Thi Qar Arts Journal

The efforts to study and analyze the whole Iwakura Mission, which was sent by the Japanese Government in (1871-1873) to the USA and the European Nations (12 nations), visiting a total of 120 cities throughout the mission – all in one paper is definitely an ambitious goal; but seeing how that would not be possible, as it would require a far larger number than the allowed pages in published papers, then I will focus on only two specific aspects of the Iwakura Mission: First, the visit of the Japanese diplomatic delegation to the United States of America and Great Britain, and second, what the delegation learned from those two western countries and the way the acquired knowledge was applied in the national context. I think it is very important and interesting to compare the notions the Japanese politicians learned from their American and British counterparts, as the USA and Great Britain represented the main liberal model for the Japanese nation at the time.
The problematic aspects of the paper: Did the mission succeed in its plans, which were laid for it before travel? Did the situation of Japan at the time allow it to negotiate with the strongest and biggest western powers, i.e., the United States and Britain? Did Japan have the political expertise which enabled it to enter negotiations with the western powers about revising the treaties? Was the idea of sending a mission to Europe a pure Japanese idea? Or was it the result of Japanese officials and decision makers getting influenced by the western minds, who were working in Japan as consultants for the newly formed Meiji government? Or were they influenced by the previous Japanese missions to Europe in the late Tokugawa era?
The theory of the paper: the idea of the mission was the natural columniation of the convergence and fusion of the pure Japanese thought with the western thought in both direct and indirect ways; as the Japanese leaders were convinced of the advancement of the West and the vast abyss between that west and Japan by actual observations during their visits to the western countries, and by their admiration of the western thought reflected on the western European consultants, whom Japan attracted during the first Meiji years. All this will be elaborated upon in this paper.