From Ryūkyū to Okinawa

The period I call “From Ryūkyū to Okinawa” corresponds almost directly to the Meiji Restoration, the starting point of modern Japan. This article deals with the period from the arrival of Perry (1853), considered to be the beginning of the Meiji Restoration to the enactment of the Meiji Constitution (1889), considered its end point...It covers the transitional period, broadly speaking, from the destruction of the Ryūkyū Kingdom to the establishment of Okinawa prefecture, that is, from “kingdom” to “prefecture.”[...]The Ryūkyū Shobun era refers to the general political process whereby the Meiji regime integrated (tōgō) the region of Okinawa with the modern Japanese state. Generally speaking, it is defined as a ten-year process that began with the establishment of Ryūkyū Han in 1872, continued with the establishment of Okinawa prefecture in 1879, the treaty revision and division of kingdom (kaiyaku buntō) negotiations in 1880, and ended with the following year’s 1881 political crisis. We must consider various international and domestic issues that the Meiji regime faced and their interrelation in order to understand why this political process extended for a relatively long period. It is also necessary to note that this process was proscribed to a great extent by Okinawa’s political and social conditions and the Sino-Japanese international environment.[...]The region of Okinawa occupied a unique position within Japanese society. Geographically it is positioned in the East China Sea, with the Chinese mainland to the west, the Japanese archipelago to the north, Taiwan to the south, and runs north to south, with the Ryūkyū Arc as a node along an echelon seamount chain. The distinctiveness of this geography mutually interacted with historical factors and formed Okinawa’s unique existence. During the early modern Japanese state’s sakoku system, Ryūkyū was permitted to engage in trade and interaction with China and Southeast Asia and nurtured its internationalism while maintaining diplomatic relations with surrounding states it had since the formation of the Ryūkyū kingdom. Ryūkyū was under the control of the Satsuma domain within the bakuhan system society, and the arrangement was such that the bakufu’s authority was relayed and realized through the Satsuma domain. In actuality, it was positioned as a subsidiary domain of the Satsuma domain. Within the sakoku system, Ryūkyū kept its envoy and tributary relations with China.As is commonly known, the political form of double tribute, or the dual subordination system [that governed relations between the kingdom, the bakufu, and the Qing], brought about many issues in diplomatic relations between Japan and China into the modern era. Still, while the position of Ryūkyū within the bakuhan system and Ryūkyū within the Qing world order under the suzerain-vassal system lead to a confrontation between Japan and China, it did not necessarily result in a clash. The loose Qing envoy and tributary relation and control, and the bakufu’s sakoku-like conditions kept each country from coming into contact with each other.[...]Seen from the Chinese side, early modern Ryūkyū’s system of dual subordination was incorporated into the suzerain-vassal system of the Chinese world order that was solidified through civilizational ideology. Because the Ryūkyū kingdom was formally positioned to send envoys to the Chinese emperor, it was acknowledged as having a tributary relationship like surrounding states. The kingdom understood the envoy-tribute relationship to be its foundation, and assertively maintained tribute. However, from the mid-nineteenth century, China became the target of aggression from Great Powers, and this system faced collapse. By the mid-nineteenth century, the advance into Asia by Euro-American Great Powers was in full swing. Japan and China were swept up in the tide, and like India and other East Asian countries, faced a crisis of colonization. Each searched for a path to modernization in the midst of this crisis but chose completely different paths. In contrast to China, Japan modeled its state after the Western Great Powers, mimicking even their stance toward China. This difference manifested as a confrontation between the two over Okinawa.In 1872 the Meiji government used the occasion of the Ryūkyū Kingdom emissary’s arrival in Tokyo to begin its incorporation of the kingdom. It renamed Ryūkyū Kingdom “Ryūkyū Han,” conferred peerage status on King Shō Tai, and took over treaties that the Ryūkyū Kingdom signed with foreign countries during the bakumatsu era with the consent of relevant states, arranged by the Foreign Ministry.The Ryūkyū Kingdom, which had kept the relationship with the Shimazu family a secret from China, feared that it would become known that the Meiji government had taken over control of its treaty relations. King Shō Tai submitted a petition requesting permission to continue the system of dual subordination, but there was no reason for the Japanese government to lend its ear to this request. Things continued without an agreement between the Meiji government and the Ryūkyū side, but the Taiwan incident and its post-incident disposal led to a collapse of this condition and matters unfolded in a manner that was exceedingly favorable to the Meiji government.In 1871, residents of Okinawa’s Miyako and Yaeyama Islands drifted ashore to Taiwan, and of the group, fifty-four were killed. The Meiji government played up the incident politically and saw it as a way to assert the legitimacy of its plan to integrate Ryūkyū internally and externally. While the government had the U.S. Consul at Amoy, Le Gendre, propose a plan for the possession of Taiwan and had the Foreign Ministry engage in negotiations with the Chinese government, it also prepared for an invasion of Taiwan.In 1874, the Japanese military led by Saigo Tsugumichi occupied Taiwan, but it was impossible to seize control of the entire island. The incident was resolved during negotiations, mediated by the British. The articles agreed to by the Meiji and Qing governments stated that the deployment of the Japanese military was justified as a measure to protect Japanese subjects, and China acknowledged that the Ryūkyūs were under Japanese jurisdiction.[...]Following the political resolution with the Qing government over the Taiwan incident, the Meiji government began the concrete process of Ryūkyū Shobun. In May 1875, the government appointed the Home Ministry’s Chief/First Secretary Matsuda Michiyuki as the Ryūkyū Shobunkan, dispatched him to Okinawa to relay a seven-article order that included the suspension of tributary relations with the Qing.The Ryūkyū Kingdom, which did not possess the power to protest the Meiji government, gently refused to accept this order and again petitioned for the Ryūkyū Kingdom to remain under a system of dual subordination to Japan and China. Matsuda shuttled between Tokyo and Okinawa, eventually bringing over 160 police and 400 troops from the Kumamoto garrison. On March 27, 1879, with military backing, he abolished the Ryūkyū Kingdom (Ryūkyū Han), issued a notice of the establishment of Okinawa prefecture, ordered Shuri castle to be vacated, and seized it. Due to the Meiji government’s integration policy, Ryūkyū kingdom was destroyed, and those who comprised the Shuri kingdom government, beginning with the king and the nobility, lost their stipends and titles. The revolt and discontent of the Ryūkyū Kingdom developed into rebellions, acts of insubordination, and non-cooperation movements against the Meiji government.The Ryūkyū Shobunkan office and the interim Okinawa prefectural headquarters were placed inside of the Home Ministry branch office in Naha and political administration commenced under new auspices. Matsuda intuited that the administrative reforms that followed the abolition of Ryūkyū Han could not proceed without the cooperation of former officials and the nobility strata; on March 29th, he restored the Shuri royal government and various officials to their former positions and called on them to fulfill their duties with loyalty. But the former ruling strata publicly refused to adhere to and cooperate with the Meiji government. The prefectural administration’s takeover of kingdom government did not proceed smoothly; in fact, it brought forth much chaos.Pro-Qing officials within the kingdom government called the Kamegawa faction revolted most strongly against the Meiji government. This was a faction of Shuri nobility who recognized their political leader to be former sanshikan Kamegawa Ueekata Seibu (Mō Inryō). They were the elite of Naha’s Kume village, the base of China’s overseas residents, who opposed integration into the Meiji government in order to protect the suzerain-vassal relation with China...They were at the center of the formation of a blood oath pledge that developed into a petition movement by Ryūkyū king ShoTai that called on the nobility to not adhere to the Meiji government’s orders.A group of to China to from it as of their protest against the Meiji government and called who to or called I on their for military from China and call this were and the many which remain the of this The of was to the Ryūkyū It was an or it was a movement for was to non-cooperation and movements in other countries, and within them that would necessarily into a diplomatic between Japan and from by modern states and military and integration and and the movement was an of The of the movement was the of the Ryūkyū Kingdom under the system of dual In other it was a movement to a under new the form of this that it the of the suzerain-vassal system and was not for its or it for the Qing government to completely the system that was to the world and their for was a way for the tributary state of Ryūkyū to or it. call for a for between Japan and China. The as a for a resolution to new conditions that the Ryūkyū ruling strata had as its historical The was that there was no measure to the of the movement that had to on the power of other countries in order to its a and The movement to a was not a revolt by the nobility against the Meiji government’s but it along a the political of an during the formation period of a Ryūkyū movement developed in two the movement and call for by and the of an blood oath movement that included the In contrast to the of the movement and for into a diplomatic the of through the blood oath into the base of the 1879, an non-cooperation movement against the Meiji government on Miyako It led to an incident a was to for the blood oath and for for the Meiji government a that states, former sanshikan with officials and to their as They to and from This that the to a blood oath from the center of the Shuri royal government and that at the It is from Matsuda Ryūkyū that there was between the Shuri kingdom government and which the most of Okinawa’s not on Okinawa but on the of were dispatched with from the Shuri kingdom government and the blood oath was under conditions of and with the of blood oath was in a in and was and the Meiji government its The who was was King Shō Shō Tai, who was in Tokyo at the the following to in Okinawa on was It is a that stated that even to by a not about that not this is be by it was the would not but as it is an the king is Tai Naha no no a to a of from by Ryūkyū king Shō Tai, the at the center of the non-cooperation The that in the is for the blood which police after a Shō Tai could or the blood oath by that it was the would not However, since it was a movement that was and by he understood that with Shō Tai that it would be impossible to this movement through the blood oath and this The that the king an end to the was for the Meiji government and was a to the of a new relationship within the integration from to the Ryūkyū Kingdom, and the Meiji state to the authority of the former king to toward the of the through the blood oath subordination through like were no to it was to collapse from the However, the of its collapse to be the Meiji state’s deployment of through its military and police placed on the Ryūkyū kingdom its of the suzerain-vassal relationship between Japan and China. On King Shō Tai dispatched to China’s and had him a petition Ryūkyū’s political with and and them that from Ryūkyū were on of the Meiji government. This was in to the government in was an on the to and with the Japanese government by a to who with officials in Tokyo and was a secret of from the May to Ryūkyū’s and a to strongly that China to the full that this would lead to with Japan. the state power of Japan to be and and there is no to for that Japan would not be to this incident to that China did not Japan would the Ryūkyū Kingdom and its to also strongly that China the of Taiwan and the Islands which were within Chinese could not be opposed military and he that Japan at this point would not the of Taiwan but could a invasion of the Chinese was not by this he took the that China, as the Great not the Ryūkyū as a to Foreign on he relayed the that Ryūkyū had to China. that the like be restored and Japan to from and on a to with an which the Japanese government as The who stated that it the in international and that even were not this in their diplomatic was also by the and on a that the legitimacy of their to Ryūkyū’s and China was in with Japan. negotiations negotiations with the Chinese government, the government to into negotiations by its Consul in who had with to with on March 1880, he to which the Ryūkyū archipelago into two and over Miyako and Yaeyama Islands to China as its along with the revision of the Sino-Japanese and The Japanese government’s had toward status in China and treaty revision a condition for over the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands to China. The treaty revision and the Ryūkyū unfolded in this opposed the Japanese to Ryūkyū into two and an to Ryūkyū into to the the Ryūkyū kingdom would be restored on Okinawa Japan would control and the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands would under Chinese This was with to but in it was to the Japanese government’s at treaty It possession of opposed the it did not 1880, the Japanese government its stance toward its negotiations with China. by Secretary of the of to Japanese in the on the the government’s position in the following The Sino-Japanese and in and treaty with other states be would be to the Sino-Japanese position was that the Chinese government the the Japanese government would be to and the two and to China. is, to the status to the and even it with Miyako and that were the two of the Sino-Japanese negotiations is to Japanese to China, which would like to the Ryūkyū from the treaty but would like to the two and that the be mutually on this the government dispatched to a in in order to that was from the was he had with the Ryūkyū from the and had a of the government’s with from countries commenced in on of took the Japanese government’s but the was over treaty revision of that Foreign to stated that is a great difference between the that and from China. the to trade inside the country and a of Because the with a and this the and between China to them the extended to the Western China were to to would from by the position of that relations could It was that China were to with is permitted to other it would not be to Miyako and Yaeyama even foreign countries about Ryūkyū’s The also included the and that government to other countries be extended in the to the Chinese and China to that country with other treaty with China could be within the of the could be to negotiations that the Foreign Ministry was in with Euro-American great The Sino-Japanese negotiations at were a in the Japanese government’s to following the of the negotiations that began in 1880, Foreign had an from China to a with at the at the from countries and their the two countries had the of Ryūkyū’s but this considered and their to a path that would between the two Ryūkyū was defined as that was in the by that did not form its unique This a position that stated in a that Japan power over Ryūkyū in to of this by the Chinese They the Chinese government’s while it like the Japanese government was to by starting from a the the Japanese government submitted a to the kingdom (Ryūkyū with that it would China to Japanese the of it extended to Euro-American a on the Chinese government that be to their in order to the and of the two of Miyako and Yaeyama to be from Japan. However, the Japanese opposed this that the reason were to with China and up Ryūkyū was of to China’s to their the treaty revision was it would result in the of at and was also on On this the Japanese submitted their on Okinawa’s and and the into concrete of the division with a by to that the was resolved would not in China’s toward with to from the not China to on following the division of the that to the Ryūkyū kingdom government and the former Ryūkyū king Shō Tai was the that this country and the of the former king over to country such an In the the secret negotiations that treaty revision to did not negotiations in that took between and by over the of over Ryūkyū and treaty revision to the two in the Ryūkyū Miyako and to the Chinese government, of over the of and the other treaty countries to the of This was by the government’s to the articles of the Sino-Japanese and that would toward its treaty with Euro-American countries within the treaty period and to the that Western Great Powers to in the of China through the The negotiations over led to a called the “Ryūkyū It was that the agreement would be with a within and within and would lead to the of Miyako and Yaeyama from the Ryūkyū chain. The Chinese government not to negotiations ended in in this was not the end of between the governments about the division of the former kingdom it became to the Meiji government that a military base would be for in Okinawa be to a May notice the Kumamoto to within the Okinawa the of the was also The reason for the notice was to protect the within Ryūkyū but it was issued the Taiwan incident had in and the government to for a by Euro-American In of that ordered a of the and conditions for conditions for of of troops to be the of in and the of the of military It was that would be the be and of was as necessary May the government to from the of the Kumamoto to and relayed to the Han that in Naha’s would be for The following notice of the of a a military a and On the the Han over of for military in to the branch The were in and on the were and During the Ryūkyū the of that comprised the by a The were to the of the Shuri which became the for the the of Ryūkyū Shobun became a concrete political a of Ryūkyū Han and submitted it to was on the of Matsuda Ryūkyū and was It was a stated the following the that the government in prefectural in the be The government its and the of nobility and must protect the and order of Ryūkyū society. to with is to but were to send in troops with the of the abolition of and the establishment of them as a to the and this could and within society. In order to from and in order to a of troops must be to the in Okinawa to the of “Ryūkyū it is necessary to the who be and over the of who it be the its military that the plan could the of military to of this the the government’s policy, that Ryūkyū with a Japanese and and through the the of the Ryūkyū would be The the plan to the of troops dispatched as of the Kumamoto garrison. from the Kumamoto to the Han for and this there is in the of for to be for of a is this not government saw that troops were in Okinawa in of of a and in for and that the of the troops was to the Ryūkyū The ruling strata of Ryūkyū’s was not about the but were opposed to the deployment to their This was a unique position in with the of the government over the did the ruling elite of Ryūkyū the government’s stance with its They the Ryūkyū is an in the of the a over no much it its military and a military it up it not be to a military that the invasion of an in and to begin military in this country invasion from foreign countries, and the Ryūkyū kingdom be to military it the diplomatic of with the in a and and protect the by the that other to the of Ryūkyū as a (Ryūkyū the government stated that such a was and the of of Ryūkyū as a (Ryūkyū It that Ryūkyū was of the Japanese that was not for foreign countries on its It also stated that a foreign invasion of Ryūkyū was an on Japan and in the to protect by the Ryūkyū ruling strata at like were a of to their of military in However, on the that this is the of that developed in order to remain under the relationship with China, which was to the of its military during Shimazu within the bakuhan system society. The Ryūkyū kingdom that on the Japanese state’s military power was the as country with It was an of their toward On this while the of and the by the Ryūkyū ruling strata to be the the the two is completely the Ryūkyū ruling strata by of the status was the of the of country of (Ryūkyū while of the of the two countries, Japan and China, But opposed it the military between Japan and China as a result of the Japanese On this the Ryūkyū ruling strata did not a to be to the government’s the of the Meiji state’s was its and the establishment of a at the of the Shobun two to the The was that the integration of Okinawa was a of and that it was a way to The point was in the of the police while the military was in of the The was through diplomatic with China during the Meiji was strongly with this to China following its suspension of the of the “Ryūkyū since who played an in the suspension of the Ryūkyū treaty a of to this after the of negotiations between and over the of Ryūkyū’s took On had a with and to negotiations, which the was to the of the to continue the tributary relationship of the Ryūkyū king to China, and to China’s of Foreign a to of about the Ryūkyū to the the Japanese government that it would be to stated for the Ryūkyū in Tokyo through China’s appointed as to to the Ryūkyū family but there were many in it Shō China would be with it to Shō would is, of Foreign to this to in order to the Ryūkyū and at the to consider the in order to treaty and the to engage in within the for on March he in the The two Miyako and to be it is impossible to the royal China would the of which would the of the was no to the to the of the Ryūkyū kingdom. However, the of the Ryūkyū king is in the of Shuri on Okinawa and the be it would be impossible to the Ryūkyū the relation is he also Shuri to the Ryūkyū to the kingdom, and to by agreement that Japan not to possess This the of plan to the kingdom into with a new and was to from Japan that recognized the after the Ryūkyū invasion by the Shimazu family that the “Ryūkyū as an in the Japanese government had abolished the Ministry of the and had an that was to the various and military and the Meiji political the of military from the establishment of domestic to military of the of domestic military had into the ear of the Chinese On a from was to the Foreign he stated that he had not from about the Ryūkyū and that it would be to not up negotiations from end there was an from the Chinese to former treaty was that on the of Ryūkyū’s or treaty it was for China to not that the Japanese government a of the that there would be no to a result there is a in China this at as completely Consul to Foreign that he that to up revision negotiations on the since the ten-year of the Sino-Japanese and was almost On May also a resolution to the of Ryūkyū’s in with the revision of the Sino-Japanese and However, Foreign that at this the resolution that had brought the two did not political and that the two be as a the In this treaty revision within the period of the Sino-Japanese and became the Meiji government its to the and relayed to the Chinese that there was no reason for the Japanese government to negotiations the Ryūkyū

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