one nation cannot force its society on another at the point of the sword, this anti-Asiatic prejudice will have to be respected, though it has its origin in nothing more respectable than the jealousy of the labouring classes. One result is an increase in the number of Japanese emigrating to Korea, Manchuria and S. America. The following table shows the numbers residing at various places outside Japan in 1904 and 1906 respectively:--

Number in Number in Place. 1904. 1906.

China 9,417 27,126 Korea 31,093 100,000 Manchuria -- 43,823 Hong-Kong 600 756 Singapore 1,292 1,428 British India 413 530 Europe 183 697 United States of America 33,849 130,228 Canada 3,838 5,088 Mexico 456 1,294 S. America 1,496 2,500 Philippines 2,652 2,185 Hawaii 65,008 64,319 Australasia 71,129 3,274

_Foreign Residents._--The number of foreigners residing in Japan and their nationalities in 1889, 1899 and 1906, respectively, were as follow:--

1889. 1899. 1906.

Americans 899 1,296 1,650 British 1,701 2,013 2,155 Russians 63 134 211 French 335 463 540 Portuguese 108 158 165 Germans 550 532 670 Chinese 4,975 6,372 12,425 Koreans 8 188 254

There are also small numbers of Dutch, Peruvians, Belgians, Swiss, Italians, Danes, Swedes, Austrians, Hungarians, &c. This slow growth of the foreign residents is remarkable when contrasted with the fact that the volume of the country's foreign trade, which constitutes their main business, grew in the same period from 13½ millions sterling to 92 millions.