Japan as a World Power

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Japan as a World Power
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The end of Tokugawa rule

• A. Commodore Matthew Perry
• 1853 - 4 American warships end 200 years of
  isolation.
• B. Treaties
• 1954 Treaty of Kanagawa
• -right to port access
• -diplomatic ties
• Later treaties extraterritoriality

3
Meiji Restoration

• 1868
• Enlightened rule
• Capitol moved from Kyoto to Tokyo
• Look to emperor vs. shogun
• Japan needs to modernize before we can
• expel the barbarians

4

• A. Cultural borrowing
• People sent away to study
• learned about government, engineering
• I would forgive their impoliteness because of
  their friendliness.

5

• B. Changes under Meiji leaders
• Created a central government
• Daimyos gave up land for government power
• 2 house Diet (parliament)
• Still had an emperor
• No more torture
• More democratic, yet still oligarchy
• Goal wasnt democracy. Goal was to unite
• Japan to make it equal with western powers.

6

• B. Continued
• Social Changes
• Abolished feudalism
• Everyone equal (women vote in 1947)
• All men in military (not just samurai)
• Move to the city
• Women start working outside home
• Children go to school
• Literacy increases
• News increases

7

• C. Economic Modernization
• Needed capital!
• taxes and borrowing
• 1860s Silkworms
• Government aided industry
• Privatization
• Zaibatsu
• Cooperation vs. Competition

8
Expansion

• By 1900, Japan was a modern, industrial nation.
• Negotiated new treaties with West.
• Korea
• 1895 Sino-Japanese War
• forces China out of Korea
• gets Foromosa (Taiwan)
• Special privileges in China (trade)
• (21 demands)

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• 1904-05 Russo-Japanese War
• First Asian defeat of Western nation
• Forced Russia out of Korea
• Japan got foothold in Manchuria
• Got German holdings in Northern China during WWI
• Gained raw materials

10

• 1920s
• Prosperity
• A focus on peace. Limited military
• 1929
• Great Depression
• social unrest
• extremist argue for continued oversea expansion
• Insulted by US treatment of Japanese
• move toward military dictatorship

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• Army officers create Manchuria crisis
• Public opinion behind seizure of region.
• Militarism
• loyalty to emperor
• samurai traditions
• free Asian nations from western imperialism
• Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere

12

• G. China
• continued expansion to protect Manchuria
• China provided raw materials and market
• 1937 major drive into China, forced a retreat.
• 1937-1945 - Second Sino-Japanese War

13

• World War II
• 1940 - Japan joins Axis (Germany/Italy)
• Japan seized French Indochina
• US cuts off oil and supplies
• Pearl Harbor 12/7/41
• by 1942 - Japan ruled empire
• (Hong Kong, SE Asia)
• Mid-1942 US starts pushing Japan back.
• August 6, 9 1945 Atomic bombs