The Rise of a Japanese Statesman

In the annals of modern East Asian history, few figures loom as large as Ito Hirobumi. Born on October 16, 1841, in the humble surroundings of Choshu domain (modern-day Yamaguchi Prefecture), Ito’s journey from peasant roots to becoming Japan’s first prime minister encapsulates the nation’s dramatic transformation during the Meiji era. His father, originally a farmer named Lin Juzang, was adopted by a low-ranking samurai family, taking the surname Ito – a name that would later resonate across Asia.

The young Ito, nicknamed “Liesuke” by childhood friends for his quick wit and tendency to exaggerate, displayed early signs of the bold personality that would characterize his political career. One telling anecdote from his youth involves him setting fire to dry grass during a children’s war game when his team faced defeat – a ruthless tactical decision that foreshadowed his later approach to international relations.

Japan’s Transformation and Ito’s Political Ascent

The 1853 arrival of Commodore Perry’s “Black Ships” shattered Japan’s isolation, creating the same existential crisis that China faced during the same period. Like many young Japanese, the 17-year-old Ito initially embraced the “Revere the Emperor, Expel the Barbarians” ideology of his teacher Yoshida Shoin. His radical phase peaked in 1862 when he participated in burning down the British legation – an act of youthful rebellion he would later view with embarrassment.

Ito’s transformative experience came during his 1863-64 study trip to Britain, where he witnessed firsthand Western technological and institutional superiority. This epiphany turned him from a xenophobic radical into Japan’s leading advocate for selective Westernization. Upon returning, he played key roles in the Meiji Restoration (1868) and subsequent modernization efforts, serving in various government positions under mentors like Kido Takayoshi and Okubo Toshimichi.

His most significant contributions included:
– Designing Japan’s centralized prefecture system
– Securing British loans to build Japan’s first railway (Tokyo-Yokohama, 1872)
– Establishing Japan’s modern currency system (1871)
– Leading industrialization as head of the Ministry of Industry

Architect of Imperial Japan

By 1881, with the deaths of the “Three Great Nobles” of the Meiji Restoration, the 40-year-old Ito emerged as Japan’s preeminent statesman. His crowning achievement came in 1889 with the promulgation of the Meiji Constitution, modeled after Prussia’s system. This document enshrined imperial divinity while creating mechanisms for military dominance that would later enable Japan’s expansionism.

The constitution’s key features included:
– Absolute sovereignty vested in the emperor
– Independent military command answering directly to the throne
– Nominal parliamentary system with limited actual power

As Japan’s first prime minister under the new constitution, Ito oversaw the nation’s emergence as East Asia’s first modern industrial power – and its first imperialist threat to neighbors.

Japan’s Imperial Expansion and Ito’s Role

Ito’s geopolitical vision became clear during the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-95), which he helped orchestrate. Unlike hotheaded expansionists, he advocated measured aggression – seizing Taiwan and destroying China’s Beiyang Fleet while avoiding actions that might provoke Western intervention.

The war’s aftermath saw an ironic “honeymoon period” in Sino-Japanese relations, with defeated China seeking to emulate Japan’s modernization. During his 1898 China visit, Ito was even proposed as a potential advisor to Emperor Guangxu’s failed Hundred Days’ Reform. But his true focus had shifted to Korea, where he became Resident-General in 1906 after Japan’s victory in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05).

In Korea, Ito:
– Oversaw the assassination of anti-Japanese Empress Myeongseong
– Forced the 1907 treaty dissolving Korea’s military
– Established complete Japanese control while opposing immediate annexation

The Assassination That Shook Asia

On October 26, 1909, at 9:30 AM in Harbin’s railway station, Korean independence activist An Jung-geun stepped from a crowd of well-wishers and fired three bullets into the 68-year-old statesman. Ito’s last word – “Baka!” (Fool!) – encapsulated his lifelong belief in Japan’s civilizing mission and his inability to comprehend Asian resistance to Japanese domination.

An, who viewed Ito as the architect of Korea’s subjugation, was executed in 1910 – the same year Japan formally annexed Korea, a move Ito had cautioned against as premature.

Legacy of a Complex Figure

Ito Hirobumi’s life represents the contradictions of Japan’s modernization:
– A peasant’s son who became an imperial architect
– A former anti-foreign radical who became Westernization’s champion
– A constitutional framer who enabled military dictatorship
– A cautious strategist whose policies led to reckless expansion

His assassination marked not just the end of an era, but a turning point where Japan’s imperial ambitions began outpacing even its most visionary leaders’ control. The forces Ito helped unleash would ultimately lead Japan to global war and national catastrophe – proving perhaps that An Jung-geun’s bullets, while ending one life, could not stop the historical currents that life had set in motion.