Ryukyu Disposition
The term "Ryūkyū Disposition"[1] (琉球処分, Ryūkyū shobun), also "Disposition of the Ryūkyūs"[2] or "dispositions relating to the Ryūkyūs"[3], refers to the political process, during the early years of the Meiji period, that saw the incorporation of the former Ryūkyū Kingdom into the Empire of Japan as Okinawa Prefecture (i.e., one of Japan's "home" prefectures) and its decoupling from the Chinese tributary system.[3] The process began with the creation of Ryūkyū Domain in 1872 and culminated in the Kingdom's annexation and final dissolution in 1879; immediate diplomatic fallout and consequent negotiations with Qing China, brokered by Ulysses S. Grant, effectively came to an end late the following year.[4][5]
Background
Early in the Edo period, with the invasion of 1609, the Ryūkyū Kingdom entered into a vassal-suzerain relationship with the Japanese Satsuma Domain, also sending a series of missions over the following two hundred and fifty years to Edo, the de facto capital of Tokugawa Japan.[6][7] At the same time, the Kingdom continued its tributary relationship with Imperial China, both receiving and sending missions.[7] Thus the political status of the Ryūkyūs vis-à-vis the rest of Japan was exceptional in at least three ways: part of the han system, but not directly; ruled over by kings; and the locus of semi-autonomous diplomatic ties with foreign powers, despite sakoku or the "closed country" policy.[8] The years following the Meiji Restoration of 1868 saw not only the abolition of the han system but also efforts to "consolidate"[4] the borders of the new nation state.[4] With the Mudan incident, the massacre of dozens of shipwrecked Ryūkyūans in Qing Taiwan in 1871, the "Ryūkyū problem" (琉球問題) was brought to the fore.[4]
See also
References
- ^ "Okinawa: History (The Birth of Okinawa Prefecture/World War II/Post World War II Okinawa to the Present)". Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
- ^ Uemura Hideaki (2003). "The colonial annexation of Okinawa and the logic of international law: the formation of an 'indigenous people' in East Asia". Japanese Studies. 23 (2): 107–124.
- ^ a b Iwao Seiichi; et al., eds. (1991). "Ryūkyū-han". Dictionnaire historique du Japon (in French). Vol. XVII (Lettres R (2) et S (1)). Kinokuniya. p. 61.
- ^ a b c d Tze May Loo (2014). Heritage Politics: Shuri Castle and Okinawa's Incorporation into Modern Japan, 1879–2000. Lexington Books. pp. 2–39. ISBN 978-0739182482.
- ^ Smits, Gregory (1999). Visions of Ryukyu. University of Hawai'i Press. pp. 143–146. ISBN 0-8248-2037-1.
- ^ "Introduction of Okinawa". Okinawa Prefecture. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
- ^ a b Kerr, George H. (2011). Okinawa: the History of an Island People. Tuttle Publishing. ISBN 978-1462901845.
- ^ 琉球処分 [Ryukyu Shobun]. Encyclopedia Nipponica (in Japanese). Shōgakukan. 2001.