such relations had never occurred. same applies to go 旧 and silver. Japan's plentiful precious metals flO 、 ved overseas via underground channels 、 vith the force Of a glittering pyroclastic flO Ⅵ ,. Perhaps it 、 vas tO pay the "tuition fees" for receiving the Western education. We are used [ 0 hearing the phrase "modernization ofJapan," but behind this phrase is a stigma condemning the ages ofsamurai as SO feudal and regressive, as shamefully una 、 vare OfitS 0 、 shortcomings and archaic traditions that had no place in a progressive 、 vorld. such condemnation on . justifies the lmperial Restoration as having brought about wonderful modernization to a backwards country desperately needing the generous hand of the 嶬 [. There is no indictment of the arrogant Western po 、 vers that used arms [ 0 forcibly open up the Japanese archipelago from its peaceful isolation. lt seems that the Japanese have [ 0 be grateful for the brutal imperialism of the U. S. and Europe, which colonized the globe through racial discrimination and slaughter. ユ石 e Western powers declared that Japan's isolation was a bad policy. お e cheerfuleu- phemism opening ofthe country is used presently, but what was really opened was a gate [ 0 hellthat destroyed this co un try of advanced aesthetics and morals. The lmperial Restoration is revered as right and good, while isolation by the Shogun iS despised as 、 vrong. lt has alSO arbitrarily indicted the Shogun regime as an incompetent government. Rather than judging the peacefultranquility ofthe Shogun period as a short- coming Of a stagnant nation devoid Of innovation, 、 should recognize the Shoguns great deed of maintaining peace for 250 years. The ne 、 Japanese Empire developed an obsession with becoming 、 vesternized. ln a short time, it rushed intO foreign 、 vars, one after another, engaging in fierce battles over its vested interests in neighboring countries, ironically against the very Western PO 、 that had forced Japan into its dogmatic globalism. Just 77 years after the lmperial Restoration, the corpses 0 「 the nation s ハ vo slogans, "wealthy nation and strong soldiers" and "civilization and enlightenment could be seen rotting on the bloody battlefield in the summer 0 日 945. Japan should not have modeled itselfon the British Empire as a paragon ・ Globalization Born or れ Domestic Destruction The terms internationalization" and globalization" have been hugely popular in Japan for the past 30 years. These abstract meaningless slogans cast magic spells upon Japan ・ This brainwashing says that Japan must "align itself with the global standard" and abandon its refined aesthetics and morals. ls this a relapse Of the inferiority complex that infected Japan right before the lmperial Restoration? 19

ⅱ引 skirmish, fled in the middle ofthe nightto the USS み舛〃 0 な ( 1 , 032 tons), a new warship from the U. S. Asiatic Squadron in Osaka Bay. He returned to Edo on his warship the ん四 外翔 ( 2 , 590 tons), which was anchored 0 伍 the coast, and placed himself under voluntary confinement at a temple ⅲ Ueno (ofTokyo). Sir Harry Smith Parkes, the British envoy who started the Second Opium War, had already made a secret agreement with the lmperial force to overthrow the Shogun, yet he met with him in Osaka CastIe. Did parkes courteously threaten the Shogun there? Parkes' interpreter was Sir Ernest Mason Satow ( 1843 ー 1929 ) , who was a gifted inter- preter and a preeminent spy. 11e top men Of the lmperial force 、 vere SatO 、 v's close friends. Top-secrets Of the Meiji government were readily leaked [ 0 the British government via Satow. ln 1906 , Satow was awarded the Order ofthe Rising Sun に CIass, the highest honor given by the Empire ofJapan. The Shogun army, totaling one million soldiers, was preparing for a decisive battle. But seeing their supreme commander flee from the headquarters of Osaka Castle, the mas- sive army set fire [ 0 the castle and dispersed. ・ Ihe fire spread [ 0 the PO 、 vder magazine, and the large, beautiful castle collapsed amidstthunderous explosion and roaring flames. All Japanese learned in their school days that Saigo Takamori 0 「 the lmperial force and Katsu Kaishu of the Shogun Army agreed [ 0 the bloodless surrender of the Shogun s Edo Castle, triggering the quick demise of the Shogun regime. I, however, cannotswallow this fairy [ a に . France and Britain manipulated the Shogun and the lmperial forces like pieces on a chessboard. After inciting them [ 0 civil 、 var and exhausting bOth sides, Britain's goal 、 vas [ 0 make the lmperial force win and then by proxy gain control ofJapan. lt is rumored in Japan even tO this day that Britain and France 、 vere hostile [ 0 each other, but that is not true. Britain and France fought together in the Crimean War ( 1853 ー 1856 ) and Second Opium War in Qing China ( 1856-1860 ). Both ofthem received enor- mous indemnities totaling 41 trillion yen. Afterwards, [ 0 prolong thelife of the dying Qing Dynasty, they besieged Hong Xiuquan (age 50 ) , the leader of the Taiping Rebellion, whose army was headquartered in Nanjing. Hong ended up dying 0f starvation, by which they suppressed the rebellion that had threatened Beijing for 15 years. Britain and France were comrades in arms WhO fought on fierce battlefields together for 10 whole years. hey were not battling in Japan; they were united in greed up until right before the Meiji lmperial Restoration of 1868. Japan was in a state 0f chaos during the 1850S and 1860S. ⅵ 0 に n [ slogan 0f "re- vere the emperor and expel the barbarians ' appeared tO justify assassination Of foreigners in Japan ・ Britain and France urged the lmperial force to fight 竄 civil war against the Shogun,

0 0 0 um and morphine. surgeries could not be performed without anesthetic morphine made by refining opium. Opium and morphine are also instantly effective painkillers and cough suppressant for tuberculosis patients. The arm メ and navy Of the Meiji period required vast amounts Of morphine 「 every battle. TO ignore the 日 00d of opium from Qing China and insist that Japan was the only country without opium iS [ 0 espouse a historical falsehOOd. lhe American Civil War (April 1861 ー May 1865 ) was the bloodiest war in American history with 650 , 000 people killed in action. Millions ofwounded soldiers became addicted [ 。 a に 0h01 and morphine by drinking whiskey or bourbon into which morphine had been generously mixed as a painkiller. To believe that opium did not cross the narrow Sea 0 「 Japan, especially when large quantities 0 「 opium and morphine 、 brought [ 0 the American continent across the Pa- cific and Atlantic oceans from lndia, Turkey, and China, would mean to be willfully blind. ・ western. , rr s in Japanese HandS Right after the end 0f the American Civil War, vast volumes of ammunition and 300 , 000 used and new rifles crossed the pacific Ocean and were delivered via Shanghai [ 0 the lmperial rebel force that was planning [ 0 topple the Shogun regime ・ %omas Blake Glover ( 1838 ー 1911 ) , a young weapons merchant, was in charge ofthe arrangements. He brought 、 varships and modern 、 Armstrong (; ・ uns 「 Britain [ 0 Nagasaki and Kobe, where they were sold [ 0 the lmperial rebel force. q10 had the great sums 0 「 money [ 0 buy these weapons? %e GIover Trading Company handled the expense. But who financed Gloven who was the Nagasaki branch manager 0fJardine Matheson and Company? Jardine Matheson in Guangdong 、 vas ASia'S premier opium trader. Was it the British government that financed Glover? The Hongkong and Shanghai Bank? Jardine Matheson? lhe Rothschild's London bank? Was ⅱ of the above? None of them would have undertaken such risky liability if they were not certain that the lmperial force would win over the Shogun s army ・ lhe western powers believed Japan s civil war, called the 、、 Boshin wan" would be fought for a long time, making itselfa highly profitable venture. But this war ended quickly. victorious lmperial force, facing economic criSiS, could not the debt to Glover. Glover went bankrupt. Tokugawa Yoshinobu ( 18 聟ー 1913 ) , the last Shogun, encamped at Osaka Castle be- fore the outbreak ofthe Boshin War, and upon hearing that his side was defeated in the ini- 14

0 0 0 which was perfectly orchestrated as a justifiable a coup d'état. Compared [ 0 the large-scale civil war in Qing China, it was much easier tO control the small domestic battle in an island natlon. One can easily imagine 、 Britain determined it would be simpler [ 0 manipulate the lmperial force, which was led by the young, spirited men from ruralJapan who lacked mod- ern arms and had no 、 [ 0 produce ther れ . Britain and France had wasted 、 varships, Officers, and men in the Opium Wars and Taiping Rebellion. However, thanks [ 0 hindsight gained from prior experience, they acted with new cleverness in Japan. By the time they landed on Japan, Britain and France 、 vere well versed in the ways Of colonization. The Destruction ofAesthetics Why did Yoshinobu, the last Shogun from the long-lived Tokugawa family that had lasted for 250 years, not fight? Why has the bloodless surrender of his Edo Castle been glo- rified even today and passed down as a heroic tale starring Saigo (age 40 , 1827 ー 1877 ) and Katsu ( 45 years 01d , 1823 ー 1899 Katsu, a prominent shogunate retainer 、 vh() very likely would have been sentenced tO decapitation after the defeat, became a distinguished leader in the lmperial government. Did he have any dealings such as hiS secret betrayal Of hiS master, Ⅵ市 . iCh are not 、 tvritten dO 、 on the pages of history? We have learned during our school days that on March 14 , 1868 during the Boshin War, Shogun s top leader Katsu and Saigo ofthe lmperial force sat across from each other, on two in a large reception hall at the Saigo residence in Ed0. lhere, the two men decided on the bloodless surrender of Edo Castle [ 0 the lmperial force. This tale deeply moves us Japanese because it speaks [ 0 the emotional aesthetics that 、 SO prize. Butthis scenario played directly into the hands of Britain. ne 、 government preserved EdO because it wanted tO use the city,. Britain wanted [ 0 establish a headquarters in beautiful Edo, which was aboutto be renamed Tokyo. lhat reception roomwas the final stage where Saigo and Katsu put on their last per- formances as samurai. Saigo believed that Bushido ("the 、 vay 0 「 the samurai' ) was eternal. He could not imagine that from that historic day, the sun would rapidly set on the age of the samurai. The tragedy 0f the samurai began 、 vhen Bushido, an aesthetic cultivated in one-on- one combat for い VO thousand years, was crushed due [ 0 the influence Of Western 、 veapons designed for wide-scale slaughter. Even after this samurai aesthetic was decimated, its heartbeat kept faintly pounding 16

ユ 11e Meiji Restoration as Japanese . A. esthetic Destruction 訪加ルなん , PhD 乃・ 0 乃どⅵなイ M 。ん During the Sui ( 581 ー 614 ) and Tang ( 618 ー 907 ) Dynasties, Japan for three centuries sent successive envoys Of their brightest men tO China, the 1 れ OSt po 、 East. ASian nation Of the era. ln the beginning of the 19th Century, at the hands of the British Empire China be- came the unwilling recipient Of astronomical amounts ofexpensive exports. お e ing Qing Dynasty ( 1644 ー 1912 ) , which was feared as a "Sleeping Lion" by their lmperialist counterpart, rejected this opium and burned it. ln retaliation, the British 、 a horrific war upon China.The Sleeping Lion suffered an ignominious defeat. The United States and European powers had been portioning 0 伍 the South American continent as well as all of Africa and Asia as spoils of global manifest destiny ・ Japan and %ailand were the only countries where blood had yetto spill. Japan, then known as 'Zipangu, was a land of abundant go 旧 and silver. lt was this island nation that Marco Polo had dreamed about. Christopher C01umbus, searching for a short route [ 0 Japan, sailed 、 vest. Although there was no shortage of gold coins in Japan, the nation lacked weapons for killing large numbers of people. Japan was unable [ 0 protect its people and assets from the European and American pirates that attacked from the sea. country had 250 years ofpeace during the Shogun regime, and had no need t0 improve their military technology. During the 1850S , avaricious Caucasians from the U. S. , Europe, and Russia found Japan S national isolation" policy as disrupting their commerce. They sent a fleet ofmasswe warships [ 0 invade Ed0 Bay (modern day T0kY0)' and thoroughly intimidated Japan with many cannons, the size Of 、 the island nation had never seen before. Russia came from the north, Britain from the south, and the U. S. from the east. To the west was Qing China, which was in its weakening finalthroes against invading foreign forces. lhe Western powers like vultures swarmed this mangled and dying lion. Smacking their lips still wet with China's b100d , they looked [ 0 Zipangu as their next prey ・

U. S. brought in ・ lt is a vain hope, and indeed self-deluding to believe that opium did not cross the narro 、 Sea ofJapan. ・ lhere 、 vas no reason for the raging torrent Of opium throughoutAsia to suddenly subside before reaching the new market ofJapan. Japan had no breakwaters or divine winds tO guard against this flOOd, either. When the Second Opium War ended in Qing China and opium had been legalized by British insistence, the western po 、 vers would not have overlooked the Japanese market right before their eyes. Upon arriving in the defenseless Japanese archipelago, did the U. S. and Britain- countries that prospered enormously from the opium trade—・—miraculously transform intO irreproachable saints? Did they, when faced with the new frontier 0fJapan, become intro- spective and repent for their sins ofimperial barbarism? Even should they have been able of any degree Of reflection, they 、 not have had the semblance Of an intention [ 0 accord such consideration tO an inferior non-Western country like Japan. possible profit from OPium was [ 00 great [ 0 resist the meager force Of consclence. The entry 0f opium intO Japan iS proven by the fact that opium is mentioned in the first unequal treaties that Japan 、 vas coerced intO with Britain and the ・ U ・ nited States. On July 29 , 1858 , the frightened Shogun was forced [ 。 sign the Treaty ofAmity and Commerce by Townsend Harris, the first American envoy [ 0 Japan (aged 54 ). lts Article 4 stipulated thatJapan would permit imports of opium up [ 0 three kin ( 1.8 kg or 4 pounds). This treaty was signed four years after the sudden appearance of the piratical Commodore Matthew C. Perry. James Bruce, the Earl 0fElgin, was the special envoy from Britain, who was waiting for his turn to land in Japan. Only 28 days after the conclusion 0fJapan s treaty with the U. S. and during the Second Opium War, Elgin [ 00k a battleship from Guangdong (Guangzhou) to Yokohama [ 0 conclude the Anglo-Japanese Treaty ofAmity and Commerce. This British treaty alSO mentioned the precise quantity of"three ん / 〃 " as the maximum permitted 田 oun [ Of opium ⅱれ por [. lhe U. S. can bring in 1.8 kilograms of opium ・ Britain can bring in 1.8 kilograms 0f opium ・ 、みås this merely coincidental? Certainly not. This miniscule amount, formally included in these unequaltreaties with the U. S. and Britain, iS the concrete evidence that enormous amounts Of OPium were secretly 、 for shipping ・ At no point in history did the beauty of idealistic thoughttriumph over the unsightli- ness Of reality. ) 40 countrieswere able [ 0 resist the allure Of opium. lmperial Japan earnestly accepted Western medicine and used huge amounts 0f opi- 13

in the depths ofJapan s spiritual culture. ln a country that had been laid waste, the people, realizing the preciousness Of 、 vhat 、 vas 10S [ from their daily life, continued dreaming that Bushido would someday be revived like a phoenix from the ash. }40 、 vever, a tragic turn 0f events stuck Japan. Even after achieving a complete vic- tory guided by the ruthless British Empire, the lmperial force pursued and killed its fellow samurai throughout Japan. lhe corps of samurai, called "Shogitai,' resisted in Ueno, in the middle of Edo (To- k メ 0 ). They remained loyalto the Shogun, who disgracefully deserted the battlefield. lhese old-fashioned samurai brandishing spears and swords charged against American repeating rifles and British Armstrong cannons. The lmperial force did not permitthe Shogitai bodies [ 0 be buried. 'lhe bodies were abandoned on a hill in Ueno, in the middle ofsummer. Shogitai was a rebel army, so its members are not interred at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, which the Emperor had built for his own soldiers. A further tragedy descended upon the young boys and girls who [ 00k their laststand atAizu (where Japan'S first nuclear reactor meltdown occurred in 2011 ). Despite their castle being besieged by the overwhelming lmperial force, Aizu men and women continued their valiant fight. Their fOOd ran out. bullets ran ou [. lhere 、 vere no reinforcements any- where in Japan [ 0 rescue them. The C'White Tigers, composed 0f brave young men in their teens, charged out of the castle [ 0 fight a hand-to-hand combat, butthey were met with the Western rifles and cannons. 、 inside the castle chose [ 0 commit suicide with their own daggers ・ %e lmperial force, intoxicated on their victory, forbade the burial ofthe young bod- ies lying 、 vhere they had perished on the mountains near their castle. lhe corpses, exposed [ 0 、 vind and rain, S10 、ⅵ ) , and unceremoniously decayed. Japan had fought many internal battles up to 1610 , but the victorious samurai lord never disrespected or abused the bodies ofthe vanquished. Yet, the lmperial force, financed and armed by the British Empire, abandoned the dead in Ueno as well as in Aizu, to rot in public. 11e Japanese see beauty in death; such conduct never before seen in Japan was a blatant desecration Of itS sense Of honor and aesthetics. 、 s the Western germ of auto-cannibalistic eugenics injected into the vein of the lmperial force, causing them to trample the long-cherished aesthetics ofthe battle and feel no compassion for their fallen adversaries? Was the new lmperial doctrine 0f "leave Asia and join Europe" such a precious aspira- tion [ 0 . justify debasing the samurai aesthetic? Ordinary Japanese people murmured their abhorrence toward the victors whO, while breaking the sacrosanct code 0fBushid0, authored a revised history glorifying only themselves. Japanese people regard the spirit ofloyalty of the dead men and women who would 17