The Emperor Has No Clothes A Practical Guide for Environmental and Social Transformation (10 page)

The number of draft animals were matched to
the amount of available fodder, thereby eliminating another source
of overgrazing. All of these factors combined to prevent erosion
and promote soil recovery. A well developed maritime fishing fleet
produced an abundance of seafood which reduced the pressure on land
based food production. The Japanese society also possesses to a
marked degree the ability to evaluate, formulate, and adapt
appropriate strategies to changing circumstances. These traits can
be seen in their willingness to invest in the future, avoid
squandering resources on warfare, diversifying their energy base by
shifting from the exclusive use of wood for fuel to include
coal.xix The pressures on their forests were further diminished by
developing innovations in conserving energy. For example the
hibachi, a small portable multipurpose stove was invented, it had
the ability to be easily moved to places of need. By having
portability this type of stove enabled them to heat only the room
that was being used, instead of the entire building [31]. It also
provided the further advantage that it could be used for
cooking.

31. In the United States we call this zoned
heating and consider it to be a modern innovation. The Japanese
have been using it for hundreds of years!

By the beginning of the 19th century the
Tokugawa Shogunate was starting to become unstable as a result of
pressures produced by urbanization and the expansion and refinement
of economic activities. These changes shifted formal power away
from the samurai bureaucrats who where implementing a rigid and
obsolete government system. The Shogunate also became progressively
more stingy in providing the stipends to the samurai impoverishing
them. Many persons of the samurai class as a result of their
pecuniary condition ventured into commercial activities either as a
part time financial reinforcement or to a total commitment to
commercial activities.

At the same time as these destabilizing
forces were developing in Japan, the European nations and America
had developed a bellicose attitude as a result of their greatly
enhanced power provided by the industrial revolution. In America
ideas of manifest destiny and of cultural superiority prevailed.
These ideas were fostered and fueled by the easy victories over the
Indians and Mexicans that were provided by the new technological
superiority. The vast resources of Asia were viewed as a new area
that could be exploited by implementing these same types of
“colonial” practices utilizing the new military technologies. China
in particular was being forced into granting highly unfavorable
trade concessions that were accompanied by loss of authority in
their own territory, in the form of foreign enclaves such as the
treaty port system. The treaty port system was established as a
result of the opium wars (1839 and 1842) fought between Britain and
the Chinese government who was attempting to halt the British
traffic in narcotics. The treaty ceded Hong Kong to the British and
established five Chinese Entrepots which were designated as open
cities where “British subjects could reside, trade, and enjoy the
privilege of extraterritoriality – that is , the right to conduct
themselves in accordance with British laws and be tried by British
consular courts, not Chinese judges.”xx The other western nations
quickly obtained similar agreements with a most favored nation
clause that automatically granted any new concessions gained by a
western nation to the rest. These areas were essentially governed
by the Europeans and Americans as quasi-colonies. The Japanese
where aware of what was taking place through their trade with China
and also by Dutch accounts. The events taking place in China caused
much Japanese concern. In 1844 King William of Holland wrote to the
Shogun saying that “disasters now threaten the Japanese Empire.”xxi
He went on to say that any “nation preferring to remain in
isolation at this time of increasing relationships could not avoid
hostility with many others.” The Japanese officials declined an
offer included in William I I’s letter to aid the Japanese to
become integrated in the new globalized system of commerce.

In America, the business community saw Japan
as another Asian nation that could be exploited for the extraction
of profits and at the same time the Christians viewed Japan as an
area for missionary activities. These groups were actively lobbying
the government with the result that president Millard Fillmore sent
a naval squadron under the command of Commodore Matthew C. Perry
which arrived at Edo Bay on 8 July 1853 to carry out these
objectives. Six days later Perry went ashore with much military
fanfare and delivered Fillmore's and several of his own letters to
the representatives of the Shogunate which stated that Japans
policy was “unwise and impracticable” and urged them to avoid an
“unfriendly collision between the two nations, by responding
favorably to the propositions of amity, which are now made in all
sincerity.” Perry indicated that he was departing forthwith and
would return “with a much larger force” if necessary in the
following spring for the Shogunate's response. The Japanese had
been strengthening their coastal defenses, but knew that they were
far from adequate to fend off a potential belligerent response if
the American demands were ignored. On 14 February 1854 Perry was
back with an even larger contingent of war ships. A treaty was
negotiated that would allow American ships access to Shimoda and
Hakodate where Americans could travel within an 18 mile radius of
the ports and also obtain provisions. They also agreed to allow an
American consulate to be established in Shimoda. Most of the
concessions that were demanded by America including the end of the
seclusion policy were granted. The only thing the treaty didn't
grant was trade. In 1856 the Europeans demanded and received
similar treaties to that granted to America.

The events of 1856 produced much controversy
in Japan further destabilizing the Shogunate. In 1858 the Chinese
once again suffered a crushing military defeat by the western
powers. As a result of their defeat they agreed to a new treaty
embodying further concessions with Britain, which of course were
automatically conferred to the rest of the members of the treaty
port system. Townsend Harris who was the American Counsel General
in Japan quickly made the new Chinese defeat known, and threatened
that the combined western fleets were ready to set sail for Japan
if a trade agreement could not be arrived at. The threat seemed
credible, so Japan signed the United States – Japan Treaty of Amity
and Commerce on 29 July 1858, it provided for “formal exchange of
diplomatic representatives, scheduled the opening of Edo, Kanagawa,
Osaka, Hyogo, Nagasaki, and Niigata as ports and cities were
foreign merchants could establish residences and enjoy the
privilege of extraterritoriality. In addition, the pact placed
Japanese tariffs under international control and pegged import
duties at levels that benefited foreign traders” (McClain,
p.142).

The treaty was detested by the Japanese and
resulted in the formation of a number of aggressive factions
comprised of dissident samurai and some of the Daimyo who resisted
the policy. The principal Daimyo were Choshu and later Satsuma who
provided much support for their fellow dissenters. The large influx
of foreign trade enabled by the treaty concessions coupled with
poor monetary policy caused hyper inflation, extraordinary price
increases, and a 30% increase in interest rates. The hardships that
the Japanese people had to endure produced wide spread
dissatisfaction among the population with the Shogunate. This
resulted in civil unrest characterized by rioting, plots, and
assassinations of officials which became commonplace. Many of these
factions wished to restore political hegemony to the moribund
emperors that had been snoozing in the background for the last
several hundred years. The Shogunate responded by augmenting its
military power to shore up its position through repression. In 1867
during an unsuccessful military campaign against dissenting Daimyo,
the Shogun Iemochi died. The new Shogun continued with a hard line
militaristic program and was defeated by the Daimyo coalition. In
order to gain legitimacy, the Daimyo coalition needed to acquire
the support of the 15 year old Heavenly Sovereign. On 3 January
1868 Satsuma warriors captured the royal compound, and were met by
antishogunal courtiers, later that day the Heavenly Sovereign
issued a proclamation abolishing the shogunate. Edo was captured by
the new imperial army in April 1868 and the last shogunate forces
were mopped up in 1869.

The members of the new government came to the
conclusion that the only way to achieve equality in the western
dominated international community was to establish economic and
military parity, as well as a political system modeled on western
governments. They set out to accomplish this task by subsidizing
industrial development and modernizing their military which adopted
many features of the Prussian system. However, Japan is deficient
in some of the resources necessary for this type of economy and had
to acquire them from offshore sources, thus the era of a
sustainable society came to an end. During this same period named
the Meiji, the Russians were maneuvering to acquire some of the
Japanese northern island territories. The Japanese response was to
conquer Korea to establish a buffer zone. The Koreans were quickly
exploited in a way similar to that which Japan was being exploited
by the western powers. That is, the Koreans were forced to grant
treaty ports with the privilege of extraterritoriality. In 1879 the
Japanese decided to “straighten out their boarders” and annexed the
Ryuku Islands which became the Okinawa Prefecture. In 1895 the
Japanese started to make incursions into China because they needed
a new “buffer zone” to protect the Korean buffer zone from Russia
and of course obtain more resources (Treaty of Shimonoseki with
China). This disturbed the western powers who forced the Japanese
to relinquish most of their gains in China. In 1894 the existing
commercial treaty was renegotiated with Britain, who needed
Japanese good will to contain Russian ambitions in Asia. The new
treaty abolished extraterritoriality within five years. In 1897 the
other western powers recognized that the Japanese had considerable
military strength, as a result the other treaty powers agreed to
similar terms and also recognized Japanese tariff autonomy. By 1911
normalized relations were established between the western powers
and Japan. Normalization resulted in the detested treaty provisions
imposed on them by Perry to be completely abolished. In 1904
tensions between the Russians and Japan resulted in Russo-Japanese
war. The Russians experienced a crushing defeat (Treaty of
Portsmouth 1905) which forced Russia to relinquish territory and
commercial resources. Later in the year 1905 Korea became a
Japanese Protectorate. The trajectory of imperial expansion
continued being justified by the ideology of creating an “Asian
co-prosperity sphere” which eventually embraced large portions of
China and other pacific basin nations. This expansion alarmed the
western nations who sought to curb Japanese power. This was
accomplished by the imposition of military and trade restrictions,
which eventually resulted in World War II with the Allied
Powers.

If we consider these societies a common theme
can be discerned. During the Meiji and the following early modern
period, the Japanese needed to emulate western practices to regain
and retain their autonomy. To carry out the westernization program
required the extraction of resources from external areas since
their own resource base was inadequate. Once the growth based
laissez fair capitalist economic system was implemented a positive
feed back loop of consumption is created. Its internal logic always
requires acquisition of additional resources to sustain its
expansion. These resources come from newly acquired areas, and are
used to further feed and grow the industrial expansion, which must
be protected requiring further resources, thereby, fueling further
expansion ….... continuing in an increasing spiral of
acquisitiveness and extraction, which invariably requires the use
of violence to implement. The increasing levels of violence produce
a need for additional military resources. To provide these
munitions requires expansion of their armaments industries, which
then need increasing supplies to support further military expansion
in order to consolidate their grip on the new territories to
extract more and so on. Isn't this essentially the pattern
described by Bhikku Bodhi on page 7?

If we consider the first three societies used
as examples, they all were unsustainable because the consumption of
available resources exceeded what was available. In addition to
engaging in excessive resource consumption, these societies used
agricultural practices that depleted soil fertility which reduced
harvest sizes. These maladaptive activities were further
exacerbated by population expansion which placed increasingly
greater demands on their resource base. The Easter Islanders who
were isolated on their island obviously did not implement
corrective measures to adjust their level of consumption to what
was locally available. The inland Maya kingdoms suffered the same
fate as the Easter Islanders. Their isolation while not complete
but was greatly reduced by endemic warfare that limited travel out
of their kingdoms which occupied small areas. The Maya also
restricted the use of the wheel to religious activities, which
produced further limitations on transportation. A few of the Mayan
kingdoms for example, Lamanai and the island traders who enjoyed
diverse resource bases provided by more effective forms of
transportation, were less sensitive to environmental constraints
and were able to continue into post classic times. In Colonial
America the colonists had effective forms of transportation, but
were bumping up against the same problem of exceeding their
resource base. The resource base became inadequate as a result of
soil degradation that produced falling agricultural productivity
which was exasperated by the increasing demands of an expanding
population. Relief of these structural problems in colonial
American society were not addressed and solved even though methods
of maintaining soil fertility were known.[32] Thus, the colonists
where in a bind produced by constraints in expansion, which was
their only remaining avenue of relief. The restriction of colonial
expansion originated from English trade policies (mercantilism) and
treaty agreements limiting the territorial area. The American
colonists were able to eventually relieve the limitations of their
resource base by engaging in a number of wars of conquest.
Eventually the continental wars of westward expansion on the
American continent came to an end at the Pacific Ocean. Once the
expansion was checked by the Pacific Ocean, a new source of
materials needed to be acquired. Thus, attention was shifted
offshore and the theater of military activity was expanded to
include overseas acquisitions. A few examples of this imperial
activity was the conquests of Hawaii, Panama, and the larger
Spanish American war which expanded American territory to include
the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam and other smaller acquisitions.
More recently a much greater level of exploitation of external
resources has engendered the use of the military to acquire control
of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Panama. Because of public opposition to
the application of military force for the benefit of narrow
interests, the use of overt aggression has been supplemented by
less blatant uses of force to mask the activity of acquisition. To
reduce public awareness of these activities lower profile methods
that employ proxies, fermenting revolutions, or by creating client
states are used. For example, the Contras, Iran in 1953, and Saudi
Arabia respectively.