Okuma provided an excellent overview of what the Japanese had achieved in such a short period of time. First, Japan’s population had grown considerable and was close to fifty million around 1905 . Also, Japan had developed into a constitutional government and had created a prestigious educational system. Okuma goes on to discuss the success that trade brought into the Japanese nation. Japan was bringing in 926,000,000 yen annually by 1907 due to importing and exporting with foreign countries. Also, Japan had developed a strong military modeled after the West and had begun to promote arms manufacturing as well as military education . All of these aspects combined assisted Japan in becoming a world power that could stand on its own …show more content…
This country had risen to power quickly and was able to assert itself as a power to be dealt with during the 1890s and 1900s. Even though Japan followed the natural route to power, it began to deviate when it became aggressively imperialistic. Ienaga discussed in his book about how Japan and China had traditionally been on good terms. However, that changed with the introduction of foreigners which led to Japanese hostility. The atrocities that the Japanese afflicted on their neighboring countries went beyond the norm of expansion. Countries, such as the United States, have used imperialism to gain territory and resources from other countries. An example of this would be the territories American still possesses such as Puerto Rico and Guam. However, the United States and other countries have not gone into another country with the sole purpose of annihilation like the Japanese did during World War