Western Interactions With Japan

Expansions, the Armed Forces and Readjustment 1859-1956

Peter Lowe, Herman Moeshart

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN:
  9781138405691
• eBook ISBN:
  9781135881092
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Diplomacy & Treaties
• Index: History

Remarkable insights into the profound Japanese concern 'for defending the cherished Japanese values amid an era of fantastic change', writes Peter Lowe.

Von Siebold’s Second Visit to Japan, 1859–62

HERMAN J. MOESHART

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this paper is to look critically at the life of von Siebold following his banishment from Japan and, more particularly, at his second visit to Japan which lasted from 8 August 1859 until 7 May 1862. As will be shown, von Siebold undertook his second visit to Japan after having failed in his attempt to join Matthew Perry’s expedition from the United States; he also failed around the same time to join a Russian expedition, driven as he was for the most part by a desire to better his own position both financially and politically.

1830 UNTIL HIS ARRIVAL IN JAPAN

After his return to the Netherlands, banned from Japan because of his breach of confidence, von Siebold continued to occupy himself with Japan and writing his ‘Magnum Opus,’ Nippon. He was often consulted by the Ministry of Colonies in matters regarding Japan. During the period between his return and his second voyage to Japan, the most important result of this consultation was doubtless the letter which he wrote for King William II, to be sent to the Shogun in 1844.

In 1849, in the United States, the pressure on the government to force Japan, if necessary with the use of weapons, to open the country to trade was growing strongly. The cause of this pressure was the concern that American sailors were maltreated if they came ashore in Japan after being shipwrecked, as well as the American plans for shipping lines between California and China for which coaling harbours were needed. The American reproaches about the treatment of sailors were completely unfounded. If one reads the Japanese report submitted to the Dutch Opperhoofd about the trouble the Japanese took while holding American sailors and transferring them to Deshima, it becomes apparent that the treatment some of the sailors received was entirely the result of their own misbehaviour. In the letter we read how some of the Americans repeatedly escaped from the house where they were kept by destroying walls and ceilings, but also how much trouble was taken by the Japanese to keep these men in reasonably good health.¹

When matters had progressed to the point that the American fleet was being prepared, von Siebold seems to have tried to join it and accompany Perry on his voyage to Japan. Perry, however, was very much opposed to the participation of von Siebold and, for that matter, of any Dutchman. A search was made in the United States for an American of Dutch descent to go to Japan as a translator but on no account was this person to be a Dutch national. In the end, a Mr A. L. Portman was found who, much later, was to become American consul at Yokohama. Von Siebold was kept well informed of the American venture by someone whom he calls ‘my correspondent on board the Mississippi.’ When in 1852 von Siebold heard about the Russian plans to send an expedition to Japan, he immediately tried to join it. He followed his usual technique of sending his books and articles and volunteering his opinion about the way in which such an expedition should be undertaken. As a result he received an unofficial invitation to go to St Petersburg. As stated in his book, ‘With documents confirmed treaty on the efforts made by the Netherlands and Russia to open Japan for trade and navigation of all countries,’ the Russians had wished to receive more information from him: ‘The memorandum and the letter that you have had the honour to address to me, having been thoroughly examined, has given rise to the desire to receive from your mouth information and additional explanations about a question which no other European understands so thoroughly.’²

In St Petersburg von Siebold wrote a letter on behalf of the Russian emperor which reads for the most part like the letter he prepared for King William II. The result of that letter was the same: it brought no change in the Japanese attitude to the outside world. One factor, however, did become clear: the Russian interest in the Pacific area was once more awakened, and the following years saw an expansion of the Russian territory in East Siberia and the Amur region. After his return from Russia, a trip undertaken without the knowledge of the Dutch government, von Siebold wrote his book Nippon. In the meantime, the Dutch government, realising that von Siebold might wish to sell his knowledge and expertise elsewhere, tried to inhibit this by consenting to von Siebold’s wish to live in Bonn (while keeping his Dutch salary) with the appointment of adviser to the Ministry.

During the following years von Siebold busied himself with the Dutch trade to Japan and made several suggestions to the Dutch government. This did not mean, however, that von Siebold stopped interfering in the Japanese affairs of the Dutch government. For example, he proposed the establishment of a trading company for Japan at Leiden, of which he, von Siebold, wanted to be the director, and he proposed in the same letter to set up an information centre about Japan. The first proposal was rejected by the Minister of Colonies who stated that there was already the Dutch Trading Company which could take care of trade with Japan. The information centre received a more favourable reception, though it had still not been realised. Also in this letter von Siebold asked to be employed again by the Dutch government giving as a reason his desire to continue his literary works about Japan, and to concentrate on the spiritual development of the Japanese people and help to expand Japanese exports. The consequence of this letter was that he was once again employed by the government at a salary of 5,000 florins a year.

In December 1858 the following letter was received by J. H. Donker Curtius, the Opperhoofd at Deshsima:

Translation of a communication in writing from the Governor of Nagasaki to the Dutch Commissioner. Siebold, Dutch doctor. The interdiction of his return to Japan has been withdrawn as an act of extraordinary generosity. The above has been announced from the court at Edo, so it has been transmitted to you.³

When von Siebold was informed of the end of his banishment, he immediately began making plans for his return to Japan. He announced to the Ministry of Colonies that he wanted to be employed as an assistant to Donker Curtius and in so doing caused the Dutch government considerable trouble. The Minister made it clear that he did not want to employ von Siebold in any official capacity on account of his former banishment and the fact that he might begin meddling in official business. To make matters worse, Donker Curtius threatened to resign if von Siebold were appointed in an official capacity in Japan. Another of von Siebold’s wishes was to bring the ratified treaty of 1858 to Japan. This, too, was unacceptable to the Minister. After much deliberation a solution was found in appointing von Siebold assistant to A. J. Bauduin, the agent of the Dutch Trading Company at Deshima. Von Siebold was allowed to bring the ratified treaty to Batavia but, as the Minister wrote to the Governor-General of the East Indies, ‘there every concern of von Siebold with the Treaty had to stop.’⁴ Probably because these arrangements were not to von Siebold’s liking, time was lost with the result that he delayed his departure to Batavia and the treaty was brought to Japan by someone else. When he finally reached Batavia, von Siebold once more was lectured on his behaviour in Japan: he had to refrain from any interference in politics; it was also made quite clear to him that he went to Japan as a private person, in the employment of the Dutch Trading Company.

THE SECOND VISIT IN JAPAN

Von Siebold arrived in Nagasaki on 8 August 1859 in the company of his young son, Alexander, and took lodgings in one of the city’s many Buddhist temples. In a letter from A. J. Bauduin to his sisters in Holland, we are given a glimpse of the impression the old man must have made:

‘Mr von Siebold lives in Nagasaki in a temple. I visit him from time to time and like everyone here His Honour is being put to hard shifts at his age and for someone who has been accustomed to a comfortable life, such is not easy, but I must say that His Honour is keeping himself well enough, even if things are not as at home.

Seldom have I seen a man so over-decorated as papa von Siebold. Crosses and grand-crosses of all nations; in his colonel’s uniform His Honour looks magnificent, quite a contrast with the modest Japanese.’⁵

In October of that year von Siebold started one of the strangest undertakings in his career: he opened a printer’s shop at Deshima. The idea behind this is not quite clear. Apart from a few articles by von Siebold himself, the printer’s shop only printed some business papers for the Dutch traders in Nagasaki. Probably von Siebold’s continual thirst for money was the reason for the enterprise. He succeeded, however, in having the printer, G. Indermauer, who had been assistant to the doctor at Deshima, sent out from Batavia, and he obtained substantial credits from the government of the Dutch East Indies.

In the meantime, von Siebold had begun to make contact with the Japanese authorities. Within the first days of his arrival there exists a curious letter to the Governor of Nagasaki in which he offers amongst other items European suits of armour for sale, stating that they are among the best of their kind and that such armour is worn by all the guards in the European courts.⁶ Less innocent, and in direct contradiction to his orders, were his talks with the governor in which he advised about matters of a political and military nature. It was quite easy for him to do so because the Japanese believed him to be in Japan in an official capacity. For his part, von Siebold did nothing to clear up this misunderstanding. He kept wearing his colonel’s uniform, though no longer in active service, and he impressed both the Japanese and foreigners with his decorations. He also irritated them and some of this annoyance is discernible in one of the letters of Albert Bauduin:

From time to time I receive a visit from Mr P. F. von Siebold, the author of a large work about Japan, a work which must have involved considerable time but which is so large that nobody reads it. Mr von Siebold is here, as he says, to complete that work, but at the same time he is an adviser to the Dutch Trading Company, which means that I am authorised, if I think it useful, to consult His Honour. His Honour is absolutely not in the service of the Dutch Government and has nothing to say about government money or merchandise. His Honour is simply a private person who came here to finish his work, that is all.

Mr von Siebold is 64 years old and is undoubtedly a very strong man. On Easter Day the inhabitants of Deshima took a walk in the mountains, from 8 o’clock in the morning until 6 o’clock in the evening. His Honour took part in this like a young man of 20 years of age. His Honour brought a son of 13 years, a nice lad, who would like it better to be at home with his mother than with his father in Japan. Well, for a child of his age it is not very attractive to stay with an old scientist in Japan.⁷

Towards the end of 1860 it became clear that the contract with the Dutch Trading Company was not going to be renewed. The company was not satisfied with the way von Siebold had discharged his responsibilities. This was not surprising in view of the fact that von Siebold perceived his adviser’s job only as a disguise for his presence in Japan. His real purpose in that country was the completion of his work and the improvement of his own position. When he discovered that the Dutch Trading Company would employ him for no longer, he made known to the Governor of Nagasaki that he was willing to stay in Japan as an adviser to the Japanese government. Soon afterwards, an invitation to stay on followed. Without waiting for the permission of the Dutch government, von Siebold accepted this invitation and asked the Dutch Vice-Consul at Nagasaki, J. P. Metman, to send a letter to the governor stating that the Dutch government did not object. Metman refused to do this, as he wrote in a confidential letter to his superior, Mr J. K. de Wit, the Dutch Consul-General, who was at that time in Edo. Metman wrote that von Siebold had told him that he had given advice about the military strengthening of a bay in the proximity of Nagasaki and that he was busy making a plan for the strengthening of the Bay of Nagasaki. Metman foresaw great trouble with the other foreign powers in Japan if this advice became public because Japan might use these military installations against them.⁸

In March 1861 the Japanese authorities requested permission of the Dutch consulate in Nagasaki to let von Siebold go to Kanagawa. De Wit answered that it was not his concern where von Siebold went, as he was not acting in an official position in Japan. But the Japanese did not understand this and sent the following letter to De Wit:

Your letter No. 8 of the 23rd Siogoeats or March 4th, 1861, has been read. Because the translation in this letter, that von Siebold is not present in an official capacity, is not clear to us, we have asked the translator and he answered: the meaning of this is so, that your concern is not with the teaching of von Siebold, here or in Kanagawa after his arrival, and he can go as decided, but in case fortune or misfortune may happen to him, Your Honour will be concerned. So we trust that Your Honour’s opinion about his visit to Kanagawa is like this, but once more we ask if this is so. With honour and respect, 28th day of the 1st month of the 2nd year of Manen. Signed Okabe Suruga no Kami.⁹

Before he left for Kanagawa, von Siebold had several meetings with the governor in which he gave his advice about Nagasaki harbour and the creation of a free port. On 19 April, still in the company of his son, Alexander, von Siebold arrived at Yokohama. There his arrival was awaited with impatience by the Japanese authorities. The Dutch Consul at Nagasaki, Dirk de Graeff van Polsbroek, was already aware of this impatience. On several occasions the Japanese authorities had asked him questions about von Siebold and requested information about the kind of house to be made ready for him. According to his letter of 28 April to De Wit, de Graeff finally ran out of patience:

After the arrival of Mr von Siebold in this port, the Governor of Kanagawa sent one of his officers to me to enquire if Mr von Siebold wanted to move to his house at once. I told my clerk to answer that they should address such a question to Mr von Siebold himself and not to me.

The next morning the Governor again sent some of his officers with the question as to what kind of bed should be prepared for Mr von Siebold. Fearing that such questions, which had nothing to do with me, would never end, I visited the Governor and asked him never to bother me again with such questions, that I had told his predecessor clearly that Mr von Siebold was not a civil servant of the Dutch Government and that I could not concern myself with the lodging of private persons.

The Governor, very surprised, replied that he had received the message from Nagasaki to the effect that Mr von Siebold was a civil servant of the Dutch Government which had sent him to Nagasaki. On this I have answered that Mr von Siebold had been dismissed long ago but that he had obtained permission to continue wearing his uniform, that he had come to Nagasaki as an adviser to the Dutch Trading Company and that the Dutch government had helped him with money to establish a printing business.

After this, the Governor asked me how Mr von Siebold should be received. I answered that he should know better than I since the Japanese Government had invited him and I did not know in what position he had come here. The Governor declared that he would hold no position whatever and had come only to clear up an important question and that he was very surprised that von Siebold had not brought furniture or anything with hi...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• List of Contributors
• Introduction
• 1. Von Siebold’s Second Visit to Japan
• 2. The Proprietors Assert Themselves: The Osaka Asahi Shinbun and the Osaka Mainichi Shinbun in the late Nineteenth Century
• 3. The Japanese Pure Anarchists and the Theory of Anarchist-Communism
• 4. The Strategic Meaning of the 1911 Anglo-Japanese Alliance
• 5. Emperorship as a National Symbol in the Japan of the Taishō Era (1912-26)
• 6. The Batavia Conference of 1934 and its Importance to Dutch-Japanese Relations in the Decade before Pearl Harbor
• 7. Admiral Yonai Mitsumasa as Navy Minister (1937-9): Dove or Hawk?
• 8. Japanese Occupation Policy in Singapore, 1942-45
• 9. Great Britain and the Japanese Peace Treaty, 1951
• 10. The Soviet-Japanese Normalisation and Foreign Policy Ideas of the Hatoyama Group
• Index