JAPAN

Industrial Giant of Asia

“Land of the Rising Sun”

Capital: Tokyo
Currency: Yen
Language: Nippongo
Nat’l Anthem: Kimigayo “The Reign of our Emperor”

Geography

The Japanese call their nation Nippon meaning “Land of the Rising Sun”.
Nippon came from the word Jihpen which means “Sun origin”. There are four
main islands: Honshu (the largest), Hokkaido, Shikoku, and Kyushu. These
islands form a curving line between 30 degree and 45 degree north latitude.
Climate is humid subtropical in south and humid continental in north. There are
60 active volcanoes, Japan’s most famous volcano and highest mountain is Mt.
Fuji. Japan lies within the seismic belt of the Pacific. About 2,000 earthquakes
shake the country each year. The chief ports are Osaka, Yokohama, and
Kobe.

The Japanese

The Ainus (human), originally inhabited Japan, later the Mongolians from
the north and Malays from the south pushed Ainus to Hokkaido. Out of this
blending of Ainus, Mongolians and Malays came the Japanese race. They are
polite, dignified, clean, industrious, disciplined and highly nationalistic.

Economy

Rice is the most important food product. Potatoes, barley, beans, peas,
tea, vegetables & fruits also produce. Japan is rich with coal, crude oil, gold,
copper, iron ore and sulphur. The energy supply is Tokaimura, the first nuclear
power station. Cars, appliances, cameras, televisions and electronic goods
flooded the market all over the world.

Religion

Shintoism is Japan’s indigenous religion associated with a deity or Kami

(Shinto gods), which performs in shrines. Shinto means “the way of the
gods”.
Mahayana Buddhism came to Japan in the sixth century and evolved
into many different sects. Taoism, amalgamation of Kami and Buddhas officially
ended with the Shinto and Buddhism Separation Order of 1886, but
continues in practice.

Government and politics

Japan is a Constitutional Monarchy with a Parliamentary government.

Japan parliament is known as Diet. The longest serving Prime Minister was
Eisaku Sato (1964-72) and the longest serving emperor of Japan was Emperor
Hirohito, his era was called the “Showa” (enlightened era). His eldest son
Emperor Akihito, the new Japanese monarch, chose the name “Heisei”
(emerging peace) who married to a commoner, Michiko Shoda.

History

The records of Japan’s ancient history were recorded on Kojiki and

Nihongi, “The Chronicles of Japan”. Jimmu Tenno, “tenno-son of heaven or
"The Divine Warrior” is the first emperor of Japan founded the first state of
Japan, the Yamato.

Fujiwara Family dominated the emperors. The Japanese established the

city of Nara as the first capital of Japan. During this period; the Chinese has
affected their culture by way of Korea. Chinese written language was introduced
through Wani, a Confucian scholar who tutored the Japanese crown prince in
405 B.C.E. The first written Code of Laws of Japan is the Seventeen Article
Constitution which is based on the teachings of Confucius.

During Heian era, the Golden Era of Japan, the capital was moved to
Kyoto.
Lady Murasaki Shikibu, the greatest Japanese woman novelist wrote the first
world novel entitled “The Tale of Genji, the Shining Prince and His Many
Romances”.

Japan was nearly dominated by the warrior class: samurai, shogun, and
military cliques. Imperial rule was ended, eventually the Shogunate rose to
power. The three great shogunate of Japan was Kamakura Shogunate,
Ashikaga Shogunate, and Tokugawa Shoguante. This started the feudal
system in Japan until the time of the Kamakura shogunate.

Minamoto Yoritomo, the founder of Shogunate became the first shogun

of Japan. Yoritomo controlled the imperial government, he established feudalism
and divided the country into districts and gave it to feudal landowners, the
Daimyos (local lords). Each daimyo has a Samurais (knights) who fought for
their lords. The Samurai rose out of the continuing battles for land among three
main clans: the Minamoto, the Fujiwara and the Taira. Bushido (way of the
warrior) was their code of ethics. If a samurai failed in his duty, he commits
harakiri or seppuku (suicide). Two invasion attempts by the Mongol emperor
Kublai Khan of China were defeated by typhoons, this was attributed to
Kamikaze (divine wind), and this term was later used for suicidal pilots of
Japanese planes in end of WW II.

During Ashikaga Shogunate, Christianity was introduced by St. Francis

Xavier, “Apostle of the Indies”. After this period, three great feudal warlords
appeared—Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Iyeyasu. Hideyoshi is the first
Japanese ruler to persecute Christians in Japan. Tokugawa Iyeyasu banned
Christianity. His grandson Shogun Iyemitsu, issued the Seclusion Decree of
1639 closing Japan to the world.

Opening of Japan (1853): An American squadron under Commodore

Matthew C. Perry entered Tokyo Bay to compelled Tokugawa shogun in world
trade for two years, he signed similar treaties with Britain, Russia, and Holland.

During Meiji Era under Emperor Mutsuhito, imperial rule was restored.
He chose Meiji(Enlightened) as his imperial name on 1868. The reorganization
of the government based on the 1889 Constitution written by Hirobumi
Ito is one of the achievements of this era.

SINO-JAPANESE WAR (1894-95) was fought between the Qing Dynasty

China and Meiji Japan primarily over control of Korea. Using modern weapons
and western military tactics, the Japanese warships sank a vessel carrying 1,200
Chinese soldiers near Korea. As a result of this war Japan obtained Formosa and
the Pescadores. The Treaty of Shimonoseki which ended the war gave Japan
the Liaotung Peninsula but Russia, jealously forced her to return it to China.

ANGLO-JAPANESE ALLIANCES: By 1899 Japan became the first Asian country to

be rid of foreign extra-territorial rights when Britain surrendered the territorial
rights of Japan. Other Western powers followed the British example. In 1902
Britain signed the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, a military agreement.

RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR (1904-05): The Japanese wished to preserve their

sovereignty and to be recognized as an equal with the Western powers. Japan
hated Russia for entering into Manchuria and Korea. This was precisely what
Japan feared, so again without a formal declaration of war; Japanese Admiral
Togo’s fleet ("Father of Japanese Navy”) attacked the Russian navy at Port
Arthur on the night of February 8, 1904 and destroyed the entire Russian fleet in
Japan’s Sea in May 1905.

President Theodore Roosevelt stand as mediator, the two countries

agreed to end their war as a treaty was signed on September 5, 1905 at
Portsmouth, New Hampshire. This treaty acknowledges Japanese interests in
Korea, and Russia gave to Japan the southern half of Sakhalin Island in Korea
and all rights in the Liaotung Peninsula, including Port Arthur.

World War I: Japan entered World War I and declared war on the Central Powers.
The Japanese government received an official request from the British
government for assistance in destroying the German raiders of the Kaiserliche
Marine in and around Chinese waters.

On 18 December 1916 the British Admiralty again requested Japan for

naval assistance. Two of the four cruisers of the First Special Squadron at
Singapore were sent to Cape Town, South Africa, and four destroyers were
sent to the Mediterranean Sea for basing out of Malta. It also attacked and
occupied the German coaling port of Qingdao in the Chinese Shandong
peninsula.
Acting virtually independently of the civil government, the Japanese navy
seized Germany's Micronesian colonies. To help reduce competition in relations
over China and influence in the Pacific, the Americans and Japanese made
Lansing-Ishii Agreement of November 2, 1917. The year 1919 saw Japan's
representative Saionji Kinmochi sitting alongside the "Big Four" (Lloyd
George, Orlando, Wilson, Clemenceau) powers at the Versailles Peace
Conference of the new international order. Tokyo gained a permanent seat on
the Council of the League of Nations, and the Paris Peace Conference
confirmed the transfer to Japan of Germany's rights in Shandong.
 By WWI Japan gained more territory previously belonging to Germany (the
Carolines, Marshalls, and Palau Islands in the Pacific). The Japanese empire now
included the Kuriles, Sakhalin Korea, Formosa, South Manchuria, and the
German islands in the pacific.
Japan was given a seat in the League of Nations Council. Japan was
badly affected by the Great Depression (decline of industrial production) in
1929. The zaibatsu (financial cliques) which consist of five millionaire families-
Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Fuji, Sumitomo and Yasuda who owned 75% of wealth
of Japan dominated the country’s economy.

MANCHURIAN INCIDENT (1931-33)

Japan tried imperialism and invaded Manchuria, Shanghai, Jehol and
established the puppet government of Manchukuo and made Henry Pu-yi its
ruler. Manchukuo was not recognized by the League of Nations; Japan left the
League and continued to overrun Manchuria. By the Report of Lytton
Commission, the region was restored to china; Japan withdrew from League of
Nations and Sino-Japanese hostilities ceased with the signing of the Truce of
Tangku.

Japan entered into an agreement with Germany, the Anti-Comintern

Pact, to prevent Russia from intervening in Japan’s affairs in Asia. On July 7,
1937 Japan provoked another incident near Marco Polo Bridge in Peking.
Western interest in China were destroyed, confiscated or disrupted by the
Japanese military advance.

JAPAN AND WORLD WAR II

WWII broke up in Europe-- Poland. Nazi Germany impressed the Japanese

militarists who believed that the democracies had no chance against Hitler. On
September 20, 1940 Japan signed the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy,
creating the Berlin-Rome-Tokyo Axis (Axis Power). American-Japanese
relations worsened. U.S. did not approve Japan’s seizing Hainan and Spartly
Islands and the landing of Japanese troops in French Indochina. To prevent
Japanese military aggression, President Roosevelt ordered the “freezing” of all
Japanese assets in the U.S. and the boycott of trade with Japan “Total
Embargo”. On December 8, 1941 Japanese planes made a sneak attack on the
U.S. naval base in Pearl Harbor (Hawaii). Japanese captured Hongkong, Malay
Peninsula, Singapore, Guam, Wake Islands, and the Dutch East Indies
(Indonesia). However, General Douglas MacArthur who had escaped from
Philippines to Australia was already beginning the Allied offensive in the Pacific.

JAPAN’S DEFEAT AND SURRENDER

By the middle of 1945 Japan was leveled by massive U.S. air attacks and
naval bombardments. On July 26, 1945, the Big Three: U.S., Britain, China
met in Potsdam, Allied Potsdam Declaration called on Japan to surrender
unconditionally. The destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 by
atomic bombs brought Japan to its knees. Japan surrendered by the order of
Emperor Hirohito. He signed the documents amid solemn ceremonies aboard the
battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay called V-J Day (Victory over Japan Day).
General Douglas MacArthur was named Supreme Commander of Allied
Powers in Japan (SCAP).
By means of the San Francisco treaty on September 8, 1951, SCAP was
abolished and Japan became a free nation again. Japan was occupied by the
Allied Powers with General MacArthur as military ruler (SCAP) from September 2,
1945 to April 28, 1952.

ALLIED OCCUPATION OF JAPAN

Japan was completely revolutionized by the Allied occupation with the ff.
achievements:
1. Democratization
 2. Demilitarization
3. Reorientations of Values
4. Improvements of the economy
5. Punishment of war criminals

JAPAN’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION

1. Bushido or code of chivalry
2. Shinto religion
3. Kana alphabet written in two styles: hiragana (cursive) and katakana
(angular)
4. Literary forms such as kabuki (classical play), Noh (lyrical play), Tanka (31-
syllable poem)
5. Dignified social customs such as cha-no-yu (tea drinking ceremony) and
ikebana (flower arrangement)
6. Landscape gardening
7. Manly sports such as Judo (art of self-defense), Kendo (fencing) and Sumo
(wrestling).