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CHAPTER EIGHT

IN THE LAND OF THE ‘BARBARIANS’

No sooner had the ‘Five’ left than the country was once more plunged into violence and confusion. Anti-foreign elements in the Choshu clan had snatched the balance of power and on 25 June attacks on foreign shipping by that clan’s forces began in the Straits of Shimonoseki.

The Straits – a stragetically important stretch of sea between the main Japanese islands controlled by the clan – were the main sea route between Yokohama and China and much used by foreign shipping. Glover had not forecast these events and appears to have been as surprised by the attacks as everyone else. An extremist faction in Choshu had taken over and decided that it was now their turn to act decisively and eject the ‘barbarians’. They knew that their attacks on the foreigners would embarrass the shogun and, they hoped, cause an all-out war with the West.

The American steamer Pembroke arrived in Nagasaki on 8 July. It had been fired on while passing Shimonoseki on its way to Shanghai from Yokohama and other reports of violence were coming in almost daily – Glover had even been told that Morrison was in danger of assassination. A second confirmed attack on a French ship caused fatalities. Glover had written to Shanghai on 4 July, telling the company that everything in Nagasaki was ‘remarkably quiet’. Six days later his tone was entirely different:

The treacherous attack on the Vienchang is attributed (as in the case of the Pembroke) to the Prince of Cho-siu who has command of the forts at Shimonoseki. This Prince is said to belong to the Oshima Mikado party and is bitterly opposed to foreigners. It is not yet known whether he was carrying out the Mikado’s orders or simply acting on his own responsibility.

By the end of the month the Straits were closed. The situation was fast getting out of control. Glover wrote on 25 July: The country appears to be in a very unsettled state, & a civil war among the Princes certain . . .’

These Choshu attacks quickened British determination to act – the Japanese would have to be taught a lesson. Kagoshima, capital and base of the Satsuma clan, was to pay the price. The shogun had paid his indemnity for the murder of Richardson but the Satsuma still had not paid theirs – or given up the murderer. Rear-Admiral Kuper, accompanied by the acting British Minister, Neale, and his staff, anchored his squadron off Kagoshima on 13 August 1863. A young member of Neale’s staff that day was the student interpreter, Ernest Satow. At this stage Satow was not sympathetic to the rebel cause but his later views were very much in line with those of Glover. The British presented their demands again. The Satsuma reply was evasive and the next day the British opened fire.

In the course of the Royal Navy’s shelling, Satsuma lost three British-built ships which were at anchor in the harbour – two of these ships almost certainly bought through Glover. Satsuma pride was saved by several hits on the British warships, notably on the British flagship Euryalis which strayed on to the firing range used by the Satsuma gunners for practice. Two officers and eleven men on the British ships died in the action and several were wounded. Neale estimated Satsuma dead and wounded at 1500 – and the property loss at £1 million. Many considered these claims an exaggeration, but essentially it was an attack by the strongest and most powerful Navy afloat on a town of wooden houses, defended by a force little more than medieval by European standards.