These time periods were challenges for the Japanese. But they showed just how much Japan could overcome and how determined the Japanese were to succeed. The Meiji Restoration Restoration showed how quick learning the Japanese were. Though the Industrial Revolution took 150 years, the Japanese changed out of their agrarian lifestyle to a factory filled city in 40 years. The Kanto earthquake caused the Japanese to rethink their previous architecture. As a result of the earthquake, also, a good part of Japan had to be completely rebuilt. But through it all, Japan comes through with an ever better, more modern looking city and an even prouder people.
Meiji (1867AD-1912AD)
In 1867, a 15-year old lad named Mutsuhito came to be emperor after the great Tokugawa shogunate was destroyed.The shogunate had been undergoing a period of politlcal disarrary for the past 15 years. Mutsuhito would later be known as 'Meiji' or 'Enlightened Rule' as it brought Japan into a new and completely modern age. Though Meiji was the emperor, the real brains behind the actions were a small group of samurai who wished to revolutionize Japan.
One of the first orders of business was relocating the emperor to Edo, which was then renamed Tokyo. Due to the embarassment with the US during the Tokugawa era, this era considered it also a top priority to modernise their army. Universal conscription was held and a new army was begun, based on the model of the Prussian army. A new navy, based on the British's navy was also begun.
The new government wanted to break down the rigid social classes of the Tokugawa era. The samurai and feudal lords (daimyo) were the big losers with the leveling of the playing field. Samurai were very bitter with their loss of status and weapons and many rebellions against the government came from ex-samurai. The last rebellion, led by ex-samurai, Saigo, was the Satsuma rebellion. After they were defeated, and Saigo had committed suicide rather than surrender, the samurai class officially died and the Meji Restoration officially began. Daimyo had to return all their land to the emperor by 1870.
Western Influence
The emperor restructured the country into the 47 prefectures that Japan uses today. Japan's first Western-inspired constitution was issued in 1889. The Diet, the Japanese parliament was established. The emperor reigned supreme over the military, executive and legistive branches but the ruling clique, aka the genro, held the real political power. Rights including religious freedom (1873) were established during this time.
The motto of the era was "Civilization and Enlightenment" and the era used this to mean, embrace all that is Western and modern. One of the best sellers of this time was a book by Fukuzawa Yukichi, based on his travels to the west. It popularized western ideas and beliefs. He, more than any other, made westernization possible and popular in Japan. Fukuzawa was and is still a national hero in Japan.
Japanese scholars were sent abroad to study Western economy so that Japan could break out of its farm-dependent status. The government gave liberally to improve transportation and communication and to encourage business and industry, especially the powerful family businesses known as zaibatsu. For transportation, this was a critical era. With the introduction of the wheel came the invention of rickshaws, horse-drawn trolleys and then the train. However, this excessive spending would only hurt the economy as shown in a financial crisis in the 1880s. But learning from their mistakes, the currency was reformed and the Bank of Japan was formed. Education was reformed along the French and later, the German system. However, Confucian and Shinto elements including the worship of the emperor were still being taught. But education was now not only available to all but attendance was compulsory. This was yet another step toward equality.
Of course, the money involved with such reforms had to come from somewhere and here it came from really heavy taxing on farmers. When the farmers did well, so did the nation and vice versa. However, many farmers were outraged with the high taxes and the fact that their children were being sent into the army. However, the new sense of land ownership and hope for a financially promising future made other farmers strongly nationalistic and gave them a desire to work to help their country out. With the new democritization, farmers also believed that they had a newfound voice in the government.
New innovations of this time also included electricity. Modernisation was occurring at a rapid rate until the government ran out of money. They had originally used the trade of silk to support their expenses but soon had to come up with new ideas. Then they struck gold with the idea of subcontracting private companies to work for the greater good of the country.
Modernisation came fast but its problems followed it. Industrialization in Japan had the same consequenses as industrialization in America. Many worked in sweatshops under awful conditions. Others worked in mines where high walls kept the sea out and the people from leaving.
Foreign Relations
In 1894, Japan engaged in war with China over their mutual interests in Korea. This Sino-Japanese War was won by Japan the following year. Japan got Taiwan as their spoils but the Western powers forced Japan to return some of their other territories. In 1904, Japan engaged in war with Russia, now over interest conflicts over Korea again and also Manchuria. this Russo-Japanese war also lasted a year and Japan also won. Japan again gained some land and increased its influence in Korea which Japan annexed in 1910.
The end of the Meiji period came about with the death of the Emperor in 1912. The country mourned deeply for their fallen leader and the funeral procession included both traditional and Western/British elements to symbolize the modernization of Japan and the closeness of the relationship between Britain and Japan at that time.
Taisho (1912AD-1925AD)
Meiji's son adopted the name Taisho or 'Great Righteousness' for the name of his reign. Despite the name, the government, especially the parliament, continued to be characterised by mud-slinging and corruption. And the new emperor could not even command as much respect because he couldn't perform his duties as a result of a hereditary mental illness. Because of his weakness, political power shifted towards the parliament and democratic parties.
1st World War
Japan contributed some of the earliest Allied victories in this war, including the German ports at Kiacochow and Tsingtao. From the war, Japan gained much influence in China. In 1915, Japan presented China with a list of "Twenty-One Demands. They were grouped into five sections, of which all were implemented, albeit with modifications, except for the last section which required appointed Japanese advisors to assist in military and economic ordeals . The sections included information on Japan's interest in Manchuria and Japan's dislike of China offering concessions to other foreign powers.
As one of the 'Big Five' at the Paris Peace Conference at the end of the war, Japan received the Pacific islands that were formerly owned by Germany, though they were held as territory in trust for the League of Nations. The Japanese, however, were thwarted in their attempts to issue a declaration of racial equality into the League's charter. They had wished to do so to avoid humiliation that Japanese emigrants to California had suffered.
However hurt the Japanese had been with the withdrawal of their proposal, they didn't show it as they continued to cooperate with the Allied forces. From 1918-1922, they even sent troops from to quell the Bolshevik Revolution, though the quest was very unpopular at the home front. At the Washington Naval Conference, it was agreed that Japan would have three capital ships for every five in American or British navies as long as Japan reigned predominantly supreme in the Pacific.
Kanto Earthquake
In 1923 a huge earthquake hit Tokyo and Yokohama. Huge fires caused many of the wooden houses there to burn down and about 140,000 people died. About 700,000 households were destroyed. Because many buildings burned down, millions of jobs were lost.
An account of what happened Saturday, September 1, 1923 in Yokohama as described by Otis Manchester Poole in The Death of Old Yokohama. Poole, General Manage of Dodwell & Co. Ltd.
I had scarcely returned to my desk when, without warning, came the first rumbling jar of an earthquake, a sickening sway, the vicious grinding of timbers and, in a few seconds, a crescendo of turmoil as the floor began to heave and the building to lurch drunkenly.... The ground could scarcely be said to shake; it heaved, tossed and leapt under one. The walls bulged as if made of cardboard and the din became awful...For perhaps half a minute the fabric of our surroundings held; then came disintegration. Slabs of plaster left the ceilings and fell about our ears, filling the air with a blinding, smothering fog of dust. Walls bulged, spread and sagged, pictures danced on their wires, flew out and crashed to splinters. ... How long it lasted, I don't know. It seemed an eternity; but the official record says four minutes...[9]
Altogether, seven prefectures were affected but the greatest devastation occured in Yokohama Japan's most important commercial port of the time.
The earth was lifted up to 24 feet from the ground. This land upheaval caused landslides, killing hundreds. Fires were started since many stoves were being used at that time- the time of the noonday meal in Japan. A tsunami followed the earthquake but did less damage. Telephone and telegraph lines were affected as well as newspapers. Communication was very difficult so rumors of Korean invasion and other horrors spread.
However, when news of the earthquake reached the United States, over 10 million dollars in relief money was raised in just a few days and many countries followed suit. New building codes were installed to be safer for the future. Japan had to be rebuilt for now, though.