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.