British Japanologist Richard Storry called the Japanese people “obedient tools of the elite.”
He got it wrong.
Since the Meiji Restoration, Japan’s had only two flavors of Seikanron (Korea conquest doctrine):
Not taking it was never an option. Foreign Minister Inoue Kaoru’s speeches made that clear:
“Our task is to transform the empire and its people like Europe. Joseon and Qing, by refusing modernization, have forfeited their essential right to independence!”
It’s not just Kaoru. That rhetoric’s in every newspaper, boiling down to one claim:
Conquest is our right. Their progress proves Joseon and Qing’s backwardness, justifying our domination.
If that sounds like nonsense, it’s just Darwin’s survival of the fittest slapped onto nations and societies. Pure bullshit.
Back to Storry—he paints Japanese people as submissive, weak-willed, bowing to superiors.
Really? Or are the people, itching for imperialism since Meiji, prodding politicians to open their mouths?
Even moderates, holding back…
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