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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Hirobumi Ito Biography ITO, Hirobumi, Marquis (1841–1909). A Japanese statesman, born in the Province of Choshu. Under the patronage of the progressive daimyo Mori, he, with Inouye (q.v.) and others, eluded the vigilance of the Yeddo spies and in 1861 reached England, where they spent two years as students, but hurried home to dissuade the Choshu officers from war with the combined fleet of British, United States, Dutch, and French men-of-war at Shimonoseki (1864). Though unable to prevent hostilities, he assisted in the negotiations which followed, and helped to open the eyes and set the faces of his beaten clansmen to a new goal, the unity of all Japan under the Mikado, with enlarged powers and with new forms of civilization patterned after Western models. In 1871 he studied the coinage system of the United States, and his report resulted in the adoption of a decimal system of money and the establishment of the mint at Osaka. As one of the vice ambassadors, he accompanied Iwákura (q.v.) round the world in 1872, in an effort to obtain from the Powers some modification of the treaties. He was made Minister of the Interior in 1878, and in 1882 visited Europe and the United States for the purpose of familiarizing himself with representative institutions preliminary to the establishment of a parliamentary régime in Japan. In 1885 the cabinet was reconstructed according to modern ideas, and in 1886 Ito became Minister President of State and carried out radical economic reforms. In 1888 he retired to prepare the long-promised written constitution, and on Feb. 11, 1889 (the anniversary of Jimmu Tenno), this magnificent instrument, more liberal in its provisions than some European governments allow, was promulgated. Ito is well called "The Father of the Constitution," and his volume of Commentaries, in illustration and defense of Japan’s fundamental law, is worthy to rank with the Federalist. As Premier, he carried the nation through the Chino-Japanese War of 1894–95, and, on resigning in favor of the Yamagata régime in 1896, was created Marquis. He was again Premier from January to June, 1898, and from October, 1900, to June, 1901, and in the last year traveled in Europe and the United States, receiving the degree of LL.D. from Yale University. In St. Petersburg he is believed to have labored for an understanding with Russia and, failing, set on foot negotiations which resulted in the alliance with Great Britain in 1902. In 1903 he became President of the Privy Council. After the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War he went to Korea as special adviser to the Emperor in accordance with the treaty of alliance between the two countries concluded Feb. 23, 1904. During the progress of the war the advice of Marquis Ito was largely effective in shaping the course of diplomatic events. To his influence was generally attributed the action of the government in concluding peace at Portsmouth on terms profoundly distasteful to the great mass of the Japanese nation. In November, 1905, he negotiated with Korea a convention by which the foreign affairs of that country were placed under the control of a Japanese resident general, receiving the appointment in 1906. On Oct. 26, 1909, he was assassinated by a Korean at Harbin. The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 489. |