Teito Monogatari:
The Tale of the Imperial Capital
Part 2: Supernatural Babylon
Author: Hiroshi Aramata
Part 2: The Demon's Origin
Chapter 12: A Brief Account of the Meiji Era
Since Lieutenant Katō Yasunori had crossed over to the continent, Asia had entered a situation that could best be described as storm clouds gathering.
On October 26, 1909 (Meiji 42), Itō Hirobumi was shot by a Korean youth on the platform of Harbin Station and died en route to Manchuria. Lieutenant Katō had been entrusted with the task of improving security in the various cities of Manchuria in preparation for Itō's visit. All such preparations proved fruitless.
In May 1910 (Meiji 43), the High Treason Incident occurred in Japan. Society was thrown into turmoil, and the government's policies suppressing subversive elements became even more severe.
That same year, Japan annexed Korea. Meanwhile, in Manchuria, Japan succeeded in seizing control of the South Manchurian Railway, a transportation line that was the main artery of its continental administration.
In 1911 (Meiji 44), while anti-Japanese and resistance movements swept across the entire continent, Japan, backed by the power of its military, began sending Japanese settlers into Manchuria. In Dalian, the gateway to Manchuria that received all steamships departing from Ōsaka, a new city was to be built upon foundations laid by Russia, with neo-Baroque radial streets like those of a European capital.
From Dalian, many railway tracks extended. Chinese cities like Fengtian, Xinjing, and Harbin flourished. In this way, the phantom state of Manchuria marked its fated course upon the earth.
Translator's Notes
The High Treason Incident, also known as the Kōtoku Incident, was a socialist-anarchist plot to assassinate the Japanese Emperor Meiji in 1910, leading to a mass arrest of leftists, as well as the execution of 12 alleged conspirators in 1911.
Modern Dalian originated from Qingniwa (literally "green/blue mud swamp") or Qingniwaqiao ("bridge over the green/blue mud swamp"), a small Chinese fishing village. The Russian Empire built a commercial town after coercing a lease of the area from the Qing dynasty in 1898 and called it Dalny ("a remote one" or "far-away", in reference to the town's location) from 1898 to 1905. After the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, Japan occupied the area as the Kwantung Leased Territory and renamed the city Dairen, a name in use since at least 1879. English-language sources called the city Dairen in this period (1905–1945), from Japanese.
Manchuria is a historical region in Northeast Asia, primarily corresponding to Northeast China (the provinces of Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang). It is the ancestral homeland of the Manchu people, who established the Qing Dynasty, and is widely referred to by the Chinese today as Dōngběi ("The Northeast").
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