Japan

OVERVIEW - 2012AREA: 377,000 sq. km. (62nd in the world) the size of California.

POP: 127 million (10th). 98.5% are ethnically Japanese.

GOV’T: Constitutional Monarchy, Parliamentary Democracy.

GDP: 4.5 Trillion USD total (5th) $36,000 per capita (38th).

DEBT: 214% of GDP (1st).

ARMS: Japan spends less than 1% of its budget on defence. (124th).

Source: CIA World Factbook

Japanese Language The Japanese language has been

spoken for far longer than it has been written.

Kanji, or written characters, were passed from China to Korea and Japan with the spread of Buddhism.

Hiragana and Katakana are the two phonetic alphabets of Japan.

Grammatically, Japanese is far more similar to Korean than Chinese.

Honorifics are commonly used when speaking Japanese.

Source: http://learn-japanese-software-review.toptenreviews.com/the-three-japanese-alphabets-and-why-you-should-learn-them.html

Japanese Prehistory The Sun Goddess Amaterasu is

one of the principal deities in the Shinto religion. The emperor of Japan is believed to be a direct descendant of the Goddess.

The Ainu First Nation, who inhabit the northern island of Hokkaido, have traditionally had a very strained relationship with the Japanese state. It was not until 2008, that were recognized by the Japanese government as a distinct people with their own language and culture.

Religion

A Question of Faith… Shintoism is about as tied to

Japanese culture as Hinduism is with Indian culture.

Shinto translates as ‘The Way of the Gods.’

Shinto has its own creation myth, complex rituals, codes and taboos.

Studies have shown that over 90% of Japanese identify as Shinto, yet a far smaller number are active practitioners.

Shinto is polytheistic and believes in the existence of kami, or spirits, which inhabit the natural world.

Or Faiths? Buddhism, Taoism and certain

Confucian practices also permeate Japanese culture. Religions often overlap and borrow from one another.

Approximately one third of the nation are practicing Buddhists. Buddhism arrived in Japan from Korea in the 6th Century AD.

Yet, today over 60% of the Japanese population see themselves as non-believers. Although they might still participate in a whole host of rituals and festivals.

The Middle Ages

During the 13th Century, Kublai Khan assembled a vast armada with vessels numbering in the hundreds. Over 15,000 Mongol warriors and 8,000 Koreans left to invade the Japanese islands.

In 1274, the Mongol force landed on Kyushu and met with some initial successes before the Japanese repelled them.

The second Mongol invasion occurred in 1281. This time the Mongols had assembled 150,000 troops and planned for a full scale invasion of the islands.

During this second invasion, a massive typhoon (kamikaze), or divine wind, led to the sinking of the majority of the Mongol fleet. This natural phenomena ensured that Japan would retain its sovereignty until the American Occupation of 1945-51.

Genko: The Mongol Invasions

Toyotomi Hideyoshi attempted a full scale invasion of the Korean peninsula in 1592, and again in 1598, with the ultimate aim of toppling China’s Ming Dynasty.

Over 150,000 battle hardened samurai made up the invasion force and quickly pushed the Koreans forces far into the north of the country. The Koreans eventually received help from the Ming Dynasty and the Japanese forces temporarily retreated.

In 1598, Toyotomi Hideyoshi returned with an even larger force and inflicted much damage to the Korean countryside, yet he was unable to hold his gains. Following his death in 1598, Japanese forces returned home.

These would be the last instances of Japanese military incursions abroad until the final years of the 19th Century.

The Korean Invasions

Tokugawa Japan

Was a feudal system of rule that united Japan from 1600-1868. This period of rule was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu, who would be the first shogun.

Class structures were rigidly set. Daimyo, or local lords, resided at the top and were followed by the samurai. Farmers were next, followed by artisans and merchants. Essentially, it was a Confucian ordering of the classes.

While the Emperor still maintained his residence in Kyoto, Edo became the real center of power during this period.

During this time period, Japan essentially cut itself of from the rest of the world and only allowed minimal trade with the outside world. Distrust of foreigners was high.

The Tokugawa Shogunate

Bushido is the code that set out how a samurai was to live his life. Bushido stressed ideas such as loyalty, honour, frugality and mastery of the martial arts.

Following the fall of the Shogunate in 1868, samurai all over Japan were forced to find work in a new economy and were forbidden to wear their katanas in public.

While many Japanese saw their status rise under Meiji rule, many samurai had difficulty adjusting to the new realities of the modern era. Uprisings were common.

Bushido is often attributed as being one of the key reasons why individual Japanese soldiers were so reluctant to surrender during the battles of the Second World War.

Bushido: The Way of the Samurai

The Meiji R

estoration

Reestablished imperial rule to Japan. The Meiji Era began in 1868 and lasted until the death of the emperor 1912.

In the 1850s, Commodore Perry’s ‘Black Ships’ of the US Navy visited Japan several times and demanded that they open their doors to US trade.

The Japanese quickly realized that the isolationist policies of the Tokugawa Era had not served them well, as Japanese technologies were now woefully out of date.

The Meiji Emperor began instituting a number of reforms that saw his nation rise from being an economic and technological backwater, to becoming a legitimate world power within a single generation.

The Meiji Era

Japan as an Asian Empire The first Sino-Japanese War was

fought between Japan and Qing Dynasty China in 1894-1895.

Following the war, Japan established its first overseas colony on Taiwan in 1895. Korea would be officially annexed in 1910.

The Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 saw Japan completely rout the forces of Tsarist Russia on both land and sea.

Some attribute the Russian loss to the ‘upstart’ Japanese as being one of the key factors that triggered the fall of the Romanov Dynasty.

The Rise of

Militarism

The Rise of Militarism in Japan Beginning in 1873, a policy of

universal conscription was adopted.

During the late 1800s, Prussian military advisors helped to reorganized the Japanese military’s command structure.

The Showa Era, under Hirohito, saw an increase in the power of the Japanese military and a weakening of democratic institutions.

During the early years of the Great Depression, the Kwangtung Army began to exert its influence in Manchuria, independent of the central government in Tokyo.

Escalation across the Far East In 1931, the Kwangtung Army blew

up a section of the railroads near Mukden. They blamed the destruction on the Chinese and used this as a pretext to seize Manchuria.

In 1932, Japanese forces attacked Shanghai without the approval of Tokyo. In the same year a group of naval cadets assassinated the Japanese PM, Inukai Tsuyoshi.

On July 7, 1937 The Marco Polo Bridge Incident occurred near the Chinese capital of Beijing. This event is seen by some revisionist historians as being the true starting date of WWII.

Check for Understanding How does Japan stand in

comparison to other nations? Geographically, economically, politically, etcetera?

What are some unique features of the Japanese language?

Who is Amaterasu? Why might this figure be important to know?

What is Shintoism? What other religions are practiced in Japan?

What is Bushido? Why might this term be important to understand in the weeks to come?

Were the Mongol Invasions of the 13th century successful? Why or why not?

What are some historical factors that may contribute to the strained relationship that exists between Korea and Japan?

What was the significance of the Tokugawa Era?

What happened during the Meiji Restoration?

How did the rise of militarism in Japan affect the nation and world?