JAPAN: RETURN TO ROOTS• CHANGE AND RESISTANCE• STRONG ARMY , STRONG

COUNTRY• INTO THE FUTURE

CHANGE AND RESISTANCE• Many of the changes that took place were labelled

Westernization, the adoption of Western ways and ideas

• The motto of this movement was “Civilization and Enlightenment”

• One goal of the movement was to change the unequal treaties with western countries

• Cultural changes were easiest to see in the poorest cities

• foreign books and magazines became available, and in 1871 daily newspapers were launched

• Newspapers were placed in public reading rooms so citizens could learn about the changes in Japanese society

CHANGE AND RESISTANCE• Western took issue with some typical Japanese

behaviours, for example– In warm weather Japanese working men wore only

loincloths. The governor of Yokohama ordered all labourers to wear a shirt or tunic

– In 1872, the Japanese government passed a law to prohibit tattooing, including that done by the Ainu

– Public bathing, a revered Japanese ritual, shocked proper Victorians. Public baths were closed or modified

• When officials at the Imperial court realized foreign officials were not in the habit of taking off their shoes, they replaced tatami mats with carpet

• The emperor had to learn how to shake hands• European style food was served at the emperor’s

receptions

CHANGE AND RESISTANCE• The government urged Japanese men

to abandon their kimonos for trousers and suit coats

• By the 1870s, all prominent Japanese men wore their hair cut short, some grew beards and moustaches

• The Japanese military wore Western style uniforms

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7r_f-OMG1M&feature=related&

CHANGE AND RESISTANCE• Deer Cry Pavilion, was a fancy European

style building in which Western visitors were entertained

• In the hall the buffet tables were laid out with imported European gourmet food

• Cuban cigars, billiards were intermeshed with French orchestras playing operettas and German polkas and waltzes

• Foreign diplomats would socialize with the Japanese but had no appetite to reopen the original treaties

• The Deer Cry Pavilion was shut down as part of an anti-Western backlash

CHANGE AND RESISTANCE• The rapid changes had produced tensions in Japan• The Japanese were a proud and independent people

and their traditions, customs and beliefs were very important to them

• The motto “Civilization and Enlightenment” was dropped and replaced by “Western science and Japanese essence”

• Two of the items essential for unity in the West, Christianity and democracy, had little hold in Japan at this time

• Most Western countries had constitutions which describes parts of the government and the powers given to each part

• They often include a bill of rights and freedoms

CHANGE AND RESISTANCE• a constitutional study commission was sent abroad

and it decided that the Prussian constitutional model was best

• Highlights of the new constitution– The emperors powers were described as “sacred and

inviolable” meaning not to be challenged– Japanese citizens were given rights to free speech, privacy,

property, movement, legal and religion– An Imperial Diet consisted of a House of Peers (nobility or

royalty) and a House of representatives (elected by the people)

• Putting it into practice• Political parties were discouraged and freedom of

speech and the press lasted only a few years• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQzNkWUwoWc&

STRONG ARMY, STRONG COUNTRY• The Meiji leaders looked at the powerful countries of

the West and saw three commonalities– Control over foreign colonies or territories– Military power to defend those territories– A strong and independent economy

• The Japanese began a deliberate path to strengthen their military

• The first step was the Conscription Law of 1873• It required all males to serve in the military for three

years and to do reserve duty for four more years• The second step was to take over several smaller

island territories including the Ryukyu, Bonin and Kurile Islands

STRONG ARMY, STRONG COUNTRY• The closest country to Japan on the mainland was

Korea, the distance between the two is less than 200 km

• Korea is strategically important because it borders both Russia and China

• The Sino-Japanese war was between China and Japan and was quick and decisive lasting from Aug 1894-Apr 1895

• Japan’s superior military gave it an easy victory, and the resulting treaty gave Japan – the rights to Formosa(modern Taiwan) – China paid an indemnity for Japan’s losses– Japan special economic rights

STRONG ARMY, STRONG COUNTRY• The Japanese victory worried

Western powers• Russia, France and Germany stepped

in and made changes to the peace treaty

• They forced Japan to give up Liaotung Peninsula, which was promptly taken over by the Russians

• They also wanted the same economic considerations with China that Japan had

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16sdjIpZNVc&

STRONG ARMY, STRONG COUNTRY• In 1904 the Japanese launched a surprise attack on

Russian ships in Port Arthur• War erupted shortly but the Russian efforts were

severely hampered by the Bolshevik Revolution back home

• Russia was forced into a peace negotiations rather than continuing the war

• Five years after the war Japan annexed Korea with very little protest from the Western powers

• Japan was now recognized as an imperial power

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0PffYjbHfs&

THE END OF AN ERA• When Emperor Meiji died in 1912, his leading general

and the general’s wife committed junshi, ritual suicide after the death of one’s lord

• Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec 7, 1941 bringing the United States into direct conflict during the war of the Pacific

• On August 6, 1945 the United States dropped the nuclear bomb on Hiroshima and three days later of Nagasaki

• On September 2, 1945 Japanese officials signed the surrender papers aboard the USS Missouri

• In 1947 the new Japanese Constitution contained Article 9

• It called for Japan to be an unarmed nation that would never again be a military threat

JAPAN POST WAR• Many feel Article 9 which did not permit expenses

on the military has had a large role in the post war economic miracle of Japan

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SnnWZ1YTL4&

• Historian Ken Henshall points to the following keys to the Japanese success– The ability of the Japanese to learn from others and to

adapt these borrowings– The emphasis on learning and education– The Japanese focus on making their country powerful

and respected in the world– The willingness of the Japanese to work hard an make

sacrifices for the greater good of the group and society

JAPAN TODAYHIGH SPEED RAIL IN JAPAN

A NEW KIND OF LEADER

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RUtE5eTrkE&safe=active

POP CULTURE IN JAPAN• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgAdsbrJ_m0

THE JAPANESE ECONOMY TODAY

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkbs6Zjw578

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuOx7SleTlc • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FdJhBzTTx4