Meiji Restoration

The reading of Strayer has changed my view of one part of the theory of the Meiji Restoration that I had from the documents in class. Before reading Strayer, I had a view that the Japanese were more arrogant, and felt superior towards the outside world. However, through the reading I saw that out of all the other countries that we have studied, especially China, Japan has been quite open to outside ideas. Of course, they started out rather harsh towards the outside world, this seemed to work for them. Unlike China, they had already urbanized their country without much help from the outside world. One difference between the documents and the reading was that the documents did not attribute any success of the Japanese to the outside world, where Strayer talked more about Japan's encounters with the outside and how they were open to Western ideas. Most of the classes theories talked about about how Japan shot down the world around them and gained power by putting other countries down. Through the reading I have learned that this is not true, and that Japan was a place of peace that accepted Western ideas.

Japan in the 19th Century

It is interesting to note the slightly different perceptions of Japan through our in class observations of mostly Japanese primary documents and Strayer's view on Japanese history in the late 19th century. In class we got the sense that Japan, because of their previous accomplishments in economics and urbanization, was able to maintain a sense of superiority and national pride despite drawing heavily upon western technology. Strayer however, portrays a more unbiased and less boastful view of Japanese advancements. 

My opinion of Japanese superiority was changed after reading Strayer because of Japan's willingness to use western technology. Instead fending off America and other European countries that wanted to trade with Japan, they succumbed to their will in order to not end up like China post-opium wars. This act of lying down in the face of western powers does not seem to be the proud country I thought them to be. 

Japan was also eager to use the technology they lacked in order to transform their country. They were not just influenced by the west, they used all the technology and knowledge the west possessed to rebuild their country. "Knowledge shall be sought throughout the world," said the Japanese. This extreme open-mindedness was contrary to the slightly reluctant and condescending attitude we experienced in class. Their smooth transition between governments and the new government's commitment to change, along with a lack of meddling by America, allowed Japan to flourish. 

Japan and Western Influence

Our theory from class was that through putting down other countries, Japan gained power. However, our thesis was not very accurate, because it was not through interaction with other countries - even indirect interaction - that Japan gained power. Japan gained power through the peaceful way they accepted change and were able to avoid conflict among their nation. They also learned from China’s mistakes, and instead of resisted Western influence, during the Meiji Restoration they were able to use its ideas to strengthen their government and their people.

Part of the reason why Japan was so peaceful was because the people wanted change, but at the same did not want to disrupt their lifestyles, which were, for the most part, successful. For example, merchants had low status but a lot of money. They wanted their status to change, but did not want their money to disappear.

The documents we read in class showed how much Japan hated foreigners and turned them away. This was true for a time, when their only port was Dutch and they turned away even shipwrecked foreigners. But this was not what ended up giving them power. If they had continued along this path, they would have failed just as China did. Instead, they saw recognized China’s mistake and slowly allowed more foreigners to influence them while maintaining a strong sense of national pride.

日本！

Original statement: Though the Japanese were influenced by western civilization, they were still able to maintain a strong center of national pride which was certainly justified by their previous accomplishments. In short: the Japanese rightfully maintained their own culture, but were still influenced by foreign powers.
The reading changed my view quite a bit, as it seems that the success of the Japanese was not just pure skill and talent, but also a little bit of luck. With a growing industry and literacy rate already in place before attempts to manipulate Japan, they were able to make the switch to a more economic society fairly easily. Of course, the change was mainly due to a short civil war, and the changing of hands the government system underwent. This civil war would not have happened had it not been for the difference between social classes in Japan, as happy citizens do not rebel. The want for both status and money surely upset many, as shown by the disregard by peasants shown to decrees restricting their dress. If Japan hadn't been ready and waiting for a change, I doubt it would have gone over so well.

Strayer Reading, 577-580

The reading that we did in our textbook gave us some significant details about Japan's attitude and situation in the 19th century. The primary documents gave us mostly just a sense of how much pride Japan had at that time. The documents didn't show us the process of the shoganate being brought down from power. This struggle for power between the shogunate and the revolutionary samurai from the south was brief and not very bloody, but still significant. It shows that there was some political unrest in that time, not just a scientific and economic growth spurt. It was also a little surprising to learn just how much the Japanese despised foreigners. They wouldn't even take in shipwrecked refugees from European or US ships. Despite this, they still adopted some of the foreign ideas to strengthen their own sense of self as a country. In fact, it seems like the acceptance of western ideas partially led to the downfall and overruling of the shogunate because it showed signs of weakeness in the govrenment, despite being better for Japan.

Meiji Restoration

For the most part, our class was able to understand the basic sense of the Meiji Restoration. The Japanese received some kind of influence from Western culture while at the same time retaining their own national pride. The documents spoke of Japan achieving great things that Westerners did not expect was possible. Our in-class activities gave us an idea of the end result, but the reading helped us understand why it all happened and to what extent it occurred.

What was surprising about Japan is that no other Asian nation had taken so easily to Western industrialism without succumbing to the power of the white man. Somewhat surprisingly, Japan was already full of innovation, Confucian values advocated for education, and large cities had sprung up across Japan. These early advancements were a step in Japan's rise to power. Later Japan's government was growing ineffective and corrupt. It's inability to deal with famine led to small scale uprisings, leading to the extreme burning of Osaka. When the government gave into unfair treaties from Commodore Perry and Westerners, the people were at their last straw. In China's Taiping Rebellion, China was squashed and, once again, forced under by Western power. In the Meiji Restoration, a group similarly tried to overthrow the existing order, but - as we hypothesized - Japan emerged as a strong, proud nation. Instead of just trying to fight back like China did, Japan called for a complete societal transformation. From there, it built upon the technological advancements of the Western world and established itself as a world power.

How the Reading From Pages 577-580 Changed my Document-Based Theory

After reading, my thesis on the Japanese rise to power has changed very little. My first thesis was that Japan adopted other countries ideas while simultaneously denying their connection to the outside world to retain national pride. My thesis has become; Japan rose to power by generating national pride through successful revolution and feelings of social enlightenment as well as adopting new technologies and ideas from foreign powers discreetly. The parts in the reading which changed my thesis the most were the last two paragraphs on page 580. Before reading, I was unaware that Japan had revolted and overthrown the shogunate in the Meiji restoration; this turning point in Japanese history was crucial to the country's quick rise to power. Also, the idea that Japanese society would open up to foreign influence was something that was not conveyed in the documents as opposed to clearly demonstrated in the reading.

Meiji Restoration

After reading the passage in Strayer, my hypothesis changed quite a bit. Before i thought that the Japanese were oblivious to other countries ideas and did not take any into consideration. However after the reading my thesis changed a lot. I learnt that they overthrew the shogunate, and assembled a whole knew government with influence from a lot of other countries. The reason I think that I, and many other people in the class thought so before is because that the documents were created by Japanese, in other words biased and were propaganda. The textbook was written by a non Japanese so it is a lot less biased and more of the truth comes out. Now my thesis stands as such. With a lot of foreign help, the Meiji restored order in Japan by overthrowing the shogunate and assembling a whole new government.

Modernization of China and Japan

Our class's original hypothesis was that the Japanese managed to maintain a strong sense of national pride justified by their accomplishments, even though they were largely influenced by Western culture. After reading the text, I believe that our thesis was a little bit skewed. Japan was, for the most part, not largely influenced by Western culture. They originally rejected any contact with them at all, refusing to welcome even shipwrecked Westerners who desperately needed help. Eventually, however, they learned from China's mistakes and saw that there was no outright refusing contact with the Westerners. They agreed to some unequal treaties and trading ports, but still managed to maintain their own culture. In fact, opening trade to outside of Japan helped to further weaken the shogunate's claim on the country. The country experienced a surprisingly successful civil war which resulted in them becoming an even more united country than before.

Japan was able to prosper in this difficult time for the Asian countries because it was able to learn from the mistakes of others. Japan managed to preserve its own "superior," secluded culture because it did not open itself up entirely to the outside world while still allowing enough outside influence to keep the other superpowers in the world satisfied. Japan learned from China's failures, and managed to restore and restrengthen its government quickly and without weakening itself first. It also avoided direct conflict in almost every situation, which did not weaken the country in any way.

Change of Japan Theory

My original thesis based on the documents we read in class is: "The Japanese exploit other countries' ideas while simultaneously shooting down the powers that have influenced them." Through the documents we read in class, our class concluded that Japan's success was significantly due to outside countries. The reading from Strayer definitely shows a new perspective. The fact that Japan had criticism of other countries' ideas and actions remained true, even after reading the text. However, Japan is not portrayed as reliant on other countries like it is in the documents. Instead, Japan was barely in contact with the outside world. Japan chose to be isolated from other countries and run off its own ideas.

The perspective of each source is clearly different. I think that they both must have elements of truth because in order for Japan to have so much success, it must have used its own ideas as well as the benefits from other countries ideas, actions, and mistakes. Japan became one of the most powerful countries in just a few years, so I think that it must have taken a lot to improve the country so much.

Theorizing Japan

Class Theory: Though the Japanese were influenced by western civilization, they were still able to maintain a strong center of national pride which was certainly justified bu their previous accomplishments.

While my theory from class was fairly accurate, my idea of what led up to the outcome that I saw in the documents was greatly changed. Comparing Japan's strength in the face of change and its adaptability to a new way of life with China's collapse under British influence, I would have expected a history of recent events that was the complete opposite of China's. This wasn't true at all though. Where I expected an overall sense of complacency with the Japanese government, there was rising unrest - the people were discontented with the unfair distribution of power. Soon enough, an uprising with some small similarities to the French Revolution took place. This, I thought, would weaken the country as peasant revolts had weakened Ming China for an easy invasion by the Manchu. It has quite the opposite affect. Perhaps this revolutionary atmosphere gave the Japanese a stronger sense of nationalism and loyalty, to give them more strength rather than chaos. It was this and investment in wisdom rather than blind defiance that prepared them for the coming of westerners to their island. Contrary to my theory, the Japanese did capitulate to many European demands, but this allowed them to continue much as they had before, only with wider borders. They observed what had passed in China and judged that some allowances were necessary to existence and power. The opening of the doors to the outside world strengthens my original point - through exposure they had the opportunity to prove themselves and gain respect both from the outside world and from their own people. This was necessary with a young government in power. All the while that they grew stronger for the future, they were ignored by the Western world and thus kept safe.

Japan and their New Government

READ Strayer, p. 577-580.
WRITE a blog post in which you explain how the reading altered or added to your document-based theory from class.

Though the Japanese were influenced by western civilization, they were still able to maintain a strong center of national pride, which was certainly justified by their previous accomplishments.

This was our class document theory, which I still agree with even after reading about the many conflicts the Japanese had within their country. For example, the four hierarchically ranked status groups, which were the 1. Samurai 2. Peasants 3. Artisans 4. Merchants, all resented their positions. The samurai’s were in debt to the inferior merchants and the peasants were always looked down upon even when they started engaging in manufacturing enterprises and were starting to use modern innovations. Eventually, there were peasant uprisings and riots that expressed the injustices of the poor. They first wanted to punish the officials and execute the rich merchants, then distribute the gold, silver, copper, and rice hidden in their storehouses. Interestingly enough, the people of Japan actually became stronger after the “rebellions”. The Japanese gained a sense of a fair government for once, which is similar to the French Revolution. The only difference between the Japanese and the French Revolution was that there was no Terror that took place in Japan after the punishment of the officials. They did not only maintain a strong center of national pride, they gained nationalism within their country and became whole.

Our Japan Theory...

Our theory from class was: Through putting down other countries, Japan gainer power.

Our theory from class was not very accurate. For many years, Japan was a very peaceful country, but they were self absorbed. They did not want to trade with the outside world. In fact, they only had one trading port with the West, where they traded only with the Dutch. It was not that Japan was putting down other countries, like we got from the documents, but rather, the Japanese did not want to be in much contact with the West. Japan did not gain power by putting down other countries, it simply did not want to be connected with the West. They did not want to disrupt the quiet peace throughout the country, so builded up their power from the inside. When many people of all statuses moved into cities, the government tried to limit them. The people just ignored what the government was trying to say. I was surprised by this, I thought that the people would have revolted. However, the government did not initiate violence, so neither did the people. To the government, status was a big deal. The people, however, did not seem to make that big a deal about whether they were merchants, peasants, or samurais. Samurais went into commerce to make money, and left their high standing social rank. When the Western traders came nocking on the door, they decided to not take violent action. The Japanese bothered to observe what happened to China when it's people resisted. They knew better than to fight back. American ships were granted permission to trade at Japanese ports, as well as their right to buy provisions and fuel. Other unfair privileges were granted to other Western countries as well. Japan's peaceful state was how they gained power, as well as by the encouraged education in the country.