Makoto Kaburagi

Image: From "Keio Gijuku Meiryu Retsuden"

Yukichi Fukuzawa is known for his high expectations for Japan's victory in the First Sino-Japanese War. His enthusiasm was such that he even began his own fundraising efforts. During this war, two young men whom Fukuzawa had high hopes for played active roles in the Navy. One of them was Makoto Kaburagi.

Makoto Kaburagi was born in August 1857 in Kaburagi, Kojo Village, Katori District, Chiba Prefecture, as the second son of Gen'etsu Kaburagi. After studying at Sakushin School in Sosa District, he moved to Tokyo and entered Keio University in March 1871. During his time at the school, he went by the name "Seian" and was a struggling student who worked as the school's "bell-ringer guard" while pursuing his studies with unkempt hair and shabby clothes.

Although he was only enrolled at Keio University for about a year (later becoming a Special Keio University alumni), he subsequently entered the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy. Military personnel associated with Keio were concentrated in the Navy, with generally well-known figures including Kuranosuke Nakamuta and Sojonojo Hidaka. There was even a period when Nakamuta served as the principal while Kaburagi was enrolled.

In 1876, as a third-year student, he frequently participated in maritime training on warships, and Kaburagi devoted himself to this training on board. He appears to have specialized in torpedo attacks. Upon graduating in August 1878, he became a midshipman and set out on an ocean voyage.

In 1890, he was ordered to take delivery of the newly built torpedo gunboat "Chishima" (750 tons displacement), which the Japanese government had ordered from the French shipyard Loire, and to sail it back to Japan as the acting captain. For the Navy, this was a mission of high expectations, as they had lost the "Unebi," a new ship ordered from France in 1886, in the South China Sea during its delivery voyage. However, the Chishima did not reach its expected speed and was not completed until long after the original schedule.

Finally completed in April 1892, the Chishima, with Kaburagi and other officers on board, suffered from engine problems. While undergoing repairs, it crossed the Mediterranean, passed through the Suez Canal, rounded India, and reached Japanese waters via Shanghai. The accident occurred while the ship was departing from its port of call in Nagasaki and heading toward Kobe Port through the Seto Inland Sea. At 4:00 AM on November 30, about one nautical mile off Yurishima, Horie, Wake District, Ehime Prefecture, it collided with the British P&O company's mail ship Ravenna (3,256 tons displacement), which was sailing from Kobe Port toward Bakan Port in the opposite direction, and sank. The Ravenna was the company's first steel ship and had a much larger hull than the Chishima. The cause of the accident was that when passing each other in the narrow sea lane, the Ravenna, coming from the east, turned right, while the Chishima, coming from the west, turned left.

Kaburagi was court-martialed as the acting captain, but it was determined that he had fulfilled his duty of care for safety as the person in charge, and the charges were dismissed at the preliminary hearing.

Subsequently, due to the system of consular courts, the case could not be tried in Japan, and a trial between the Japanese government and P&O began in British courts. In May 1893, the Japanese side filed a lawsuit seeking $850,000 in damages, but P&O, which had also suffered damage, filed a counterclaim for $100,000. The British Consular Court (Yokohama) dismissed the counterclaim, but P&O appealed this decision. The British Supreme Court (Shanghai) overturned the Consular Court's ruling and allowed the counterclaim. Consequently, the Japanese side appealed to the British Privy Council. The Privy Council overturned the appellate court's ruling and finally dismissed the counterclaim.

Next, the stage was set to deliberate on the Japanese side's claim for compensation. In August, the British Foreign Office, which had received a request for mediation from P&O, informally approached the Japanese side with a settlement proposal involving a payment of 6,000 pounds. Since the Japanese government had intended to resolve the matter through a settlement from the beginning, they saw this as an opportunity and showed a willingness to negotiate terms. Following the advice of lawyer Montague Kirkwood, the Japanese side demanded 25,000 pounds (approximately 250,000 yen) in compensation and the payment of litigation costs.

P&O compromised with a payment of 10,000 pounds (approximately 100,000 yen) in compensation and litigation costs (12,076 yen), which the Japanese side accepted (from my article "Ministry of Justice Advisor Kirkwood and the Meiji Government," Nihon Rekishi 759). In Japan, the incident became one where nationalism surged due to the tragedy of the Chishima's sinking and anger toward consular jurisdiction, but it was thus brought to a conclusion.

There were eight officers on the "Chishima," including Kaburagi, but only Kaburagi and Ensign Tsuchiyama survived. It was a major disaster in which 74 crew members were sacrificed, with only 16 survivors.

Kaburagi mourned the deaths of the crew members who fell victim to the collision, saying, "The voices and faces of the deceased and the form of the ship feel as if they are still around me, and I cannot forget them even in my dreams." His eulogy was introduced in various literatures. Kaburagi's name became known among the people as a naval officer of tragic fate.

Due in part to his short period of enrollment at Keio University, Kaburagi never received direct instruction from Fukuzawa. Kaburagi's evaluation of Fukuzawa was one of high praise, describing him as a truly great and heroic figure endowed with natural generosity, profound insight, moral integrity, abundant energy, and a noble character. He went so far as to describe him as a great contributor to Japan's development, the founder of Western civilization, and the benefactor of 50 million compatriots. While this may sound somewhat exaggerated, to a generation of students who did not have close contact with him, he likely appeared as a great figure to be looked up to.

Fukuzawa sent a letter to Kaburagi, who was serving in the First Sino-Japanese War (October 5, 1894). The content was to the effect of praying for his brave fighting and outstanding military merit, stating that he was truly delighted by the fierce victory in the Battle of the Yalu River and hoped he would show irresistible force to achieve 100 victories in 100 battles and return home in glory. He conveyed that the hearts of the people at home were united in cooperation, looking toward the battlefield day and night and thanking the soldiers for their service, and that he was sending tsukudani and amannatto.

This letter was also included in Mikiaki Ishikawa's "Biography of Yukichi Fukuzawa" and became known as an indication of Fukuzawa's view of the First Sino-Japanese War. On the same day, he sent a letter with almost identical content and the same gifts to Navy Commander Kokichi Kimura (the second son of Fukuzawa's benefactor Kaishu Kimura), who was also serving in the war. From the fact that Fukuzawa treated Kaburagi the same as the son of his benefactor, one can sense his deep emotion and expectations for how the former "bell-ringer guard" had grown to fight while carrying the nation's destiny.

Kaburagi himself achieved military merit during the war as a torpedo boat commander by successfully carrying out a torpedo attack in the night raid on Weihaiwei. An anecdote remains that when his boat lost its freedom of movement in front of the enemy, Kaburagi drank the whiskey he had carried on board and became completely drunk; everyone who went to rescue him was reportedly surprised by his audacity.

In an article in the magazine "Chugaku Shinshi," Kaburagi analyzed that the cause of victory in the First Sino-Japanese War lay in education. In particular, he argued that it was important for the Japanese people to unite in the spirit of voluntary service to the public, and that educators played a large role in this. He believed that a nation needs military armaments for the same reason it needs a judicial police force. Without expanding armaments, there can be no development of national destiny. Furthermore, armaments are necessary to maintain peace, as they also serve to prevent war. No matter what kind of person a diplomat may be, they cannot carry through a nation's principles without armaments. Therefore, armaments also serve as a nation's insurance premium. In Kaburagi's view, the final duty of military weapons is to open fire, and since things usually stop once power is measured, the mission of a warship is to ensure that firing does not have to occur.

He also noted that the progress of weaponry is at an astonishing speed, and unless one prepares for the future, the status of a victorious nation cannot be maintained. He wrote that he hoped educators would harbor knowledge of a military nation in the depths of their minds to prepare during peacetime, and that they would provide military education to children to raise a citizenry with the spirit to work together to make national power shine in the world and stand alongside all nations.

After the First Sino-Japanese War, he served as a member of the First Bureau of the Naval General Staff, and in 1897, he was appointed as a crew member for the delivery of the newly built ship Asama ordered from the UK. From the following year, he was active as a military attaché to the Italian Legation. During the Spanish-American War in 1898, he was ordered to conduct a military inspection of Spain. According to diplomat Shin'ichiro Kurino, the Spanish government refused to cooperate with the inspection, but Kaburagi independently asked his friends, Secretary Berkeley of the British Embassy and Lieutenant Colonel White, the military attaché, to write letters of introduction. With these, he visited various locations and successfully completed his mission, including inspecting the fleet. During the Russo-Japanese War, he demonstrated his diplomatic skills as a military attaché to the British Legation.

In this way, while Kaburagi possessed audacity, he was more of a "staff officer" type than a "warrior" type—or rather, he was a military man skilled in languages, highly refined, and adept at diplomacy. The inspection episode during the Spanish-American War precisely demonstrates a part of Kaburagi's skill.

Later, he served as the captain of the Chin'en and the Commander-in-Chief of the Kure Naval District, eventually rising to the rank of Rear Admiral. In 1908, he became the General Manager of the "Welcome Bureau," an organization for treating foreign guests, and held that position until 1914. This organization was what we would call an "inbound policy promotion agency" today. Incidentally, Sutejiro Fukuzawa once served as a standing manager at the same bureau. The "Japan Tourist Bureau" (the predecessor of the Japan Travel Bureau Foundation) was established as an evolution of this Welcome Bureau.

Makoto Kaburagi, a unique internationalist naval officer from Keio, retired as a Rear Admiral in August 1918 and passed away in April of the following year at the age of 61.