Western Intrusion and Japans Response

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Western Intrusion and Japans Response

• Japans Transformation towards Modernity

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Japan in Early 19th Century

• 200 years of peace and isolation the economic
  development in urban areas made merchants richer
  samurai poorer
• Financial crises of the Bakufu, Han, and lower
  ranking samurai, who had to hide their poverty to
  keep their sense of honor One has to display a
  toothpick in his mouth even when he has not
  eaten.
• Merchants continued to benefit from the
  flourishing market place
• Peasants polarization and the poor drifting to
  the city
• Peasants uprising urban riots frequently
  ravaged the authorities and society 1837
  uprising led by a low-ranking official of the
  Bakufu

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Reform Attempts in Edo Local Hans

• Reform attempts were made in both levels the
  Bakufu and the local Hans, they were largely
  ineffective or short-lived
• Moral rearmament with Confucian ideology against
  corruption bureaucratic abuse
• Reduction of samurai stipends, forced loans, etc.
  in dealing with financial crisis further
  alienation of low-ranking samurai
• Anti-monopoly sumptuary laws, strict censorship
  against the chonin class in the city
• Attempt to force peasants to stay in land or back
  to villages
• Using political-ideological means to deal with a
  socio-economic crisis, the result was predictably
  a failure

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The Success in Satsuma and Choshu

• Both hans were outsiders, maintained an
  anti-Tokugawa tradition and close tie with the
  imperial house in Kyoto
• Due to forced reduction of han size, the
  samurai-land ratio was below average, samurai was
  closely related to the land, thus absence of
  peasant uprising
• Successful management of finance in building a
  surplus
• The two hans would play a crucial role in the
  Meiji Restoration

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The Challenge from the West

• Commodore Perry of US navy led an armed mission
  to Japan in 1853, demanding the opening of Japan
  for ship provision and trade, a direct challenge
  to the seclusion practice
• Bakufus response
• Soliciting opinions from daimyo, which was a
  political miscalculation
• Given Chinas experience, Japan decided to meet
  the demands of the US other European powers
  followed
• A treaty system similar to that of China
  trading ports opened with foreign consular,
  extraterritoriality, fixed tariff,
  most-favored-nation clause, etc.

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Domestic Consequences

• Bakufu divided on foreign policy over resistance
  or concession to foreign demands, compounded by
  succession crisis.
• Lords of Mito, Choshu, Satsuma advocated
  resistant policy, and their lower-ranking samurai
  were ardent nationalists, such as Yoshida
• Sonno Joi revere the emperor, expel the
  barbarians
• Assassination of Ii, bent on the overthrown of
  Bakufu
• Terrorizing the streets by attacking foreigners
  and moderates
• Controlling the Kyoto court, forcing shogun to
  expel foreigners on June 25, 1863
• A general shift from anti-western to learning
  from the West
• The Choshu-Bakufu war ended the Tokugawa reign in
  1869

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The Meiji Restoration

• The teenage emperor surrounded by a group of men
  from Choshu Satsuma, Okubo, Kido, Saigo
• The Charter Oath (1868) five articles with two
  basic themes
• National unity power-sharing (assembly, common
  pursuit of economic welfare, class unity)
• Open to and learning from the West

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Restoration as a Revolution from Above

• Han, the self-governing little kingdom of daimyo,
  were abolished, converting into prefectures
  daimyo became governors peers,
• A national army of conscription rendered samurai
  obsolete, who could no longer wear their swords,
  while commoners could assume a surname
• Landownership established in favor of tax payers,
  who became landlords, while majority villagers
  became tenants a national tax system was
  established, while tenancy increased
• Reduction of samurai stipends, commuting into
  bonds,
• The Iwakura mission touring learning in the
  West

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The Meiji Constitution

• Samurai resistance and rebellions
• 1873 crisis Saigos plan to attack Korea
  overruled by others, Saigo Itagaki left the
  government
• 1874 Taiwan expedition over Ryukyu islands
• 1877 Satsuma Rebellion, the last stand of samurai
• Assassination of Okubo marked the bitter
  opposition to the small dominating group
• By 1878, the trinity were all dead, followed by
  a new leadership Ito, Yamagata (the father of
  Japanese army), and Okuma, who all realized the
  need of a constitutional government

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• Consensus the centrality of the Emperor, a
  constitutional monarch
• The difference
• Okuma a British style of government with a
  parliament majority forming cabinet, which was
  responsible to the parliament
• Ito a German style of government, with a
  transcendent cabinet military, all appointees
  of the emperor
• Okuma was dismissed by the emperor, who promised
  to grant a constitution in 1890
• The formation of two parties Jiyuto (Liberal),
  Kaishinto (Progressive)
• elders politics in the party politics, division
  within the parties, government restrictions

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The Constitution 1889-1945

• It was the gift of the Emperor to the people, a
  deified emperor was the source of sovereignty,
• The legislature, Diet and House of Peer, was
  elected by tax-paying men of 1.1 of total
  population the emperor could open, recess, or
  dissolve the legislature,
• The cabinet was responsible to the emperor, so
  was the Military Chief of Staff, which sent or
  recall the ministers of army navy by recalling
  them, the military could render the cabinet
  ineffective,
• The emperor was surrounded and advised by the
  Meiji elders,

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The Meiji Economy

• Government initiative in industrialization, as
  was in Bismarcks Germany
• Investing in infrastructure transportation,
  communication, education, etc.
• The 1st railroad in 1872, imperial attendance,
  compared with Chinas attitude
• Government initiative followed by privatization
• The emergence of Zaibatus, big business empires
  of financial-industrial combines, Mitsubish,
  Mitsui, etc

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The Meiji Military

• Yamagatas reform in 1878 (Choshu)
• A German style Chief of Staff
• A Staff College
• Large military appropriation new weapons
• Naval modernization followed the English model,
  with major ships purchased from England (Satsuma)
• The victory in the war with China in 1894-5