The Course of Asian Nationalism: Japan, China and the Indian Subcontinent

Abstract

IN the course of only fifty years, the Japanese had progressed from staring with wonder and curiosity at the famous ‘black ships’ of the American Commodore Perry in Tokyo Bay (1853) to the sinking of much of the Russian Baltic fleet by Admiral Togo at the Battle of Tsushima (1905). The significance of this change was grasped elsewhere in Asia and, not unnaturally, it provoked a great feeling of pride among the Japanese themselves. The earlier Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902 was emotionally as well as politically important to Japan since it arose from mutual needs, and symbolised a parity with an advanced Western State in sharp contrast to some of the previous ‘unequal’ treaties which Japan had signed with Western countries. Thus, by 1905, Japan had an international status and prestige without parallel among other Asian countries. In Europe, the Japanese were regarded as a force to be reckoned with, and were generally recognised as an advanced and civilised people with many: admirable qualities. On Asia, the impact of new emergent Japan was nothing less than dramatic; it was seen that an Asian country sufficiently modernised and industrialised could successfully challenge the domination of the West.