JAPAN AND TURKEY HISTORICAL PROCESS FOR DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS

HIROSHI NAGABA


It is not an easy, smooth passage through which the two countries passed to their conclusion of a treaty to establish diplomatic relations. It was in 1875 that the Japanese government officially signified its intention to establish diplomatic relations with Turkey (then the Ottoman Empire). In 1925 Japan and Turkey mutually opened their embassies in Istanbul (22 March) and in Tokyo (7 July). Since then the two countries have had friendly ties with each other for more than seventy
years, except for the interruption during World War II. Here the focus is on the historical process which Turkey and Japan went through for the establishment of their diplomatic relations.

FORMATION OF THE IMAGE OF TURKEY

1. Until the End of the Edo Period

Japan started having contact with the West Asian countries, including Turkey, as far back as the eighth century. However, until the end of the Edo period (1603-1867) Japan received information about Turkish economic, social and political affairs indirectly through books or Europeans who visited Japan. Based on the geographical knowledge of an Italian missionary Giovanni Battista Siddotti (1668-1715), who visited Japan at the end of the seventeenth century, Hakuseki Arai (1657-
1724), a famous Confucian scholar, published a book Seiyokibun (Memorandum of the Western Civilisation) in 1715. It explains how Turkey was a threat to Europe at that time. But, Arai misunderstood the location of Turkey as he thought it was in north Africa. Arai writes on Turkey as follows:
Toruka (Turkey) has a vast land stretching from Africa, Europe to Asia. Its capital is Coustanti where the Roman Emperor Constantiur transferred its capital from Rome in the old days. It is called Constanti or Constantia. It is located in the north of Parpalia, Africa and also very close to the Mediterranean. The people, Tataria, are very brave and unrivalled. Their military strength is powerful, mobilising 200,000 personnel in a day. It is said that European countries join forces
prepared for the fight against Toruka.

2. Meiji Era—Iwakura Mission’s First Contact with Turkey

The Meiji era began in 1867. The Meiji government sent its official missions to Europe and the United States. The purposes for which these missions were sent varied: some were to sound out the possibility of revising unequal treaties concluded between Japan and Western powers, and some of them were to study advanced Western technology, science, military systems, laws, institutions and so on (that is to say, Western civilisation as a whole) for their eventual adoption. In November 1871, the Iwakura Mission, headed by Minister Towomi Iwakura (1825-1883) and 46 members, was sent to
the United States and Europe. In June 1873, the Mission visited the world exhibition in Vienna where they saw exhibits from Turkey. They simply felt that those exhibits were of poor quality and Turkey was far backward in civilisation. This might be the first image of modern Turkey in the eyes of the Japanese.

3. Gen-ichiroo Fukuchi and Mokurai Shimaji

As is commonly known, Japan was closing the door to foreign countries except official missions dispatched by the Shogunnin Government between 1533 and 1866. According to written records, the first Japanese who set foot in Turkey were Gen-ichuroo Fukuchi and Mokurai Shimaji. In February 1873, Fukuchi, who joined the Iwakura Mission as an interpreter, was ordered to investigate the legal systems in Greece, Turkey and Egypt. It was Shimaji, a Judo Sect priest, who accompanied Fukuchi. They stayed in Istanbul from 11 to 23 April. Shimaji visited the tourist spots such as Galata Tower, Aya Sophia, Topkapi Palace and Sultan Ahmet Mosque, etc. After returning to Japan, Shimaji published a book entitled Kosai Nissaku (A Diary of the Voyage to the West) in 1875. This is the first book describing Istanbul in his eyes.

4. Sultan Abdülhamid II

The thirty-fourth sultan, Abdülhamid II, was born in 1842. He promised to proclaim the constitution and to establish a parliament at the time of his enthronement. However, the Ottoman Empire was defeated in the war against Russia in 1877. After that, Abdülhamid II suspended the constitution and closed the parliament, thus leaning towards dictatorship during his reign of 33 years (1876-1909). While inspired by pan-Islamism, Abdülhamid II, on the other hand, promoted Westernisation by introducing ideology, culture and institutions from the West. Abdülhamid II was deeply intrigued by Japan, a non-Western, non-Christian country located in the Far East which started modernisation with the accomplishment of the Meiji Restoration (1866-68). Abdülhamid II declared his intention to establish diplomatic relations with Japan when he had an audience with the Japan mission, the Imperial family and government officials. Abdülhamid II expressed his desire to send a frigate to Japan as a symbol of friendship. Abdülhamid II was the sultan who had the closest relationship with Japan at the dawn of Japan-Turkey relations.
In November 1878, the training squadron “Seiki” visited Istanbul and stayed for 12 days. Lieutenant Colonel Ryosei Inoue was granted an audience with Abdülhamid II. Abdülhamid II told Inoue that he would send a frigate to Japan. Later the leading Japanese figures had audiences with Abdülhamid II one after another. While meeting with them, Abdülhamid II emphasised his intention to promote friendly relations and to establish diplomatic relations with Japan. The Yoshida Mission was dispatched to Persia and the Ottoman Empire on 5 April 1880. The Mission consisted of Masaharu Yoshida, an unattached official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nobuyoshi Furukawa, a captain of the General staff’s Office, Magoichiroo Yokoyama, a vice-chairman of the Ohkura-gumi Shokai (trading company), Masajiroo Tauchida of the Ohkura-gumi Shokai and three merchants, Itaroo Gotoo, Takichi Fujita and Tojiroo Mikawa. The mission left Tehran on 30 December 1880 and finally arrived in Istanbul on 12 February 1881 by way of Rasht, Tbilisi and Batumi. Yoshida, Furukawa and Yokoyama stayed in Istanbul until 21 March and they were received in audience by Abdülhamid II on 12 March and again on 19 March. The sultan expressed his strong desire to open diplomatic relations with Japan. The second audience was held with a dinner. Among twenty attendants and two Imperial sons, age 11 or 12, were sitting at table. Yoshida said to the princes, “This must be the first encounter with Japanese for Your Imperial Highnesses”. Abdülhamid II replied: “We have a good knowledge of Japan through geography books.” This indicates that Japan had been known through world geography books to some extent in those days. Tateki Tani, minister of agriculture and commerce, received an Imperial instruction from Abdülhamid II while he was staying in Istanbul from 20 December 1886 to 5 January 1887. Abdülhamid II said that he was impressed with the speed of Japanese modernisation and also it was always a pleasure to meet and have talks with Japanese people. Abdülhamid II asked Tani to convey his message to the Meiji Emperor that he was willing to open trade relations with Japan. Abdülhamid II added, “In general Europeans are selfish, not caring about the interests of others. You may be annoyed with them. But, do not worry about us. We respect fair, mutually beneficial commercial relationships.” These remarks give a true account of Abdülhamid II’s mixed feelings towards Europe. Prince Komatsu was the first Imperial family member to study abroad. He left Japan together with his wife for Britain in October 1886. On his way back home he dropped in on Istanbul and was received in audience by Abdülhamid II in October 1887. What they talked about is not known, however, it is easily presumed that the diplomatic relations of the two countries must have been one of their topics.


5. The Frigate Ertugrul Incident

The frigate Ertugrul incident and its sequence should not go unheeded in the history of diplomacy between Japan and Turkey. Abdülhamid II’s long-cherished desire was fulfilled to send the Ertugrul to Japan. The Ertu¤rul left the port of Galata on 15 July 1889 and dropped anchor at Yokohama Port on 7 June 1890. The special envoy Osman Pasha visited the Imperial Palace to have an audience with the Meiji Emperor and presented a letter from Abdülhamid II and the highest decoration of the Ottoman Empire. Osman Pasha and his delegation were enthusiastically welcomed both by the government
and the people. They stayed in Tokyo for about three months. Accomplishing its mission, the Ertu¤rul finally set out on its return journey on 14 September 1890. But, caught in a violent typhoon, the Ertu¤rul was dashed against the rocks and sank near the village of OOjima in the prefecture of Wakayawa at midnight on 16 September. Only 69 of more than 600 crew members drifted ashore and were rescued by the local fishermen. The Meiji Emperor ordered the government to assign the warships Hiei and Kongo to take the survivors back to Istanbul. The two warships left Shinagawa port on 5 October 1890 and arrived in Istanbul on 2 January 1891. The Turkish government welcomed them showing their gratitude to the Japanese
government for their rescue efforts and consolation extended towards the victims. Dispatching the Ertu¤rul to Japan was a success to show the national strength of the Ottoman Empire and to make propaganda for pan-Islamism. However, it ended up with the worst possible result, leaving a stain in the history of marine transport. However, though it was an unfortunate
incident, it contributed to enhancing the mutual understanding between Japan and Turkey.


6. Seitaro Noda and Takanosuke OOyama

Seitaro Noda was a journalist working at Jiji Shinpo-sha. He went aboard the Hiei heading for Istanbul with a donation collected by his press office for the bereaved families. At the request of Abdülhamid II, Noda taught Japanese to five Turkish officers. Unfortunately he had to return home soon because of illness. The naval officer Takanosuke OOyama was also deeply shocked by the tragic accident of the Ertu¤rul. In 1890 OOyama left for Turkey and stayed in Istanbul for about 40 days. An account of OOyama’s impressions on Istanbul was published in 1892 under the title Toruko Kokaikiji (Journey to Turkey). It is amazing that he could write such a detailed record without knowledge of the Turkish language.


7. Torajiro Yamada

Torajiro Yamada should never be forgotten as one of the Japanese who established the foundation and initial stages of Japanese-Turkish relations. The tragic news of the Ertu¤rul accident saddened Yamada. With the support of the Japanese press world and other circles, a very substantial sum of 5000 yen (it would be equivalent to 100 million yen in current values) was collected as a token of sympathy for the families of those who had lost their lives. Yamada decided to go to Turkey, bringing this donation himself. Arriving in Istanbul on 4 April 1892, Yamada handed it to The Frigate Ertugrul Relief Society at the Naval Department. In this way, the purpose of Yamada was attained successfully. After a few days, Yamada had the honour of meeting Abdülhamid II, and was requested to teach Japanese language to a group of military cadets, and to make a list of oriental crafts stored at the Topkapi Museum. Later, Yamada became a partner in the first Japanese souvenir shop in Beyoglu with Eijiro Nakowura. During his period of stay in Istanbul, Yamada acted, in effect, as a sort of
honorary consul offering various forms of assistance such as interpretation, arranging appointments with Turkish government officials, and sight-seeing, etc., for Japanese visitors to Istanbul. Yamada stayed in Istanbul twenty-two years, leaving in 1914, when the First World War broke out. After returning to Japan, Yamada played an active part as one of the founders of the Japanese- Turkish Trade Association (in Osaka), and was engaged in trade. Throughout the whole ninety-one years of his life (1866-1957), Yamada devoted himself to strengthening and deepening friendly relations between Japan and Turkey. In these relations, lasting more than hundred years, Yamada’s great contributions must be recorded and highly esteemed.



NEGOTIATIONS FOR DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS

As mentioned in sections I. and II., Japan had been accumulating information on Turkey since the Meiji era. Still, it was insufficient and poor in substance. On the other hand, the Japanese government became more interested in Turkey and the time was ripe for establishing diplomatic relations between the two countries. However, it is necessary to refer to a problem which Japan and Turkey were seriously facing at that time. It was the revision of unequal treaties that Japan and
Turkey were obliged to sign with the Western Powers.


1. Revision of the Unequal Treaties

The Japan-US Peace Treaty was signed on 31 March 1854 followed by the Anglo-Japanese Treaty (14 October 1854) and Russo-Japanese Treaty (7 February 1855). Townsend Harris, the first US consulgeneral, signed the Japan-US Shimoda Treaty on 21 August 1857. With this treaty, extraterritorial rights for American citizens were adopted. Harris went to Edo (Japan’s capital in those days) and urged the Shogunate government to conclude the Japan-US Commercial Treaty, which was signed on 28 July 1858. Then Japan concluded similar treaties with Britain, the Netherlands, Russia, France, Portugal, Belgium, Germany and Austria. Japan accepted extraterritorial rights for all of these countries and was also divested of tariff autonomy. Because of its ignorance, Japan was forced to conclude such humiliating treaties. Japan started with the revision of the tariff autonomy as a way out of financial difficulties. As a result, it succeeded in revising the treaty with America in 1878. However, it was not effective until Japan revised all the treaties with other nations. On the other hand, Japan pushed forward its modernisation with promulgation of the constitution (1889), compilation of the laws and opening the Imperial Diet (1890). In 1894, Japan signed the revised treaty with Britain. Finally, the other unequal treaties were revised in 1897 and became effective from 1899 all together. Japan is the first country in Asia to conclude equal treaties with Western powers. On the other hand, the Ottoman Empire granted the capitulations to Genoa (1453), Venice (1454) and France (1535). Later, the Ottoman Empire kept granting capitulations to other European countries. Capitulation is the privilege to be given to foreigners such as customs exemptions, rights to establish trading firms, operate mines, construct factories and set up special legal institutes. At first, the Ottoman Empire was able to abolish these capitulations as it wished. However, after it signed the agreement with Britain in 1841, it became impossible for the Ottoman Empire to suspend or abolish them at will. Formerly, Turkey thought granting these extraterritorial rights was their privilege and obligation.
Non-Muslims should observe their own law, and sacred Sharia must be applied only to Muslims. When it came to the modern times, she became aware that the extraterritorial rights placed her at a disadvantage. From 1861 to 1862, Turkey requested the abolition of rights by the revision of the commercial treaties. However, it was not before 1923 that Turkey managed to abolish unequal treaties through the Lausanne Treaty. To sum up, abolishing extraterritorial rights and concluding equal treaties were the first priority for both Japan and Turkey.


2. Process of the Negotiation

In 1876, the foreign minister, Munenori Terashima, proposed to the vice-prime minister, Sanetomi Sanjoo, that they send an envoy to negotiate with Turkey. The Japanese minister to London, Kagenori Jeno, had negotiations with the Turkish Ambassador to London, but the time passed without reaching an agreement. In 1881, Masaharu Yoshida met Sakimitsu Yanagihara, the minister of the Japanese Legation in St. Petersburg, and told him that he had an audience with Abdülhamid II
and mentioned about the conclusion of a treaty with Turkey. Yanagihara had talks with the Turkish Ambassador to Russia, Shakir Pasha, and asked him what the Turkish government thought about opening diplomatic relations with Japan. Then Yanagihara reported to the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo what the Japanese government should do. According to his report, the Turkish government was eager to conclude a commercial treaty with Japan on two conditions: first, it should be an equal
treaty, second, if such a treaty was not possible, a friendship treaty could be a first step, then a commercial treaty would be concluded at any opportunity available. At that time it was almost impossible for Japan not to include extraterritorial rights in any treaty with any Asian country (Turkey is also an Asian country), considering public opinion at that time. On the other hand, Turkey took it for granted that they should conclude an equal treaty based on reciprocity. Consequently, the negotiation came to a deadlock.
When the Japanese warships brought the survivors of the Ertu¤rul back to Turkey, Zenjuuroo Horikoshi joined them as he was a fact-finder appointed by the foreign minister, Shuuzoo Aoki. Returning from Turkey, he reported to the minister, saying “Turkey was not yet ready to conclude an equal treaty with us.” In May 1893, the Japanese minister to Germany, Shuuzoo Aoki, had an audience with Abdülhamid II. At the request of the sultan himself, Aoki repeatedly made proposals to the foreign ministry saying, “Rejecting the request from Turkey is against good neighbourly relations between us. We should proceed for conclusion of a commercial treaty with Turkey.” A response to his proposal was discussed at the Diet, but the decision was delayed until 1895. In the meantime, Aoki kept exchanging opinions with the Turkish ambassador to Germany, though they could not reach an agreement as to whether or not they would include extraterritorial rights in the treaty. Then the Japanese ministers to Austria, Germany, and Britain negotiated with the Turkish side one after another, but in vain. The Turkish government was determined not to accept extraterritorial rights because they thought that one of the reasons for their empire’s decline was unequal treaties. The Japanese side could not yield to the condition either.


3. The First World War and the Lausanne Treaty

The Japanese victory in the Japan-Russia War of 1905 received an overwhelming response in Turkey. This event began the enduring interest of the Turkish public toward Japan which was coloured with a distant admiration of Japanese things. On the other hand, in Turkey the Young Turks’ revolution was successful and the Constitution was restored in 1908. Abdülhamid II was forced to resign as a result of his anti-revolutionary movements in 1909. In 1911, Turkey was defeated in two wars namely, the Turkey-Italy War (1911) and the first Balkan War (1912), losing a great part of its territory. Amid drastic changes in foreign relations, the Japanese ambassador to Britain, Takaaki Kato, who was working on negotiations with the Turkish side, sent a letter to his government: “Now that Turkey has established the Constitution she shows a strong tendency to abolish unequal treaties. She has an intention to become the first nation to conclude an equal treaty with Japan, one of the strongest world powers. Considering her situation, I think that it will be wiser for Japan to withdraw the extraterritorial rights and conclude an equal treaty with Turkey.” However, the Japanese government stuck fast to the extraterritorial rights issue. Turkey was concerned that Japan might be requesting diplomatic relations with Turkey only because of their strategy against Russia. Another incident interrupted the negotiations. In the first World War (1914), Japan joined the allied forces and fought against Turkey, Austria and Germany. Turkey lost this war and came to sign the humiliating Sèvres Treaty. The treaty stipulated abolishing the navy and scaling down the army of Turkey and the land was reduced to one-fourth compared with its pre-war days. The rest of its land was divided among Britain, France, Italy and Greece, and the Straits were put under the control of the Allied forces. Turkey could not abolish the extraterritorial rights. The nation was on the verge of ruin at that time. Kemal Pasha established the Ankara Government and launched a war of independence. Led by Kemal Pasha, Turkey won the severe war against the Western powers two years later. On 20 November 1922, a peace conference was held in Lausanne, Switzerland. Eight countries attended the conference: Turkey, Britain, France, Italy, Greece, Romania, Yugoslavia and Japan (the US attended as observer). The Japanese representatives were Gensuke Hayashi, ambassador to Britain, and Kentaro Ochiai, ambassador to Italy. From Turkey, Ismet Pasha (Ismet Inönü, later to become prime minister then president) was present. The negotiations were tangled, interrupted, and collapsed over extraterritorial rights, drawing national borders and compensation issues. They finally signed the draft peace treaty and commercial treaty on 24 July 1923. The Turkish government ratified the Lausanne Treaty on 23 August and the Republic of Turkey was established on 29 October. At this time, Turkey abolished all extraterritorial rights, which had long been hindering economic and social progress. It secured territory of almost the same extent as today. Japan, too, ratified the Treaty on 6 August 1924 and officially opened diplomatic relations with Turkey.