CHAPTER 24 THE CHALLENGE OF MODERNITY: EAST ASIA, 1750–1900
Japan
Opium trade and expanded whaling brought Japan to the attention of the West.
• West had respected Tokugawa shogunate’s policy of seclusion until 1840s.
• Discovery of gold in California increased trans-Pacific maritime trade.
• Some Japanese wanted Japan to resist West with force; others wanted negotiation.
• U.S. sent fleet with Commander Matthew C. Perry and a multiracial crew.– Brought Western technology to show Japanese: telegraph and railroad.
• Treaty of Kanagawa opened Japan to U.S. trade, and to other treaties.
The Meiji Restoration
• Samurai of Satsuma and Choshu rebelled, attacking Tokugawa officials and foreigners.
• Shogun replaced by Meiji Emperor, and capital renamed Tokyo.
• Meiji replaced regional daimyos with governors and centralized power in Japan.
• Samurai were disbanded and encouraged to form businesses.
• Created a conscript army (copied Germans)• . . . and a navy modeled on Britain’s.
• Compulsory education system encouraged loyalty to emperor and state.
• Meiji sponsored advisors to study Western science and technology.
• Sought out foreign territory to create buffer zone: Taiwan and Ryukyu Islands.
• Japan’s victory in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895 surprised China and the West.
• Japan’s interest in Manchuria brought it into conflict with Russia.
• Russo-Japanese War, 1904-1905
Zaibatsu and Political Parties: Economics and Society in Meiji Japan
• Unlike China, Japan quickly went studied Western technology and industry.
• Meiji economic reforms focused on limiting ownership of new businesses to Japanese.– Determined to develop exports and keep imports
to a minimum.– Japan developed industry quickly, but still needs
to import raw material.
• With government support, businesses became cartels to control industries.
• These cartels, called zaibatsu, took over most Japanese business.
• Japanese particularly quick to develop trains, telegraph, and later telephone.
• Meiji Constitution, 1889–World War II– Borrowed heavily from Germany’s.– Enshrined concept of kokutai, “national polity.”– Stressed the emperors and relationship between
emperor and the people.
• Emperor embodies kokutai– Military and state serve him directly.
• Bicameral parliamentary body called the Diet.– Upper House of Peers – Lower House of Representatives.
• Rights and duties of subjects were outlined by the new constitution.
• Two political parties were created.– Kenseito (Liberal Party), later called Minseito.– Seiyukai, the Constitutional Government Party.
Mutsuhito , the Meiji Emperor, 1852 (1867) – 1912“Enlightened Rule”
Yoshihito, The Taishō Emperor1876 (1912) – 1926
“Great Righteousness”
Hirohito, the Showa Emperor1901 (1926) – 1989 Regent from 1921
“Abundant Benevolence"
• Japan encouraged accommodation to Western culture.– Mandated Western clothing briefly, then allowed it as an option.– Victorian values, and a more public role for women adopted.
• Education reform encouraged literacy.
• Formal barriers between peasants and samurai were eliminated.
• Thousands of Japanese students studied in Europe and the United States.
• By 1880s a university system was established that taught Western medicine, science, and technology.