The Rise of Japan, 1868-1920

How did Japan become a modern and imperial power?

Tokyo in late 19th century Tokyo in the 1920s

Feudal Japan Japan in 1942

Geography

The Emperor

• From the Yamato clan

• Considered “divine”

• (8-9th C) Height of power

Tokugawa Shogunate (1600-1868)

• Real power in the hands of shogun or military leader

Policy of Seclusion (1635-1853)

• Closed off from the rest of the world

• Trade with the Dutch

• Limited knowledge of the West

Emperor

Warrior Class: Shogun

Warrior Class: Daimyos

Warrior Class: Samurai

Peasants

Artisans

Merchants

Opening of Japan, 1853

Commodore Matthew Perry

• Four “Black Ships” • A letter from the American President

• Demanded ports for American ships seeking provisions

The “West” Meets the “East”

Japanese Perspective of First Encounter

Japanese artist

American artist

Images of Gifts Exchange

Japanese artist

Japan on the road to modernization

• Preexisting conditions for

modernization

– commercialized economy – literate population – experienced samurai

bureaucracy – small and well-governed

country

• Defensive modernization

The Meiji Restoration, 1868

• The Shogunate was abolished.

• A group of middle-ranking samurai “restored” the Meiji Emperor to the throne. • Formed a government and implemented massive modernizing reforms

Meiji Reforms

• Abolished the feudal system • Constitutional monarchy • Power in the hands of the Meiji oligarchy

– Genro (extra constitutional advisors to the emperor)

Military Reforms

1875

1896

• European-style military structure and a modern navy • Universal military conscription

Reforms in Education

• Mass education system

• Modification of the Confucian approach

• Emphasis on science and technology

• Japanese tradition reinforced

Economic Modernization

• Industrialization

• Emphasis on export

• Silk

• High taxes on peasants

• Poor working conditions

SILKWORM FACTORY (ca. 1880-1920).

Silk Reeling Machine, 1877

Raw Silk Production and Export from Japan 1868 to 1913

Period Production annual average (tons)

Exports annual average (tons)

1868-1872 1026 646

1883 1687 1347

1889-1893 4098 2444

1899-1903 7103 4098

1909-1913 12460 9462

Coal Production in Japan in Various Years from 1875 to 1913

Year Coal Production (metric tons)

1875 600,000

1885 1,200,000

1895 5,000,000

1905 13,000,000

1913 21,300,000

Steamships and Trains

1873 18 miles of track 1914 7100 miles of track

The question of Imperialism (sink or swim)

• India and China under British domination

• Africa divided by European powers

• Latin America dominated by the United States

• Need for access to raw materials and markets

• The answer for Japan: expansionism

First Sino-Japanese War 1894-1895

Japan won Acquired Taiwan Forced free trade on China

The Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905)

Liaodong Peninsula

For the first time, a non-Western country defeats a Western one.

Korea annexed in 1910

Japanese History - Timeline

1600-1867 Tokugawa (Edo) Period

1853 Commodore Perry arrives in Japan

1868 Overthrow of the Shogunate

1890 Meiji Constitution adopted

1894-95 Sino-Japanese War

1904-5 Russo-Japanese War

1910 Japan annexation of Korea

1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria

1937 Japanese invasion of China

1941 Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor

1945 U.S. drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

1945-present Contemporary Japan