청일전쟁기의 일본정부의 동아시아질서 재편정책

Japan’s policy concerning reorganization of the east Asia order during the period of sino-Japanese war

This dissertation is an analysis of the structure as well as the characteristics of the East Asian Policy that was promoted by the 2nd Ito Ministry. The subject of investigation covers the period from when the revised treaty first became an unresolved diplomatic issue in July 1893 to when the composite brigadeled by Oshima Mashayosi left for Chosun in June of 1894. As of lately, a new outlook that during this period the Ito Ministry’s East Asian Policy was anti-expansionism has been enthusiastically accepted by Japanese historical circles. They claim that the dispatched Japanese armies to Chosun were not meant to be a declaration of war to China. The goal of this dissertation is especially to genuinely refute this movement of research and the results of this study are roughly as follows: The Ito Ministry in order to hold supremacy devoted themselves to the revision of their diplomatic treaty/foreign policy with England. They had initially planned to establish themselves on an equal footing withthe World Powers through the revision of this treaty and then by reflecting this treaty with the revised diplomatic treaty with China, they wanted to restructure their association with China in order to place themselves on a higher footing within the Sino-Japanese relationship However, this East Asian policy was not implemented until May of 1894. Therefore, the nonconfidence vote in the Cabinet was passed in the National Assembly and as the rumors flew that the Chosun government, in order to subjugate the Dong-Hak Farmers’ Rebellion, requested soldiers from China, the hostilities towards China were charged through the establishment of the East Asian Supremacy Policy. However, not being able to find a clear justification to send soldiers into Chosun, the Ito Ministry, aware of the opinions of the World Powers, decided at the end to dispatch soldiers passively as well as concentrate more on strategies to wage war. And this became the impetus that accelerated the East Asian Supremacy Policy through the revision of the treaty. In short, the Ito Ministry’s established its course of action to rush into a war with China after achieving a treaty with the World Powers. As they eliminated the possible intervention of the World Powers, they worked out a near-perfect strategy to gain supremacy of East Asia.