Suchergebnisse

Toward the end of the Tokugawa shogunate, Mutsu Munemitsu was ousted from his home Kisu-han as a result of his father's defeat in a power struggle. To avenge this, Mutsu bolstered his talent to become a man of "genius and learning in equal measure." He joined the Kobe Naval Training Center founded by Katsu Kaishu and, later, Kaientai, a trading and shipping company and private navy founded and managed by Sakamoto Ryoma before the Meiji Restoration was accomplished.During the Meiji era, Mutsu fully exercised his extraordinary ability, including working to revise unequal treaties with Western powers as foreign minister. In his last days, he scrambled to end the First Sino-Japanese War; his efforts resulted in the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki with favorable terms for Japan. Mutsu also helped Japan ride out the subsequent wave of the Tripartite Intervention from Russia, France, and Germany. This book's author, a career diplomat himself, traces the footsteps of modern Japan's diplomacy by reviewing the philosophical and political journey of this extraordinary diplomat who protected the dignity of Japan as a modern nation throughout his professional life.陸奥宗光は幕末、権力闘争に敗れた父の失脚で紀州の城下を追われ、復讐に燃え、才学双全の人となった。明治維新前には、勝海舟の海軍操練所、次いで坂本竜馬が設立し組織していた、海運会社であり私設海軍でもあった海援隊に入隊した。明治時代には、その並々ならぬ才覚を発揮し、外務大臣として各国との不平等条約を改正していく。最晩年には日清戦争の終結に向け奔走し、下関条約を日本にとって有利な条件で調印し、その後のロシア・フランス・ドイツによる三国干渉を乗り切った。自身も外交官であった著者が、生涯を通じ近代国家としての日本の尊厳を守り抜いた稀代の外交官の思想的政治的遍歴を振り返り、近代日本の外交の歩みを辿る。.