Meiji Restoration

To began with the economy background information about Edo and Meiji Japan. In the Edo era, the Tokugawa shogunate implementation of the "lock country politics" policy, to prohibit foreign missionaries, businessmen and civilians into Japan, nor to allow foreign Japanese to return home, or even prohibit the manufacture of ships suitable for maritime navigation, only with China, North Korea and Netherlands and other countries only in Nagasaki. It can be proved by C.T. Assendelft De Coningh’s A…

comfort system. After the Meiji restoration in 1868 Japan made tremendous moves toward the colonialization of Korea and suppressing women’s rights. Japanese leaders indoctrinated the ideology of national submission to the Emperor began to be revitalized in the Japanese society. This society was characterized as a family-state system, also know as the ie system. This system incorporated all Japanese citizens as a members of a family and the emperor as its head. The Meiji constitution was…

Term 2: Jack North Source A gives a useful insight into the roles and influences of western nations with respect to Japan, elucidating the instrumental nature of the foreign: ubiquitous in the Meiji Restoration. Spanning the wake of this epoch, defined by the probing bows of the “black ships”, through to fin de siecle occurrences, foreign power attested as vital in the shaping of a contemporary nation. When regarding context, this source…

An Unexpected Endemic Disease: The Internal Modernity Crisis of Samurai in Modern Japan If a survey were conducted across the globe that asked participants to describe what they felt was the defining characteristic of Japanese culture, the Japanese samurai would most likely be the top response. In modern Japan, the legacy of the medieval samurai is at the heart of the Japanese culture. Depictions of samurai’s absolute loyalty, high regard for honor, and continual analysis of shame, can be…

influential role throughout history, especially in the period leading up to WWII and directly after. In ancient Japan, Shintoism was extremely popular with the common people and middle to lower classes. Shintoism grew in prominence during the Meiji Restoration, where revolutionary leaders reformed Shintoism into a state religion. During this time, Shintoism developed into different sects and evolved into emperor worship and the concept of the emperor’s divine descent (BBC 2016). The idolization…

However by 1914, Japan had grown to be an imperial power itself following various strategies of the western powers after they themselves had been a colony of a European state. After a period of isolation before the onset of the Meiji restoration and the strong emergence as an imperial power one must examine all the characteristics and strategies that Japan had possessed by 1914 to gain imperial power like that of a north Atlantic power. One strategy that served to be important in Japan’s rise…

The Technological Transformation of the Imperial Japanese Navy and the Rise of Militarism Introduction In merely a few decades following the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the Imperial Japan transformed from a vulnerable country humiliated by unequal treaties, to a political, economic, and military power parallel to the Western countries. Since the Sea of Japan and Pacific Ocean isolated the Japanese Archipelago from rest of the world, only the development of superior naval technology could enable…

The Downfall of the once Great Samurai Samurai’s have a long, rich history and what it meant to be a Samurai is honor, valor, loyalty. You were also wealthy and were one of the elites of Japan’s class system. Although samurais were once known as “Great”, the samurai’s downfall was inevitable because they want to keep the same traditions not trying modernize. During the eighth century, the Heian Period, around the year 800 to 1200, Samurai originally was referred to household…

This paper will investigate the media portrayed and propaganda of how the emperor was presented as a driving force toward Japanese imperialism in Japan. The cry “for the emperor” persevered from the Meiji Restoration to WWII to continue to support the various shifting movements, militarism, and imperialism. The extent of the emperor’s influence and involvement during WWII was tested the most with Emperor Hirohito who lived during WWII and US Occupation. The Japanese emperor was used as a…

Both Japan and China sought inspiration and influence from the Western World; specifically the mighty powers of Great Britain, France, Germany and the United States of America. In Japan, the Meiji Restoration acted as a catalyst for modernization. The feudal system was abolished and the creation of a new modern state had begun. China on the other hand, was reluctant to accept the idea of modernization; it feared losing its traditional culture by inviting ideologies brought by the Western world.…