ABSTRACT
Japanese-German relations from the late nineteenth century until the end of World War I were characterized by frequent and radical changes, by ruptures unknown during the early Meiji period (1868-95). The activities of German advisers contributing to Japanese modernization, particularly in the fields of medicine, law, education and constitutional matters (Ando 2000; Iklé 1974: 270-1; Mathias-Pauer 1984: 116-68), had brought about a ‘Golden Age of German-Japanese Relations’ (Mathias-Pauer 1984: 117) in the late nineteenth century. But also German military instructors and Japanese students of the military system sent to Germany became of crucial importance in the process of Japanese modernization (Lone 2000; Westney 1998; Yoshida 2002). Even after the ‘Golden Age’ of bilateral relations had come to a quite abrupt end with the Tripartite Intervention of 1895, many close personal relations between Japanese and Germans remained intact in the military sector, and, in particular, Japanese army officers continued looking to Germany as a model.
