HISTORY OF JAPAN

my free school tannzania April 30, 2017 History
HISTORY OF JAPAN      
—  Geography of Japan
—  Japan is an island nation in East Asia comprising a strato-volcanic archipelago extending along the Pacific coast of Asia.
—  The major islands, sometimes called the "Home Islands“ are  Hokkaidō, Honshū , Shikoku and Kyūshū.
—  There are also 2,456 islands including Okinawa, and islets, some inhabited and others uninhabited.
—  Area:total: 377,835 km²
          land: 374,744 km²
          water: 3,091 km²
—  Geography of Japan
—  Climate: varies from tropical in south to cool temperate in north
—  Terrain: mostly rugged and mountainous, 73% of Japan is mountains
—  Natural resources: small deposits of coal, oil, iron and minerals. Major fishing industry.
—  Land use:
    arable land: 11%
    permanent crops: 1%
    permanent pastures: 2%
    forests and woodland: 68%
    other: 18% (1993 est.)
—  Geography of Japan
—  Geography of Japan: Natural Hazard
—  10% of the world's active volcanoes are found in Japan
—  As many as 1,500 earthquakes are recorded yearly, and magnitudes of 4 to 7 in magnitude are common.
—  Minor tremors occur almost daily in one part of the country or another, causing slight shaking of buildings.
—  Major earthquakes occur infrequently; the most famous in the twentieth century was the great Kantō earthquake of 1923, in which 130,000 people died.
—  Japan has become a world leader in research on causes and prediction of earthquakes. The development of advanced technology has permitted the construction of skyscrapers even in earthquake-prone areas. Extensive civil defense efforts focus on training in protection against earthquakes, in particular against accompanying fire, which represents the greatest danger.
—  Geography of Japan: Natural Hazard
—  Undersea earthquakes also expose the Japanese coastline to danger from tsunamis and tidal waves.
ü On March 11, 2011 the country was subject to a devastating magnitude 9.0 earthquake and a massive tsunami as a result. It was the largest ever recorded in Japan and is the world's 4th largest earthquake to strike since 1900. It struck offshore and created a massive tsunami that devastated Japan's northeastern coastal areas. At least 15,000 people died as a result.
—  Another common hazard are several typhoons that reach Japan from the Pacific every year and heavy snowfall during winter in the snow country regions, causing landslides, flooding, and avalanches.
—  THE SAMURAI
—  The military nobility or upper echelons of the warrior class of medieval and early-modern Japan.
—  The Term samurai originally meant "those who serve in close attendance to nobility“.
—  The samurai followed a set of rules that came to be known as “bushido”.
—  While the samurai numbered less than 10% of Japan's population, their teachings can still be found today in both everyday life and in modern Japanese martial arts.
—  THE SAMURAI
—  THE SAMURAI - “BUSHIDO”
—  Literally "the way of the warrior", is a Japanese word for the way of the samurai life, loosely analogous to the concept of chivalry.
—  It originates from the samurai moral code stressing frugality, loyalty, martial arts mastery, and honor unto death.
—  Influenced by Shinto and Zen Buddhism, allowing the violent existence of the samurai to be tempered by wisdom and serenity.
—  Developed between the 9th and 20th centuries and numerous translated documents dating from the 12th to 16th centuries demonstrate its wide influence across the whole of Japan.
—  Under the Tokugawa Shogunate, aspects of bushidō became formalized into Japanese feudal law.
—  THE SAMURAI - “BUSHIDO”
"If a man does not investigate into the matter of Bushido daily, it will be difficult for him to die a brave and manly death. Thus, it is essential to engrave this business of the warrior into one's mind well.“
 “It is shameful for any man to die without having risked his life in battle, regardless of rank, and that bushidō is in being crazy to die. Fifty or more could not kill one such a man.“
“Includes compassion for those of lower station, and for the preservation of one's name.”
 “Enforces the requirement to conduct oneself with calmness, fairness, justice, and propriety.”
“The relationship between learning and the way of the warrior is clearly articulated, one being a natural partner to the other.”
“To die a good death with one's honor intact is the ultimate aim in a life lived.” Indeed, a "good death" is its own reward, and by no means assurance of "future rewards" in the afterlife.”
—  THE SAMURAI - “BUSHIDO”
7 VIRTUES:
v Rectitude
v Courage
v Benevolence
v Respect
v Honesty
v Honor
v Loyalty
—  SHOGUNATE
•      The establishment of the shogunate  at the end of the twelfth century saw the beginning of samurai control of Japan for 700 years until the Meiji Restoration in 1868.
—  The title of shogun in Japan meant a military leader equivalent to general, and at various times in the first millennium shoguns held temporary power, but it became a symbol of military control over the county.
—  During the Edo period, effective power rested with the Tokugawa shogun, not the emperor, even though the former ostensibly owed his position to the latter.
—  The shogun controlled foreign policy, the military, and feudal patronage. The role of the emperor was ceremonial, similar to the position of the Japanese monarchy after the Second World War.
—  SHOGUNATE
§  A system of government of a feudal military dictatorship, exercised in the name of the shogun.
§  Although theoretically the state, and therefore the Emperor, held ownership of all land of Japan, the system had some feudal elements, with lesser territorial lords pledging their allegiance to greater ones. Samurai were rewarded for their loyalty with agricultural surplus, usually rice, or labor services from peasants. In contrast to European feudal knights, samurai were not land owners. The hierarchy that held this system of government together was reinforced by close ties of loyalty between samurai and their subordinates.
§  Each shogunate was dynamic, not static. Power was constantly shifting and authority was often ambiguous.
—  The Edo/Tokugawa Period (1603 – 1868)
—  Power centralized in the hands of a hereditary shogunate that took control of religion, regulated the entire economy, subordinated the nobility, and set up uniform systems of taxation, government spending and bureaucracies.
—  The administration of the country was shared by over two hundred daimyō in a federation governed by the Tokugawa shogunate. The Tokugawa commanded the allegiance of the other daimyō, who in turn ruled their domains with a rather high degree of autonomy.
—  It avoided international involvement and wars, established a national judiciary and suppressed protest and criticism.
—  The Tokugawa era brought  “a peace state”, and that brought prosperity to a nation of 31 million for 265 years.
—  The Edo/Tokugawa Period (1603 – 1868)
—  Placed the samurai class above the commoners: the agriculturists, artisans, and merchants.
—  They enacted sumptuary laws limiting hairstyle, dress, and accessories.
—  They organized commoners into groups of five and held all responsible for the acts of each individual.
—  To prevent daimyō from rebelling, the shōguns required them to maintain lavish residences in Edo and live at these residences on a rotating schedule; carry out expensive processions to and from their domains; contribute to the upkeep of shrines, temples, and roads; and seek permission before repairing their castles.
—  Cultural achievement was high during this period, and many artistic developments took place.
—  Edo Period: Social Structure
—  Japanese society had an elaborate social structure, in which everyone knew their place and level of prestige.
1.     The emperor and the court nobility
- invincible in prestige but weak in power
1.     The shōgun, daimyō and layers of feudal lords
-         they had power and rank was indicated by their closeness to the Tokugawa
2.     400,000 samurai warriors
-         ranks ranged in numerous grades and degrees; few upper samurai were eligible for high office, while most were foot soldiers with minor duties
-         were affiliated with senior lords in a well-established chain of command
-         the shōgun had 17,000 samurai retainers; the daimyō each had hundreds
-         most lived in modest homes near their lord's headquarters, and lived off hereditary rights to collect rents and stipends.
-         together these high status groups comprised Japan's ruling class making up about 6% of the total population.
—  Edo Period: Social Structure
—  Japanese society had an elaborate social structure, in which everyone knew their place and level of prestige.
4.     Peasants
-         80% of the population whose high prestige as producers was undercut by their burden as the chief source of taxes
-         were illiterate and lived in villages controlled by appointed officials who kept the peace and collected taxes
5.     Merchants and artisans
-         Near the bottom of the prestige scale but much higher up in terms of income and life style
-         had no political power, and even rich merchants found it difficult to rise in the world in a society in which place and standing were fixed at birth
6.     Entertainers, prostitutes, day laborers and servants, and the thieves, beggars
-         were tightly controlled by local officials and were not allowed to mingle with higher status people
-         Edo Period: Two Centuries of Isolation
Reason why Japan closed its doors for over 200 years:
ü During the early part of the 17th century, the shogunate suspected that foreign traders and missionaries were actually forerunners of a military conquest by European powers.
ü Christianity had spread in Japan, especially among peasants, and the shogunate suspected the loyalty of Christian peasants towards their daimyō, severely persecuting them.
ü This led to a revolt by persecuted peasants and Christians in 1637 known as the Shimabara Rebellion which saw 30,000 Christians and peasants facing more than 100,000 samurai army. The rebellion was crushed at a high cost to the army.
—  Edo Period: Two Centuries of Isolation
After the eradication of the rebels at Shimabara…
ü the shogunate placed foreigners under progressively tighter restrictions
ü monopolized foreign policy and expelled traders, missionaries, and foreigners with the exception of the Dutch and Chinese merchants who were restricted to the man-made island of Dejima in Nagasaki Bay and several small trading outposts outside the country
—  End of the 200-year Isolation
—  1844 - William II of the Netherlands sent a message urging Japan to open its doors which was rejected by the Japanese.
—  July 8, 1853 - Commodore Matthew Perry of the US Navy with four warships steamed into the bay in Yokohama and displayed the threatening power of his ships' cannons. He requested that Japan open to trade with the West.
—  March 31, 1854 - Perry returned with seven ships and demanded that the shōgun sign the Treaty of Peace and Amity, establishing formal diplomatic relations between Japan and the United States. Within five years, Japan had signed similar treaties with other Western countries.
—  July 29, 1858 - The Harris Treaty was signed with the US. These treaties were unequal, having been forced on Japan through gunboat diplomacy, and were interpreted by the Japanese as a sign of Western imperialism taking hold of the rest of the Asian continent. Among other measures, they gave the Western nations unequivocal control of tariffs on imports and the right of extraterritoriality to all of their visiting nationals.
—  Meiji Restoration
—  Was a chain of events that restored imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji.
—  The Restoration led to enormous changes in Japan's political and social structure.
—   The period spanned from 1868 to 1912 and was responsible for the emergence of Japan as a modernized nation in the early twentieth century.
—  This period also saw Japan change from being a feudal society to having a market economy and left the Japanese with a lingering Western influence.
—  Meiji Restoration
—  Was a chain of events that restored imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji.
—  The Restoration led to enormous changes in Japan's political and social structure.
—   The period spanned from 1868 to 1912 and was responsible for the emergence of Japan as a modernized nation in the early twentieth century.
—  This period also saw Japan change from being a feudal society to having a market economy and left the Japanese with a lingering Western influence.
—  The word "Meiji" means "enlightened rule" and the goal was to combine "western advances" with the traditional, "eastern" values.
—  Causes to the Meiji Restoration
—  The Japanese knew that they were behind the rest of the world when American Commodore Matthew C. Perry came to Japan to try to issue a treaty that would open up Japanese ports to trade. Perry came to Japan in large warships with armament and technology that far outclassed those of Japan at the time.
—  The leaders of the Meiji Restoration acted in the name of restoring imperial rule in order to strengthen Japan against the threat represented by the colonial powers of the day.
—  A group of prominent Japanese intellectuals went on to form the Meiji Six Society in 1873 in order to continue to "promote civilization and enlightenment" through western ethics and ideas. However, during the restoration, political power simply moved from the Tokugawa Shogunate to an oligarchy consisting of these leaders. This reflected their belief in the more traditional practice of imperial rule, whereby the Emperor of Japan serves solely as the spiritual authority of the nation and his ministers govern the nation in his name.
—  Effects of the Meiji Restoration
1.     Accelerated industrialization in Japan, which led to its rise as a military power by the year 1905, under the slogan of "Enrich the country, strengthen the military".
2.     The Meiji oligarchy that formed the government under the rule of the Emperor first introduced measures to consolidate their power against the remnants of the Edo period government, the shogunate, daimyo, and the samurai class.
3.     All Tokugawa lands were seized and placed under "imperial control“. This created for the first time a central government in Japan which exercised direct power through the entire 'realm'. The roughly 300 domains were turned into prefectures, each under the control of a state-appointed governor.
—  Effects of the Meiji Restoration
4.     The Tokyo Koishikawa Arsenal (Imperial Japanese Army Tokyo Arsenal) was established in 1871.
5.     Abolished the samurai class. *
6.     Military reform through nationwide conscription in 1873, mandating that every male would serve in the armed forces upon turning 21 for four years and three more years in the reserves. This extended the ancient samurai privilege to bear arms to every male in the nation. Samurai were no longer allowed to walk about town bearing a sword or weapon to show their status as in former times.
7.     The military of Japan was strengthened, and they showed themselves as a growing world power by winning both the Sino-Japanese war, and the Russo-Japanese war.
—  Effects of the Meiji Restoration
8.     Embarked on a series of land reforms like legitimizing the tenancy system which had been going on during the Tokugawa period.
9.     Abolished the hierarchical divisions of society (scholars, peasant farmers, artisan and craftsmen, merchants and traders)
10.                         The government established a dominant national dialect that replaced local and regional dialects called hyojungo, which was based on patterns of the Tokyo’s samurai classes that has eventually become the norm in the realms of education, media, government and business.
—  The Empire of Japan (1868-1945)
—  Beginning in 1868, Japan undertook political, economic, and cultural transformations emerging as a unified and centralized state, the Empire of Japan (also Imperial Japan or Prewar Japan).
—  This 77-year period, which lasted until 1945, was a time of rapid economic growth.
—  Japan became an imperial power, colonizing Korea and Taiwan.
—  Starting in 1931 it began the takeover of Manchuria and China, in defiance of the League of Nations and the United States.
—  Escalating tension with the U.S.--and western control of Japan's vital oil supplies—led to World War II.
—  Japan launched multiple successful attacks on the U.S. as well as British and Dutch territories in 1941–42.
—  The Empire of Japan (1868-1945)
—  After a series of great naval battles, the Americans sank the Japanese fleet and largely destroyed 50 of its largest cities through air raids, including nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan surrendered in late summer 1945, gave up its overseas holdings in Korea, China, Taiwan and elsewhere, and was occupied and transformed into a demilitarized democratic nation by the U.S.
—  World War II
—  Also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world’s nations – including all of the great powers – eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis.
—  Allied Countries:  The Big Four  (United States of America,  United Kingdom, Soviet Union, China ) and other countries (France, Poland, Belgium, Brazil, Czechoslovakia, Ethiopia, Greece, India, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway and Yugoslavia.
—  Axis Countries: Germany, Japan and Italy
—  Japan in World War II – Pearl Harbor
—  On 7 December 1941, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii.
—   The barrage lasted just two hours but it was devastating: The Japanese managed to destroy nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and almost 200 airplanes.
—  More than 2,000 American soldiers died and another 1,000 wounded during the attack.
—  The day after the attack, the US declared war on Japan.
—  Three days later, Japanese allies Germany and Italy also declared war on the United States.
—  Japan in World War II
—  The Japanese Army invaded and captured most of the coastal Chinese cities such as Shanghai.
—  Japan took over the French Indochina (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia), British Malaya (Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore) as well as the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia).
—  Japanese forces overwhelmed the British in Burma and reached the borders of India and Australia.
—  Japan invaded the then US-occupied Philippines
—  Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
—  It was an imperial concept created and promulgated for occupied Asian populations by the Japanese Empire.
—  It promoted the cultural and economic unity of the East Asian race. It also declared the intention to create a self-sufficient “bloc of Asian nations led by the Japanese and free of Western powers.”
—  It explicitly states the superiority of the Japanese over the Asian races.
—  Inherently hierarchical with Japan’s intention of domination over Asia.
—  The Defeat of Japan in World War II
—  Total Japanese fatalities between 1937 and 1945 were 2.1 million.
—  Starvation or malnutrition-related illness accounted for roughly 80% of Japanese military defeats in the Philippines and 50% of military fatalities in China.
—  The aerial bombing of a total of 65 Japanese cities appears to have taken a minimum of 400,000 and possibly closer to 600,000 civilian lives.
—  The dropping of atomic bombs by the US to the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki forced Japan to finally surrender in 1945.