The ethics of empire: Protestant thought, moral culture, and imperialism in Meiji Japan

This is a study of Japanese Protestant intellectuals who led the thought and journalism of their country during the Meiji period (1868--1912). In developing their social critique and domestic reformism, Protestant thinkers worked within a dual framework, formed on the one hand by their acute awareness of international conditions, specifically, the rise of imperialism; and on the other by their acceptance of and commitment to notions of secular providence, that is, of social progress and national development. Protestants, it is argued, were not mere "religionists" or transcendental critics entirely independent of the imperatives of the Meiji state or their times, but struggled to maintain a credible position amid the dominant social discourses and cultural attitudes of the day concerning national ethics, religion, education, liberalism, and imperialism.; Chapter One discusses the rise of Protestant-style national reformism and its characteristics such as social elitism, intellectualism, progressivism or "modernism" by retracing the origins of the early-Meiji Protestant conversion of young samurai. Chapter Two examines the promotion of higher education, domestic liberal reform and external expansion by Niijima Jo (1843--1890), Tokutomi Soho (1863--1959), together with Uchimura Kanzo's (1861--1930) espousal of nationalistic and personalistic Christianity, amid the rising international conflict and the fear of colonization by the West during the late 1880s. Chapter Three discusses church leaders such as Uemura Masahisa's (1857--1925) attempts to establish their theological and ecclesiastical autonomy under the influence of liberal theology and the increasing nationalistic moral-cultural (shuyo/ kyoyo) discourse of the late 1890s. Chapter Four examines moralistic journalism and social reformism of Uchimura, Shimada Saburo (1952--1923) and Takekoshi Yosaburo (1865--1950) and the major theological debate that occurred between Uemura and Ebina Danjo (1857--1937) during the early 1900s. Ebina provided the theological justification of modernity and Japan's expansion based on an analysis of Tokugawa Confucian and Kokugaku texts. Chapter Five considers the imperialist writings of Tokutomi, Ukita Kazutami (1859--1946) and Yamaji Aizan (1864--1917), along with Uchimura's opposing argument for pacifism, anti-imperialist nationalism and liberal expansionism.; Ultimately, it is argued, the larger significance of Meiji Protestantism lies in the fact that it accommodated the historical rise of the Japanese Empire by leading its domestic reformism and progressivism, thereby seeking to supply the empire with moral and providential significance.