Japan in Ernest Satow’s Letter to F.V. Dickins Essay

Letter’s Historical Context

Even though nowadays Japan occupies an important economic and political position on a worldwide scale, the country went through a long path of struggle. A significant period in Japanese history was the so-called ‘age of imperialism’, characterized by the dominance of the Western countries. Of all events that happened during that time, the most serious was the Russo-Japanese War. Russia saw Japan as the dominant obstacle to meeting its interests in China. To respond to ‘potential’ danger, Russia along with a tight partnership with France and Germany attacked Japan. April 1895 was the month when three countries declared Japan’s possession of the Liaotung Peninsula a barrier to achieving peace in the Far East, recommending Japan to surrender its rights in that territory.¹

A useful outcome achieved by the Japanese leaders was the importance of a balanced national power as a key in surviving in the world where only jungle rules and laws prevail.

Concept of Orientalism

The concept of Orientalism has gained popularity with the help of Edward Said, a Palestinian literary theoretician. According to Said, Orient is ‘the place of Europe’s greatest and richest and oldest colonies, the source of its civilizations and languages, its cultural contestant, and one of its deepest and most recurring images of the Other.’² Thus, Orientalism is defined as a concept polarly different from the European tradition, experience, image, and idea. Because the Orient characteristic is not imaginative, it was able to influence the Western culture as well as its material civilization.

In the context of rivalry between Japan and Western countries, Orientalism is characterized by the forcing of cultural meanings of dominating countries. The prevailing opinion was that the West was superior because of its rationality while the East was inferior in that sense. Resulting from this opinion, the concept of Orientalism is closely linked to a stereotypical perception of the Eastern cultures. Thus, cross-cultural communication and cooperation will always be difficult if stereotypical perception continues to be perpetuated.³

Letter’s Meaning and Primary Ideas

Sir Ernest Mason Satow was a British scholar and diplomat that served in Japan between 1853 and 1912. His correspondence, particularly letters, is significant for representing a Western view of the Eastern culture and attitudes that prevailed in the nineteenth-twentieth century.

In his letter to a Japanese scholar F. V. Dickins, Satow touched upon the subject of the Japanese culture and Japanese people. According to Satow, during his living in Japan, he had never had a view that Japan will ever become an important player in the global arena: ‘the people seemed to be too many mere imitators, and wanting to bottom.’⁴ This perception can already be linked to orientalism in the sense that the Japanese culture is viewed as inferior to the Western cultures that are sure of their superiority. On the other hand, Satow shows admiration for the samurai class which he describes as courageous and chivalrous. However, there is nothing more Satow says about samurais, in his opinion, although they are courageous, they have no power on the political scale nor do they have income.

Satow also speaks of the political and economic resources of Japan in general. According to him, in comparison with the resources of the Western nations, Japan’s resources are quite small. It is easy to ‘beat’ the Japanese with their lack of power an interesting comparison Satow made concerning Japan’s inability to defend itself was ‘it is just like cutting through a moldy cheese; anyone could do that’.⁵ Concerning the mental characteristics of the Japanese, Satow describes the population as patient people with a bureaucratic spirit they only achieve success when they are expected to. Such characterizations can also be linked to the stereotypical perception of the Japanese culture, linked to the concepts of ‘orient’ and ‘other’. When speaking of orientalism in the context of Satow’s letter to Dickins, it is a complete misseeing of the other culture through the prism of misinterpretation of the perceived reality of a culture that does not wish to change following forced laws or ideologies.

Satow exhibits a form of ethnocentrism by opposing the Japanese culture to Western cultures. According to Steven Rosen, ethnocentric ideas are linked to the evaluation of other cultures through an ‘epistemological screen’, based on an assumption that the way of understanding of one culture is superior to the way of understanding of another.⁶ Because Satow is of European descent, his Orientalism and ethnocentrism are embedded in his Western consciousness that is made up of a system of projections, desires, ideas, and investments.

In the course of global history, the perception of Japanese culture has been much lower than of the Chinese. The Japanese were viewed as ‘less like us’, irrational, uneducated, impractical, indirect, and non-pragmatic. Furthermore, as stated in Rosen, Japan was considered a country that is ‘the last other to be discovered,’ which means that Japan was the most ‘underdeveloped’ country compared to other civilizations that have been influenced by the dominant Western cultures.⁷

On the other hand, it is worth noting that not all ideas and images of the Japanese culture are perceived by the Western cultures as inferior. Orientalism also includes romanticized images of the sophisticated Japanese culture with its tradition of an individual being in harmony with nature, the geisha culture, meditation, and Zen Buddhism. These cultural attributes often characterize the Japanese culture as being intuitive and attuned in an aesthetic way different from the Westerners. However, the romanticization of Orientalism is overshadowed by the negative perception that deemed the Japanese ‘frantic, deceitful, with a tendency to cruelty in their private lives and totalitarianism in their public practices.’⁸

Restoration Versus Revolution

In his letter to Mr. Dickins, Satow outlines his point of view concerning the coming of the Meiji regime. In his opinion, the events of 1868 were, undoubtedly, a revolution because the notion of the revolution is much more appropriate for describing that period in the history of Japan. Furthermore, the change in power from one social class to another Satow considers a revolution.⁹

When talking about revolution versus restoration, it is important to note that the Meiji regime led Japan to become a modern and industrial country, transformed from an oppressed nation ruled by feudal. During the Meiji period, Japan established a form of a parliamentary government that had power on a global scale through the military expansion of foreign lands. The Meiji regime participated in and achieved victory in wars. The Korean conflict of interest led to the 1894-1895 war between China in Japan and the 1904 Russo-Japanese war over the same conflict centered in Korea. The Japanese were able to impress the Western nations with their military power and acquire respect on a global scale.¹⁰

Thus, there is no point in choosing the right word to characterize the changes that occurred during the Meiji regime since it has brought major improvements to the sectors of the economy, social structure, politics, and education. Furthermore, the Japanese emperor became a significant figure for the country, making a monarchy a sustained instrument in building national peace and establishing country-wide sustainability.

Views on Russia and Modern Empires

Within the last decade of the nineteenth century, Russia had a conflict with Japan based on territorial ambitions to expand its imperialistic presence on the far East.¹¹ In his letter, Satow mentions the objections Russia has against the Manchuria as well as the established Japanese Supremacy in the Korean lands. Satow sees Russians as a fellow European population that deserves support from fellow Europeans: ‘Why should we in such case espouse the Japanese cause.’¹² Such support of Russia is understandable Western countries did not view Japan as a partner in any political and economic affairs. Their ethnocentrism guided the Japan-related decisions that made communication between Japan and the Western countries complicated.

Conclusion

In the context of Orientalism, Satow’s attitude towards the Japanese culture, ideas, and traditions are similar to one of the Western countries. Orientalism was defined by Edward Said as a concept that is polarly different from the European tradition, experience, image, and ideas. However, despite the definition, the Eastern culture did greatly contribute to the ideas nowadays present in Western cultures like meditation, food traditions, imagery, and others. In his letter to Dickins, Satow exhibited a form of ethnocentrism by opposing the Japanese culture to the Western.

Satow viewed the coming of the Meiji regime as a revolution but not a restoration. However, the Meiji regime was the most prominent period of Japanese history that directly affected the development of the country and the way it is today. The significance of his letter is that it presents a worldview that dominated in the Western cultures concerning the Japanese. Satow expressed his opinion that Japan was easy for the Westerners to conquer and stated that ‘it is just like cutting through a moldy cheese; anyone could do that.’¹³ Even though letters like the analyzed one are often of no relevance and contain little useful information, Satow’s letter to Dickins bears significance on a historical level.

Bibliography

Berry, M, The Russo-Japanese War: How Russia Created the Instrument of Their Defeat, 2008. Web.

Koda, Y, ‘The Russo-Japanese War’, Naval War College Review, vol. 58, no. 2, 2005, pp. 12-44. Web.

Rosen, S, ‘Japan as Other: Orientalism and Cultural Conflict’, Intercultural Communication, vol. 15, no. 4, 2000, pp. 1-6. Web.

Said, E, Orientalism, Penguin Books, London, 2003. Web.

Satow, E, Letter to F. V. Dickins, The Center for East Asian Studies, Chicago, 1998. Web.

Sumikawa, S, The Meiji Restoration: Roots of Modern Japan, n.d. Web.

Footnotes

1. Y Koda, ‘The Russo-Japanese War’, Naval War College Review, vol. 58, no. 2, 2005, p. 13. Web.
2. E Said, Orientalism, Penguin Books, London, 2003. p. 1. Web.
3. S Rosen, ‘Japan as Other: Orientalism and Cultural Conflict’, Intercultural Communication, vol. 15, no. 4, 2000, p. 1. Web.
4. E Satow, Letter to F. V. Dickins, The Center for East Asian Studies, Chicago, 1998, p. 298. Web.
5. ibid.
6. Rosen, p. 1.
7. ibid., p. 3.
8. ibid., p. 4.
9. Satow, p. 298.
10. S Sumikawa, The Meiji Restoration: Roots of Modern Japan, n.d. Web.
11. M Berry, The Russo-Japanese War: How Russia Created the Instrument of Their Defeat, 2008. Web.
12. Satow, p. 298.
13. Satow, p. 298.