Japan’s Nationalism CCOT Presentation

By: Henry Pastel, William Fowler, Jack Marbut

Japan’s Beginning Situation 1850

In 1868 the provincial rebels overthrew the Tokugawa Shogunate and declared young emperor Mutsuhito restored. The new leaders called their regime the Meiji, which means the enlightened rule. They were determined to protect their country from western imperialism and they encouraged its transformation into a rich country with a strong army and world-class industries. Also, the literacy rate was the highest in Asia at the time and the Meiji shrewdly exploited it so that they could introduce new educational systems, a conscript army, and new communications. The government was also able to establish heavy industry, because of several decades of industrial development and financing in Japan in the early 1800s.

Continuity: Continuous land and economic growth

• Japan was closely tied to the west by trade and able to benefit from the postwar recovery. At the same time, controls placed on Japan by peace conditions kept its military expenditures low during the Cold War, providing an exceptional environment to develop it economy. • Between 1960 and 1970 steel production and shipbuilding also

developed rapidly, placing Japan among world leaders in both industries.• Japan conquered Southeast Asia and Indonesia in search for more

power and economic growth in early 1942.

Continuity: Few natural resources

• The depression hit which caused the collapse of demand for silk and rice which ruined thousands of Japanese farmers.• In early 1942, the Japanese conquered all of Southeast Asia and the

Dutch East Indies. Then they began to confiscate food and raw materials and demanded heavy labor from the inhabitants.• Japanese nationalist saw the conquest of China, with its vast

population and resources, as the solution to their country’s problems.

Changes: World War II/Pearl Harbor

• After the United States stopped shipments of vital supplies to Japan, in December 1941 Japanese planes bombed pearl harbor.• In June 1944, U.S. bombers began attacking Japan and American

submarines sank Japanese merchant ships, cutting Japan off from its sources of oil and other raw materials. • Two weeks after the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and

Nagasaki, Japanese leaders signed the terms or surrender.

Changes: The westernization of Japan

• Economic growth aggravated social tension. The narikin, the new rich, affected western ways and lifestyles that clashed with the austerity of earlier times. • In big cities mobos, modern boys, and mogas, modern girls, shocked

the traditionalists with their foreign ways of dancing together, wearing short skirts and tight pants, and behaving like Americans.• Japanese prosperity depended on foreign trade. It exported silk and

light manufactures and imported almost all fuel, raw materials, and machine tools, and even some of its food from western countries.

Japan’s End Situation 1975

Japan took more advantage of the opportunities presented by the superpowers’ preoccupations than most countries did. Japan signed a peace treaty with most of its former enemies in 1951 and regained its independence from American occupation the following year. Surrendering militarism and its imperialist past, Japan remained on the sidelines during the Korean War. Japan wrote a new constitution under American Supervision in 1946, which allowed only limited self-defense forces and banned the deployment of Japanese troops abroad. Japan focused their resources on rebuilding industries and expanding trade. Peace treaties with countries in Southeast Asia specified reparations payable in the form of goods and services, thus reintroducing Japan to that region as a force for economic development rather than as a military occupier.

Maps

Bibliography

Bulliet, Richard W., Pamela Kyle. Crossley, Daniel R. Headrick, Steven W. Hirsch, Lyman L. Johnson, and David Northrup. The Earth and Its Peoples: A Global History. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning, 2014. Print.

"World Map / World Atlas / Atlas of the World including Geography Facts and Flags - Worldatlas.com - WorldAtlas.com." World Map / World Atlas / Atlas of the World including Geography Facts and Flags - Worldatlas.com - WorldAtlas.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 2015.

"Japan-guide.com - Japan Travel and Living Guide." Japan-guide.com - Japan Travel and Living Guide. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2015.