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- Convenor:
-
Noriko Berlinguez-Kono
(University of Lille)
Send message to Convenor
- Section:
- History
- Sessions:
- Thursday 26 August, -
Time zone: Europe/Brussels
Short Abstract:
This panel aims to explore the impact of transnational military networks in the nineteenth century, using case studies on key figures like Brunet, Du Bousquet and Sameshima to assess how the French military missions influenced the creation of the modern Japanese army and other Meiji reforms.
Long Abstract:
The main objective of this panel is to shed new light on the multi-faceted activities of army officers in the nineteenth century, and how the transnational networks they participated in served to influence government policies at a formative time in the development of modern nation-states. France sent two military missions to Japan, the first at the invitation of the Tokugawa regime, the second at the request of the new Meiji government. These groups consisted of specialist officers and consultants whose official task was to help modernize the Japanese military, but in the event their influence would stretch into civil affairs as well.
In the mid-nineteenth century, army officers engaged in foreign missions and overseas campaigns were often not just military experts but specialists in various other fields. Those with an excellent command of foreign languages served as interpreters, those with a high capacity for negotiations were appointed as diplomats and those well versed in a particular region often employed their local knowledge to great effect. Today, the activities of civil and military officers are clearly separated under the Military Attaché system, and the remit of an army officer serving abroad is strictly limited to military matters. At this time, however, the lines of demarcation between diplomatic and military spheres remained unclear, allowing some officers, such as those posted to Japan, to exert a broader influence across different levels of society.
Specifically, this panel aims to draw on unused primary sources to consider the interactions and activities of key figures in these transnational military networks. An overview of the French military missions together with three case studies on Jules Brunet (1838-1911), Albert du Bousquet (1837-1882), and Sameshima Naonobu (1845-1880) - two French army officers and a Japanese diplomat - will help us gain some insight on how these ventures influenced the creation of the modern Japanese army, and other Meiji reforms. They will further allow the panel to suggest some tentative conclusions on how these networks contributed to shaping subsequent Franco-Japanese relations, partly in the military sphere, and through other political, judicial and cultural developments, both in France and Japan.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 26 August, 2021, -Shinko Taniguchi (Waseda University)
Paper short abstract:
This paper examines the process of imposing punishment on Jules Brunet, a member of the French military mission to Japan. It explores how the Meiji government understood foreign consuls' jurisdiction in international law in the mid-19th century and the importance of transnational military networks.
Paper long abstract:
This paper focuses on Jules Brunet, military officer, in the transnational military networks and in the field of early modern international law. As a vice-captain of the first French military mission to Japan, Brunet reached Yokohama on January 1867, about one year before the Boshin Civil War broke out. After being fired by the Tokugawa regime as an official foreign military teacher, he participated in the army of ENOMOTO Takeaki. It was during the time when France was to observe strict neutrality along with other Western countries. According to international law in the mid-19th century, any-one who committed any violation of the Law of Nations relating to neutral rights, was liable to penalties and forfeited all claims to the protection of his government, as well as the rights and privileges granted by the treaty.
Brunet, getting on a French battleship, escaped from Hakodate just before the beginning of an all-out attack on Goryo-kaku by the new government army. He was sentenced to the penalty "non-activity" at the French army's meeting in Paris. Japanese officials of foreign affairs negotiated with the French Minister again and again because they considered this punishment was very mild, compared to the sentence the French Minister had demanded of Japan over the Kobe and the Sakai incidents. They also claimed heavy compensation for the Japanese military damage and many casualties at the series of Hakodate battles, getting information about the Alabama Claims in 1869.
On September 1870, Japan and France reached agreement by Japan formally admitting the "non-activity" penalty. As a matter of fact, though, Brunet had already backed regular service, participated in the Franco-Prussian War, and been taken prisoner at the battle of Metz in August 1870. When freed, he fought with the Paris Commune and got in touch with SAMESHIMA Naonobu, the first Japanese ambassador, on the subject of the second French military mission in January 1872.
Brunet's military experience taught the new Japan the concepts of international law, particularly the practical meaning of foreign consuls' jurisdiction and the importance of transnational military network.
Andrew Cobbing (University of Nottingham)
Paper short abstract:
As Japan's first resident diplomat in Paris from 1871, Sameshima Naonobu (1845-80) found himself at the heart of a Franco-Japanese military network already emerging since the last years of Tokugawa rule, and played a formative role in planning the second French military mission to Japan (1872-80).
Paper long abstract:
As Japan's first resident minister in Europe, Sameshima Naonobu played a pivotal role in fostering relations with France. The son of a doctor and a talented linguist, he was not from a military background himself, but his work as a diplomat in Paris helped the Meiji regime develop the military links with France that had first emerged in the last years of Tokugawa rule. Sameshima had been away from Japan at this time, first in England and then America, as a young member of the student party sent abroad by the Satsuma domain in 1865. He thus had no previous contact with the first French military mission invited by the Tokugawa regime, which reached Japan in 1867. On taking up his post in Paris in 1871, however, he was soon in touch with former members of this mission, among them Charles Chanoine and Jules Brunet, who had since returned to France. Another, Charles Du Bousquet, had stayed on in the service of the Meiji government, so when he was awarded the légion d'honneur in 1872, it fell to Sameshima to send this medal to him from Paris.
In 1871 Sameshima was also charged with developing plans for a second French military mission on behalf of the Meiji government. There would be four such missions in all, three in the Meiji period and another in the early twentieth century. This paper focuses on Sameshima's contribution to planning the second mission in the 1870s, which had a considerable impact on the Imperial Japanese Army and Franco-Japanese relations more broadly. It traces the diplomatic support he gave to Japanese students in helping them enrol at Saint Cyr and other prestigious military academies in France. Finally, it assesses the plans he made to allow visiting Japanese army officers and dignitaries, among them members of the Iwakura Embassy, to inspect military establishments at Saint Cyr, Vincennes and Fontainebleau during their tours of France. From his position at the Japanese legation in Paris, Sameshima's diplomatic activities were thus at the heart of coordinating the new military networks developed between France and Meiji Japan.
Noriko Berlinguez-Kono (University of Lille)
Paper short abstract:
This paper focuses on Albert du Bousquet's immense contribution to modernizing Japan's institutions not only in the military domain but also in the judicial, political and cultural sphere. With an excellent command of Japanese, he also played a key role in promoting Japanese studies in France.
Paper long abstract:
This paper focuses on Albert du Bousquet's immense contribution to modernizing Japan's institutions not only in the military domain but also in the judicial, political and cultural sphere. With an excellent command of Japanese, he also played a key role in promoting Japanese studies in France.
Also known as "ジブスケ", Albert du Bousquet (1837-1882) remained loyal to the French army all through his life. Born in Liège, he went back to France to enter the French military academy, Saint Cyr. After graduation, he participated in six campaigns including the Algerian campaign and the expedition of China (1860), which helped him to master six foreign languages such as Arabic and Chinese. He arrived in Japan as a member of the First French military mission in 1867 and unlike the other officers who left Japan by tennō's decree in October 1868, he decided to stay as an interpreter of the French Legation, situation offered by French administration because of his excellent command of Japanese. In the meantime, he was married to a Japanese woman, later with four children.
In 1870 Du Bousquet was recruited by Japanese government as a foreign adviser to War Ministry and a year later, to Sain until 1875, then to Genrōin until November 1877. During seven years, he had devoted himself day and night to translating French documents into Japanese in order to make solid proposals for modernization and for reinforcement of French influence in various fields. The documents in the National Archives of Japan show that he had an impressive working capacity: the number of documents he submitted amounts to approximately 100 and the domains cover military laws and organizations, but also political institutions such as Conseil d'État and different laws on a wide variety of subjects. In cultural terms, he attended the first International Congress of Orientalists in Paris in 1873 and he helped to constitute a Japanese collection in the École des langues orientales.
This paper examines the significance of his proposals and networks, especially while he served Sain under Etō Shinpei, between 1871 and 1875.
Grégoire Sastre (Center for Japanese Research at EHESS)
Paper short abstract:
Even though the French authorities sided with the Bakufu regime, sending military mission in 1867, they still got asked for a second military mission by the new Japanese leaders in 1872. I will discuss the relation between these two missions and the role they played building the Japanese Army.
Paper long abstract:
France is known to have sided with the Bakufu regime, sending a Military mission in 1867 was a way to display that support. As such, when the Bakufu crumbled and let way to the new Meiji regime, the relation with France were strained, a strain that might have been accentuated by the role Jules Brunet played in the short lived Republic of Ezo (1869). Despite that, French authorities still got invited to send a second mission in 1872.
Even though the pro-French faction of the Japanese military officers, for example the Vice Minister of the Army, Ōmura Masujirō (1824-1869) weighed in the choice of a French mission, one should not overlook how pragmatic of a choice it was. For example, the fact that the 1867 mission began teaching French and that the teaching methods were based on the French language and on the French military system and philosophy meant that a change of model would need time and recourses which the new Japanese regime didn't have. Sticking with the French model even in face of the French defeat in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War, which impressed some Japanese officers, mainly Yamagata Aritomo, Katsura Tarō and Ōyama Iwao who in turn thought that the Prussian model was more suited, was a choice of reason.
During the period between the first and the second mission, French officers, notably Albert Charles du Bousquet (1837-1882), continued to advise the Japanese government on administrative reforms even though the 1867 military mission was sent back to France. Specifically, du Bousquet wrote a series of 14 documents on different administrative question for the Sa.in. The fifth volume is the one tackling military organization. As such he helped bridge the gap between the first and the second French military mission. All these cogs played a part in the process of the invitation of the French military mission in 1972.
The objective of my paper is twofold, show the process that led to the invitation of a second French mission and explain what role it played in the organizational reforms of the Japanese military.