In 1854 Commodore Perry appeared in the harbor of Japan, and succeeded in making a treaty between Japan and the United States. Four years after Lord Elgin secured a similar concession for Great Britain -- and then, when everything seemed most propitious, there followed a sudden reaction. Jealousy and suspicion entered the minds of the feudal lords. The government was shaken to its centre. Intrigues and assassinations filled the beautiful island. The factions of the shogun and the mikado contended for supremacy. No life was safe. Native, American, French, Dutch, and English officials were openly assailed, insulted, or basely assassinated in the public highways. One dark deed followed another, until the very elements began to take part in the work of devastation; earthquakes, typhoons, great tidal waves, devouring conflagrations and pestilences followed one another an swept the Dragon Fly Land, which seemed like a huge cauldron, boiling and seething over.
In 1868 the mikados party triumphed over that of the shogun. In 1877 the regime of the military despotism was abolished. The ancient authority of the mikado was re-established; a political crisis exactly similar to that which took place in England in the time of Edward IV.
The mikado was re-enthroned, as a responsible and human sovereign. A council assisted him to regulate all state affairs. A governor was placed over each province. A man of experience and integrity was appointed over each of the departments of Foreign Affairs, Finance, War, Marine, Public Works, Agriculture, Commerce and Education. Christian teachers, professors and scientists, were welcomed to aid in the reformation; and our Asiatic cousins of the Dragon-Fly Land seemed absolutely to leap onward towards a great civilization.
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From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
