1845: The new order
I rejoice that I am enabled, on again meeting you in Parliament, to congratulate you on the improved Condition of the Country.
Increased Activity pervades almost every Branch of Manufacture; Trade and Commerce have been extended at home and abroad; and among all Classes of My People there is generally prevalent a Spirit of Loyalty and cheerful Obedience to the Law.
I continue to receive from all Foreign Powers and States Assurances of their friendly Disposition.
State opening and Emperor's speech
Although the Loyalists had convincingly won the 1844 election, it was fair to say that this had been more due to the unpopularity of the Ito government and the division of the conservatives rather than a genuine groundswell in favour of Kuroda and his party.
Ideologically, the differences between the Loyalists and the outgoing administration were more questions of emphasis rather than of ideals. For the conservatives the model citizen - pious, obedient and Japanese (in outlook if not in ethnicity) - was an example to be aspired to. For the Loyalists, it was a mould into which subjects would be forced into regardless of their wishes.
In economic outlook the Loyalists were even more dirigiste than their predecessors. As stifling as the licensing regime had been, one of Kuroda's first acts as prime minister was to suspend all new factory building not expressly licensed by the state. In the minds of the Cabinet, runaway industrialisation had led to chaos and unemployment: from now on progress would take place in a more considered fashion.
In contrast to the Emperor's speech at the opening of the 1844 Diet, Sakuramachi was visibly more relaxed as he set out his new government's aims for the year. Despite the Emperor's backing, Kuroda and his associates had still been caught somewhat unawares by their victory, with the result that the 1845 programme was pulled together in something of a rush.
The truth of this was visible in the Budget. Mindful that the Exchequer had seen its reserves fall by £150,000 over the course of 1844, the Finance Minister raised the consumption tax to 50% for all classes, but otherwise left spending as it was.
The increased revenue would help to pay for a new naval squadron. Ten ships of the line would be raised to defend the Great Eastlands and ensure that Japan's maritime dominance continued. The Ministry of War also gave notice that it was considering an expansion of the army to put the Empire on an equal footing with its rivals, but a final decision on this would not be taken in 1845.
Charity begins at home
The close of 1844 had seen Lohajaya II Yamato, the leader of Lan Xang and kinsman of the Emperor, declared war on neighbouring Malacca amid accusations of piracy against ships trading between the Gulf of Siam and India. Although the outgoing Court-led government had tried to soothe tempers, Sakuramachi had made it plain he favoured Lohajaya in the dispute and had in effect made guarantees that the Empire would support whatever course of action Lan Xang settled upon.
Sakuramachi's assurance of Japanese aid had predictable results. Lan Xang declared war on Malacca despite having an army little more than half the size of its opponent. The opening stages of the war saw both sides avoid direct conflict, instead preferring to capture territory rather than risk battle.
By summer the Malaccan's had overcome their reluctance to fight and were even willing to launch an attack in the difficult terrain of the Chao Phraya valley. In a series of battles they all but destroyed Lan Xang's army.
Unfortunately for Malacca, this merely hastened Japan's entry into the war. Even had it wanted to, the Cabinet was in no position to refuse Sakuramachi's demand that the Empire intervene on his cousin's behalf. Despite the Minister of War's reluctance to get involved in jungle fighting through the summer, five brigades of the Army of Southern China were dispatched to the war.
Although General Arisugawa's close connections with the Ito government might have counted against his being selected to lead the Malaccan intervention, his reputation as an attack-minded commander ensured that the Loyalists would not leave themselves open to the same charges of timidity that had so damaged the Court.
True to form, Arisugawa engaged the Malaccan army at the Battle of Lopburi in late July. The Malaccan forces were already worn out from seven months' campaigning and their fight with Lan Xang's army. Now they faced superior Japanese forces supported by field artillery to which they had no answer.
Lopburi sealed Malacca's fate. Of the 21,000 troops it had begun the war with less than a tenth of that number remained under arms. Japanese forces would continue the fight into 1846, but from Lopburi onwards they would never face serious resistance.
By November Malacca had realised the futility of resisting when it no longer had the means to do so. Moulmein province was ceded to Lan Xang, and while the war technically continued it was more a matter of putting Japanese demands into a form the Malaccan government could accept.
For its part, the Cabinet had decided that the only acceptable outcome of the war would be to have Malacca become in effect a satellite of Japan. This reflected the Loyalists' wider aims of strengthening the Empire's hold over the border states: a policy formulated in reaction the Court's excessive focus on distant European matters.
Foreign affairs
The beginning of the year saw Burma complete its conquest of Shan to leave Handabayin's kingdom further enlarged. In 1836 Burma had been a small land-locked state trapped between Shan and Ayutthaya: now it was a regional power.
Later in the year Handabayin attempted to make the most of the Malaccan war by invading Moulmein for himself, but the intervention of Japan convinced him that discretion was the better part of valour in this case. There were, it seemed, limit's to even Burma's audacity.
Of greater concern was the conclusion of the Russo-Manchu war. Launched at a time when Japan was still locked in conflict with Austria, the Empire had found no suitable pretext to intervene on Manchukuo's behalf.
Russian gains in Asia would always be of concern to Japan, but the extent of the territorial cessions forced on Manchukuo had not been anticipated in Kyoto. When peace was finally agreed in May the Empire found itself with a new neighbour.
The Cabinet immediately approved the strengthening of fortifications along the new border. More hot-headed Loyalists called for a war against Russia aimed at reversing their gains. For now, such calls were resisted, but Kuroda privately believed that a clash between Japan and Russia was inevitable.
Domestic affairs
Perhaps the greatest impact of the change of administration was felt in the Interior Ministry. While the Court had taken a firm line with protesters and anti-imperial sentiment it had always been careful to keep its responses within the boundaries of the constitution. For the Loyalists, the constitution was a controversial document that had been forced upon the young Kashiwabara before he had had time to consolidate his position.
Thus the Kuroda Cabinet was as intolerant of dissent as its predecessor, but felt itself much less restrained in its response. During its first year in office it upheld rules barring the army from buying supplies from any but Japanese merchants and ordered local authorities to suppress an unsanctioned society in Yongzhou that was suspected of anti-Imperial activities.
More disturbing still was the government's indifference to an incident in Nanchang province which saw police clash with protesters leading to at least one death, and the Cabinet's rumoured collusion in the unexplained death of a young Chinese poet who had just had his latest work banned by the censors.
The Loyalists' legislative agenda moved away from the Court's focus on ideology. To the Kuroda Cabinet such concerns were at best self-indulgent and at worse actively dangerous, unleashing as they had a flood of ideas that risked undermining the state.
Instead, the Ministry of War announced it would be introducing legislation establishing a formal academic training system for army officers. Although some of the more traditionalist members of the government were uneasy about replacing the system of purchased commissions, most agreed that Japan needed to ensure its army was as efficient as possible, particularly given the tensions with Russia.
As if to underline the dangers of dabbling with ideology, the Cabinet was forced to intervene in a debate that had begun at the University of Kyoto but had grown to encompass much of the political class. On the one side, traditionalists argued that society was best conceived as a hierarchy in which those at the bottom depended upon those above for guidance, from provincial magistrates all the way up to the Emperor in a divinely-ordered reflection of the human body itself: workers were the limbs; the nobility the organs; and Sakuramachi himself was the head.
More radical members of the faculty had put forward the idea of egalitarianism - that all men were essentially equal and that status was merely the product of accidents of birth. To bolster their arguments they pointed out that able men had bettered themselves regardless of their background and even used the Loyalists' army reforms as an example of the benefits of a meritocratic approach.
The Cabinet 'resolved' the debate by ordering the egalitarians to back down or lose their jobs. While this was enough to bring most into line it could not be said that the government had settled the matter, much less won the argument.
By the autumn Japan had successfully established a further two settlements in the Great Eastlands and began work on two more, extending the Empire's claim to the interior.
The British had by now woken up to the challenge posed by Japan's activities, but had been slower off the mark. It seemed that the wide flood plains of the Mississippi and its tributaries would be hotly-contested and the possibility of war could not be ruled out. By 1845 the British had expanded their forces to 60 brigades and as many ships. By contrast, Japanese troops in the Great Eastlands numbered only 12,000 and the only ships in the eastern Pacific were the ones currently being built.
End of year
The end of 1845 underscored the divisive nature of the Loyalists' first year in power. Although the new year elections saw the Court and Isolationists suffer the greatest loss of support, the Liberals were the only ones to benefit and now threatened to become the third largest party in the Diet.
Furthermore, the Loyalists' harsh policies had increased tensions at home, while pressure to take firm action against Russia continued to build.
