A Japanese Depiction of Ganghwa Treaty

An image created by an unknown Japanese source, depicting Ganghwa Treaty of 1876

Ham, Gyu Jin. "History of Treaties." http://navercast.naver.com/contents.nhn?rid=257&contents_id=34589. Visited Nov. 23th, 2014.

In any historical event that involves two opposing nations, it is often not too surprising to encounter various sources that depict certain events in drastically different ways. Therefore, it is also important to engage with contrasting viewpoints. Hence, in my final project, I will study primary sources from both the sides of Japan and Korea regarding Ganghwa Treaty of 1876 and its aftermath. Shown in this page is an image by an unknown Japanese source of Ganghwa negotiation scene. Several aspects of the painting will be addressed to demonstrate how certain details represent Japanese attitude of the time towards the treaty.

            Furthermore, I will analyze several Korean and Japanese sources that not only provide contextual information about the event and the time period, but also exemplify differences in viewpoints among opposing sides of the issue.  In “Views of the Neighbor: Japanese and Korean Intellectuals in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries,” Jeong Mi Lee explores different viewpoints held by Japanese and Korean intellectuals, which could provide helpful insights on different attitudes that Japanese and Korean people had to each other.[1] On the other hand, in “Success Illgotten? The Role of Meiji Militarism in Japan’s Technological Progress,” a Japanese historian Kozo Tamamura illustrates Japan’s development into a militaristic imperial nation from Japan’s own point of view.[2]