Today it is commonly assumed that any country that does not observe international law is barbaric, but were the Japanese barbarians until they came to accept international law (referred to as bankoku k__ or _universal law,_ in Meiji Japan) based on war and peace? On the contrary, they were steeped in a true awareness of civilization precisely because they did not have a world view founded on war. By adopting from Europe this image of the world as a mortal struggle in which only the fittest survive, the Japanese of the Meiji era themselves created a reality fitting this image.
The consequences were not only the victories of the Sino_Japanese War, Russo_Japanese War, annexation of Korea and First World War, but also the quagmire of the war with China and Japan_s final crushing defeat in the Second World War. Even if this course was unavoidable, in view of its origin and the history of military expansion and war, it is doubtful whether this Western order brought about by firearms deserves the name of civilization.
