*Who Was the "Englishman Mr. Jonē"?

Source: Iwakiri Shin’ichirō 岩切信一郎, "Okada Eikichi" 岡田英吉, in Kindai Nihon hangaka meiran (1900–1945), 近代日本版画家名覧 (1900–1945), [Directory of Modern Japanese Print Artists (1900–1945)], Hangadō 版画堂, n.d., p. 7, http://www.hanga-do.com/img/Hangadomeiran104.pdf.

Jonē Okada (Okada Jonē)

He also called himself Okada Eikichi or M. Jonē Uchida Eikichi. His dates of birth and death are unknown. In the miscellany section of the January 1920 issue of Bijutsu Geppō (Art Monthly Bulletin), an item titled "The Invention of Mechanical Woodblock Printing" reported:

"Mr. M. Jonē, a man of mixed parentage whose father was British and whose mother was Japanese, has, after several years of painstaking effort, invented a method of printing woodblocks mechanically rather than by the traditional hand-printing process. The results are reportedly in no way inferior to those of hand printing."

At 635 Tabata, outside the city limits of Tokyo, he established the Japan Woodblock Printing Company (Nihon Mokuhan Insatsu Kabushiki Kaisha), where he personally operated the machinery and worked on its further development. The blocks were carved according to traditional woodblock techniques and then printed on a letterpress machine that he had independently modified and improved. Water-based ink was used, however, and the machinery still required the constant attendance of an operator.

His best-known work includes the woodblock prints inserted into the magazine Kokusui; Itō Chūta’s Ashura-chō; and the prints by Takehisa Yumeji used as cover-mounted illustrations and interior illustrations in Fujin Graph, beginning with the May 1924 issue. He was also involved in producing advertising prints by Okuyama Gihachirō.

His other work included finely executed reproductions of ukiyo-e, particularly Edo-period nishiki-e, as well as sheet-music cover illustrations, magazine covers, and inserted woodblock prints.
—Iwakiri

Translation of Tsukamoto Yasushi's commentary and notes on Sketch 401, dated December 14, 1918: Wilson Goes to France

Turn over the signboard (banner) of justice and humanity, and you'll find an anti-Japanese agitator.

— Juntei [followed by Arabic rendering of Tsukamoto]

"It was a shell-shocked Europe that awaited Wilson when he was piped down the gangplank of the George Washington as his ship landed in Brest on December 13, 1918. But it was an expectant Europe. The coming of Wilson was hailed by the people as they had welcomed no other man in centuries. He set foot on French soil amid a demonstration of popular enthusiasm that was unequalled even from the emotional and patriotic French people." 

— Josephus Daniels, The Life of Woodrow Wilson 

On December 4, 1918, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson departed the United States aboard the USS George Washington to participate in the peace negotiations in Europe ahead of the formal opening of the Paris Peace Conference, making him the first sitting U.S. president to visit Europe while in office.

Itō depicts a long-jawed, weary but determined Wilson coming ashore in France (フランス国), with the banner of "Justice and Humanity" (正義人道) in hand and carrying his "Fourteen Points" (十四ヶ条), which he hoped would serve as guiding principles for the peace settlement, as they had helped establish the basis on which Germany accepted the armistice. Wilson is the most frequently depicted figure in this fifth volume of Ashura-chō (The Ashura Notebook).

References:

Josephus Daniels, "The President in Europe." In The Life of Woodrow Wilson, 1856–1924, p. 297–311, The John C. Winston Company, 1924. 

Andrew Glass, "President Wilson lands in France, Dec. 13, 1918." Politico. December 13, 2018, 

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/13/woodrow-wilson-lands-in-france-1918-1054757.

Kurakata Shunsuke 倉方俊輔, commentary on Itō Chūta’s sketch “401,” in Itō Chūta 伊東忠太 and Sugimura Kōtarō 杉村廣太郎, 阿修羅帖 [Ashura-chō], 5 vols. (Tokyo: Yumani Shobō ゆまに書房, 2013), vol. 5.

Notes on Sketch 402, dated December 30, 1918: Democracy?

The title of Itō’s sketch, "Democracy?," in the context of his drawing, suggests his perhaps ambivalent, and somewhat hostile, attitude toward the much-discussed idea of "democracy" that emerged during the Taishō era (1912–1926), a period later labeled by historians as "Taishō Democracy."*

Coming on the heels of the Russian Revolution, the worldwide rise of worker-centered movements, and the social unrest marked by domestic strikes and the 1918 Rice Riots, Itō’s distaste for Japan’s hesitant moves toward a more democratic system is captured in this sketch.

As described by Kurakata Shunsuke in his comments on the sketch: "In the drawing, two laborers wearing hanten (traditional short coats) and jika-tabi (split-toe footwear) sit heavily in the seats of a streetcar. The surrounding passengers sit in silence, appearing cramped and uncomfortable. Their attire and demeanor convey the stereotypical images of laborers and the middle class held at that time."

Kurakata links the timing of Itō’s sketch to the formation of the Reimeikai (黎明会, "Dawn Society") on December 23, 1918, an "educational society" committed "to strive for the stabilization and enrichment of the life of the Japanese people in conformity with the new trends of the postwar world." Its establishment followed closely on the November 23 "debate on democracy" between the liberal professor Yoshino Sakuzō (1878–1933) and members of the right-wing Rōninkai (Society of Rōnin), which historian Henry Smith II describes as “the event which launched the Taishō democracy movement into full swing.”

* The term "Taishō Democracy" is much discussed and debated among historians, both in terms of its implications for Japan’s subsequent era of militarism and war, and its chronological limits, which in its broadest definition span roughly 1905–1932.

References:

Kurakata Shunsuke 倉方俊輔, commentary on Itō Chūta’s sketch “402,” in Itō Chūta 伊東忠太 and Sugimura Kōtarō 杉村廣太郎, 阿修羅帖 [Ashura-chō], 5 vols. (Tokyo: Yumani Shobō ゆまに書房, 2013), vol. 5.

"Kaihō = Emancipation," Historical Sketches of the 1918 Rice Riots. Harvard University. Accessed March 19, 2026. https://hist1318.omeka.fas.harvard.edu/items/show/36. 

Henry Dewitt Smith II. Japan’s First Student Radical, Harvard University Press, 1972.

Translation of Sakai Toshihiko's commentary and notes on Sketch 403, dated January 4, 1919: Ebert Falls, Liebknecht Rises

"E" or "L"*—the rise and fall of individuals is of little consequence. Though "L" was killed, the German Communist Party is steadily expanding its influence. And the Third International is on the verge of sweeping the world. Japan, however, is an exception. You may rest assured.

— Sakai Toshihiko

* "E" and "L" stand for Friedrich Ebert, head of Germany’s provisional government, and Karl Liebknecht, a founder of the German Communist Party.

Sakai Toshihiko’s commentary, written in 1921, reflects his belief that despite the murder of Karl Liebknecht, the German Communist Party continued to grow in influence and that the ideology of the Third International was advancing across the world. Sakai's confidence in the historical inevitability of capitalism’s downfall and the rise of international workers’ rule, as proclaimed by the Third International, informs the mocking tone of his concluding remark that Imperial Japan will somehow prove an exception to the world tide of communism. 

Itō depicts a grotesque, gray-skinned figure, a skin color he reserves for the figures he detests, whom we can identify as the German communist Karl Liebknecht, almost filling the frame. Beside him lies a pair of fallen legs, almost certainly belonging to the head of Germany’s provisional government, the Social Democratic Friedrich Ebert.

On the date of Itō’s sketch, January 4, 1919, Ebert’s hold on power appeared increasingly precarious. The Spartacist League (Spartakusbund), the revolutionary "Left Radical" vanguard led by Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, had just formalized their break from the Independent Socialists to found the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) at their New Year’s Day convention, resolving to bypass parliamentary democracy and seize power through revolutionary force.

The resulting Spartacist Uprising erupted just one day after this sketch, on January 5 (see Sketch 410), concentrated in Berlin’s Newspaper District (Zeitungsviertel). By January 12, their revolt had been violently suppressed after Ebert and his Minister of Defense Gustav Noske authorized the Freikorps, right-wing paramilitary units composed of World War I veterans, to crush the insurgents. This "Bloody Week" (Blutwoche) culminated on January 15 with the extrajudicial capture and murder of both Liebknecht and Luxemburg at the hands of the Freikorps (see Sketch 412). Violence, however, would continue for months with the Freikorps maintaining "peace" through what historians call the White Terror.

References:

John Simkin, "Friedrich Ebert and the First World War," Spartacus Educational, September 1997, last updated January 2020, https://spartacus-educational.com/FWWebert.htm. 

Communist International, Theses, Resolutions, and Manifestos of the First Four Congresses of the Third International, (Ink Links; Humanities Press, 1980, p. 39–45, https://archive.org/details/thesesresolution0000comm. 

Notes on Sketch 404, dated January 6, 1919: A New Lovers’ Double Grave

Notes on Sketch 405, dated January 8, 1919: Roosevelt’s Sudden Death

Theodore Roosevelt Died Suddenly at His Home Today in Oyster Bay

by United Press, January 6, 1919

OYSTER BAY, N.Y. -- Colonel Theodore Roosevelt died at his home, Sagamore Hill, at 4:15 o'clock this morning as the result of a blood clot on the heart.

It is stated at his residence that Colonel Roosevelt went to bed last night feeling well. His end was peaceful. Several members of the family were at his bedside when he passed away.

In Itō's sketch, a sleeping figure is stabbed in the neck by a red demon. The image captures the two-time president Roosevelt's unexpected and reportedly peaceful death, highlighted by the nearby butterflies and tray laid out with a teapot and cup. 

References:

Extract from "Theodore Roosevelt Died Suddenly at His Home Today in Oyster Bay," UPI archives https://www.upi.com/Archives/1919/01/06/Theodore-Roosevelt-died-suddenly-at-his-home-today-in-Oyster-Bay/3841515126057/.

Notes on Sketch 406, dated January 8, 1919: Mackensen Arrested

In Itō’s sketch, a gray-skinned figure, a skin color he reserves for the world figures he most detests, representing German Field Marshal August von Mackensen is held captive by a warrior. This figure likely represents General Louis Franchet d’Espérey of the French military authorities, who took direct control of Mackensen's detention on January 1, 1919. 

The Spectator

WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, JANUARY 11, 1919

Marshal von Mackensen, who after leaving Rumania with his troops was interned in Hungary, was arrested last week by the French military authorities. With the connivance of the Hungarians, he was planning his escape. He is now in safe custody. The situation in Hungary is still very unsatisfactory. The Czechs have had to liberate the Slovak territories from Hungarian rule by force of arms. There has been fighting also between the Hungarians and the Southern Slavs. Hungary is nominally occupied by small Allied forces, but the Magyar spirit of domination is in no way quenched by defeat.

In the days following the signing of the armistice on November 11, 1918, Field Marshal von Mackensen, commander of Germany's successful campaigns on the Eastern Front, remained on Romanian soil with his Army Group, much to the fury of Romanian and French authorities. By mid-December, the bulk of his forces had moved into Hungary. Under the terms of the Belgrade Armistice, these troops were disarmed by the Hungarian government; while the majority were eventually allowed to repatriate to Germany, Mackensen and his immediate staff were arrested and held at Gödöllő Castle, the former royal summer residence near Budapest.

On January 1, 1919, concerned that the Hungarian authorities might allow him to escape back to Germany, French military authorities under the command of General Louis Franchet d’Espérey took direct control of the Field Marshal. He was subsequently held as a military prisoner and suspected war criminal by the Allies in several locations until November 1919.

Ultimately, Mackensen never faced trial for his wartime activities. While he was included on the Allied "Extradition List" of suspected war criminals, the case against him was allowed to lapse as Allied priorities shifted. The British and French grew wary that prosecuting such a revered national figure would destabilize the fragile Weimar Republic and potentially trigger a monarchist coup or civil war, which served Allied post-war interests in maintaining a buffer against Bolshevism. Decades later, during World War II, the Nazi regime would exploit Mackensen's status as a "national hero" for domestic propaganda, despite the Field Marshal’s ongoing tensions with the party leadership over religious and monarchist principles.

References:

The Spectator. News of the Week. January 11, 1919. https://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/11th-january-1919/3/marshal-von-mackensen-who-after-leaving-rumania-wi.

Notes on Sketch 407, dated January 11, 1919: Marquis Saionji Sets Out

The Japanese delegation to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 consisted of five primary plenipotentiaries, led by chief plenipotentiary Marquis Saionji, and a supporting staff of personal, diplomatic and military attendants, bringing the total entourage to between 120 and 160 people. Compared to the "Big Three," the United Kingdom, the United States and France, each of which brought over 1000 personnel, the Japanese delegation was streamlined, reflecting their more limited role in the war, although they were designated as one of the five "Principal Allied and Associated Powers," along with United States, the British Empire, France and Italy. 

The five Japanese plenipotentiaries were responsible for securing Japan's "Three Great Claims": the transfer of former German rights in the Shandong Peninsula to Japan, securing the mandate over German held islands in the North Pacific, and the inclusion of a racial-equality clause in the League of Nations Covenant, which turned out to be the most controversial and the only claim rejected. 

Itō depicts the delegation as a long, snaking line of 16 figures, utilizing ten rectangular cartouches to identify key members of the procession. 

Leading the procession is the delegation's second plenipotentiary and chief negotiator Baron Makino Nobuaki (牧野伸顕) accompanied by two military attendants in full battle gear. Makino had left Tokyo a month before the main delegation on December 10, 1918 traveling by sea via America and London, arriving in Paris on January 18, the day the conference officially opened.

Following some distance behind is the senior statesman (genrō) Marquis Saionji (西園寺侯), the chief plenipotentiary who would depart Yokohama on January 14, 1919, arriving in Paris on March 4.

Following Saionji are the diplomat Akizuki Satsuo (秋月左都夫); Dr. Miura Kinnosuke (三浦謹之助 ), Saionji's personal physician; Mistress of the Saionji Household (西園寺主婦), his consort and social hostess, Okumura Hanako; Baron Itō Bunkichi (伊藤文吉), Saionji's secretary and delegate; Mistress of the Motono Household (本 野主婦 ), the wife of the diplomat Motono Morie; and the diplomat and technical delegate Matsuda Michikazu (松田道一). Bringing up the rear of the delegation are the two cooks (料理人) hauling provisions and, finally, two female attendants (お花さん).

References:

Naoko Shimazu, "Japan at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919: A Centennial Reflection," Japan Review vol.3 no.1 Summer 2019, 02JapanReview_Vol.3_No.1_Summer_2019.pdf. 

[Note: This brief article provides an excellent overview of Japan's goals at the conference and the outcome for Japan.]

Translation of Yasugi Sadatoshi's commentary and notes on Sketch 408, dated January 11, 1919: Lenin Is Captured, Bound, and Imprisoned

Though their colors may differ, black and red, why would foxes from the same den ever quarrel?

The Great Powers, unable though they wish to slay the demon, are perhaps [watching] a fixed losing sumo match for Trotsky.

— March 1921, Yasugi Sadatoshi

The New York Times

THURSDAY, JANUARY 9, 1919

TROTZKY DICTATOR; 

ARRESTS LENINE

Ousts Bolshevist Premier and Now Rules Alone in Russia,

Copenhagen Hears

COPENHAGEN, Jan. 8.—Nikolal Lenine, the Bolshevist Premier of Russia, has been arrested at the command of Leon Trotzky, Minister of War and Marine, who has made himself Dictator, according to a Moscow dispatch to the Gothenburg (Sweden) Gazette. 

Trotzky was prompted to make the arrest because of a difference of opinion with Lenine concerning the Bolshevist reforms, the dispatch states. Lenine desired to effect a coalition with the Mensheviki, or Moderates, while Trotzky wished to continue the reign of red terror.

Responding to false headlines and reports by the world press on the arrest of Lenin by Trotsky, Itō portrays the two in a physical struggle with the ogre-featured Trotsky (トロツキー ) overcoming a partially bound pink-skinned Lenin (レーニン).

The idea of a Lenin-Trotsky feud was an exercise in "wishful thinking" in the West, hoping the Bolshevik leadership would collapse from within. While Lenin and Trotsky had differences, they would work together until Lenin's death in 1924. With the rise of Stalin to power Trotsky would find himself in ideological battle leading to eventual expulsion from the Communist Party, his exile from the Soviet Union and his assassination in Mexico in 1940.

References:

Extract from "Trotzky Dictator; Arrests Lenine," New York Times, January 9, 1919, p. 1, TimesMachine,

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1919/01/09/102847479.html?pageNumber=1.

Notes on Sketch 409, dated January 12, 1919: To Paris, to Paris!

In Itō’s sketch we see representatives from the delegations of the Republic of Czechoslovakia (チェックスロヴォアック共和国), the Kingdom of Serbia* (大塞国), and the Republic of Poland (波蘭), three of the eighteen nations, plus the British Dominions and India, designated as "Powers with special interests" at the Paris Peace Conference. Holding flags bearing the names of their countries, they peer off into the distance toward the Eiffel Tower and other Parisian landmarks. At the conference, as identified by Itō in parentheses as the "peace conference” (媾和會議), these nations were assigned a much lesser role than the five major powers, the United States, the British Empire, France, Italy, and Japan, which styled themselves the "Principal Allied and Associated Powers." The Powers with special interests were limited both in representation and in access: on the major commissions they had to share only five seats among themselves, and they were entitled to attend only those sessions dealing with questions that directly concerned them.

*On 1 December 1918 the Kingdom of Serbia was superseded by the proclamation of a new ‘Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes’ incorporating Serbia, Montenegro and most of the so-called ‘South Slav’ territories of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire.

References:

"The Paris Peace Conference, 1919," in Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, The Paris Peace Conference, 1919, vol. 13, U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1919Parisv13/ch1. 

Notes on Sketch 411, dated January 14, 1919: The German Realm of Hungry Ghosts

With the Allied blockade of Germany extending well into 1919, the German people remained subject to enormous food shortages. Itō captures this desperate situation by depicting three skeletal figures devouring a cat and a dog. "In January 1919 it has been estimated that no fewer than 800 Germans died each day as a result of dietary deficiencies." It would not be until mid to late March 1919 that foodstuffs were allowed to begin entering Germany.

References:

Richard J. Evans, Society and Politics in Wilhelmine Germany. Routledge Revivals. London: Routledge, 2016, p. 267-286.

Notes on Sketch 412, dated January 14, 1919: Liebknecht Killed in Battle

Itō's sketch dated January 14, 1919, depicting the last moments in Karl Liebknecht's life, preceded his actual death at the hands of the Freikorps the following day, January 15. Itō was likely responding to unfounded rumors published earlier in the week reporting his death, such as the following January 12 headline appearing in the New York Times, "Report Liebknecht Killed in Fighting," which went on to say, "The Berlin correspondent of The Evening News, telegraphing under Thursday's date, says that he has heard from a most reliable source that Dr. Liebknecht, the Spartacide leader, has been killed in severe machine-gun fighting near the building of the Tageblatt. Liebknecht is reported to have been shot through the head."

On January 15, Liebknecht, along with Rosa Luxemburg, was taken prisoner by the Freikorps acting under the broad authority of the Minister of Defense, Gustav Noske. That same day they would be summarily executed, with Liebknecht’s body dumped anonymously at the city morgue and Luxemburg’s body dumped in the Landwehr Canal, only to be found months later.

References:

"Report Liebknecht Killed in Fighting,"  New York Times, January 12, 1919, p. 3, TimesMachine, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1919/01/12/103454984.html?pageNumber=3.

Dorian Cope, "The Murder of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht", On This Deity https://www.onthisdeity.com/15th-january-1919-%E2%80%93%C2%A0the-murder-of-rosa-luxemburg-and-karl-liebknecht/.

Notes on Sketch 413, dated January 16, 1919: The Former German Emperor Goes Mad

WANDERING WILHELM

On Verge of Insanity.

AMSTERDAM. January 15.

A Dutchman who  dined with the ex-Kaiser and Count Bentinck, at Amerongen, states that Wilhelm gives the impression of being on the verge of insanity. He suffers, from insomnia, and wanders during the night. He has now resumed smoking, and is drinking wine heavily.

Itō's January 16 sketch is likely responding to short, unattributed articles datelined Amsterdam, January 15, such as the above from an Australian newspaper. 

In his sketch we see a rather crazed and confused-looking figure carrying a "madness bamboo" (kuruizasa), a prop in Noh and Kyōgen theater serving as a symbol for a character who has been driven to insanity. As he innocently plays with two small boys, is Itō suggesting that perhaps the former Kaiser Wilhelm II is not responsible for his wartime acts? 

In discussing the various accounts of the ex-emperor's mental health in his essay "Diagnosing the Kaiser, Wilhelm II and the Question of German War Guilt," medical historian David Freis, writes:

The weeks and months after the armistice saw the publication of numerous treatises discussing the sanity of the exiled emperor. The idea that Wilhelm II suffered from a mental disorder was discussed in party newspapers, professional journals, widely circulated books and obscure brochures, and it occupied well-established psychiatrists and laypeople alike. [T]he allegedly deranged mind of Wilhelm II became a metaphor for the political situation of post-war Germany. [T]he diagnoses became a medium to discuss many of the pressing questions about who was to blame for the war, about the legitimacy of the last Hohenzollern emperor, and about the future of the German polity.

References:

"Wandering Wilhelm,”"The Register (Adelaide), January 17, 1919, Trove, National Library of Australia https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/60544571

Kurakata Shunsuke 倉方俊輔, commentary on Itō Chūta’s sketch “413,” in Itō Chūta 伊東忠太 and Sugimura Kōtarō 杉村廣太郎, 阿修羅帖 [Ashura-chō], 5 vols. (Tokyo: Yumani Shobō ゆまに書房, 2013), vol. 5.

David Freis, "Diagnosing the Kaiser: Psychiatry, Wilhelm II and the Question of German War Guilt," Medical History 62, no. 3, July 2018, p. 273–293.

Notes on Sketch 414, dated January 20, 1919: Global Currents

Streaking across Itō’s sketch are four figures bearing banners reading League of Nations (国際聯盟), Universal Conscription (国民皆兵), Labor Distribution (分配勞働), and Democracy (民本主義). For nations now at peace, each of these was seen as both a national and a transnational issue requiring solutions that would lead to postwar stability.  

League of Nations: Out of the horrors of World War I, and with strong backing from Woodrow Wilson, the League of Nations emerged from the Paris Peace Conference and was established by the Treaty of Versailles. While Japan was an original member, the U.S. did not join, as its Senate failed to ratify the treaty. The League would ultimately fail due to its lack of enforcement power and major-power unity. Despite its shortcomings, it established the institutional groundwork upon which the United Nations was later built. 

Universal Conscription: It has been suggested that even with the horrors of World War I, "the war to end all wars," fresh in their minds, nation-states, particularly those in war-torn Europe, started preparing for the next war. Beyond military preparedness, universal conscription was also seen as a way to build the nation-state and increase the cohesiveness of multi-ethnic nations, particularly those emerging from the breakup of empires. 

Labor Distribution: Responding to demobilization, reconversion from war production, and ongoing social unrest in the aftermath of the war, governments and international reformers treated the regulation of labor supply and the prevention of unemployment as urgent problems requiring quick solutions to stabilize society. 

Democracy: With the shake-up of the world order in the aftermath of the Great War, "democracy," in its many forms, was the ideology on everyone’s lips. In interpretation, it could range from Lenin’s "democratic dictatorship," to parliamentary democracy, to constitutional monarchy, including the Japanese term minpon-shugi (民本主義), democratic principles understood as compatible with Japan’s imperial system at the time. 

In his article titled "Understand the New Ideas: Who is Misinterpreting Popularism?," appearing in the January 9, 1919 issue of the Osaka Mainich Shimbun, Doctor of Law, Inazō Nitobe in defending "democracy," places it squarely in line with Japan's Imperial system:

[N]ow the ideology of democracy is sweeping the world. If this ideology were merely a temporary fad, a so-called trend of the time, it would not be worth considering, but it is an ideology that has been lurking since the origins of human society. For tens of thousands of years, it has been suppressed from all sides and unable to emerge until today, when it has finally raised its voice.

Those who misunderstand or deliberately misinterpret the global tide of Democracy, claiming it is harmful to our national polity or the dignity of the Imperial House, are likely doing so out of a selfish desire to protect their own status. If one looks with an open and calm mind at the Imperial Will and the attitude of the Imperial House toward the people over the last three thousand years, I believe one will find that it perfectly aligns with Democracy, never contradicting it. 

References:

Jan Lucassen, "Conscription as Military Labour: The Historical Context," International Review of Social History 43, 1998, p. 405–419. 

Nitobe Inazō, "法学博士 新渡戸稲造 "新思想を了解せよ : 民本主義を曲解する者は誰ぞ" ["Understand the new ideas: Who is misinterpreting popularism?"], Osaka Mainichi Shimbun, January 9, 1919, Kobe University Library Newspaper Digital Archive https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14094/0100283894.

Notes on Sketch 415, dated January 21, 1919: The Nationalization of Women in Russia

In the months following the October Revolution, stories began circulating about a Soviet government decree "nationalizing women." Attributing such a decree, which may actually have been issued by a local anarchist group, to the Soviet government was, at best, a misunderstanding, but more likely simply another propaganda ploy propagated by anti-Bolshevik forces worldwide. The Soviet government itself never issued such a decree, nor did it support one issued by anarchist forces, anarchism being anathema to the Bolsheviks.

In response to press reports of women being made property of the state, such as the New York Times article below, which ran almost three months prior to the date of his sketch, Itō provides a tongue-in-cheek depiction of men lining up at the service windows of an "Application Office for the Distribution of Women" (婦人下附出願所) in some unnamed part of the Soviet Union, waiting to apply for wives.

The New York Times

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1918

SOVIETS MAKE GIRLS PROPERTY OF STATE

Decrees Compel Them to Register at "Free Love Bureau" on Attaining 18 Years.

LONDON, Oct. 25, (British Wireless Service.)—Russian maidens under the jurisdiction of certain provincial Bolshevist Soviets become the “property of the State” when they reach the age of 18 years, and are compelled to register at a Government “Bureau of Free Love,” according to the official gazette of the Vladimir Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, which recently published that Soviet’s decree on the subject. 

As shown by the below exchange in the British Parliament on April 3, 1919, over two months after Itō created his sketch, this story had some staying power:

Sir F. HALL

asked the Prime Minister if his attention has been called to the publication by Bolshevist agents of statements to the effect that the reports of decrees having been issued by certain of the provincial Soviet governments in Russia under which women were made common property for sexual purposes are entirely without foundation; if the Government are in possession of information confirming the accuracy of such reports; and, if so, whether he will consider as to taking steps to bring to the knowledge of the country generally the results, in this and other directions, of Bolshevist rule, in order to counteract the influence of those who are advocating similar principles of government in the United Kingdom?

Mr. HARMSWORTH

In answer to the first and second parts of the hon. and gallant Member's question, His Majesty's Government has no information to show, whether the proclamation about the nationalisation of women published by an anarchist club in the town of Saratov was or was not approved by the Bolshevik Government in Moscow. In answer to the third part of the question, papers were laid before Parliament yesterday, and will, I hope, be distributed to Members tonight dealing with the present Bolshevist rule in Russia.

References:

"Soviets Make Girls Property of the State," New York Times, October 26, 1919, p. 5, TimesMachine,

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1918/10/26/97037435.html?pageNumber=5.

Hansard, "Bolshevist Decrees," HC Deb 03, April 1919, vol 114 cc1371-2 https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1919/apr/03/bolshevist-decrees.

Notes on Sketch 416, dated January 23, 1919: Tochigiyama Wins Tournament with No Losses

Itō’s sketch pictures Tochigiyama, the lightest yokozuna in sumo history, "outweighing" his opposition at the January 1919 Haru tournament, held from January 12 to 22 at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo. Listed on the East side (東), he is shown outweighing the ōzeki Chibagasaki, whose upper half is cut off by the frame and whose name appears on his keshō-mawashi as 千葉崎. Chibagasaki was the man who handed Tochigiyama his first defeat during Tochigiyama’s early rise, but Tochigiyama beat him here on the tournament’s ninth day.

The hoshitorihyō chart in the sketch gives Tochigiyama’s almost perfect tournament result: 9 wins and one opponent absent (休), as follows:

Day 1: defeated Kurosegawa (黒瀬川)
Day 2: defeated Kiyosegawa (清瀬川)
Day 3: defeated Momijigawa (紅葉川)
Day 4: defeated Fujinokawa (藤ノ川)
Day 5: defeated Ōnaruto (大鳴門)
Day 6: opponent absent (休), Asashio (朝潮)
Day 7: defeated Kotogaura (琴ヶ浦)
Day 8: defeated Misugiiso (三杉礒)
Day 9: defeated Chibagasaki (千葉ヶ崎)
Day 10: defeated Wakaminato (若湊)

References:

"Haru 1919 Yokozuna 1 East Tochigiyama Moriya," Sumo Reference https://sumodb.sumogames.de/Rikishi_basho.aspx?r=3646&b=191901&l=e.

Translation of Song Byung-jun's commentary and notes on Sketch 417, dated January 22, 1919: King Yi Is Dead

The colors of Mount Cangwu*

— Song Byung-jun

*A poetic allusion to the death of a monarch. Cangwu is the mountain where the legendary Chinese Sage-King Shun is said to have died and been buried during a tour of his southern territories. 

King Yi (Gojong or Kojong), 1852-1919, the twenty-sixth and last king of Joseon, who in 1897 proclaimed the Korean Empire and became its first emperor, died on January 21, 1919. In 1897, as Korea’s sovereignty came under increasing pressure from foreign powers, he proclaimed the Korean Empire becoming its first emperor, ending nearly five centuries of Joseon rule. Seeking to preserve Korea’s independence, he promoted Korean history and culture abroad while adopting selected foreign ideas and technologies. In 1907, Japan forced Gojong to abdicate in favor of his son, Emperor Sunjong. Three years later, Japan formally annexed Korea, effectively ending the empire and reimposing the name Joseon.

Gojong’s sudden death in January 1919 fueled widespread rumors that he had been poisoned by the Japanese, though this was never proven.* Those rumors, together with anger at colonial rule and hopes raised by the Paris Peace Conference, helped make his funeral a major immediate catalyst for the March First Independence Movement. The large crowds gathered in Seoul for the funeral became part of a much broader nationwide protest against Japanese rule. 

Concealing the king behind a folding screen, Itō depicts a vision of the funeral scene, seen through the smoke from an incense burner, that would unfold weeks later on March 3. 

*In regards to the rumored poisoning, Ch’oe, Yŏng-ho, and Tae-jin Yi, in their 2011 article in  Korean Studies 35: 122–51, titled "The Mystery of Emperor Kojong's Sudden Death in 1919: Were the Highest Japanese Officials Responsible?" write "Our review of the evidence strongly supports the allegation that the highest Japanese officials were behind the poisoning of Emperor Kojong."

References:

Audio Commentary "Chae Yongsin, Portrait of Emperor Gojong," LACMA https://www.lacma.org/guides/spacebetween/37. 

Kurakata Shunsuke 倉方俊輔, commentary on Itō Chūta’s sketch “417,” in Itō Chūta 伊東忠太 and Sugimura Kōtarō 杉村廣太郎, 阿修羅帖 [Ashura-chō], 5 vols. (Tokyo: Yumani Shobō ゆまに書房, 2013), vol. 5.

Translation of Itō Chūta's commentary and notes on Sketch 418, dated January 30, 1919: The Five Great Powers Confer on Peace Terms

While 27 nations were invited to the Paris Peace Conference, it was the "Big Five" (the United States, Great Britain, France, Italy, and Japan) who largely ran the show. But even among the Big Five, the pecking order was clear, as Itō depicts in his sketch: the United States (米), Great Britain (英), and France (佛) dominate, while Italy (伊) and Japan (日) play a diminutive role. The conference formally opened on January 18, 1919, but the real work had already begun in the closed meetings of the major powers.

Itō later added his own commentary to the sketch (see below), an imagined dialogue between the Five Great Powers, in which U.S. President Woodrow Wilson addresses British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, French Premier Georges Clemenceau, shown in roughly equal scale to Wilson, and Prime Minister Vittorio Emanuele Orlando, depicted smaller and off to the side near tiny Japan. The expressions on the faces of the British prime minister and the French premier suggest that they are merely humoring Wilson’s idealism while waiting to get down to the real business of carving up territory and demanding reparations. 

米 (USA): "We are not the masters of the people, but their servants."

英 (UK): "Indeed."

佛 (France): "Quite so."

伊 (Italy): "Is that so?……”

日 (Japan): "..." (Silence)

— Chūta

During the January 25 second plenary session, the first item on the agenda was the appointment of a commission to examine the question of the League of Nations.

Wilson opened discussion of the subject, declaring:

I consider it a distinguished privilege to open the discussion in this Conference on the League of Nations. We have assembled for two purposes—to make the present settlements which have been rendered necessary by this War, and also to secure the Peace of the world not only by the present settlements but by the arrangements we shall make in this Conference for its maintenance. The League of Nations seems to me to be necessary for both of these purposes.

You can imagine, Gentlemen, I dare say, the sentiments and the purpose with which representatives of the United States support this great project for a League of Nations. We regard it as the keystone of the whole program which expressed our purpose and our ideal in this war and which the Associated Nations have accepted as the basis of the settlement.

I have only tried in what I have said to give you the fountains of the enthusiasm which is within us for this thing, for those fountains spring, it seems to me, from all the ancient wrongs and sympathies of mankind, and the very pulse of the world seems to beat.

While Itō’s dialogue in his commentary appearing above the sketch is imagined, Japan’s silence in the sketch on Wilson’s strong support for the League does reflect its cautious posture at Paris. Japan did not oppose the League and would ultimately join it, but its delegation moved carefully and avoided the kind of rhetorical leadership Wilson sought to claim.

The Japanese delegation's silence, however, was greeted by the Japanese press not as diplomatic posturing, but as making "them appear markedly inferior when placed among the brilliant and forceful diplomats of Europe and America," leading to "unforeseen failures," as written in a February 4 editorial in the Tokyo Hōchi Shimbun. 

The greater irony, of course, is that Japan joined the League, while the United States did not: the U.S. Senate refused to ratify the Treaty of Versailles, which included the League Covenant — a stinging defeat for Wilson and a major blow to his international legacy. 

References:

"Preliminary Peace Conference, Protocol No. 2, Plenary Session of January 25, 1919," in  Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, The Paris Peace Conference, 1919, vol. 3, document 4, U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1919Parisv03/d4.

Kurakata Shunsuke 倉方俊輔, commentary on Itō Chūta’s sketch “418,” in Itō Chūta 伊東忠太 and Sugimura Kōtarō 杉村廣太郎, 阿修羅帖 [Ashura-chō], 5 vols. (Tokyo: Yumani Shobō ゆまに書房, 2013), vol. 5.

"講和会議委員に対する不安 : 論説" ["Anxiety Regarding the Peace Conference Delegates: Editorial”], Hōchi Shimbun, February 4, 1919 Kobe University Library Newspaper Digital Archive https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14094/0100309711.  

Notes on Sketch 419, dated January 30, 1919: The Position of the Five Great Powers 

Itō makes the pecking order of the Five Great Powers clear, as previously discussed in Sketch 418. From right to left, they are: the United States (米), Great Britain (英), France (佛), Italy (伊), and Japan (日). While the U.S., placed first and foremost, stands tall alongside Great Britain and France, looking directly at the viewer, Italy and "little" Japan cast their gaze to the left. They stare at the three major powers as if looking for direction or acknowledgment.

Early in the negotiations, concerns were raised by the Japanese press and public regarding the perceived secondary treatment of Japan by the other four powers. A little over two months after the date of Itō's sketch, the April 3, 1919, issue of the Osaka Mainichi Shimbun carried an unsigned editorial titled: "Japan Excluded: The Five Great Powers Become Four—How Can Our Authorities Remain So Composed?" The article voiced concerns about Japan’s reported exclusion from certain high-level deliberations in late March, noting that Japan was being "treated like a stepchild" and denied equal status. The editorial reiterated that as one of the Five Great Powers, Japan "ought jointly to deliberate on questions concerning peace and the remaking of the world." It argued that if Japan is only selectively included based on the issue at hand, it does not truly possess equal rights. The editorial closed with a plea for Japanese authorities to "rouse themselves" to defend the nation's position, prestige, and rights on the global stage.

References:

"除外されたる日本 : 五大国は四大国となる=我当局の平然たる如何" ["Japan Excluded: The Five Great Powers Become Four — How Can Our Authorities Remain So Composed?"], Osaka Mainichi Shimbun, April 3, 1919, Kobe University Library Newspaper Digital Archive https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14094/0100316078.

Translation of Hasegawa Seiya's commentary and notes on Sketch 420, dated January 31, 1919: The Former German Crown Prince Becomes an Employee of an Automobile Company

He had fancied himself destined for "a place in the sun,”

but instead, he has tumbled into a most unlikely place.

Still, it is less backbreaking than being in the blacksmith’s shop.

And once one has sunk to this point,

there will probably be no one left

to reproach him for once mouthing

grand phrases like "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori."

That is some comfort, at least,

though dealing with the aftermath of all the “Donnerwetter!”

is enough to make one despair.

(Based on the former Crown Prince’s speech)* 

— Hasegawa Tenkei

*Hasegawa appears to have extracted the three quotes from the former Crown Prince's writings and speeches, though they did not originate with him. The phrase "a place in the sun," was famously coined by German Foreign Minister Bernhard von Bülow and later used by Kaiser Wilhelm II regarding German colonialism and Germany's "rightful" place as an imperial power. "Dulce et decorum..." is a classical line from Horace’s Odes, used widely as World War I patriotic shorthand. Finally, "Donnerwetter!" is a common German exclamation that appears throughout the Crown Prince's own writings. 

Itō's sketch depicting the former German Crown Prince in workmen's clothing, hands on knees, seeing off a gentleman in a chauffeured auto, is his satirical response to an extensive interview between the former Crown Prince in exile in Holland conducted in early December 1918 by the Associated Press. In this interview, the Prince indicated a willingness to return to Germany and work as a laborer should the nation form a republic. While the former Crown Prince did work in a local forge for a period during his internment (earning the moniker "the Blacksmith of Wieringen"), his actual employment by an "automobile company" never occurred, despite his well-documented love of cars.  

The New York Times

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4 1918

CROWN PRINCE HOLDS TO RIGHTS; FORESAW DEFEAT

Ready to Return and Work as a Laborer if Germany Becomes a Republic.

OOSTERLAND, Holland, Dec. 3, (Associated Press.)-"I have not renounced anything and I have not signed any document whatever." Frederick William Hohenzollern, who still claims the title of German Crown Prince, thus answered the question of The Associated Press in the course of a lengthy conversation today, which took place in the small cottage of the village pastor on the Island of Wieringen, where he is interned. "However," he continued, "should the German Government decide to form a republic similar to the United States or France, I should be perfectly content to return to Germany as a simple citizen ready to do anything to assist my country. I should even be happy to work as a laborer in a factory. At present everything appears chaotic in Germany, but I hope things will right themselves.” 

References:

"Crown Prince Holds to Rights; Foresaw Defeat," New York Times, December 4, 1918, p. 1, TimesMachine, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1918/12/04/97048175.html?pageNumber=1.

Notes on Sketch 421, dated February 8, 1919: The Heaviest Snow in Thirty-Seven Years

Starting at noon on February 8 and continuing into the next day, Tokyo experienced an unusually heavy snowfall with a measured depth of 24 cm, one of the deepest on record. 

In commenting on Itō's sketch Kurakata Shunsuke writes: "By showing children and a dog sunk in snow up to their knees, the artist suggests an accumulation of one shaku (about 30 cm). The previous winter, too, when a global cold wave hit Japan, he drew a similarly charming picture [Sketch 311]." 

References:

"観測史上1～10位の値（2月としての値）" ["Top 10 Historical Records (for the Month of February)"], Japan Meteorological Agency, .https://www.data.jma.go.jp/stats/etrn/view/rank_s.php?block_no=47662&day=&month=2&prec_no=44&view=h0&year. 

Kurakata Shunsuke 倉方俊輔, commentary on Itō Chūta’s sketch “421,” in Itō Chūta 伊東忠太 and Sugimura Kōtarō 杉村廣太郎, 阿修羅帖 [Ashura-chō], 5 vols. (Tokyo: Yumani Shobō ゆまに書房, 2013), vol. 5.

Translation of Aoyagi Atsutsune's commentary and notes on Sketch 422, dated February 11, 1919: The Chinese Delegation Gets Carried Away

“Wearing hakama like that, when it doesn’t suit them in the least—what a joke. Though they do nothing but squabble among themselves, they still seem to think, ‘Well, we’ve got a ridiculously useful old gentleman backing us, one who’s very good for our purse.’ They’d better watch their step a little. Yet all the while they shrink into themselves and mutter under their breath, ‘That bow-and-beg policy comes before everything else—we can’t abandon it, not even for some fool’s life …’ Well, well.” 

— Aoyagi Atsutsune

Itō depicts the Chinese (支) plenipotentiary at right, apparently an intended caricature of Gu Weijun (Wellington Koo), aggressively lunging forward toward the Japanese (日) plenipotentiary, who leans back with his arms raised to ward him off. The composition turns the diplomatic dispute over the former German concessions in China, now under Japanese control, into a scene of physical intimidation, offering a visual satirizing of Japan's surprise at the Chinese tactics. 

On February 9, 1919, the Osaka Mainichi Shimbun published a highly critical editorial on what it regarded as China’s improper conduct at the Paris Peace Conference, particularly at the January 28 meeting of the Council of Five, to which the Chinese plenipotentiary Gu Weijun had been invited. The editorial raised strong objections to Chinese efforts, undertaken without prior consultation with Japan, to appeal for the direct and unconditional restoration of the former German concession at Jiaozhou Bay and for the abrogation of Japan’s claims in Shandong, especially those relating to the Shandong Railway. Coupled with the threatened disclosure of the secret treaties between Japan and China, these actions were portrayed as a Chinese betrayal of Japan.

The article is especially alarmed by what it sees as Chinese propaganda tactics designed to rally foreign opinion against Japan. Beneath its criticism of the Chinese delegates runs a deeper unease about Anglo-American influence, especially the possibility that the United States might support China and thereby weaken Japan’s special position in Chinese affairs. Even while disclaiming certainty that the powers were deliberately backing China in order to pressure Japan, the editorial clearly feared that China was trying to enlist American and British sympathy to overturn Japan’s privileged claims in Shandong, stating: "Even if one assumes that the powers themselves harbor no design of supporting China in order to pressure Japan, one cannot but imagine that the Chinese side is prepared to 'use the barbarians to control the barbarians'"—that is, to use one foreign power against another. 

References:

"日支間の遺憾事" ["An Unfortunate Incident Between Japan and China"], Osaka Mainichi Shimbun, February 9, 1919, Kobe University Library Newspaper Digital Archive https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14094/0100318035.

Kurakata Shunsuke 倉方俊輔, commentary on Itō Chūta’s sketch “422,” in Itō Chūta 伊東忠太 and Sugimura Kōtarō 杉村廣太郎, 阿修羅帖 [Ashura-chō], 5 vols. (Tokyo: Yumani Shobō ゆまに書房, 2013), vol. 5.

Transcription of Shiba Sometarō's commentary and notes on Sketch 423, dated February 12, 1919: The Question of Disposing of the German Territories

“And deal damnation

round the land."*

— Shiba Sometarō 

*An excerpt from Alexander Pope's poem "The Universal Prayer."

At the Paris Peace Conference, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson had a different perspective from the Allies, and, of course, from excluded Germany, on what should happen to the German colonies and concessions now in the hands of the Allied powers, especially Britain, France, Japan, and the British Dominions. His view was expressed in Point 5 of his 1918 "Fourteen Points," which read: "A free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims, based upon a strict observance of the principle that in determining all such questions of sovereignty the interests of the populations concerned must have equal weight with the equitable claims of the government whose title is to be determined."

He had hoped that, rather than simply being acquired by the Allied nations, the former German colonies would be administered by mandatory powers on behalf of the League, and that the principle of self-determination would be respected. Given the dependence of the Allied imperial powers on their colonies and concessions, however, this new idea was unacceptable in the form Wilson envisioned.

As described by Kurakata Shunsuke in his commentary on Itō’s sketch, the various countries, chopsticks in hand, are gathered around a large pot labeled "German territories" (独領地). As the pot comes to a boil and they are about to eat, Wilson (ウイルソン) proposes, "Why not put them under international administration?" (国際管理にしやうぢやないか), leaving them dumbfounded.

In the end, most former German colonies became League of Nations mandates administered by the victors, Britain and France in Africa, Japan in the North Pacific, while Germany’s Jiaozhou/Shandong concessions in China were transferred to Japan, not returned directly to China. In the Baltic and Central European lands, the conference recognized or confirmed Poland and Czechoslovakia as independent or internationally acknowledged states. But self-determination was applied unevenly: some frontiers were settled by plebiscites or ethnic claims, while others reflected the strategic and economic concerns of the victors.

References:

Address to a Joint Session of Congress on the Conditions of Peace ["The Fourteen Points"] The American Presidency Project, UC Santa Barbara https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/address-joint-session-congress-the-conditions-peace-the-fourteen-points 

Kurakata Shunsuke 倉方俊輔, commentary on Itō Chūta’s sketch “423,” in Itō Chūta 伊東忠太 and Sugimura Kōtarō 杉村廣太郎, 阿修羅帖 [Ashura-chō], 5 vols. (Tokyo: Yumani Shobō ゆまに書房, 2013), vol. 5.

Translation of Andō Masazumi's commentary and notes on Sketch 424, dated February 14, 1919: The Question of the Abolition of Racial Discrimination

"The Three Realms are mine, and all the sentient beings within them are my children."*

— Andō Tecchō

*Taken from the Lotus Sutra, Chapter 3, Parables.

Of great importance to Japan and the Japanese at Paris was the inclusion of a racial-equality clause in the Covenant of the League of Nations. Itō’s sketch depicts eight faces in different colors, intended to represent the racial diversity of the world’s nations, though with a striking absence of African peoples.*

Starting with the large pink face at top center, which looks very much like a caricatured Woodrow Wilson, Itō identifies it as representing Great Britain and the United States (英米). Moving clockwise are faces representing Rumania (ルマニア), the Slavs (スラヴ), Poland (波蘭), a caricatured Prime Minister Clemenceau representing France (佛), a rather odd-looking China (支那), Japan (日本), shown with a yellow face, and Italy (伊太利).

At a meeting of the Commission on the League of Nations on February 13, 1919,  the Japanese delegation made a dramatic but ultimately unsuccessful attempt to insert into the Covenant a provision affirming racial equality. Baron Makino Nobuaki’s proposed amendment declared that, since the equality of nations was a basic principle of the League, member states should accord all foreign nationals of League states equal and just treatment, without discrimination in law or in fact on account of race or nationality.** Opposition came most strongly from Australia and other parts of the British Empire, while Wilson also resisted the proposal. When the draft Covenant was presented to the Peace Conference the following day without the amendment, Makino reserved Japan’s right to raise the issue again.

On April 11, when the League Commission reconsidered the Covenant, Japan offered a substantially shortened version of its proposal, seeking to add to the Preamble the phrase "by the endorsement of the principle of equality of nations and just treatment of their nationals." This modified wording, as Makino later acknowledged, did not fully meet Japan’s wishes but represented an attempt to reconcile the differing views of the participating nations. It received the support of eleven of the Commission’s seventeen members. Wilson nevertheless ruled that, because of the strength of the opposition, the amendment required unanimous approval and therefore could not be adopted. 

Wilson’s own racial views and his administration’s segregationist policies at home hardly made him a sympathetic champion of such a measure.  In the end, despite support from a majority of delegates for Japan's modified April 11 proposal, he insisted that so controversial an amendment required unanimous approval, effectively killing it.

In his closing remarks on the matter on April 28, Baron Makino stated that it was "to the poignant regret of the Japanese Government and people" that the framers of the Covenant had found themselves unable to accept the Japanese proposal, and the Japanese delegates declared that they would continue to insist upon the adoption of their just demand in the future.

The Japanese press reaction to the rejection of the February 13 amendment was harsh, as can be seen in the following words in the February 22 issue of the Osaka Mainichi Shimbun: "The elimination of racial discrimination is a matter of principle and is practically necessary for maintaining peace, yet for countries with direct interests such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and Great Britain to try to unite themselves and not touch it is unjust, inhumane, and can be described as a curse on the promotion of peace."

* Though largely ignored by the peacemakers, the First Pan-African Congress met in Paris in 1919 under the leadership of the Black American sociologist and writer W. E. B. Du Bois and pressed for representation and protection for people of African descent in the new international order.

** Particularly galling to Japan was America's 1913 Webb-Haney Act (the Californian Alien Land Law), prohibiting ownership or long-term leases of agricultural land by aliens ineligible for citizenship, which was directed primarily at Japanese migrants. 

References:

William A. Schabas, "The Great War and the Fragile Peace," The International Legal Order's Colour Line: Racism, Racial Discrimination, and the Making of International Law, Oxford University Press, 2023, p. 25–38.

Kurakata Shunsuke 倉方俊輔, commentary on Itō Chūta’s sketch “424,” in Itō Chūta 伊東忠太 and Sugimura Kōtarō 杉村廣太郎, 阿修羅帖 [Ashura-chō], 5 vols. (Tokyo: Yumani Shobō ゆまに書房, 2013), vol. 5.

"人種的差別問題 : 断々乎として其撤廃の貫徹を図れ" ["The Racial Discrimination Issue: We Must Resolutely Press Through to the Complete Abolition of It."], Osaka Mainichi Shimbun, February 22, 1919, Kobe University Library Newspaper Digital Archive https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14094/0100319380.

Translation of Sugimura Kōtarō's commentary and notes on Sketch 425, dated February 16, 1919: Draft Covenant of the League of Nations Completed

Within no-thingness is an inexhaustible treasury; there are flowers, there is the moon, there are towers and terraces.*

— Sojinkan [seal]

*A Buddhist-themed verse attributed to Su Shi, a Chinese Song Dynasty literatus and official. 

On Friday, February 14, 1919, at 3:30 p.m., President Woodrow Wilson presented the draft Covenant of the League of Nations at the third plenary session of the Preliminary Peace Conference, stating:

I have the honor, and, as I esteem it, the very great privilege of reporting, in the name of the Commission constituted by this Conference, on the formulation of a plan for the League of Nations. I am happy to say that it is a unanimous report, a unanimous report from the Representatives of fourteen nations—the United States, Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan, Belgium, Brazil, China, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Poland, Portugal, Rumania, and Serbia. I think it will be serviceable and interesting if, with your permission, I read the document as the only report which we have to make.

He then went on to read the entire draft Covenant before departing Paris that evening for his return to the United States.

In general, the Japanese press, while applauding the worthy goals behind the formation of the League, expressed strong doubt about its ultimate effectiveness. Typical of such coverage was an article in the February 18 Osaka Asahi Shimbun which observed, after a lengthy summary and critique of the Covenant’s contents: "In short, the League of Nations is unquestionably a project worthy of special notice in human history, but in every respect it lacks thoroughness; and especially in the fact that it excludes the racial question and excludes the question of freedom of the seas, there is already the naked selfishness of the great powers. Whether it can truly guarantee peace and truly serve as the defender of justice is something about which we are by no means able to suppress great doubt."

Itō’s sketch, showing a castle in the sky as seen through the smoke from Wilson’s pipe (ウィルソン), reflects the doubts many Japanese had about the League and about Wilsonian idealism, particularly in light of the omission of Japan’s proposed racial-equality clause from the February 14 draft.

On April 28, 1919, the amended Covenant, still containing no provision on racial equality, was adopted by the Conference.

References:

"Preliminary Peace Conference, Protocol No. 3, Plenary Session of February 14, 1919," in Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, The Paris Peace Conference, 1919, vol. 3, U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, 

https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1919Parisv03/d5 

"国際連盟成る(上・下)" ["The League of Nations is Established (Parts 1 & 2)"], Osaka Asahi Shimbun, February 18, 1919, Kobe University Library Newspaper Digital Archive, https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14094/0100317102. 

Notes on Sketch 427, dated February 27, 1919: Assassination, Assassination, and Yet More Assassination

Within days of the February 19 attack on French Prime Minister Clemenceau, assassination attempts, some successful and some not, were made on a string of government leaders. Itō depicts the three most prominent victims, from right to left: Kurt Eisner [巴威首相], Prime Minister of Bavaria; Erhard Auer [巴威内相], Bavarian Interior Minister; and Amir Habibullah Khan of Afghanistan [アフガン王], each being stabbed by unseen red-armed assailants.

February 20 — Afghan ruler Amir Habibullah Khan was killed by an unknown assassin while sleeping in his tent in a well-guarded hunting encampment at Qala-e-Gush in what is now Laghman Province. The press quickly advanced various theories about the murder, including possible Bolshevik involvement, though no definitive proof emerged.

February 21 — Kurt Eisner, the Independent Socialist Prime Minister of Bavaria, officially Minister-President of the People’s State of Bavaria, a federal constituent state of the new German Republic, was shot and killed in Munich while on his way to the Bavarian parliament to announce his resignation. His assassin, the right-wing antisemite Anton Graf von Arco-Valley, was severely wounded in the immediate aftermath.

February 21 — Erhard Auer, Bavarian Interior Minister, was attacked and seriously wounded by Alois Lindner, a member of the radical Revolutionary Workers’ Council, who appears to have believed, wrongly, that Auer had played a role in Eisner’s murder.

In the chaos following the attempt on Auer’s life, Major Paul Ritter von Jahreiß, a representative of the Bavarian Ministry of War, was killed, and the conservative Heinrich Osel, a Bavarian People’s Party deputy in the Bavarian Landtag, was also shot and killed.

The violence reflected three distinct but interconnected forces: anarchist fury expressed in the attack on Clemenceau in France, nationalist and anti-British tensions in Afghanistan, and the explosive collision of revolutionary socialism and ultranationalist reaction in a Germany still reeling from military defeat. 

References:

"Amir of Afghanistan Reported Murdered," New York Times, February 25, 1919, p. 9, TimesMachine, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1919/02/25/97078976.html?pageNumber=9.

"Kurt Eisner's Assassination," Münchner Stadtmuseum https://www.muenchner-stadtmuseum.de/en/revolutionary-and-state-premier-kurt-eisner-1867-1919/chapter-10-kurt-eisners-assassination.

Notes on Sketch 428, dated February 28, 1919: This Winter's Harvest

The fourth sketch in which Itō tabulates the names of prominent Japanese who passed away. (Also see sketches 327: The Winter's Results; 376: The Summer's Results; and 396: This Autumn's Harvest.) In this sketch, Itō employs the figure of a blue demon unfurling a scroll containing the names of the dead. 

In his commentary on this sketch, Kurakata Shunsuke identifies two figures on the list as having crossed professional paths with Itō: Shiraishi Naoji, whose lectures on the "Theory of Structural Strength" Itō attended while a student, and Gotō Keiji, a student who studied architectural history under Itō.

The scroll lists from right to left across the top:

• 中島力造 Nakajima Rikizō (1858-December 21, 1918) ethicist and philosopher.

• 川島甚兵衛 Kawashima Jinbei [III] (1879-November? 1918) Kyoto textile-industrialist of the Kawashima weaving house.

• 塚田秀鏡 Tsukada Shūkyō (1848-September 26, 1918) Imperial Household Artist trained in chasing and metalwork.

• 山田寒山 Yamada Kanzan (1856-December 26, 1918), seal engraver, ceramicist, former Zen monk, and man of letters.

• 酒井佐保 Sakai Sukeyasu (1861-December 23, 1918), educator and physicist

• 芳我石雄 Haga Ishio (1880-December 17, 1918), bacteriologist.

• 鈴木華邨 Suzuki Kason (1860-January 3, 1919), Nihonga painter and illustrator, known for bird-and-flower subjects and refined decorative work.

• 高野孟矩 Takano Takenori (1854-January 4, 1919), jurist, prosecutor, politician, and advocate for judicial independence.

• 戸田忠行 Toda Takayuki (1847-December 31, 1918), 8th daimyo and later governor of the Ashikaga Domain, peerage title of viscount, member House of Peers.

• 馬屋原彰 Umayahara Akira (1844-January 8, 1919), former Chōshū retainer, legal bureaucrat, member House of Peers.

• 都吟中 Miyako Ginchū (?-?), Itchū-bushi performer of the Miyako school.

• 島村久 Shimamura Hisashi (1850-January 13, 1918*), diplomat who served first Consul in Seoul and Consul General in New York. 

*Shimamura’s inclusion in the list is most likely an error on Itō’s part or in the information available to him. 

• 有地品之允 Arichi Shinanojō (1843-January 17, 1919), vice admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy, Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff, peerage title of baron.

• 後藤慶二 Gotō Keiji (1883-February 3, 1919), architect, architectural historian, Justice Ministry engineer.

• 古谷久綱 Furuya Hisatsuna (1874-February 11, 1919), bureaucrat, professor, Seiyūkai politician, and longtime secretary/aide to Itō Hirobumi.

• 福島安正 Fukushima Yasumasa (1852-February 19, 1919), army general, intelligence officer, celebrated for long reconnaissance journeys across Asia and Europe, peerage title of baron.

• 色川圀士 Irokawa Kunio (1845-February 14, 1919), education official and school administrator associated with normal schools and modern educational institutions.

• 大山捨松 Ōyama Sutematsu (1860-February 18, 1919), pioneer of women’s higher education and one of the Iwakura Mission girls educated in the United States.

• 寺崎廣業 Terasaki Kōgyō (1866-February 21, 1919), Nihonga painter, professor at Tokyo Fine Arts School, Imperial Household Artist.

• 森山茂 Moriyama Shigeru (1842-February 26, 1919), diplomat and Korea specialist, later Toyama governor and House of Peers member.

The scroll lists from right to left across the bottom:

• 高橋新吉 Takahashi Shinkichi (1843-November 30, 1918), English scholar, bureaucrat, banker, member House of Peers, peerage title of baron.

• 峯島喜代子 Minejima Kiyoko (1833-December 14,1918), celebrated businesswoman and philanthropist.

• 大原重朝 Ōhara Shigetomo (1848-December 14, 1918, bureaucrat, politician, member House of Peers, peerage title of count.)

• 大内青巒 Ōuchi Seiran (1845-December 16, 1918, Buddhist scholar, polemicist, publisher, and president of Tōyō University.

• 藤井善言 Fujii Yoshikoto (1847-December 17, 1918), career bureaucrat who served in the Education, Agriculture-Commerce, and Decorations bureaus.)

• 松井須磨子 Matsui Sumako (1886-January 5, 1919), groundbreaking shingeki actress and singer, co-founded the Geijutsuza troupe.

• 西郷寅太郎 Saigō Toratarō (1866-January 1, 1919), son of Saigō Takamori, army colonel, member House of Peers, peerage title of marquis. 

• 升巴陸龍 Masutomo Rikuryo (1882-January 4, 1919), Jōdo Shinshū priest, journalist, served on Ōtani Kōzui’s Central Asian expedition. 

• 松村淳藏 Matsumura Junzō (1842-January 7, 1919), Naval officer, among the early Meiji naval figures educated abroad.

• 廣岡浅子 Hirooka Asako (1849-January 14, 1919), businesswoman, philanthropist, and leading supporter of women’s education.

• 浅野恭子 Asano Kyōko (1898-January 16, 1919), former imperial princess (Kyōko/Jasuko Joō), eldest daughter of Prince Fushimi Hiroyasu, who married Marquis Asano Nagatake in 1918.

• 鈴木長吉 Suzuki Chōkichi (1848-January 29, 1919), master metalworker and Imperial Household Artist, famous for technically dazzling bronze works.

• 三好愛吉 Miyoshi Aikichi (1871-February 11, 1919), educator,  chief tutor to an imperial prince.

• 相馬順胤 Sōma Aritane (1863-Feb. 13, 1919), 30th head of the former Sōma-Nakamura house, central figure in the early Meiji Sōma Incident, peerage title of viscount. 

• 白石直治 Shiraishi Naoji (1857-February 17, 1919), civil engineer, professor, politician, president of the Japan Society of Civil Engineers, president of the Kansai Railway. 

• 鴨下松二郎 (鴨下松次郎) Kamoshita Matsujirō (1861-immediately before or on February 21, 1919), prominent Japanese soil scientist and agricultural official.

• 黒田侯夫人 (島津清子) Kuroda Kiyoko (née Shimazu Kiyoko 島津清子), (1871 February 15, 1919), wife of Marquis Kuroda Naganari (侯爵黒田長成). 

• 伊東義五郎 Itō Yoshigorō (1858-February 22, 1919), Vice admiral (specialist in naval artillery and torpedoes), active in industry, House of Peers member, peerage title of baron.

• 加納久宜 Kanō Hisayoshi (1848-February 26, 1919) former daimyō, governor, and reform-minded public official, peerage title of viscount.

Notes on Sketch 429, dated March 1, 1919: Universal Suffrage and Demonstrations

Following on the heels of a large student rally for universal male suffrage on February 11, fifty thousand people gathered in Hibiya Park on March 1, 1919, to call for the immediate implementation of universal male suffrage, and ten thousand of them then marched in demonstration to the Diet. Organized by the Universal Suffrage Promotion Alliance (Futsū Senkyo Kisei Dōmeikai), an organization founded in 1900, the demonstration was described by the monthly economic affairs magazine Tōyō Keizai Shimpō as "Japan’s first great political demonstration."

In Itō’s sketch we see a variety of citizens, workers, students, and townsmen, marching in an orderly line with determined expressions, while two well-dressed gentlemen, whose clothing suggests that they already possess voting rights by virtue of paying taxes, glance back at the marchers with mixed expressions, perhaps reflecting Itō’s own feelings on the matter.

In his commentary on the sketch, Kurakata Shunsuke notes: the "phrase written in the image, 'We shall take part in politics' (我等は政治に与らん), is a parody of the line 'Though the enemy be tens of thousands strong' from the 'Song of Universal Suffrage ' (普通選挙の歌), which was sung during the march."

Under the House of Representatives Election Law enacted in 1889 for Japan’s first general election, men had to pay at least 15 yen in direct national taxes to qualify to vote. Although this threshold was repeatedly lowered, to 3 yen by 1919, the tax qualification remained, reflecting the entrenched belief that only men with a certain level of property were capable of sound political judgment. Opponents of universal suffrage often invoked the Mencius phrase, "Those without a fixed livelihood lack a fixed moral sense."

It would not be until March 29, 1925, that the Imperial Diet amended Article 8 of the House of Representatives Election Law to remove the tax qualification, granting the vote to "male subjects of the Empire who are twenty-five years of age or older." It would take another twenty years, and Japan’s defeat in the Pacific War, for the election law to be revised on December 17, 1945, to grant suffrage to all men and women aged twenty and over.

References:

"普通選挙への道" ["The Road to Universal Suffrage"], 年表 [Chronology], アジア歴史資料センター [Japan Center for Asian Historical Records], https://www.jacar.go.jp/exhibition/universalsuffrage/chronology/.

Frederick R. Dickinson, War and National Reinvention: Japan in the Great War, 1914–1919, Harvard University Asia Center, 1999), p. 229. 

Kurakata Shunsuke 倉方俊輔, commentary on Itō Chūta’s sketch “429,” in Itō Chūta 伊東忠太 and Sugimura Kōtarō 杉村廣太郎, 阿修羅帖 [Ashura-chō], 5 vols. (Tokyo: Yumani Shobō ゆまに書房, 2013), vol. 5.

"チャプター1 普通選挙の世界的潮流と第二次憲政擁護運動" ["Chapter 1: The Global Trend toward Universal Suffrage and the Second Movement to Uphold Constitutional Government"], アジア歴史資料センター (Japan Center for Asian Historical Records), https://www.jacar.go.jp/exhibition/universalsuffrage/chapter1/

Notes on Sketch 430, dated March 2, 1919: Marquis Saionji Arrives in France

The elderly and infirm Marquis Saionji (西園寺侯), Japan's chief plenipotentiary and most eminent statesman, long familiar with France and European politics, would sail for France on January 14, 1919, a little over a month after Marquis Makino Nobuaki departed. Makino, while officially the second ranking diplomat behind Saionji, served as the delegation’s de facto head, handling most of its day-to-day business.

Mocking Saionji's belated arrival at the Paris Conference on March 2, after the mid-February departure of U.S. President Wilson and British Prime Minister Lloyd George (both of whom would later return), Itō depicts Saionji in traveling garb, looking quite surprised at finding no one home and seeing only the remnants of a banquet, while a happy dog nibbles on the leftovers.

Notes on Sketch 431, dated March 7, 1919: Korean Unrest

Throughout Japan’s forced occupation of Korea, beginning with the imposition of a protectorate in 1905 and followed by formal annexation in 1910, there were sporadic outbreaks of popular and armed resistance. It was the massive nationwide demonstrations that began on March 1, 1919, however, known as the March First Movement, or Samil Movement, that opened the first small cracks in Japanese imperial rule.

In Itō’s sketch we see a disciplined line of marchers carrying banners and what appear to be rifles and swords, cheered on by a figure marked as America (米). The caricatured American is clearly President Wilson, who waves a flag bearing a cross, perhaps alluding to the role religious groups played in organizing the demonstrations. The banners carried by the marchers read "national self-determination" (民族自決) and "Korean independence" (韓国独立).

Inspired both by Woodrow Wilson’s principle of national self-determination and by the recent death of Korea’s former emperor, Gojong (see Sketch 417), thirty-three Korean religious leaders proclaimed Korea’s independence on March 1 and announced a series of nonviolent protests to begin across the country. Their proclamation read:

We claim independence in the interest of the eternal and free development of our people and in accordance with the great movement for world reform based upon the awakening conscience of mankind.  This is the clear command of heaven, the course of our times, and a legitimate manifestation of the right of all nations to coexist and live in harmony. Behold! A new world is before our eyes.  The days of force are gone, and the days of morality are here. The spirit of humanity, nurtured throughout the past century, has begun casting its rays of new civilization upon human history.

After issuing the declaration, the thirty-three leaders sent copies to activists around the country, notified the police of what they had done, and were promptly arrested. They were then tried and imprisoned by the Japanese colonial authorities, while the movement spread beyond them and continued without centralized leadership.

Over the following weeks, independence demonstrations erupted in more than 300 cities and towns, involving over two million Koreans. These protests were militant in spirit but overwhelmingly nonviolent, and they were met with lethal force, resulting in an estimated 7,500 deaths and some 46,000 arrests. Although the demonstrations led Japan to modify its colonial administration in Korea, shifting from overt military rule to so-called "cultural rule," which many historians regard as a more insidious form of control, independence would not come until Japan’s defeat in World War II.

In his statement to the Japanese public published in the May 20 issue of the Osaka Mainichi Shimbun, after the unrest had begun to subside, the Japanese Governor-General of Korea, Hasegawa Yoshimichi, traced the spread of what he called "the disturbances," to adherents of Ch’ŏndogyo (Religion of the Heavenly Way, a native Korean new religion) and Christianity, accusing them of masterminding the unrest and inciting the crowds to violence. Insisting that Japan’s initial response had been mild, he went on to catalogue a number of brutal acts by demonstrators and emphasize, in the aftermath of the demonstrations, the aid supposedly given to injured Koreans, the respectful burial of the dead, and the "relief " provided for the "impoverished people brought low by the disturbances."

References:

Elowyn Corby, "Koreans Protest Japanese Control in the 'March 1st Movement,' 1919," Global Nonviolent Action Database, Swarthmore College, March 18, 2011, https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/koreans-protest-japanese-control-march-1st-movement-1919.

"Declaration of Independence (March 1, 1919)," Asia for Educators, Columbia University, https://afe.easia.columbia.edu/ps/korea/march_first_declaration.pdf.

"朝鮮騒擾の経過 : 朝鮮総督府発表" ["The Course of the Korean Unrest: Announcement by the Government-General of Korea"], Osaka Mainichi Shimbun, May 20, 1919 Kobe University Library Newspaper Digital Archive https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14094/0100301511.

Translation of Watanabe Tetsuzō's commentary and notes on Sketch 432, dated March 18, 1919: America's China Policy Plan

Chinese Cuisine:

If you get in our way,

you “Jap”—you Japanese hungry ghost—

we’ll first cook you in the Pacific.

— Tetsuzō

In this sketch, Itō once again depicts China as a pig. This time he shows it trussed up and ready to be carved up by Japan (日) on the left and the United States (米) on the right. Note that the larger knife is held by the United States.

In March 1919, concerns over secretive American dealings with China, suggesting that Woodrow Wilson’s "Open Door" policy, first articulated by Secretary of State John Hay, proclaiming equal commercial access in China was a sham, began to be voiced in a number of Japanese newspapers. On March 13, under the headline "A Secret U.S.–China Agreement: Is the Banner of ‘Openness’ a Sham?", the Kokumin Shimbun accused the United States of trying to secure a privileged position in China through a “secret agreement” said to contradict President Wilson’s policy of so-called open diplomacy.

On the date of Itō’s sketch, March 18, the Osaka Asahi Shimbun ran the article "America’s Economic Policy toward China: Blatantly Naked Measures," accusing the United States of seeking economic predominance in China and arguing that "the United States alone has now acquired the economic power to dominate the world." The article closed by criticizing the Japanese government for not knowing "how to make positive use, for the benefit of both the Japanese and Chinese peoples, of Japan’s special relationship with China, a relationship universally recognized as placing Japan in a guiding position."

And in the week following Itō’s sketch, the March 24 issue of the Kahoku Shimpō, in an article titled "Economic Policy toward China: Learn from the Actions of the United States," cited signs that the United States and China were moving to implement an American economic development program, thereby putting Japan’s claimed special relationship with China in jeopardy. It concluded with the warning that, "If the government and businessmen do not pay even more attention to this matter and implement appropriate measures, our special position in China will inevitably become meaningless."

References:

"米支密約 : 看板に詐りなき乎" ["US-China Secret Agreement: Is the Banner of ‘Openness’ a Sham?"], Kokumin Shimbun, March 13, 1919 Kobe University Library Newspaper Digital Archive https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14094/0100318217.

"米国の対支経済策 : 露骨なる諸施設" ["America’s Economic Policy toward China: Blatantly Naked Measures"], Osaka Asahi Shimbun, March 18, 1919 Kobe University Library Newspaper Digital Archive https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14094/0100264456.

"対支経済策 : 米国の活動に鑑よ日付" ["Economic Policy Toward China: Learn from the Actions of the United States"], Kahoku Shimpo, March 24, 1919, Kobe University Library Newspaper Digital Archive https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14094/0100264697.

Translation of Ogawa Heikichi's commentary and notes on Sketch 433, dated March 27, 1919: The Forty-First Diet

One battle — the treacherous ringleaders are toppled;

 A second battle — the enemy's courage runs cold;

 A third battle — the time is drawing near;

Our officers and men, hair bristling against their helmets in righteous fury.

When shall all under heaven be settled?

Then with a gallon of wine I’ll drown my pent-up feelings.

Third month of Shin'yū [1921], copied from an old composition,

—  Ogawa Heikichi signing as Shazan

The 41st Imperial Diet opened on December 27, 1918, and closed on March 26, 1919. It was the first Diet session held under the Hara Cabinet, led by the Rikken Seiyūkai, the first party cabinet to come to power in the wake of the 1918 Rice Riots.

Among the session’s more notable developments was the passage of an amendment to the House of Representatives election law, lowering the tax qualification for male suffrage from 10 yen to 3 yen and changing the House electoral system from large electoral districts to small electoral districts. While the lowering of the tax threshold added approximately 1.5 million male voters, the abolition of the tax qualification itself would not come until March 1925, and the extension of universal suffrage to women would have to wait until December 1945, as discussed in the notes to Sketch 429.

As reported in the Osaka Mainichi Shimbun, although the session appeared outwardly calm, it was in fact a Diet session marked by considerable internal turmoil.

Itō’s sketch reflects that turmoil. On the right side of the picture, Prime Minister Hara Takashi is depicted skillfully evading attacks from the opposition parties—the Kenseikai and the Rikken Kokumintō. Itō casts this political struggle as a bout taking place within a sumo ring.

References:

"第四十一議会評" ["41st Council Meeting"] Osaka Mainichi Shimbun, March 28, 1919 Kobe University Library Newspaper Digital Archive https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14094/0100306050.

Kurakata Shunsuke 倉方俊輔, commentary on Itō Chūta’s sketch “433,” in Itō Chūta 伊東忠太 and Sugimura Kōtarō 杉村廣太郎, 阿修羅帖 [Ashura-chō], 5 vols. (Tokyo: Yumani Shobō ゆまに書房, 2013), vol. 5.

Translation of Sugimura Kōtarō's commentary and notes on Sketch 434, dated April 10, 1919: Japan Is Excluded

If I need something, I will clap my hands.

— So[jinkan]

In Itō’s sketch, the United States (米), Great Britain (英), France (佛), and Italy (伊) sit in a circle, talking and gesturing, while little Japan (日) sits off to the side, outside that circle, arms folded and visibly upset at being ignored.

By late March 1919, the most important questions at the Paris Peace Conference were increasingly being handled in informal meetings of the so-called Council of Four, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, French Premier Clemenceau, British Prime Minister Lloyd George, and Italian Prime Minister Orlando, rather than in the broader conference bodies.

On April 3, the Osaka Mainichi Shimbun, in an editorial titled "The Five Great Powers Become Four — How Can Our Authorities Remain So Unperturbed?" raised an outcry against Japan’s exclusion from the Big Four’s "secret diplomacy" and against the excuses offered for that exclusion by both the four powers and Japan’s own delegates. Calling Japan’s exclusion a "grave insult," the editorial asked the rhetorical question: "Is this not also an irrational and unlawful injustice, difficult for Japan to understand and impossible to accept?"

Declaring that "Whatever question the heads of the four powers may be discussing privately, Japan has already been recognized as one of the five great powers and as a member of the supreme council that ought jointly to deliberate on questions concerning the peace and the reorganization of the world," the editorial closed by asking, "What do the authorities intend to do?"

References:

Kurakata Shunsuke 倉方俊輔, commentary on Itō Chūta’s sketch “434,” in Itō Chūta 伊東忠太 and Sugimura Kōtarō 杉村廣太郎, 阿修羅帖 [Ashura-chō], 5 vols. (Tokyo: Yumani Shobō ゆまに書房, 2013), vol. 5.

"除外されたる日本 : 五大国は四大国となる=我当局の平然たる如何" ["Japan Excluded: The Five Great Powers Become Four Great Powers = How Can Our Authorities Remain Calm?"] Osaka Mainichi Shimbun, April 4, 1919, Kobe University Library Newspaper Digital Archive https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14094/0100316078.

Translation of Hoshijima Nirō's and Kiyose Ichirō's commentary and notes on Sketch 435, dated April 14, 1919: Radical Thought

If by ‘radical thought’ one means Bolshevism, is it really something this frightening?

— Hoshijima Nirō

 After staring at this picture for several minutes, I do not feel it to be frightening in the least. I keep looking at it, thinking I might derive some sort of impression from it, but no feeling of fear arises at all. Indeed, perhaps what is called ‘radical thought’ may be something like this.

— Kiyose Ichirō

Itō presents us with a maelstrom of demons and people fallen or fleeing in their wake. Of course, the maelstrom is the fallout from Bolshevism, which appeared to be sweeping Europe and making inroads into Korea, China, and even Japan.

In the days leading up to Itō’s sketch, Japanese newspapers printed numerous editorials and articles on the dangers of extremist ideology, such as the following headlines and brief excerpts:

Osaka Mainichi Shimbun, April 6, 1919: "Russia and Koreans in Shanghai are Trying to Bring the Evil Current of Extremist Ideology to Japan: The Unrest in Various Parts of Korea is Ultimately Largely Due to the Spread of Their Ideology." — It appears that these groups [Koreans living abroad] are secretly instilling extremist ideologies in mainland Korea, aiming first to destroy order in mainland Korea and then spread it to mainland Japan.

Kokumin Shimbun, April 6, 1919: "The United States and the Racial Issue: Our Enemy is Socialism and Extremism," — (Quoting from a Foreign Ministry report on a speech by Ambassador Viscount Ishii Kikujirō) Henceforth, the only war before us will be one against socialism, or rather Bolshevism. In that coming war, the peoples of all countries, regardless of nationality or race, must unite and face the common enemy together; and at the same time, in every country alike, all notions concerning religion and race must forever disappear.

Yorozu Chōhō (Complete Morning Report), April 10, 1919: "Extremists Around the World," — Lenin and Trotsky’s Bolshevism is now spreading in all directions with the force of a wildfire.

Osaka Asahi Shimbun, April 10, 1919: "Russian Extremist Groups’ Overseas Activities," — The extremists, driven to desperation, are gaining strength from their slight advantage and are attempting to extend their influence further into Europe.

Chūgai Shōgyō Shimpō (Japan Industrial and Economic Newspaper), April 11, 1919: "German Extremists on the Rise: Republic Declared in Munich," — According to a local telegram, a Workers’ and Soldiers’ Republic was declared in Munich this afternoon, the 7th. It is said that the realization of a despotism of the lower classes in Bavaria is almost a foregone conclusion, and there are no longer any means to prevent it.

References:

"過激思想の悪潮を日本に持ちこまんとする露国、上海の在外鮮人 : 朝鮮各地の騒擾も畢竟彼等の思想伝播による多し," ["Koreans Abroad in Russia and Shanghai Seeking to Bring the Evil Tide of Radical Thought into Japan: The Disturbances Throughout Korea Are, in the Final Analysis, Largely Due to Their Dissemination of These Ideas"] Osaka Mainichi Shimbun, April 6, 1919, Kobe University Library Newspaper Digital Archive https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14094/0100285797.

"米国と人種案問題 : 吾人の敵は社会主義と過激派" ["The United States and the Racial Issue: Our Enemy is Socialism and Extremism"] Kokumin Shimbun, April 6, 1919, Kobe University Library Newspaper Digital Archive https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14094/0100239734.

"世界到処過激派" ["Extremists Around the World"] Yorozu Chōhō, April 10, 1919, Kobe University Library Newspaper Digital Archive https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14094/0100286162.

"露国過激派の国外運動" ["Russian Extremist Groups' Overseas Activities"] Osaka Asahi Shimbun, April 10, 1919, Kobe University Library Newspaper Digital Archive https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14094/0100285777.

"独過激派益々擡頭 : ミュンヘンに共和宣言" ["German Extremists on the Rise: Republic Declared in Munich"], Chūgai Shōgyō Shimpō, April 11, 1919, Kobe University Library Newspaper Digital Archive https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14094/0100286590.

Translation of Ōyama Ikuo's commentary and notes on Sketch 436, dated April 15, 1919: The Racial-Equality Proposal Rejected: Japan Trampled Underfoot

What is truly frightening is international prejudice, but international prejudice is no more than the shadow of “nationalism.” Those who kick, and those who, having been kicked, burn with a desire for revenge—both alike are possessed by the demonic spirit called “nationalism,” are they not? What ought to be cursed is this evil god itself. And the henchmen of this demon are swarming in every country. Do not carelessly fall into their trap and let the demon stick out its red tongue in triumph.

Beware! Beware!

— Ōyama Ikuo

On April 11, 1919, at the final meeting of the Commission on the League of Nations at the Paris Peace Conference, the Japanese delegation made its last attempt to secure recognition of the principle of racial equality in the draft Covenant of the League of Nations. Rather than resubmitting the more explicit amendment it had proposed on February 13, Japan offered a substantially shortened compromise formulation for insertion in the Covenant’s preamble: "by the endorsement of the principle of equality of nations and just treatment of their nationals." Baron Makino later explained that this modified proposal did not fully meet Japan’s wishes, but represented an attempt to reconcile the differing views of the participating nations. 

The modified amendment received the support of a clear majority of the Commission, commonly reported as eleven of the seventeen members voting. President Wilson, who chaired the Commission, nevertheless ruled that, in view of the strong opposition to the proposal, unanimous approval was required and declared the amendment not adopted. Japan’s original February 13 proposal had been considerably more explicit, stating: "The equality of nations being a basic principle of the League of Nations, the High Contracting Parties agree to accord, as soon as possible, to all alien nationals of States Members of the League equal and just treatment in every respect, making no distinction, either in law or in fact, on account of their race or nationality."

As discussed in Sketches 407, 424, and 425, racial equality was one of the "Three Great Claims" advanced by the Japanese delegation at Paris, and the only one that ultimately failed. Itō’s sketch, drawn four days after the Commission’s decision, depicts an enraged Japan being trampled underfoot by the legs of its unseen "allies."

Opposition to Japan’s proposal centered particularly on Australian Prime Minister William Morris Hughes, whose resistance within the British Empire delegation made British support extremely difficult, while Wilson also opposed its inclusion in the Covenant. France and Italy were more sympathetic to Japan’s position. The issue was closely watched by the Japanese press, and in the days leading up to and following the April 11 decision, headlines expressed anger and frustration both at the performance of the Japanese delegation and at the actions of the United States and the British Empire:

April 6: "Rather, We Should Leave the League: When the Racial-Equality Bill Is Rejected / Remarks by Marquis Shigenobu Okuma" — Kokumin Shimbun

April 11: "Anti-Japanese Sentiment Among Americans Both Domestically and Internationally: What Will Be the Hara Cabinet's Policy Toward the United States?" — Osaka Mainichi Shimbun 

April 15: "Racial Issues: Australian Prime Minister Strongly Opposes: US President Again Supports Britain"— Osaka Mainichi Shimbun

April 16: "The Racial-Equality Proposal Buried: The Strengths and Weaknesses of Japanese-American Diplomacy" — Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun 

April 16: "The Final Stone to Throw: The Japanese Committee Lacks Brilliance: The League of Nations Can Become Useless and Harmful" — Kokumin Shimbun  

April 17: "Japan’s Reputation Is Completely Ruined: Even Those in the Know Are Finally Becoming Pessimistic = Our Peace Committee Is Incompetent" — Hōchi Shimbun

April 17: "Racial-Equality Bill Rejected: Even the US president Has Changed His Tune" — Kōbe Yūshin Nippō

References:

"Preliminary Peace Conference, Protocol No. 5, Plenary Session of April 28, 1919," in Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, The Paris Peace Conference, 1919, vol. III, U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1919Parisv03/d7.

"寧ろ連盟を脱せよ : 人種平等案否決の時は / 侯爵 大隈重信氏談" ["Rather, We Should Leave the League: When the Racial-Equality Bill Is Rejected / Remarks by Marquis Shigenobu Okuma"], Kokumin Shimbun, April 6, 1919, Kobe University Library Newspaper Digital Archive https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14094/0100317727.

"内外における米人の排日 : 原内閣の対米策如何" ["Anti-Japanese sentiment among Americans both domestically and internationally: What will be the Hara Cabinet's policy toward the United States?"], Osaka Mainichi Shimbun, April 11, 1919, Kobe University Library Newspaper Digital Archive https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14094/0100317535.

"人種案形勢 : 濠洲首相頑強に反対 : 米大統領又英に加担" ["Racial Issues: Australian Prime Minister Strongly Opposes: US President Again Supports Britain"], Osaka Mainichi Shimbun, April 15, 1919, Kobe University Library Newspaper Digital Archive https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14094/0100239829.

"人種案葬らる : 日米外交の長短" ["The Racial-Equality Proposal Buried: The Strengths and Weaknesses of Japanese-American Diplomacy"], Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun, April 16, 1919, Kobe University Library Newspaper Digital Archive https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14094/0100316765.

"最後の投石に : 精彩を欠ける日本委員 : 無用有害となれる国際連盟" ["The Final Stone to Throw: The Japanese Committee Lacks Brilliance: The League of Nations can Become Useless and Harmful"], Kokumin Shimbun, April 16, 1919, Kobe University Library Newspaper Digital Archive https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14094/0100316590.

"日本の面目全く潰る : 其筋にても漸く悲観=我講和委員無能" ["Japan’s Reputation Is Completely Ruined: Even Those in the Know Are Finally Becoming Pessimistic = Our Peace Committee Is Incompetent"], Hōchi Shimbun, April 17, 1919, Kobe University Library Newspaper Digital Archive https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14094/0100259761.

"人種平等案否決か : 米大統領迄も豹変" ["Racial-Equality Bill Rejected: Even the US President Has Changed His Tune"], Kōbe Yūshin Nippō, April 17, 1919,  Kobe University Library Newspaper Digital Archive https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14094/0100239687.

Notes on Sketch 437, dated April 17, 1919: Russia Sells Strange Meat

In this sketch, Itō depicts a Russian peasant woman at a butcher shop being served by a man with a diabolical expression. Hanging above are the heads of a sheep, a dog, and a pig, the dog’s head signaling the dire food shortages that followed the Bolshevik Revolution and deepened during the Civil War. Hidden from the shopper’s view behind the counter are human remains, suggesting that what is actually being sold may be human flesh.

The sketch appears to be based on unsubstantiated rumors that began circulating in March 1919 about human flesh, Itō’s "strange meat," being sold in Petrograd and, in some versions, Moscow to starving Russians. These reports were amplified by the press, much like the wartime rumors of German corpse factories discussed in Sketches 244 and 249. On the date of Itō’s sketch, April 17, the Tokyo Asahi Shimbun carried the following statement in an article titled "A Bolshevik Regiment Annihilated: Food Shortages in the Russian Capital": "The state of food shortage in Petrograd is such that, as reported in the previous telegram, even dog and cat meat are being bought and sold. Recently, a certain Chinese man was discovered by the authorities selling human flesh and was shot to death. From this, one may infer just how severe the city’s shortage of food has become."

This story was already in circulation in American official and press channels by mid-March 1919, with Vice Consul Robert Imbrie at Viborg, Finland, reporting to Acting Secretary of State Frank L. Polk, "What little food reaches these cities [Petrograd and Moscow] is brought in by peasants. Sugar now 120 rubles a pound, horse meat 21, dog 7. Chinese soldiers have been arrested for selling human flesh." As Imbrie himself noted, his information was compiled from "refugees, border guards, a messenger, Russian papers and a captured Bolshevik courier," making clear that the report rested on hearsay and highly partisan channels rather than direct investigation. 

On March 23, the New York Times reported in an article titled "Conditions in Russia" that "peasants are bringing in the only food available, and it is sold at excessive prices. Sugar is quoted at 20 rubles a pound*, dog meat at 7, and horse flesh at 21. Human flesh is reported to have been sold by Chinese soldiers, who have been arrested on the charge." This New York Times report appears to have been based on the above Imbrie report.

While the particular story of Chinese soldiers, or "a certain Chinese man", selling human flesh to starving Russians in March 1919 appears to be unverified and probably false, the food situation in 1919 was nonetheless severe, especially in Russian cities, caused by continuing poor harvests, logistical disruptions due to the ongoing Civil War, an economy in near collapse and ill-conceived policies by the Bolshevik government. These shortages would grow into what came to be known as the "Great Famine," starting in 1921 and continuing into 1923 until improved harvests, international aid and a rethinking of food policies by the Bolsheviks brought its end. 

*this price was likely a misprint, as the State Department report states that sugar was selling at 120 rubles per pound.

References:

"過軍連隊殲滅 : 露都食糧欠乏" ["A Bolshevik Regiment Annihilated: Food Shortages in the Russian Capital”], Tokyo Asahi Shimbun, April 17, 1919,  Kobe University Library Newspaper Digital Archive https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14094/0100340323. 

"Conditions in Russian Cities," New York Times, March 23, 1919, p. 40, TimesMachine, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1919/03/23/98280541.html?pageNumber=40.

"The Acting Secretary of State to the Commission to Negotiate Peace," in Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1919, Russia, U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1919Russia/d69.

Translation of Itō Chūta's commentary and notes on Sketch 438, dated April 18, 1919: The True Intentions of the Great Powers

England: "I'd like to outmaneuver America."

America: "What an easily played bunch."

France: "Damn those British and Americans!"

Italy: "As long as we get Fiume, that's plenty."

China: "There’s nothing like opportunistic plundering amid the chaos."

Japan: "We knew how this would go from the very start."

— Chūta

In Itō’s sketch, six figures representing China (支) and the Five Great Powers, America (米), Great Britain (英), Japan (日), France (佛), and Italy (伊), sit in a circle, not speaking to one another. On the right a panting Woodrow Wilson, tongue out, appears exhausted as he glances at an unconcerned-looking Great Britain, who stares off into space. To Great Britain's right is a yellow-skinned Japan, looking withdrawn and sad. Behind him is a grinning China and to its left France sits smiling as it glances over its shoulder, with a happy-looking Italy completing the picture.

As the sketch suggests, the Paris Peace Conference was bogging down with nations keeping their intentions held close, and little progress being made in the days leading up to April 18, the date on Itō's sketch.

The Japanese press response to the talks lamented the lack of progress, suggesting that the domestic political issues of each country were slowing progress and that the conference had in effect become a secret meeting of a few people.

Summing up the general feeling was the following appearing in the April 17 issue of the Osaka Shimpō, under an article titled, "Heads of State of the Four Major Powers Clash in Paris: A Humiliating Peace Conference":

The peace conference in Paris has taken a turn for the worse. Originally intended to be a peace conference of the 15 Great Powers, Japan has been left out and the conference has been called a four-nation conference. The heads of state of Britain, America, France, and Italy have secretly holed up in a secret room and are whispering amongst themselves. The topic they are discussing is said to be the League of Nations, but the conference is not progressing at all. Upon closer investigation, it has become clear that the four nations are indeed fighting amongst themselves in secret.

References:

"四大国の元首が巴里で喧嘩 : 醜体暴露の講和会議 : 国際連盟で強烈の意見区々 : 人種問題の前途暗澹" ["Heads of State of the Four Major Powers Clash in Paris: A Humiliating Peace Conference: Strong Divisions of Opinion at the League of Nations: A Bleak Future for Racial Issues"], Osaka Shimpō, April 17, 1919, Kobe University Library Newspaper Digital Archive https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14094/0100316834.

Translation of Sugimura Kōtarō's commentary and notes on Sketch 439, dated April 19, 1919: The Peace Conference

Which morsel of meat?

—  Sojinkan [seal]

Itō has transformed the six nations in the previous sketch (Sketch 438) into carnivorous beasts in this sketch, all of them gazing hungrily at a dead pig representing Germany. In the days leading up to this sketch, discussions were underway over German reparations and the disposition of German territory and overseas possessions. In the sketch, the Big Four powers are poised to take their bites, while Japan, portrayed as a small dog with its tail between its legs, looks on longingly at the carcass, and China, depicted as a fox-like animal, attempts to slip beneath the tiger’s leg to snatch a small portion.

While America, shown as the king of beasts, appears dominant in the composition, it did not seek territorial acquisitions for itself. It did, however, maintain claims for reparations and indemnities on behalf of the U.S. government and, especially, American nationals who had suffered war-related losses.

Great Britain sought reparations and the redistribution, under mandate, of Germany’s overseas empire, including German East Africa and portions of Togoland and the Cameroons, as well as German possessions in the Pacific through the wider British Empire.

France pressed for extensive reparations, the return of Alsace-Lorraine, security guarantees along the Rhine, and control of the Saar coal basin.

Italy’s principal claims centered on the former Habsburg territories and the Adriatic settlement, particularly Dalmatia and cities such as Zara and Sebenico, while also asserting its right to a share of German reparations.

As for China and Japan, both laid claim to the former German concession in Shandong: China demanding full restoration of sovereignty, and Japan asserting its claim based on conquest, prior agreements with China in 1915, and wartime understandings with the Allied powers.

References:

"Notes of a Meeting Held at President Wilson’s House in the Place des Etats-Unis, Paris, on Tuesday, April 22, 1919, at 11:30 a.m.," in Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, The Paris Peace Conference, 1919, vol. 5, U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1919Parisv05/d13.

Translation of Kinoshita Toshio's commentary and notes on Sketch 440, dated April 20, 1919: The Siberian Railway Management Issue

Old Man America [Uncle Sam] speaks:

"Thanks for all your hard work! But this is quite enough for your share. Even if I went to the trouble of giving you the choice cuts—the head or the torso—you wouldn't be able to digest them anyway."

It was a classic case of "great pains, no gains"—laboring in vain. What mocking treatment from Old Man America! For a time, "Sunrise Taro" [Hinode Tarō] (a satirical stand-in for Japan) was choked with tears of grief and indignation.

However, looking back now, it turns out this was actually a stroke of luck. Had he clumsily accepted the head or the body of the fish, given the recent indecisive and half-baked political climate, Japan’s railway experts would have been at a total loss on how to "cook" such a dish.

Not only would the bones and meat have been reduced to a total mess, but eventually, there would have been no choice left but to inflict deep wounds upon both the people and the nation itself.

— March 10, 1921 Kinoshita Toshio

In Itō's sketch, we see America (米), personified by a long-jawed, oversized Woodrow Wilson, serving Japan (日), personified by a small samurai with a very sad look on his face, the tail portion of a delectable redfish, while keeping the head and body of the fish for himself. Behind Wilson lies an abacus, reminding us of his calculating nature.

Itō's sketch may well have been triggered by the April 20 article in the Tokyo Hōchi Shimbun bearing essentially the same title as Itō's sketch, "The Siberian Railway Management Issue." The article laments the reality of what was supposed to be "joint Japanese-American management" of the Siberian Railway, stating: "Japan has obtained only the empty name of supervising military transport, while entrusting the entire substance of railway management to the United States. Can this really be called a proper arrangement?"

Continuing, the article states Japan’s true grievance as follows:

Furthermore, if one examines the actual sacrifices made toward the preservation of order in Siberia, Japan at one time dispatched tens of thousands of troops, continually bore the burden of the front lines, and suffered many dead and wounded; even now it still keeps more than twenty thousand brave soldiers there, solely in the interest of maintaining peace and security. By contrast, the United States dispatched only the same number as the other powers—slightly more than seven thousand men—remaining consistently in the rear and hardly undertaking any real duty at all. And yet when it comes to the actual question at issue, America does not hesitate to thrust others aside and take possession of the matter, while Japan must meekly submit. Where is the justification for this?

If matters continue to develop in this way, Japan’s so-called special position in China and Siberia will be wholly trampled underfoot by the United States, and all of East Asia will ultimately be consigned to American economic domination.

The article closes by demanding an explanation from the Japanese government.

References:

"西鉄管理問題" ["The Siberian Railway Management Issue"], Hōchi Shimbun, April 20, 1919, Kobe University Library Newspaper Digital Archive https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14094/0100150846. 

Notes on Sketch 441, dated April 22, 1919: The Russian People Eat Dogs and Rats

Starving figures hunt rats and devour their catch, while another carries off what appears to be a dog’s leg, in Itō’s sketch, another chilling depiction (see Sketch 437) of the mounting starvation in Russia and the desperation of its people.

In his sketch, Itō recasts a phrase from Mencius, writing 餓莩野に充り ("the bodies of the starved fill the fields"), and, in the cartouche at upper left, lists the going rates for dog and rat meat: 狗肉一斤百二十留, "Dog meat, 120 rubles per kin," and 鼠肉一斤七十留, "Rat meat, 70 rubles per kin." 

While the Allies expressed concern over the suffering, efforts to bring relief to the Russian populace foundered on politics. The Bolshevik leadership was unwilling to accept foreign food aid unless it came on terms it could accept, while the Allies themselves could not reach a consensus on how to relieve the crisis without, in effect, helping to sustain the very Bolshevik government many of them still hoped to overthrow.

Notes on Sketch 442, dated April 24, 1919: It Is Decided to Sink the German Fleet

While the Armistice of November 11, 1918, required Germany to surrender its entire U-boat fleet immediately, the Allies had not yet decided the fate of the surface ships of the German High Seas Fleet. Pending a final decision at the peace negotiations, these ships were to be interned in Allied or neutral ports. Between November 25 and 27, seventy German ships sailed under heavy Allied escort to internment at the great natural harbor of Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands; they were soon joined by four additional German ships, bringing the total to seventy-four.

In the days before Itō's sketch, which depicts an executioner about to slay five bound maidens, a trope Itō uses for non-combatant ships, the fate of the fleet, as reported by the New York Times on April 19, was still undecided: "The final disposition of the German fleet is one of the subjects still undecided, and even the highest naval authorities are not aware how the question stands since it passed into the hands of the Council of Four." But on the very date of Itō's sketch, April 24, the Osaka Mainichi Shimbun carried the headline "The Interned German Ships to Be Sunk: Resolution of the Supreme Military Council," reporting:

According to information reaching trustworthy quarters, the Supreme Military Council of the Allied Powers has recently gone so far as not only to determine the method for disposing of the interned German warships, but also apparently to specify that decision explicitly among the military terms to be imposed on Germany. As this decision has not yet been presented to the German delegates, it is being kept under the strictest secrecy; nevertheless, judging from the general trend of affairs, there is reason to believe that the decision is, broadly speaking, to sink them.  

As it turned out, the report was incorrect: no final decision had yet been made regarding the fleet’s disposition, as the Allies remained divided over its fate, with Britain and the United States favoring scrapping the ships, while others hoped to divide them among the victorious navies.

The final disposition of most of the fleet was taken out of Allied hands when, after learning that formal surrender of the ships was required by June 21, German Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter, in command at Scapa Flow, ordered the fleet scuttled, and fifty-two ships were sunk within a matter of hours.*

*Unknown to Reuter, the deadline had been extended to June 23. 

References:

"The Scuttling of the German Fleet 1919," International War Museum https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/first-world-war/armistice/scuttling-of-the-german-fleet-1919.

"Heligoland, Dismantled, to be Fishermen's Haven—Fate of German Fleet in Doubt," New York Times, April 19, 1919, p. 1, TimesMachine, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1919/04/19/118145569.html?pageNumber=1.

"抑留独艦は撃沈 : 最高軍事会議の決議" ["The Interned German Ships to Be Sunk: Resolution of the Supreme Military Council"], Osaka Mainichi Shimbun, April 24, 1919, Kobe University Library Newspaper Digital Archive https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14094/0100317109.  

Translation of Sakai Kuraki's commentary and notes on Sketch 443, dated April 25, 1919: Germany Is Summoned to the Peace Conference

The Kaiser— As sad as a weeping willow, The peony flower.

— a senryū by Kuraki

On April 16, the New York Times carried an Associated Press dispatch from Paris reporting that "A formal invitation was sent by the Council of Four today to the German Government to send representatives to Versailles for the meeting of the Peace Congress on April 25. No reply had been received up to tonight, but it is expected that the German delegation will reach Versailles about April 24."

By April 20, the Germans had responded "that Germany would send, on the 25th April, Minister Von Haniel, Councillor Von Keller, and Councillor Ernst Smitt. These delegates would be provided with the necessary powers to receive the text of the proposed Preliminaries of Peace which they would bring back to the German Government." In response, the Council of Four declared: "The Allied and Associated Powers cannot receive envoys merely authorised to receive the terms of peace. They must require that the German Government shall send plenipotentiaries fully authorised to deal with the whole question of peace as are the plenipotentiaries of the Allied and Associated Powers."

On April 25, the German delegation began arriving, with the main contingent following over the next few days. Although Germany did send plenipotentiaries fully authorised to deal with the whole question of peace, when the Germans were finally received at Versailles the Allies immediately announced: "There will be no oral discussions, and their observations must be furnished in writing," effectively denying them equal footing with the plenipotentiaries of the Allied and Associated Powers.

In commenting on Itō's sketch, Kurakata Shunsuke writes, "Germany is depicted as a criminal forced to kneel on a shirasu (a white sand-covered courtyard used for interrogations). This imagery likens the proceedings of the Paris Peace Conference to an Edo-period magistrate’s office; the terms of the treaty were not disclosed in advance, and the opposing party was only summoned after the verdict had been finalized, much like the delivery of a formal criminal sentence."

References:

"Big Four Summon the Germans," New York Times, April 16, 1919, p. 1, TimesMachine, https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1919/04/16/118144413.html?pageNumber=1.

Notes of a Meeting Held at President Wilson’s House in the Place des Etats-Unis, Paris, on Easter Sunday, April 20, 1919, at 10 a.m., in Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, The Paris Peace Conference, 1919, Volume V, U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1919Parisv05/d10.

Peace Congress (Versailles), Protocol No. 1, Plenary Session of May 7, 1919 in Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, The Paris Peace Conference, 1919, Volume III, U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian,

https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1919Parisv03/d11

Kurakata Shunsuke 倉方俊輔, commentary on Itō Chūta’s sketch “443,” in Itō Chūta 伊東忠太 and Sugimura Kōtarō 杉村廣太郎, 阿修羅帖 [Ashura-chō], 5 vols. (Tokyo: Yumani Shobō ゆまに書房, 2013), vol. 5.

Notes on Sketch 444, dated April 25, 1919: Salary Increases for Government Officials

Responding to inflationary pressures, the 41st Diet approved a temporary cost-of-living allowance amounting to a 50 percent increase in officials' regular salaries. Promulgated by imperial ordinance, it took effect on April 1, 1919, in mainland Japan, but it did not constitute a permanent revision of the salary scale.

Itō’s sketch paints a rather rosy picture of these increases, depicting, in Kurakata Shunsuke’s words, a scene that "depicts daily life regaining a sense of stability. The wife prepares a rice container filled to the brim, and fish is set out on the dining table. The husband now has the leisure to tilt a sake cup, while the child, holding a rice bowl, looks delighted. A toy lies nearby, suggesting the child had been absorbed in play until just moments before. Even so, the life of a government official remains modest."

The reality, even with this seemingly sizeable temporary increase, was far less reassuring for a large proportion of government employees. As noted in a September 23, 1919 article titled "The Standard for Salary Increases" in the Yorozu Chōhō, it took an estimated 2,000 yen per year for a Japanese household to "maintain a humane standard of living," yet "the vast majority … earn only 400 to 500 yen annually," while "only a very small minority earns more than 2,000 yen per year," leaving "the overwhelming majority … in conditions that are, frankly, pitiable."

Translation of Fukuchi Nobuyo's commentary and notes on Sketch 445, dated April 27, 1919: Mei Lanfang Arrives

All beings, blinded by illusion , see only madness in the flowers; as they bloom and fade, their affliction worsens . Realizing the garland is not their true self , they might as well play among the masters

Written by Mei Lanfang

Whence does such a celestial flower come from

— Fukuchi Nobuyo

Itō's sketch depicts the celebrated dan (female-role) performer Mei Lanfang as a celestial maiden, appearing before a revering Japanese audience. In his play, "The Heavenly Maiden Scattering Flowers," when the Heavenly Maiden appears, she scatters flower petals, which adhered to the sleeves of those who had not conquered their carnal desires. Awaiting his arrival on April 25 at Tokyo Station were the industrialist Ōkura Kihachirō, representatives of the Imperial Theatre, and the actress Mizutani Yaeko, while a crowd of more than a thousand people gathered around them.

An October 2009 retrospective article in the Taipei Want Daily, remembered Mei's April 1919 trip to Japan, as follows:

In April 1919, at just twenty-six years old, Mei accepted an invitation from the Japanese magnate Ōkura Kihachirō to perform in Japan. He appeared at Tokyo’s Imperial Theatre as well as in Osaka and Kobe, presenting works such as The Heavenly Maid Scattering Flowers and The Jade Hairpin. All seventeen performances were sold out. Contemporary reports noted that Japanese audiences were newly exposed to the beauty of traditional Chinese art, found the modernized Peking opera refreshing, and were captivated by Mei’s female impersonations, hailing him as "the most beautiful woman in the East."

Despite his deep ties with Japan’s artistic community, during the War of Resistance against Japan [1937-1945] Mei refused to collaborate culturally. Outraged by the suffering inflicted on China, he declined to perform for Japanese audiences. In 1937, while residing in Hong Kong, he grew a beard and announced that he would withdraw from the stage for several years, thereby avoiding performance. Only after hearing of Japan’s defeat in 1945 did he shave his beard and return to the stage.

References:

Kurakata Shunsuke 倉方俊輔, commentary on Itō Chūta’s sketch “445,” in Itō Chūta 伊東忠太 and Sugimura Kōtarō 杉村廣太郎, 阿修羅帖 [Ashura-chō], 5 vols. (Tokyo: Yumani Shobō ゆまに書房, 2013), vol. 5.

George Kin Leung, "Repertoire for the American Tour of Mei Lan-Fang," p. 91, 1929. 

Huijuan Liao (廖慧娟), "京劇之花梅蘭芳風靡櫻花國：紀念大師風華 日本辦展回顧" ["The Flower of Peking Opera, Mei Lanfang, Captivates the Land of Cherry Blossoms: Japan Commemorates the Master’s Brilliance with an Exhibition Retrospective"], 旺報 (Want Daily), October 18, 2009, https://www.chinatimes.com/newspapers/20091018000723-260306?chdtv.

Translation of Sugimura Kōtarō's commentary and notes on Sketch 446, dated April 27, 1919: Italy Withdraws from the Alliance

Orlando of Italy is throwing a massive tantrum. France tried to stop him, but he wouldn't listen. Britain was left dumbfounded. America stuck out its tongue. Japan is thinking "Huh?" and "What?" quite a lot. This is a perfect example of the saying, "A fool’s deliberation is like taking a nap."

— Sugimura

Itō’s sketch depicts Italy (伊) stomping away from America (米), England (英), and France (佛), who sit in a small circle with looks of feigned surprise on their faces. Japan (日) sits off to the side, hugging itself, apparently angry at being excluded from the discussions and perplexed by Italy’s departure. 

For Italy, control of the Adriatic port city of Fiume (modern Rijeka, Croatia) became one of its most emotionally charged territorial claims at the Paris Peace Conference. Fiume was a predominantly Italian-speaking city with a fervent nationalist movement. Since 1779, it had operated as a semi-autonomous corpus separatum under the Hungarian Crown, distinct from its Croatian surroundings. Italy’s claim was fiercely contested by the newly forming Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, which viewed the city as historically linked to Croatia, economically integrated with the South Slav hinterland, and vital as a natural Adriatic outlet. President Woodrow Wilson strongly backed the South Slav position. Britain and France, though bound by the 1915 Secret Treaty of London to support other Italian claims in the Adriatic, were under no obligation to support Italy’s bid for Fiume.

Unable to rely on the Treaty of London, Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando appealed instead to Wilson’s principle of self-determination, citing the city's declared desire to join Italy as well as the nation's immense wartime sacrifices. In an effort to appease Rome, the Allies offered compensation elsewhere, including recognized spheres of interest in southwestern Anatolia. Orlando rejected these concessions as inadequate, as accepting them in place of Fiume would have exposed his government to fierce domestic backlash over what Italian nationalists were already denouncing as a "mutilated victory" (vittoria mutilata).

As negotiations stalled, Wilson grew impatient. On April 23, 1919, he issued a public statement asserting that "Fiume must serve as the outlet and inlet of the commerce, not of Italy, but of the lands to the north and northeast of that port: Hungary, Bohemia, Roumania, and the states of the New Jugo-Slavic group." Just hours later, the Italian delegation walked out of the conference in protest. They returned several weeks later, not because the dispute had been settled, but because Italy could ill afford to be excluded from the final distribution of wartime spoils.

References:

Dominique Kirchner Reill, The Fiume Crisis: Life in the Wake of the Habsburg Empire, Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2020, p. 38.

Larry Wolff, Woodrow Wilson and the Reimagining of Eastern Europe, Stanford University Press, 2020, p. 153.

Translation of Kamio Mitsuomi's commentary and notes on Sketch 447, dated April 29, 1919: The Qingdao Question

We paid the sacrifice

and took what we gained —

what are you babbling about,

you blind fools? 

I ask you, do not disgrace the mission!

— parodic inscription by Mitsuomi

Kamio [seal]

The major point of contention over the disposition of the former German leased concessions of Qingdao, and the broader Jiaozhou Bay leased territory in Shandong, centered on whether Germany’s former imperial rights should be returned directly to China or transferred to Japan, which had captured the territory by force in 1914, with the stipulation that Japan would later restore it to China under conditions to be negotiated between Japan and China.

In Itō’s sketch, a determined Japan maintains a firm grip on a scroll labeled Qingdao (靑島) while England and the United States, clad in deep basket hats that both conceal their identities and render them blind to Japan's righteous claims, hold her back, as an equally determined China fiercely grasps the opposite end of the prize.

Itō’s caricature underscores Japan’s acute anxiety that its claims to Qingdao and Jiaozhou Bay would be rejected, just as its proposed racial-equality amendment to the draft Covenant of the League of Nations had recently been defeated, largely through the opposition of Great Britain and the United States. 

On April 24, the Chūgai Shōgyō Shimpō carried an article titled "The Qingdao Disposition Question at an Impasse: The Ambiguous Attitude of Britain and America," which stated: "It appears that the claims of Japan and China will receive their final decision after the opinions of Britain, America, France, and Italy have been taken. Up to the present, however, the only countries that have clearly disclosed a favorable attitude toward restoration to China through the hands of the Empire are France and Italy. Britain and America, on the other hand, seem to have made their positions unclear by the same method with which they buried the racial-equality proposal."

The day after Itō created his sketch, the United States, Britain, and France (effectively the "Big Three" after Italy’s walkout from the Conference, see Sketch 446) decided to award Germany’s rights in Shandong to Japan. This decision, later embodied in the Treaty of Versailles, provoked deep anger in China and helped spark the May 4th Movement, Chinese nationalist mass protests against the Versailles Shandong settlement.

References:

"青島処分問題難関 : 疑問多き英米の態度" ["The Qingdao Disposition Question at an Impasse: The Ambiguous Attitude of Britain and America"], Chūgai Shōgyō Shimpō, April 24, 1919, Kobe University Library Newspaper Digital Archive https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14094/0100211332.