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Japan
• Japan is an archipelago of over 6,000 islands
• Four largest islands are Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu, and Shikoku
• Most dominant feature: Mount Fuji
Japan
• By the 300’s, Japan was unified under the Yamato Clan and an emperor
• From 600’s (Nara and Heian Periods), Japan influenced by Chinese writing, government, Confucianism, and Buddhism
Japan
• Japan fell into a warlord period
• Code of Bushido established
• Samurai – knights who served lords
• 1192 –Emperor created position of Shogun
• Provinces administered by Daimyo
Japan
• Unification of Japan began under different shoguns
• 1500’s - Portuguese traders introduced guns and Christianity
• Christianity and guns thrown out by Tokugawa Shogunate
• Shogun isolated Japan
Japan
• 1853 – Japan forcibly opened to trade by Commodore Matthew Perry (US)
• 1868 – Shogun removed and replaced by emperor rule (Meiji Restoration)
• Japan adopted constitutional monarchy
Japan
• Japan copied the West and industrialized and modernized
• 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War – Japan defeated Russia
• Attacked Pearl Harbor Dec 7th 1941 and US into WWII
Japan
• US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August 1945)
• Japan occupied by US troops
• Japan became US ally• Japan became first
“Asian Tiger”
Japan
• Japan’s population is homogeneous (98.5% Japanese)
• Population is also aging as birth rate continues to drop
• Shintoism – animistic religion; 80% Japan Shinto
• Very open to Western influences