Foreigner for hire Whose word is law--the night of British Minister Parkes and Urakami, and the logic of sovereignty (early Meiji period, late 1860s to around 1870)

Foreigner for hire Whose word is law--the night of British Minister Parkes and Urakami, and the logic of sovereignty (early Meiji period, late 1860s to around 1870)

In the early Meiji period, Japan was facing the powers under an unequal treaty regime, with its institutions as a modern nation still undeveloped. The Urakami Muslim incident was symbolic of this instability, and there was a danger that a religious issue would immediately turn into a diplomatic issue. The British Minister Parkes condemned the exile of the Uragami Muslims as an act against civilization and humanity, and he strongly tried to intervene in the domestic affairs of the Japanese government. Behind this was an imperialistic worldview in which a civilized nation led an uncivilized nation, and a diplomatic stance that did not shy away from military intimidation. In response, Okuma Shigenobu used the logic of public international law rather than sentiment or exclusionism to argue for the principle of sovereignty, saying, "There is no reason for a foreign nation to interfere in punishing its own citizens under the laws of one country. The issue at stake was not the merit
s of religious policy, but who would set the standards of civilization. This exchange of legal reasoning marks a quiet turning point in modern diplomacy, showing that Japan was changing from an entity that bowed to coercion to one that confronted reason.