The secret memoirs of Count Tadasu Hayashi, G. C. V. O.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

Introduction :

I. — Origin of an Opinion for an Anglo- Japanese Alliance. The Three- Power Intervention, 1895 . . 77

Introduction

Hayashi Tadasu was born in the second month of the third year of Kaei (1850), at Yedo. His father, Sato Taisen, was a native of the village of Kozu in the feudal fief of Sakura, where he had been adopted into the family of Hayashi Kaisha under the name of Hayashi Dokai. He followed his adoptive father's profession of physician, and became one of the best-known doctors of the pre- Restoration period, rising to the post of bodyphysician to the Shogun.

At an early age the young Hayashi, in company with Ito Masunosuke, was placed in the house of an American missionary at Yokohama, where he quickly learned to adapt himself to the ways of the "barbarians" and acquired a good grounding in the English language.

In 1866, on the recommendation of Sir Harry Parkes, the bakufu decided to make an experiment by sending a number of students to England, instead of to Russia and the Netherlands which had hitherto been the foreign lands selected for Government students. Thanks to his father's influence at the Yedo Court young Hayashi was amongst the number chosen for this trial.

The party consisted of fourteen in all, and several of its members, as Hayashi himself, Toyama Shoichi, later Minister of Education, and Kikuchi Dairoku, now Baron Kikuchi, made names for themselves during the Meiji Era. Baron Kikuchi, who at that time was only twelve years old, is the only...surviving member of the party.

Thanks to the arrangements made by Sir Harry Parkes, the party was enabled to travel to England on board an English warship returning from the Far East, the lads being placed under the charge of the chaplain, Mr. Lloyd. The voyage lasted from September, 1866, to January, 1867.

On arrival in London the British Foreign Office instructed Mr. Lloyd to take charge of the young men, and his first duty was to find accommodation for them. He made arrangements for them to lodge together in a house in Baker Street, but this did not suit Hayashi's views. He pointed out to their tutor that if they all lived together they would talk only Japanese and would live in Japanese style as much as possible, from force of habit. As a result they would neither acquire fluency in the English language nor acquaintance with English manners and customs, the two objects of their sojourn.

Mr. Lloyd, however, was unable to alter a situation which had the benediction of the authorities, but suggested that the boys should themselves draw up a petition to the Secretary of State. Hayashi took up this proposal with enthusiasm, and drafted his first diplomatic document, setting out his views, and requesting permission for the party to separate and to live in different private families. The petition was in due course acknowledged and granted.

The next move was to obtain some proper English education, and for this the students entered University College School in Gower Street, in the autumn of 1867.

Before they had been there many months, however, news arrived from Japan of the outbreak of the Restoration movement, and the Tokugawa officials summarily recalled the whole party.

When they arrived in Paris they found that the order for recall had been unaccompanied by funds to pay for their passages, with the consequence that the fourteen were stranded there with their clothes, and the revolvers and military equipment which they had bought in London.

Fortunately, a relative of the Shogun, Tokugawa Minbunotayo, the Lord of Mito, was at that time in Paris, and in his suite was a gentleman who has since become famous as Japan's leading financier, Mr. (now Baron) Shibusawa. He arranged for the young men to return to Yokohama by the French mailpacket.

The party arrived in Japan just after the smashing defeat of the Tokugawa army at the battle of Uyeno. Hayashi at once proceeded to Hakodate, where he joined the remnants of the Shogunate forces, which had gathered there round Admiral Enomoto, the staunchest of the Tokugawa retainers. He seems to have fought strenuously at both the battles of Hakodate and Masumae, but after the dispersal of the Shogunites he was taken prisoner and thrown into a dungeon to await execution, as he believed.

Although the real driving force behind the Restoration was the ambition of the great daimyoSj especially those of Satsuma and Choshu, who had been kept in subjection by the Tokugawas, the Imperialist leaders were too far-sighted to imperil the future of the monarchy behind which they intended to establish their own oligarchy, by inhuman treatment of the enemy, although such would have been fully in accordance with the customs of the land. As soon, therefore, as the country had settled down imder the new regime the imprisoned supporters of the Shogun were released, and Hayashi was not less fortunate than his fellows.

When the Emperor was safely on the throne a mission under Prince Iwakura was sent to the various Powers to announce the new order of things. Thanks to his knowledge of English, Hayashi was attached to this mission as interpreter, with the rank of a second secretary.

His connexion with it terminated rather suddenly whilst in London, owing to a piece of impertinence and disobedience on his part. Prince Iwakura being entertained by some personage expressed his delight at an apple, which he ate for lunch. His host on his departure presented him with a basket full of similar apples, which the Prince ordered Hayashi to dispatch to Japan. Realizing that the apples by the time of their arrival in the Far East would be unfit to eat or even to look at, Hayashi suggested to his fellowsecretaries to eat up the fruit and say nothing about it to the Prince. No sooner said than done! But, unfortunately, the Prince had either a longing for the apples or else a suspicion of Hayashi, for he asked on the following day if the fruit had been dispatched. The nervousness of the secretary whom he questioned aroused further suspicion, and eventually he learned the premature fate of the fruit. His rage was intense, and his first impulse was to send Hayashi back to Tokio in disgrace.

Fortunately, it happened that the Government in Japan hurriedly recalled Marquis Kido, the second envoy, and at his request Hayashi was transferred to his suite and returned to Japan, at least not out of favour.

About 1874, he was appointed interpreter to the Kanagawa Prefectural office. Mr. (later Count) Mutsu was then the Governor of Kanagawa-ken and was much struck by the tact displayed by his subordinate in handling the many difficult questions which arose between the foreign communities and the local authorities. Mutsu strongly recommended Hayashi to enter the diplomatic service and obtained for him an appointment in the Japanese Legation at London.

On his return to Japan he re-entered the service of the Kanagawa Prefecture, but was subsequently appointed Secretary of the Industrial Bureau, and in 1886 he became Secretary of the Imperial Household Bureau. Both these appointments he seems to have owed to the patronage of his former leader at Hakodate, Viscount Enomoto, who, like the great majority of the Shogun*s followers, had entered the Imperial service.

In 1889, Hayashi was appointed Governor of Hyogo-ken, a post which he filled with considerable distinction.

With the grant of a constitution, the popular demand for the revision of the foreign treaties became insistent, and Mutsu, who had become Minister of Foreign Affairs, realized the advantage of having someone in the Gaimusho well acquainted, not only with the matters to be discussed, but with the foreign attitude regarding those matters. There was certainly nobody more suitable than his former assistant at Kanagawa, and, accordingly, in 1 89 1, Hayashi left the Provincial Government to enter the Central Government as Vice- Minister of Foreign Affairs.

That he occupied this post with conspicuous success is a matter of history. Mutsu has left it on record that his achievement in obtaining the revision of all the most important of the foreign treaties was principally due to the indefatigable labours and the unfailing good sense and tact of his colleague. It was at this time that the beginnings of the feud between Hayashi and Viscount Aoki occurred. Aoki, who was Japanese Minister at Berlin, was sent specially to London to conduct the negotiations with Lord Kimberley for the revision of the Anglo- Japanese Treaty, which terminated successfully in 1894. Hayashi had the opinion that in agreeing to the probationary clause Aoki rather let Japan down. However this may be, and it seems that Aoki really had no alternative but to accept the British terms, these two considerable statesmen were ever after on the coolest terms. The differences between them were very marked. Hayashi was, of course, very pro-British, Aoki by his marriage and long residence in Berlin was equally pro-German. Aoki was a Yamagata-Katsura man, Hayashi had no political or clan associations. The crisis in their relations came in 1907, when Hayashi summarily recalled Aoki in connexion with the American negotiations over the immigration question, a matter in which, as events proved, Aoki was right and Hayashi lamentably wrong.

The Career of Count Hayashi ii

Owing to Mutsu's failing health, Ito took charge of the negotiations at Shimonoseki, forcing from Li Hung-Chang the Liaotung clause, to which Mutsu was opposed. Hayashi remained in Tokio and was solely responsible for the negotiations for the Retrocession of Port Arthur. Mutsu, within a few days of the signature of the Shimonoseki Treaty, was stricken down by the painful disease which eventually terminated fatally, and had in fact left for America in search of a cure, before the Retrocession Edict was issued.

It was after the intervention of the three Powers that the remarkable programme printed as an Appendix to Chapter II was penned. In the light of subsequent events it must be acknowledged to be one of the most interesting documents of Far Eastern history.

No account of Hayashi 's tenure of the Vice-Ministership should fail to notice his influence on the Japanese vernacular Press. His own connexion with Mr. Fukuzawa, the proprietor of the Jiji Shimpo, gave him a special interest in that paper, which became and remained until his death the organ of his views. Hayashi was the first Japanese statesman to realize and utilize the power of the fudo (pen-brush).

It was only during the Chino- Japanese War that the world at large began to take any serious notice of the Tokio papers. Previously they had been regarded as amusing broadsheets. By the intimate relations which he established with the leading journals, Hayashi laid the foundations of that extraordinary system of Press control which has since been one of the features of the Japanese bureaucracy.

It is a matter for regret that he did not confine his activities to the Press at home, and to such foreign papers in Japan as were willing to become the subsidized organs of the Government. But wherever he went he carried his Press Bureau with him. On his arrival at Pekin as Minister it was noted as a sign of his up-to-date methods that three accredited journalists were included in his official suite. The system which he initiated has since been carried to extremes, as was shown by the refusal a few years ago of the Minister of Finance to submit to the Diet the accounts of the I.J. Financial Commissioner in London, as the sums in question included various items for the entertainment of London journalists.

Hayashi was in May, 1895, appointed Japanese Minister at Pekin, and proceeded to his post immediately in order to complete the supplementary treaties and adjust matters preliminary to the evacuation of Manchuria. He arrived at Taku on June nth, being accorded a salute of fifteen guns and a military parade. A warship had accompanied his steamer as escort, and Li Hung-Chang sent his yacht to convey him to land. He arrived in Pekin on June 22d, and created from the beginning a favourable impression, that was enhanced by his English, which was remarked as being without any accent.

Almost his first duty was to lodge a complaint against high officials for gross disrespect. In two official documents the Board of Censors referred to the Japanese as "island barbarians,'' and Hayashi's remonstrance resulted in an Edict of reprimand. The Japanese, of course, now came under the most favoured nation clause, and reaped the benefits of Sir Thomas Wade's action, which made the use of — I — (barbarians) by officials a breach of treaty rights.

It cannot be said that Hayashi's tenure of the Legation at Pekin was untroubled. The Franco-Chinese Convention and the Chinese Eastern Agreement provided opportunities for his diplomatic talents, whilst the assassination of the Queen of Korea and the subsequent intrigues of M. Waeber in that unhappy country undoubtedly caused him much anxiety.

It is interesting to remark that it is generally understood that Hayashi was ultimately responsible for the premature publication in 1896, by the North China Daily News, of the abortive Cassini Convention, although it should also be remembered that the Hong-kong correspondent of The Times had exposed the deal (but without a title) in October, 1895, when Reuter's semi-official denial from St. Petersburg was itself semi-officially contradicted by Le Temps,

In 1897, Hayashi, who had shortly after his arrival in Pekin been raised to the rank of Baron, was transferred to St, Petersburg, a post of which he has a good deal to say in the Memoirs, He was constantly occupied there in attempting to check the intrigues of Muravieff and Alexeieff to control Korea.

In 1899, Hayashi went to Tokio on leave, and whilst there was offered the post of Minister in London in succession to M. Kato. He had never laid aside his hopes of an alliance between England and Japan, and accepted the offer with alacrity, proceeding to his post in the following year.

He quickly established a reputation in connexion with the Boxer rebellion, and it is no secret that Japan's modest attitude in connexion with the settlement of that trouble was largely inspired by her Minister in London, who saw in such a course a method of soothing English susceptibilities and of laying a foundation for future joint action in Far Eastern affairs.

The crown of Hayashi 's career was the signature of the Anglo- Japanese Alliance in 1902, and its renewal on a broader basis in 1905. Not only did this bring him high honours in his own country, but the promo- i tion of the Japanese mission in London from a legation to an embassy. Hayashi was the first Japanese Ambassador to the Court of St. James, whilst Sir Claude MacDonald, K.C.B., G.C.M.G., received reciprocal promotion at Tokio.

In May, 1906, Hayashi was recalled to fill the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs in the first Saionji Cabinet, M. Kato having suddenly resigned office. To him fell the handling of the difficult post helium situation in Manchuria, the American Immigration question, and the general settlements of the Far East after the upheaval of the war. He negotiated agreements with France and Russia for the maintenance of the status quo, and concluded the Fishery and other conventions foreshadowed in the Treaty of Portsmouth.

It cannot be said that Hayashi's regime at the Gaimusho was very successful. How far this was due to himself and how far to circumstances it IS difficult to say. Probably the blame must be divided. Hayashi came into office with strongly preconceived ideas, which appeared to run counter to the aims of the military part. Fully realizing the necessity of maintaining Japan's diplomatic credit, he insisted on the evacuation of Manchuria, which the soldiers strenuously opposed. In September, 1906, Hayashi retired, nominally on account of ill health, but really to avoid supporting a policy which he, like Kato, strongly disapproved. The Emperor ordered him back to office and he won the battle, but at the cost of the enmity of Prince Katsura and Prince Yamagata. That meant that he had against him Ito, Yamagata, and Katsura, the three most powerful figures in the Empire. Ito, who had always been pro-Russian and anti-British, had never forgiven Hayashi for his triumph in the matter of the alliance. Perhaps it was not for nothing that the Japanese used to say that Ito was more zurai (tricky) than jozu (clever).

But though Hayashi feared the impetuosity and greed of the military party he was always willing to support it, even beyond the bounds of treaty rights or diplomatic honesty, when he saw the Japanese position in Manchuria menaced. The Fakumen Railway incident showed that he was ready to go to extreme lengths in support of the Manchurian plans of the militarists.

It was one of the ironies of fate that Hayashi, who made the alliance, should have been the Foreign Minister who had to demonstrate to the world how easily the pledges of maintaining the integrity and sovereignty of China could be evaded, and what a vacuous shibboleth the doctrine of the Open Door really was.

Nevertheless Hayashi's occupation of the Gaimusho was not without serious influence on Japan's future policy. Just as in 1895 he published a programme for the future conduct of the affairs of the country, so in 1907 he laid down the lines along which Japan must conduct her policy, to attain the object she has always held in view, the domination of the East.

The whole foundation of Japanese foreign policy as he enunciated it lay in simultaneous political and commercial penetration. The political ends were to be attained by the everpresent threat of naval and military action, combined with a network of foreign agreements which, if they did not favour Japanese policy, certainly did not hinder it. The commercial ends were to be reached by the consistent pushing of Japanese subsidized financiers, shipping companies and traders for concessions. Commercial concessions were to lead to political control, just as political control was to include commercial concessions.

By a series of extraordinarily clever agreements Japan has been able to discount all Western obstacles which might arise in her path. The British, French, Russian, and American agreements with Japan have left that country practically a free hand in China, absolutely a free hand when their other engagements are considered. Germany did not count, for as far as Japan was concerned Germany was a negligible figure in Asia, until her position in Europe was finally assured. The Powers being therefore eliminated, Japan could proceed at leisure to nibble at China, either by conciliatory methods or by intrigue backed by force, as occasion might determine.

That was Hayashi's plan. That he made a mess of it in no way detracts from its merit.

It remains to-day the avowed policy of the Gaimusho.^

Where Hayashi made a mistake was in underestimating American interest in Korea and China. It is significant that the only serious error he made during his whole career was in connexion with the one country he had never visited, America. A Chinese proverb says: ''A Hsf^*sai (B.A.) can manage the affairs of an Empire without leaving his room.'' A Japanese proverb says: ^'The cow thinks she can drink the river dry." Hayashi in dealing with the American questions was the cow of the Japanese proverb and the B.A. of the Chinese. He was too sure ' of himself and of his abilities. Both Aoki and Hayashi recognized that China was the crux of the difficulty between Japan and

^ Hayashi would probably not have approved of the action of Japan in regard to China, reported at the time of going to press (April, 1915). He fully foresaw the dangers of unprovoked aggression, as is shown in his article on the Alliance in the Coronation number of The Japan Times (July 22, 191 1). He wrote: "The value and importance of the Alliance will be unchanged, nor is there any doubt of its long continuance. The only point against which Japan must guard is a wantonly aggressive policy. On the contrary she must always adhere to a peaceful policy and endeavour to make the most of what she has gained so far and to promote her interests and development in a manner consistent with a pacific policy. If Japan should adopt a policy of wanton aggression the continuation of the Anglo- Japanese Alliance would be out of the question."

America. Aoki realized that if the problem of China were settled, Japan would be able to maintain her credit at Washington, for the school and immigration affairs were local difficulties on which it was uncertain even that Japan was in the right. Hayashi tried to shut out America from China by raising difficulties for her nearer home. He failed to realize that the Americans are a hard-headed business race, with a strong undercurrent of sentimentality. To their remonstrances with regard to Manchuria, he retorted by raising the school question. They came back with the immigration trouble, and Hayashi found that he had slung a boomerang, which returned in double quick time, bringing with it the whole of the credit which Japan had so carefully amassed in the States during fifty years past.

In a few months he killed the long-established friendship between America and Japan, and in place has been substituted on the one side an openly expressed dislike and suspicion and on the other a swelling hatred, which is only kept within manageable bounds by official repression.

After his recall Aoki intrigued with Katsura against Hayashi, and succeeded in excluding him from the Privy Council, a seat in which should have been the reward of his eminent services. The alleged cause of his exclusion, j it will be recollected, was that he had become a Freemason, during his residence in London.

The Saionji Cabinet fell. It had never been intended to live. The ostensible causes of the fall were the finances, the real cause was the ambition of Katsura to return to power. But Hayashi left a legacy at the Gaimusho in a carefully considered policy of expansion, on the success of which the integrity or disintegration of China hangs, and the position of Japan amongst the Powers.

In the second Saionji Cabinet (1911-12) Hayashi held office ad interim as Foreign Minister, pending the return of Viscount Uchida from Washington, and permanently the portfolio of the Ministry of Communications.

During the military crisis in 1912, he steadfastly supported Marquis Saionji in his opposition to the Choshu demands. When the Cabinet resigned he was scathing in his denunciation of the Katsura clique. On his journey to Hayama he refused to occupy the special coach placed at his disposal by Baron Goto, his successor, travelling with his servants and family in an overcrowded secondclass carriage.

He had for some time been suffering from acute diabetes, and from December, 191 2, lived in strict retirement at his villa at Hayama. In June of the following year he was thrown out of a ricksha whilst returning from Kamakura,. and fractured his thigh. He was removed to the Jutendo Hospital, where amputation was found to be necessary. He never properly rallied from the operation, and died in the hour of the Snake (lo-ii a.m.) on July 10, 1913.

He was buried at the Aoyama Cemetery in the Foreign Office corner on July 13th.

It is pleasant to recall that his eminent services to Japan received a somewhat belated recognition from his sovereign, who donated Y.5000, a quite exceptional amount, to the cost of the funeral expenses.

Hayashi is said to have been rather soured towards the close of his career and is alleged to have complained because his services were not sufficiently requited. The claim seems to rest on but flimsy evidence. Hayashi was a man who was strictly honourable in all his dealings, and he scorned to use his official position for his private well-being. Like General Nogi he was deeply concerned at the course of events in Japan, and was much worried as to the future of internal politics.

He saw that the country was rapidly falling under the eontrol of men whose only use for power was profit, their own not the nation's, and he was deeply grieved at the prospect. In a country where it has become the rule for statesmen to amass fortunes, he was a brilliant exception. He had no private means and never acquired any. When he retired he sold his house in Tokio and lived on his small pension in the country.

His death was a loss to Japan. He was one of the old school, one of the few statesmen remaining who had been trained in the atmosphere of the Restoration. He has been described as an Edokko"- to the backbone; quiet and unpretentious, a scholar and a gentleman, he was a man of strong opinions, and a good fighter. An excellent host, a good conversationalist, he was an authority on art and music and an expert at go.

His favourite recreations were singing and dancing, and he was a patron of many of the leading geisha^ whilst as a calligraphist his manuscripts and writings were highly prized.

^ Edokko — a term used frequently by novelists to denote a special type of character, of which boldness, fortitude, chivalry, hospitality, high culture, and lavish prodigality were the principal traits.

II

The late Count Hayashi published a novel in English {For His People, Harper, 1903), and also contributed the introductions to Mr. Alfred Stead's Mysteries of China, and to Mr. Arthur Lloyd's Everyday Japan.

The first of these was a romance dealing with a local episode in the feudal history of Sakura, the author's legal birthplace. Kinchi Sogoro, headman of Kozu, one of the villages on Lake Inoa, in the fief of the Lord Hotta, rouses his fellows against the tyranny of their feudal chief. Failing to obtain redress for their wrongs, Sogoro determined on the extreme and unforgivable step of appealing directly to the Shogun, counting the intervention of the bakufu on behalf of the peasants as worth more than the death which Hotta would mete out to him according to law for

addressing the Shogun. Sogoro carried out his plan and actually succeeded in handing his petition to Tokugawa. He, his wife, and children were condemned to death, crucified and beheaded. In his last moments Sogoro vowed revenge and ordered his spirit to haunt Hotta till his family should be wiped out, a curse which was duly fulfilled.

Count Hayashi's object in publishing the story was to teach the West the spirit that animated his countrymen: presumably their persistence in a course once determined on, their revenge for slights and wrongs.

The novel is noteworthy for the excellent English in which it is written, which contrasts most favourably with the so-called ''quaint'* English with which Anglicized Japanese authors of to-day harass their readers. As a picture of pre-Restoration times For His People is without doubt a faithful likeness. The close connexion of the Hayashi family to Sakura and the Shogunate ensures that the descriptions of Yedo and the customs of the court and people are faithfully reproduced.

The introductions to Mr. Stead's and Mr. Lloyd's volumes are brief and to the point. In the former the reader is able to surmise the writer's profound knowledge of Chinese character. He practically summarizes the Chinese as necrologists, blind worshippers of a dead past, but he frankly admits the brilliance of that past, even though it is a hindrance to a decent present or future.

He says: "The essential feature of the political teaching of the great sages is the supreme importance attached to the individual morality of the ruler, and its prevailing spirit is that intense reverence for antiquity which constitutes the extreme form of conservatism/'

"The Chinese mind was utterly enslaved by the influence of these doctrines, so that the idea of instituting a comparative study of political or ethical questions was banished therefrom."

"The inevitable result was careful preservation of a civilization acquired during a period of greater receptivity but a complete cessation of all further progress."

In introducing Mr. Lloyd's book. Count Hayashi emphasizes the important part Japan must play in Far Eastern affairs and the necessity of the world at large knowing everything possible about her. As is evident from parts of the Memoirs he fully realized the power of the pen, but he did not sympathize with the views of most of his colleagues, that books on Japan should reveal only the bright side of life in that country. He had mixed too much with foreigners, both in Japan and abroad, not to know that in every country there must be dark spots, and in every government some abuses requiring correction. As he says, ''Fish do not see water,'' and the ability to ''see otirselves as others see us'' is as valuable a one in a nation as in individuals.

It has been asserted that if he had lived Count Hayashi would not have published his Memoirs. There is no evidence whatsoever for such a statement. He left explicit instructions that they were to be published. His whole course of life was a proof that he was not ashamed to criticize his nation. In a conversation I had with him in January, 19 1 2, soon after I arrived in Tokio, he said: "Don't be afraid to handle thorns. It will be good for you and us!" He himself was not afraid, as his articles in the Jiji Shimpo on the Korean Conspiracy Trial and the prevalence of torture in prisons in Japan and Korea and on the fall of the Saionji Cabinet in 1912, fully show.

In Japanese, Hayashi published Itarii Shi {History of Italy) , and a translation of Mill's Political Economy.

So far as I have been able to learn, Hayashi, on account of his official rank, rarely contributed signed articles to the Japanese Press, but he was practically responsible during many years for the attitude of the Jiji Shimpo on foreign questions, and wrote a great number of anonymous articles in that paper and in the Chuo Koron. The consistently high standard which the Jiji Shimpo has maintained on all matters of foreign policy and its outand-out pro-British stand was in no small degree due to the relationship between its proprietor, M. Fukuzawa, and the diplomat.