NARAHARA ShIGERU – Wikipédia

Baron NARAHARA SHIGERU ( Shigeru Narahara ^? ) , also known as Narahara Kogorō , born the April 15, 1844 in the field of Satsuma in Japan and died at the age of 84 August 13, 1918 , is a samurai of the Edo era which became a politician during the Meiji era. He ruled in particular the prefecture of Okinawa from 1892 to 1907.

Coming from a samurai family in the Satsuma domain (current Kagoshima prefecture), Narahara was born in 1834. When in 1862, the Daimyo of the estate, Shimazu Hisamitsu, learned that radical elements among his samurai met at the Auberge Teradaya in Kyoto to plot against the Tokugawa Shogunat, Narahara is one of the samurai samurai to put an end to the conspiracy, remove the movement and bring back the rebel samurai ^{[ first ]} . The ensuing confrontation, during which many people die, is called Teradaya incident.

Another important incident involving samurai from Satsuma takes place a few months later in Namamugi near Yokohama. During this Namamugi incident, a British merchant named Charles Lennox Richardson is killed, and two men accompanying him are severely injured when they pass too close to the Shimazu palanquin on a country road. American historian George H. Kerr believes that it was Narahara who killed Richardson ^{[ 2 ]} . However, other sources indicate that the person named Narahara Kizaemon often quoted during the stories of the incident would in fact be the brother of Shigeru and not Shigeru himself ^{[ 3 ]} .

After the restoration of Meiji in 1868 and the fall of Shogunat, the feudal domains were abolished as well as the class of samurai, and a new “modern” government in the Western is established. Narahara, like many other former samurai, adapts to this new system and becomes a politician. He becomes the chief of the servants of his former Daimyo Shimazu Saburō and supervises his belongings ^{[ 2 ]} .

In January 1872 , Narahara and another official of Satsuma, Ijichi Sadaka, are carrying out a mission to Shuri, the capital of the Kingdom of Ryūkyū. The previous year had an incident in which an Okinawais fishing boat failed in Taiwan. There followed a confrontation between the shipwrecked fishermen and the Taiwanese aborigines which ends with the death of all the Okinawais. This degenerated into a diplomatic incident between China and Japan which each demanded Taiwan and the Ryūkyū islands and attracted Tokyo’s attention to the threat posed to Japan if China or a foreign power annexed, colonized or exerted its influence on Okinawa. Narahara and Ijichi then have the mission of meeting officials from the island to discuss the kingdom’s debts and taxes towards Kagoshima, the exploitation of recently discovered coal deposits on the Yaeyama islands, and the obligation of the king of Ryūkyū to officially express his respect for the Emperor Meiji to symbolically recognize his subordination and that of his kingdom to the Empire of Japan ^{[ 4 ]} .

Narahara then left the administration of Kagoshima and entered the Ministry of Internal Affairs in 1878 ^{[ 5 ]} . He then served as governor of the Shizuoka prefecture as well as other positions and, in 1892 he became the eighth governor of the prefecture of Okinawa ^{[ first ] , [ 5 ]} .

In Okinawa [ modifier | Modifier and code ]

His mandate is marked by the end of the “policy of preserving old traditions” (旧 慣温存, Kyūkan on the Onzon ), or the “era of doing nothing” “for the historian George Kerr ^{[ 6 ]} . At the time, Tokyo’s policies in Okinawa focused on maintaining the old traditions and forms of administration in order to appease local dissatisfaction, to encourage pro-Japanese attitudes, and to avoid pro-Chinese ^{[ 7 ]} . Under the administration of Narahara, this era is over and priority is given to the efforts of westernization and modernization in progress in the rest of Japan for decades. These efforts mainly include land reform, construction of ports, and the introduction of the national education system ^{[ first ] , [ 5 ]} . The important administrative reforms, such as the redefinition of districts and the reorganization of local assemblies, are undertaken in order to establish modern methods and systems of administration in Okinawa on the model of what already exists in other Japanese prefectures, and the First step was to inaugurate an Okinawa representation at the Diet of Japan. The establishment of a temporary land readjustment office in 1898, which aimed to transform three-quarters of the area of ​​the prefecture, territory generally without common owners for each village, in private and individual land subject to taxes of modern administration, which is considered by George Kerr as “one of the greatest upheavals in the history of Okinawa and the most important event between the king’s abdication in 1879 and the American invasion of 1945 ” ^{[ 8 ]} .

But despite these administrative reforms and these intense efforts of modernization, the economy and the political situation of the prefecture vis-à-vis tokyo can make it considered as a kind of colony rather than an integral part of the country ^{[ 9 ]} . Narahara is not very popular in Okinawa ^{[ ten ]} . He largely ignores the needs of Okinawais farmers, and gives priority to men from Satsuma (Kagoshima prefecture) ^{[ 5 ]} . Several movements are starting to emerge to protest against its policies. One of them, led by Jahana Noboru, is in contact with the movement for freedom and the rights of the people (自由 民権, jiyū minken undō ) active in other regions of the country. Jahana and his supporters accuse Narahara’s administration of engaging unequal policies and unjust treatments. The movement is finally removed by Narahara ^{[ 5 ]} . Another group of important officials and personalities from Okinawa, called the Stock-Sea (in) (公同 会, “Association for public unity”), claims the management of Okinawa by herself, and calls for the replacement of Narahara by the Marquis Shō Tai, former king of the kingdom of Ryūkyū who had to abdicate in 1879. However, this movement does not claim independence, and approves the status of prefecture and subordination to the government of Tokyo. The central government considers that giving in to such requirements would be recognized by Japanese administration and Okinawais dissatisfaction, and could contribute to the debate on the sovereignty of the island. The movement is thus quickly suffocated ^{[ 11 ]} .

After having served as governor of Okinawa for fifteen years, Narahara gave way to her chief assistant, Hibi Kimei, in 1907.

Its name was given to Mont Narahara on Uotsuri-Jima of the Senkaku Islands.

NARAHARA SHIGERU
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