I agree with all your points, but I’d like to add onto your idea about Japan’s acceptance of western thoughts and technologies. China, unlike Japan, saw themselves to some degree as the center of the world. They believed that their ways were right, and that all those who were not Chinese were barbarians. This led them to forcefully suppress western influence. Japan, on the other hand, did not experience this same kind of self-centeredness, and instead saw the benefits of accepting outside influences in order to adapt and in a way ‘survive’ this era of imperialism. Another benefit in their modernization was that their government was centralized enough to fight off western powers, but not so centralized as to be able to stifle competition and
