The Conflicts Between Shinpei Gotoh And Japanese Government At The Opening Period Of The South Manchurian Railway Company

This paper mainly describes the conflicts between Shinpei Gotoh and Japanese government at the opening period of South Manchurian Railway Company (SMRC).Because of the success of ruling Taiwan, Gotoh was appointed as the first president. But, between he and Japanese government there were big conflicts for ruling the north-east area of China. So, to achieve his ideal plan, Gotoh, within two years, resigned from president, and joined the Cabinet as Minister Communication.The full text is devided into five parts:Partâ… :mainly described the history of Japan's invasion to China and Korea, from the Meiji Restoration to 1906. At that time, Japan was the latest imperialism country, and by the Russo-Japanese War , Japan got the right to build railway at the north-east area of China. But then Japanese government didn't have concrete plan to invade that area. Shinpei Goto was the only one, having concrete invasion plan. He planned national railway organization mainly rule that area. He and Gentaroh Kodama wrote"The management plan of Manchuria", and basing this plan, Japanese government decided to form the SMRC. And, before Japan started to rule the north-east area of China, they had ruled Taiwan. Taiwan was the first colony of Japan. Gotoh had succeeded to rule Taiwan. For that success , Gotoh was appointed as the first president of SMRC. At Taiwan, Gotoh's politics mainly divided into three parts :"research for traditional custom and placate Taiwan people","positive investment politics", and"the ruling by central organization". But,at that time,between Gotoh and Japanese government the conflict already happened.The partâ…¡: while Gotoh took"aggressive economical politics", the Japanese government respected the profit of SMRC. In"The management plan of Manchuria", Gotoh had expected"national policy railway politics"done by"Japan nation". But in the process of SMRC foundation, his plan was widely changed by the government. According to the national relationship and economical situation of that time, Japanese government changed SMRC into"semiofficial","company". And for"the Financial Law of Kantoh-Totokufu", Japanese Government required SMRC and colony to achieve"the independence of economy". Gotoh considered that the management of colony should need large-scale investment, and"the profit"of ruling colony was gotten from the trade between Japan ,mother country, and the colonies. About economical politics, Between Gotoh and Japanese government clearly had difference. This conflict finally exploded and Japanese government removed Korekimi Nakamura, the 2nd president of SMRC, and it happened the internal conflict about"three railway transportation fee problem". This event means SMRC to take"commercial politics"and Gotoh's invasion plan failed.Partâ…¢mainly described ruling philosophy. Listen to"Shinpei Gotoh", the most people can associate his unique ruling theory,"Bunsouteki-Bubironn", and the architectures or SMRC's research unit (Manntestu Tyousabu) based for this ruling philosophy. This theory was connected with the failure of ruling Taiwan with force, then he , as a doctor, with medical philosophy thought out this theory. This ruling theory , under the pretense of"scientific (Bunsoh), knowing local people's weakpoints, mainly placate local people. Concretely, this way is not different from the way ruling Taiwan. They took Europe and America's advanced architecture technique and built advanced city. But at ruling philosophy , Gotoh and Government also had conflict. For invading Korean Peninsula, Japanese government still had ruling philosophy with force. Then Gotoh tried to persuade Hirobumi Itoh. But Itoh was shoot to death at Haerbin, Gotoh's ideal also came to nothing.It is most important for his theory"Bunsouteki-Bubiron"that this theory declares"peaceful management"or"scientific ruling", but ,in fact, they did aggressive invasion. Then, this theory emphasizes"improvement of the people's life and cultures"and seeks the justice of SMRC's ruling north-east area. However the government requires SMRC to pursuit"comercializm", regardless of expansion of debt, SMRC continue to build cities. SMRC's building cities project , from its opening period to 1937, all the time shows its"national policy character". For the conflict with the government, Gotoh could not fulfilled his plan and politics. This ruling theory is the only one that he succeeded.Partâ…£: the conflict Gotoh and the Japanese government about ruling organization. Japanese invasion to north-east area of China mainly was done by SMRC and Kanto-Totokufu and consular office (the Ministry of Foreign Affairs). We call this Ruling system as"three-top system (Santoh-Taisei)". This system clearly was unreasonable. But since at the law, north-east area still was the Qing Dynasty's territory, they cannot neglect the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. And the other countries also cannot allow SMRC one-man rulling system.Gotoh considerd that"one-man ruling system"was the ideal ruling colony system. To solve"three top system"problem, he tried to establish the top quarter ruling colony organization at Japan. But the government did not take his opinion. Gotoh next tried to unify ruling organizations at north-east area. Concretely, he tyied to unify SMRC and Kanto-Totokufu, SMRC's president also took charge of adviser of Kanto Totokufu, and Totoku (the top of Kanto Totokufu) also took charge of SMRC's president. But since the government did not adopt his plan, there was only three to succeed holding a post concurrently. Besides this the government again intervened to SMRC's management, they had SMRC's profit transferred to mother country's accounting. Like this, for the conflicts with government, Goto's plan about ruling organization also failed and had government more intervene to SMRC's management.Partâ…¤: first summarizes from partâ… to partâ…£, second evaluates Gotoh's politics. Indeed, Gotoh, as the first president of SMRC, was so short. But for his unique ruling theory"Bunsouteki-Bubiron", so many people evaluate him as"hero".But opposite to his evaluation, his politics mostly failed. First, at the economic side, because of Russo-Japanese War, Japanese economics, at that time, was in emergency. So Gotoh's aggressive investment politics were impossible. Besides this, at that time, since private industrial bourgeo grew, in politics, their supports were essential. But Goto's politics neglect them, so his politics could not be achieved. Second, at the international relationship side, his politics also had weak points. Gotoh planned aggressive invasion, but, at that time, England also planned to invate same area. Because these two countries had concluded Anglo-Japanese Alliance Treaty, Japan could not interfere England's invasion plan. And, because of the complexity of the international relationships, Japan could not neglect that Ministry of Foreign Affairs intervened in management of SMRC, so it is impossible that SMRC one-man advances to invasion. The last, it also had weak point that Railway company mainly advances invasion. Indeed, at the final period of 19 century , imperialistic companies scramble for the right to build railway in China. But after 1905, the period of foundation of SMRC, this invasion way have already declined. This was because of protest movements at China. Imperialistic countries were changed their invasion way that they mainly invested to railway transportation from harbors to markets. That is to say, because of improving international finance, imperialistic companies made China loan money, in other words, they took indirect invasion way. However Goto insisted SMRC one-man invade China, this"direct invasion way"had not possibilities.In conclusion, we can say, at the process of conflict with government, Goto's plan mostly failed. Especially Gotoh failed to invest SMRC with the"national policy characters". Afterwards, it influenced to Japanese invasion politics very much. And at the ruling organization side, Gotoh could not solute the"three-top system (Santoh-taisei). At 1920s it caused conflicts between SMRC and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the militaries. This conflicts made Japanese government have no unified view of invasion. It made Japan's invasion to the north-east area of China collapse that at the opening period of SMRC Gotoh could had not soluted these problems .