New History Textbook (Chapter 4 & 5) 2005 version - Bakumatsu Films

spoke English.
In one of those speeches, Ito remarked that “a feudal system, firmly established many centuries ago,
has been completely abolished, without firing a gun or shedding a drop of blood.” (He was
referring to the government’s having replaced fiefs with prefectures.) Ito ended his speech with an
allusion to the hinomaru (Japanese flag): “The red disc in the centre of our national flag, shall no
longer appear like a wafer over a sealed empire, but henceforth be in fact, what it is designed to be,
the noble emblem of the rising sun, moving onward and upward amid the enlightened nations of
the world.” Ito’s now famous speech was greeted with thunderous applause.
Ito became one of the most important members of the Meiji government. He expended more
energy than anyone else on the effort to build a modern Japan, one that could enjoy a status equal
to that of the Western powers.
The Struggle To Enact a Constitution
Ito Hirobumi’s greatest achievement was the enactment of the Meiji Constitution and the
establishment of Japan’s Diet. He went to Europe in 1882, where he studied for more than a year,
benefiting from the wisdom of German constitutional scholars. In 1885, he was appointed Japan’s
first prime minister at the age of 45.
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