근대 일본 ‘대륙정책’의 구조 -타이완 출병 문제를 중심으로 -

Abstract

This paper gives consideration to the continental policy of the Japanese government in the early Meiji Era and studies the structures of international and domestic politics behind the policy with the troops dispatch to Taiwan as the main topic. The process from summer 1872,when the troops dispatch was proposed, to spring 1874, when the troops were actually sent, and summer 1874, when the Japanese government held talks with the Qing dynasty, was analyzed after issues about the sending troops to Taiwan were sorted out. The focus of this analysis was to reveal the characteristics of those in charge of diplomacy and their ideas, and the dynamics among countries when the ideas took form as a tangible policy. They combined the logic of international law which was also the international order of the Western Europe at that time and the traditional international order of the East Asia to come up with a theory to justify the invasion. Taneomi Soejima who was in charge of diplomacy with Qing in an early stage was strongly supported by an American named Le Gendre and Soejima’s diplomacy policy contained a “grand” design to expand into the continent. Toshimichi Okubo and Shigenobu Okuma who replaced Soejima limited the “expansion” to Taiwan, and a point to notice here is that they appointed a Japanese “expert” to the position. They intended to do more than punishment or sanctions against the military action and utilize it as an opportunity to reign over Taiwan. However, the plan to send troops to Taiwan faced criticism from diplomats of Britain and the United States, which drove the Japanese officials into a corner. Furthermore, the legitimacy of the invasion was rejected by Qing and the situation could turn into a war between Japan and the dynasty. The Japanese officials, based on the logic of international law and experiences of the U.S., once attempted to perpetuate the reign over the region which had not been controlled by the dynasty while “showing pride” of the nation by a military movement. But the intervention of western powers and the rejection from the Qing dynasty forced this attempt to fail.