Meiji Restoration And The Industrialization Of Japan

By the nineteenth century Western nations had developed superior military technology than other countries. Western countries were able to control other nations by coercing them into unfair trading treaties which would leave the country economically dependent on them. The countries rarely resisted successfully due to their insufficient military power. This occured often Asia with only Japan and Thailand remaining independent. Only Japan thrived however and became an imperial power. Japan was an isolated country until the United States forcibly opened it to trade. Japan experienced a regime change following a tumultuous time in which western nations coerced Japan into trade treaties. The new government favored capitalism and industry which lead to Japan industrializing impressively fast through “top down” government mandated modernization. Western imperialism forced Japan to modernize in order to remain a sovereign and successful state. Modernization in this case was synonymous with becoming more like the West. Imperialism drastically changed Japanese economic interaction as well as Japanese culture and class system because modernization included becoming more like the West in most aspects but their treatment of women remained the same because the West did not treat women very differently.

Consistent with Japanese propaganda the nationalist leaders held belief that Japan was “the leader, protector and light of Asia”. However, this perception of liberation from colonial rule was a façade as the civilians of occupied nations experienced harsher treatment under the Japanese than they did under the colonial authorities.

During the plight of Pacific War, Japan’s Imperial Army were victorious in the their expansion towards Southeast Asian nations, utilizing the notion of the Greater East Asia Co-prosperity sphere as a propagandistic tool that emphasized “Asia for Asians.” In proposing the Greater East Asia Co-prosperity sphere, Japan obtained the role as a leader of Asia. Possessing a superior role over Asia that emphasized the discrepancy between Japan and the other, which has been noted since the Sino- Japanese War in 1894-1895. Japanese soldiers exerted their dominance with atrocities such as murdering and raping civilians; therefore, Japanese soldiers were associated as victimizers. Even before World War II, Comfort women were victims that experienced sexual exploitation by Japanese men. Women were lured or captured into an “officially-organized system of rape by the Imperial Japanese Forces.” Korean women were among a group who were subjected into sex slaves; however, women from other Japanese occupied territories were also inclined to

The Rape of Nanking, by Iris Chang, describes the Japanese atrocities that took place in Nanking, China during World War II. Throughout their takeover and occupation of Nanking, the Japanese soldiers were exceedingly cruel to the Chinese people. According to Chang’s account and analysis of the events that transpired, Japanese attitudes towards gender played a key role in the soldiers’ violent, cold-blooded actions, and Chinese attitudes towards gender kept the victims silent.

Between 1968 and 1912, Japan was going through a reformation called Meiji Restoration in order make the country strong as western countries. It had caused changes in many parts of Japan such as society, government, military, etc. Some of these changes still can be seen in the Japanese society today such as emperors are honored by Japanese citizens and seen as a special figure. Since this reformation had a great impact on development of Japan, it can be consider as a very important part of Japanese history.This study will seek to answer the question: To what extent did the Meiji Restoration succeeded to reform and strengthen Japan? In order to answer the question, the investigation will analyze military reform and economic reform caused by

The Japanese, though, had a similar facade covering their actions in Asia. Prior to World War II, there was a number of colonial settlements in Asia to which were controlled by Western Allies. “In the highly publicized Assembly of the Greater East Asiatic Nations convened in Tokyo in November 1943, a succession of Asian leaders voiced support for Japan and placed the war in East-versus-West, Oriental-versus-Occidental, and ultimately blood-versus-blood context”(6). The war appeared to be a way for Asian leaders to gain control over their own lands again; however, Japan’s behavior towards other Asians caused for a lose of support in their growth. the Japanese became “dominating the political scene, taking over local economies, imposing broad programs of “Japanization,” slapping non-Japanese in public, torturing and executing dissidents, exploiting native labor so severely that between 1942 and 1945 the death toll among such workers numbered in the hundreds of thousands” (7). Though moving across the continent under ideals of a “free Asia,” the Japanese were also moving with the ideal of imperialism and cultural superiority.

The war crimes Japanese soldiers inflicted upon the people of Nanking are one of the most heinous examples of this idea of extermination, resulting in the loss of an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 lives. Thousands of women were raped, forced to take pictures with their assailants in pornographic poses, shamed and seen as being dirty, viewed as being subhuman. Soldiers were warned to eliminate the women they had raped, disposing of the evidence of what they had done. “‘Perhaps when we were raping her, we looked at her as a woman,’ Azuma [a soldier] wrote, “‘but when we killed her, we just thought of her as something like a pig’” (50). Rape was often rooted in superstition, the belief that the violation of virgins would provide strength and

In this book, Iris Chang brings to light the atrocities that occurred during the Nanking massacre by focusing on the initial Japanese attacks on the city, the work of the international community to protect the Chinese, and the subsequent cover up of the massacre. Chang’s primary argument is that the events surrounding the Rape of Nanking have been downplayed by western and Japanese scholars, and need to be discussed. A key element of the book is to counter a revisionist approach to the events of Nanking which, in her estimation, pervade Japanese schools and have subsequently misled westerners into believing that the Japanese military was not as vicious as they were. Her work does indeed provide a gut-wrenching account of the event while sifting

The Japanese Government does’t admit what they have done before. They deny the rape, the killing and all kind massacres. And this kind of action cause the anger form other countries that have been aggregated by Japan. Christopher Barnard investigated what is the truth of the Nanking Massacre in December of 1937 by the Japanese Imperial Army is referred to in high school textbooks in 1995. Brand found eighty-eight used in Japanese high schools that had passed the Japanese Ministry of Education screening, before their authorization of publication, used language that still softened the atrocities of the Nanking Massacre, despite the heated debate and outcry from the Chinese of the 1980s. And he also judged the educational system of Japan. And

The views expressed by this book are ones that depicts the actions of the Japanese as acts to cover up the appalling incident. Iris Chang’s take on the Japanese leaves the impression that not only do the Japanese not take the proper steps in paying reparations but also that they refuse to acknowledge these events to the degree that they censor their own citizens from finding this information. (Iris Chang, Rape of Nanking, pg. 206.) Another important point of hers is the extent that the Japanese have succeeded. What is nearly as scary as these events is the fact that they can occur and it will take nearly a hundred year before the event is fully uncovered to most of the world. In classes all across America students learn about the Holocaust in several grades and they learn about it in great depths, but not until recently has the Rape of Nanking been even mentioned to students in American classrooms. Even when students learn about the Rape of Nanking not too much is discussed due to the ghastliness of this historical event. The majority of the time that the Rape of Nanking is mentioned it is almost in passing, just a point about how much history changes when you look something through a different lens. For the most part, one would believe that an event that includes two major countries in the global society, such as China and Japan, and

Utopia. The idea of a society that has a perfect social, political, economic, and legal system is a popular one. Fiction writers love to explore the possibility of Utopian worlds and have been doing so for a long time. Some famous literary works exploring Utopian worlds are 1984 and Animal Farm by George Orwell, The Hunger Games series of books by Suzanne Collins, and Island and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. These books usually feature a story where the hero uncovers an ugly truth or reality about the society. They then set about to expose the truth and generate change. This usually results in the partial or total destruction of the society.

After watching, ‘Waiting on Superman’ I thought differently about the public school system. I knew that the system was broken and that it wasn’t working, but I didn’t completely understand the damage it was causing. I learned so much about the broken system after watching this film to the point it disturbed me. The depiction of public schools compared to my school experience was not the same. I went to a ‘STEM Magnet’ elementary school that prepared me for STEM job fields. However thinking back on it now, a lot of kids around me in school were from low income families, many had family problems and lived in a negative neighborhood. I also noticed that my elementary school had ‘good’ teachers, ones that went out of their way to help us thrive.

The foundation of Japanese imperialism, which eventually led to World War II was in the Meiji Restoration of the 1870’s. At that time, pro-war sentiment and desire for national strength and growth arose as the national attitude of the Japanese people. Certain groups, which advocated return to the traditional Japanese ways, began to grow in power. Shinto, the traditional religion of Japan, was revived with a new emphasis on emperor worship. By the time Emperor Hirohito assumed power in 1926, the nation was ready for a second restoration.1

Meiji Restoration was a significant historical event not only in Japanese history but also in world history. A study (Hunt, Lynn, Thomas, & Barbara, 2009) concluded that the word “Meiji” means “enlightened rule” and the goal was to combine “modern advances” with “eastern” values. This event restored practical imperial rule to Japan under Emperor Meiji in 1868 (“Meiji Restoration”, 2017). As a result, it led to the tremendous changes in political and social structure of Japan, and spanned both the Late Tokugawa period and the beginning of the Meiji period (“Meiji Restoration”, 2017). The main causes of Meiji Restoration can be analyzed from the following different aspects.

Climate change and environmental threats came more into focus in the last years and presently they represent a large challenge for the society. This means that environmental considerations have to be integrated into a number of different decisions made by businesses, individuals, policymakers and public administrators (Finnveden et al.