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

designed to free Korea from Qing influence, describes Korea as an independent nation.
More fearsome than China to the Japanese was Russia, which was now looking to East Asia for an
ice-free port. In 1891, Russia began work on the Trans-Siberian Railway, and the threat seemed
more imminent. If the Korean Peninsula came under the control of Russia, which was extending its
empire eastward, it would serve as the base for an attack on Japan. As an island nation, Japan
would have great difficulty defending itself.
Therefore, after Korea opened to Japan, Japan assisted Korea in its first efforts to modernize by
supporting military reforms. Missions were sent by Korea to learn from the achievements of the
Meiji Restoration. It was important to Japan’s national security that Korea become an impregnable
fortress.
Conflict between Japan and China over Korea
China, however, saw the East Asian situation from a different perspective. The incorporation of the
Ryukyu Islands, which had also been paying tribute to China for centuries, into Japanese territory
as Okinawa Prefecture in 1879, was a crushing blow to the Chinese. Later, China lost the
Sino-French War and was forced to cede Vietnam. This successive loss of tributary nations was a
harbinger of the decline of the Qing dynasty. It was also a sign of looming crisis that might cause
the East Asian order centered as it was on China, to crumble.
Determined not to lose Korea, its last important tributary nation, China began viewing Japan as its
enemy. An examination of Japan’s participation in the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars
must be informed by international relations in East Asia as described in this section.
57 The Sino-Japanese War
How did disputes between Japan and China lead to the Sino-Japanese War?
Japan and China Clash over Korea
After Korea came out of isolation, Japan helped it modernize by supporting military reforms.
However, in 1882, some Korean soldiers whom the reforms discriminated against rioted (the
Military Rebellion of 1882). China sent several thousand soldiers into Korea to suppress the
mutiny, thereby weakening Japan’s influence over Korea.
In 1884, Kim Ok-kyun and other progressives endeavoring to implement reforms along the lines of
the Meiji Restoration, attempted a coup d’etat. But they, too, were thwarted by troops sent by
China.
Having twice been defeated in the power struggle over Korea, Japan took immediate steps to
bolster its military strength, anticipating hostilities with China. Soon Japan was, militarily, on an
equal footing with China.
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