History 175 (2008)
Lecture #4

"Fleeing Asia:" Japan's Rise in the World Order


IDs:  sakoku
        Matthew Perry
        Sonno Joi
        Sino-Japanese War
        Fukuzawa Yukichi
        Russo-Japanese War (1904-05)


I. Introduction:  Popular Conceptions of Japan
    A. Modernization Miracle
    B. Isolationist (Ethnocentric)
        • sakoku (National Seclusion)
    C. Nativism

II. Tokugawa Society (1603-1868)
    A. Class and Status
        1. Samurai and Commoners
            • Demarcating Status
            • Samurai
            • 4-class structure:  peasant; artisan; merchant; samurai
        2. Emperor, Shogun & Daimyo
            • Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616)
            • Bakufu
            • Daimyo
            • Sankin-kotai

    B. Late Tokugawa Society:  Impact and Response?
        1. Alternate Attendance
            • Edo
        2. Seclusion Policy (sakoku seisaku)
        3. Stagnant Society?
              • Demographic growth
                         - Daimyo "castle towns"
                         - Post towns
         4. Economic Repurcussions
              • Rise of Merchant Class
                         - Abolishment of Customs Barriers
                         - Standardization of Weights and Measures
                         - Transportation Network
         5. Bakufu Restraints
               • Social Impact: Samurai

IV. 19th Century External Pressures
     A. Japan in a New World
          1. Increased International Presence
          2. Japanese Gold (rate of exchange)
          3. Urban Riots:
               • Distrust of Bakufu (not xenophobic)
     B. Perry's Blackships
          1. Commodore Matthew Perry (document)
               • Arrival July 1853
               • Return February 1854
                         - "Wood & Water Treaty"
               • Townsend Harris Treaty (document)
                         - Treaty Ports
                         - Extraterritoriality
                         - "Most Favored Nation" clause
          2. Response and Resistance
               • Bakufu vs. Emperor & Daimyos
               • Sonno Joi - Revere the Emperor, Expel the Barbarians


IV. Meiji Restoration
     A. Plan?
          1. Immediate Goals: Abolition of Shogunate & Restoration of Emperor
          2.Theories about the fall of the shoganate & death of the emperor.
     B. New Government
          1. "Honor the Emperor"
               • Councils and Ministries
               • Efficient Tax System
               • Abolition of the Hans
     C. New Society
          1. Rapid Pace of Reform
               • 1869 - 4 Classes (aristocrats, upper samurai, lower samurai, commoners)
               • 1870 - Family Names for all
               • 1871 - Class Intermarriage
               • 1871 - Samurai reforms
     D. New Policies
          1. Fukoku Kyohei ("To strengthen and enrich the nation" or "Rich Country and Strong Military")
          2. Turning towards the West
     E. Foreign Policy
          1. Korea - 1873
               • Tributary System
               • "Perry-style" Tactics (1875)
                    - Treaty of Kanghwa (February 27, 1876)

V. Japan's International Position(ing)
       A. Fukuzawa Yukichi (1834-1901)
              1. Datsu-a ron (Flee Asia)
          2. Sino-Japanese War (1894-5)
               • Korea: "Tonghak" (Eastern Learning)
               • Port Arthur (Lüshun)/Dailian (Dairen)
               • Weihaiwei
               • Treaty of Shimonoseki (1895) [document]
                    - Taiwan
                    - Liaodong (Kwantung) Peninsula
                    - Korea's "Independence"
                    - 200 (plus 30) taels indemnity
                     - Gashin Shotan (persevering through hardship)

VI. Russo-Japanese War (1904-05)
       A. Background
              1. Post Sino-Japanese War Emotions
              2. Manchuria
              3. Diplomatic maneuvering
                     - man-kan kokan ("trading Manchuria for Korea")
       B. War
              1. Declaration of War (Feb. 10, 1904)
                     - Port Arthur (Lushun), Jan 1905
                     - Mukden (Shenyang), Feb. 1905
                     - Russian Baltic Fleet
              2. Japanese expectations at "Home"
       C. Treaty of Portsmouth (September 1905)
              1. Kaneko Kentaro & Theodore Roosevelt
              2. Japanese demands
              3. Home reception

VII. Shifting Aims
       A. Democracy, Radicalism and Dissent
              1. Party Rule
                     - Yoshino Sakuzō's minponshugi
              2. Rice Riots of 1918
                     - 700,000 people in 36 towns, 129 towns, and 145 villages

VI. Conclusion
       A. Collapse of Germany (and German model)
       B. Meiji: Restoration or Revolution
               • Reform from "Below" or "Above"
               • Meiji Modernization

       C. Call for Democracy:  Rise of "Taisho Democracy"