Assassination of Itō Hirobumi

In 1905, following the Russo-Japanese War, Itō was sent to Korea to negotiate the treaty that turned Korea into a Japanese protectorate. He returned there as resident general (1906–09), where he pursued a gradualist policy of economic and bureaucratic reform. However, he increasingly sought to suppress Korean nationalism (including engineering King Kojong’s abdication), and he could not prevent the thrust toward annexing Korea favoured by other leaders in Japan. In October 1909 he was shot in Harbin in North China by An Chung-gŭn, a member of the Korean independence movement. His last words on being told that he was the victim of a political assassination were, “Baka na yatsu ja!” (“He is a fool!”). Itō probably meant that An had killed the one Japanese leader who had a moderating and sympathetic approach for Japan’s Korea policy. Indeed, Itō’s assassination was a factor contributing to Japan’s annexation of Korea in 1910.

Itō was honoured with a state funeral. Despite his unquestioned contributions to the modernization of Japan, he has never been first in the hearts of his countrymen. The Japanese more often have favoured their romantic heroes, usually losers of great military causes. His private life also prevented his enshrinement in ethics textbooks as a paradigm for young Japanese. He is remembered instead for a boast: “Drunk, I (relax) with my head on a beauty’s lap; awaken (refreshed), I grip the reins of power.” His violent death was also ironic: he was never the strong-willed statesman that Ōkubo, Ōkuma, and Yamagata were. He sought the compromiser’s role, the harmonious solution. His enduring monument was the creation of a viable constitutional system. It enabled the Japanese to effect orderly, evolutionary, peaceful political change accompanied by an ever-widening scope for meaningful popular participation.