Soejima Taneomi
Encyclopedia
was a diplomat and statesman during early Meiji period
Meiji period
The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...

 Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

.

Biography

Soejima was born into a samurai
Samurai
is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...

family in Saga
Saga, Saga
is the capital of Saga Prefecture, located on the island of Kyūshū, Japan.Saga was the capital of Saga Domain in the Edo period, and largest city of former Hizen Province....

, in Hizen province
Hizen Province
was an old province of Japan in the area of Saga and Nagasaki prefectures. It was sometimes called , with Higo Province. Hizen bordered on the provinces of Chikuzen and Chikugo. The province was included in Saikaidō...

 (present-day Saga prefecture
Saga Prefecture
is located in the northwest part of the island of Kyūshū, Japan. It touches both the Sea of Japan and the Ariake Sea. The western part of the prefecture is a region famous for producing ceramics and porcelain, particularly the towns of Karatsu, Imari, and Arita...

). His father was a teacher in the domain's school and a scholar of National Learning (kokugaku
Kokugaku
Kokugaku was a National revival, or, school of Japanese philology and philosophy originating during the Tokugawa period...

). In 1866, Soejima was sent to Nagasaki by the domain leaders to study the English language
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

. There he studied under Guido F. Verbeck, an American missionary, giving special attention to the United States Constitution
United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...

 and the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....

. During the Boshin War
Boshin War
The was a civil war in Japan, fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and those seeking to return political power to the imperial court....

 he was a military leader of the Saga forces committed to the overthrow of the Tokugawa bakufu.

After the Meiji Restoration
Meiji Restoration
The , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, Reform or Renewal, was a chain of events that restored imperial rule to Japan in 1868...

, Soejima became a junior councilor (san'yo) and assisted Fukuoka Takachika
Fukuoka Takachika
Viscount was a Japanese statesman of the Meiji period.- Early life :Fukuoka was born in Tosa District in present-day Kōchi Prefecture, and served the Yamauchi daimyō of Tosa as a domain official...

 in drafting the structure of the provisional Meiji government in 1868. While most of Japan's government was on its around-the-world tour of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and Europe on the Iwakura Mission
Iwakura mission
The Iwakura Mission or Iwakura Embassy was a Japanese diplomatic journey around the world, initiated in 1871 by the oligarchs of the Meiji period. Although it was not the only such "mission", it is the most well-known and possibly most important for the modernization of Japan after a long period...

, Soejima served as interim Foreign Minister. During his term he was faced with the difficult issue of the Maria Luz Incident
María Luz Incident
The was a diplomatic incident between the early Meiji government of the Empire of Japan and the Republic of Peru over a merchant ship with Chinese indentured labourers in Yokohama in 1872...

, involving the questions of extraterritoriality
Extraterritoriality
Extraterritoriality is the state of being exempt from the jurisdiction of local law, usually as the result of diplomatic negotiations. Extraterritoriality can also be applied to physical places, such as military bases of foreign countries, or offices of the United Nations...

 and the unequal treaties
Unequal Treaties
“Unequal treaty” is a term used in specific reference to a number of treaties imposed by Western powers, during the 19th and early 20th centuries, on Qing Dynasty China and late Tokugawa Japan...

 in a case involving the mistreatment of Chinese indentured laborers on a Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

vian ship. Soejima was praised by the Chinese government
Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....

 over his handling of the affair.

In 1871, he was sent to Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...

 to adjust boundary questions relating to the island of Sakhalin
Sakhalin
Sakhalin or Saghalien, is a large island in the North Pacific, lying between 45°50' and 54°24' N.It is part of Russia, and is Russia's largest island, and is administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast...

.
In 1873, Soejima led a mission to Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...

 to protest the murder of 54 crewmembers of a wrecked Ryūkyūan merchant vessel by Paiwan aborigines on the southwestern tip of Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

 in December 1871. (The former Ryūkyū Kingdom
Ryukyu Kingdom
The Ryūkyū Kingdom was an independent kingdom which ruled most of the Ryukyu Islands from the 15th century to the 19th century. The Kings of Ryūkyū unified Okinawa Island and extended the kingdom to the Amami Islands in modern-day Kagoshima Prefecture, and the Sakishima Islands near Taiwan...

 had only been formally claimed by the Empire of Japan
Empire of Japan
The Empire of Japan is the name of the state of Japan that existed from the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868 to the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of...

, as Japanese sovereign territory from September 1872.) Soejima succeeded in meeting with the Tongzhi Emperor
Tongzhi Emperor
The Tongzhi Emperor , born Aisin-Gioro Dzai Šun, was the tenth emperor of the Manchu-led Qing Dynasty, and the eighth Qing emperor to rule over China, from 1861 to 1875. His reign, which effectively lasted through his adolescence, was largely overshadowed by the rule of his mother, the Empress...

 partly on the basis of the goodwill extended over the Maria Luz Incident, but Japan's demands for compensation were refused, leading to the Taiwan Expedition of 1874
Taiwan Expedition of 1874
The , usually referred to in Taiwan and mainland China as the Mudan incident , was a punitive expedition launched by the Japanese in retaliation for the murder of 54 Ryukyuan sailors by Paiwan aborigines near the southwestern tip of Taiwan in December 1871...

. However, the mission to China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 did succeed in establishing formal diplomatic relations between Japan and China.

After the return of the Iwakura Mission and the rejection of the Seikanron
Seikanron
The Seikanron debate was a major political conflagration which occurred in Japan in 1873....

proposals to invade Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...

 in October 1873, Soejima resigned from the government. He later joined Itagaki Taisuke
Itagaki Taisuke
Count was a Japanese politician and leader of the , which evolved into Japan's first political party.- Early life :Itagaki Taisuke was born into a middle-ranking samurai family in Tosa Domain, , After studies in Kōchi and in Edo, he was appointed as sobayonin to Tosa daimyo Yamauchi Toyoshige,...

 and Eto Shimpei
Eto Shimpei
, was a Japanese statesman during the early Meiji period, remembered chiefly for his role in the unsuccessful Saga Rebellion.- Early Life & Meiji Bureaucrat :...

 in forming the Aikoku Koto
Aikoku Koto
The ' was a political party in Meiji period Japan.The Aikoku Kōtō was formed in January 1874 by Itagaki Taisuke, Etō Shimpei, Gotō Shōjirō and others as part of the Freedom and People's Rights Movement. Its purpose was to petition the Meiji government to establish a national assembly...

political party
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...

. On a visit to China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 in 1876, he was received with high honors by the mandarin
Mandarin (bureaucrat)
A mandarin was a bureaucrat in imperial China, and also in the monarchist days of Vietnam where the system of Imperial examinations and scholar-bureaucrats was adopted under Chinese influence.-History and use of the term:...

s by reason of his scholarship, and he became private adviser of the emperor.

Soejima returned to government service in 1878, serving in the Imperial Household Ministry
Imperial Household Agency
The is a government agency of Japan in charge of the state matters concerning Japan's imperial family and also keeping the Privy Seal and the State Seal...

. In 1888 he was appointed to the Privy Council
Privy Council (Japan)
was an advisory council to the Emperor of Japan that operated from 1888 to 1947.-Functions:Modeled in part upon the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, this body advised the throne on matters of grave importance including:...

, and became its vice chairman in 1891. In 1892, he was called upon to become Home Minister
Home Ministry (Japan)
The ' was a Cabinet-level ministry established under the Meiji Constitution that managed the internal affairs of Empire of Japan from 1873-1947...

 in the first Matsukata administration
Matsukata Masayoshi
Prince was a Japanese politician and the 4th and 6th Prime Minister of Japan.-Early life:...

.

External links

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