Iwakura mission

The mission Iwakura , also named embassy Iwakura (岩倉使節団, Iwakura Shisetsudan) is a Japanese diplomatic mission sent in the Western countries in 1871 for the period Meiji. The members of this embassy had as a task to observe certain scientific disciplines and social after one long period of insulation. Their knowledge would be then used to contribute to a modern official development. This project was proposed for the first time by Guido Verbeck, a missionary influential Dutch engineer.

Composition

The chief of the Iwakura mission was Tomomi Iwakura, Minister for the political matters. He had the role of ambassador, assisted by 4 vice-ambassadors of which Okubo Toshimichi, Kido Takayoshi and Ito Hirobumi. The historian Kunitake Kume had as a function to index the events and impressions. 48 additional administrators and teachers were included in the team.

In addition to this team, 60 students were sent. They remained sometimes after the end of the mission to supplement their education. Among them, five young women went to the United States of which Tsuda Umeko which founded in 1900 on its return the famous school called today " Tsuda" college;.

Kaneko Kentaro also remained him in the United States and met Theodore Roosevelt later. They became friendly what led Kentaro naturally to take the role of mediator at the time of the end of the war Russo-Japanese woman and of the treaty of Portsmouth.

Nakae Chômin, member of the team attached to the Minister for justice, remained in France where he studied the legal system, but also philosophy (in particular Jean-Jacques Rousseau). He became a journalist and famous political writer on his return.

Route

Departure of Yokohama on December 23rd 1871, San Francisco, Washington, D.C, England, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Russia, Prussia, Germanic, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Swiss Italy and .
With the return, they also visited: the Egypt, Aden, Ceylon, Singapore, Saigon, HongKong and Shanghai.
They returned two years after their departure, on September 13rd 1873.

Goals and Results

The goals of the mission were of two types:

political: the renegotiation of unfavourable treaties in Japan, imposed by the Western United States, England and other countries.
scientific: to gather information on education, technologies, the cultures, military, social and economic sciences of the countries visited with an aim of the modernization of Japan. The program included/understood: schools, libraries, museums, art galleries, botanical gardens, industries, mines, arsenals, shipyards, banks and chambers of commerce.

The first goal of the mission was a considerable failure, increasing the time envisaged of the mission. This prolongation allowed a better output of the second part of the mission. On the other hand, the political failure was the cause of frictions between the government and the mission. On another side, the projections of the Occident impressed so much the members of the mission, which they took of many initiatives for the rebuilding of Japan.

Five years after the return of the mission, Kume published a report of the mission in 5 volumes under the name of Tokumei zenken taishi: Beiô kairan jikki (a true report/ratio on the voyage of observation through the United States of America and Europe of the ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary).

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