Japanese Imperialism And the Encounter with Korea

1. Japanese ImperialismAnd the Encounter with Korea • February 6, 2014

2. Review • What was the Meiji Restoration? • How did the Meiji government create nationalism in Japan? • Was the Meiji government democratic? (pp. 353-55) • Could most Japanese adults vote? • Did the Parliament have much real power?

3. Creating a new Japan • A new leadership was able to move Japan in new directions faster than Japan would have moved if it had not had a change in the ruling elite. They were able to • Create a new sense of being Japanese (promoting a national identity) • Create a modern economy (a capitalist and industrializing economy)—industrialization. • Create an empire, putting Japan at the same level as the imperial Western powers.

4. Japan’s Industrialization • How was Japan able to begin industrializing so quickly, the first in Asia to do so? (pp. 355-57) • Used agricultural surplus, which it tapped into through the land tax, to build textile factories as well as the technology needed to build ships and railroads. (p. 352) • Sold government-owned industries to private businessmen in the 1880s. (p. 356) • Kept labour costs low by hiring young women from poor villages to work in urban factories. • Earned foreign exchange through textile exports.

5. creating nationalism • Separated Shinto from Buddhism, and linked Shinto shrines in a national hierarchy., with standardized rites • Compulsory education taught young Japanese that they were Japanese (taught a national history, a national language, etc.) Even Ainu and Okinawans were told that they were actually Japanese. • By eliminating hereditary classes, they fostered a sense of national community. • universal male conscription also fostered a new national identity.

6. cultural change (p. 358) • samurai hair-cut is eliminated. Men started wearing their hair long in front, and short in the back. • the Meiji Empress stops blackening her teeth • Mixed-bathing in public is discouraged • Japanese start eating meat. (p. 348) • Western martial music, and the songs of Stephen Foster, become popular. • Religious freedom is allowed (Shinto is defined as not a religion, and therefore eligible for state support)

7. Religious Change • Shinto is separated from Buddhism (p. 351) • State Shinto (defined as non-religious) is separated from sect Shinto (defined as religious denominations) • Yasukuni Shrine was built in 1879 as a state Shinto shrine. National Shinto rituals are promoted. • Christianity is legalized again (in 1873) --after almost three centuries. Limited freedom of religion recognized. • More emphasis is placed on Confucian values than during the Tokugawa period.

8. How did Japanmodernize so quickly? • New leadership: young, flexible, dedicated to national security, and to utilizing whatever means from whatever source, to achieve that goal of national security. • Agricultural productivity increases during Tokugawa period gave Meiji Japan the surplus it needed to take people off the land and put them into industry • samurai had already left the land behind and had grow accustomed to operating as bureaucrats • Rivalry between han (feudal domains) prepared Japanese to cope with the competitive international environment they encountered in the 19th century.

9. Japan in 1900 vrs China in 1900 • was run by modernizing elite • had a modern military, and the beginnings of a modern economy • had established a modern educational system • had adopted nationalism and strengthened national unity • Even looked different----Western dress, etc. became popular • no foreign “concessions”. Not a semi-colony • Instead Japan itself was gaining an empire

10. Japan Becomes an Imperial Power • Began incorporating Hokkaidō into Japan proper. • 1879--deposed the king of the Ryūkyūs. What happened to the Ryūkyūs? (p. 359-60) • 1894-95 1st Sino-Japanese War ends with Taiwan in Japanese hands, and Japan replacing China as the dominant power in Korea. What else did Japan gain from that victory? (pp. 361) • When did Taiwan become a Japanese colony? (What role did Nitobe play?) • 1904-05 Russo-Japanese War allows Japan to replace Russia as the dominant foreign power in Manchuria.

11. Forced modernizationand Japanese women • formal public education is made available for women. • young women provided much of the labour power for Japan’s textile factories. • Japanese women were told they should strive to become “a good wife and a wise mother.” • They were denied any role in politics and didn’t get the right to vote until after 1945.

12. Japan’s empire • Map available in an article by Mark Selden on East Asian regionalism from the 16th through the 21st centuries, which can be found at • http://www.japanfocus.org/-Mark-Selden/3061

13. the First Sino-Japanese War • http://sinojapanesewar.com/pyongyang.htm • You can find more woodblock print depictions of the First Sino-Japanese War from a Japanese point of view at • http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/throwing_off_asia_02/

14. Traditional Korean Society(Ebrey, p. 364) • An hereditary social order, with the Confucian scholar elite (yangban) at the top, follow by • military officials • Jungin [technical experts] • sons of secondary wives • local clerks • commoners • the lowest class, including slaves (p. 380)

15. Korea: 19th-century problems • child kings and in-law government (Ebrey, p. 363-64) • corruption in the tax system (especially the “ever-normal granary”) (Ebrey, p. 369) • population growth up to the limits of pre-modern agricultural technology. (p. 364—Increased population density also led to more frequent epidemics, and land shortages.) • religious challenges to Confucianism: • Catholicism (even before there were missionaries in Korea) and Donghak (Eastern Learning) (Ebrey, pp. 364, 369)

16. Donghak: a new religion • Korea’s first indigenous organized religion, founded by Choe Jeu. (p. 369) • Preached monotheism and social equality. • Choe was executed because he promoted his own rituals, which were not approved by the government. • However, his religion survived him and went underground for a few decades.

17. The Daewŏn’gunand foreign visitors • Who was the Daewon’gun? (p. 364). He controlled the government from 1864 to 1873. • He tried to strengthen royal authority, upsetting the balance between the court and the yangban (the aristocrats who controlled the bureaucracy). (p. 369-70) • He persecuted Catholics, including having French priests killed. That brought Western naval forces to Korean shores. (p. 370) • He refused to negotiate with foreigners.

18. “Resist the Westerners” • http://cfile236.uf.daum.net/image/1411B7344C54C66A385E56

19. Korea loses its autonomy • King Gojong was forced to open Korea to the Japanese and then to Westerners, starting with the Ganghwa Treaty of 1876, an unequal treaty. (Ebrey, pp.373) • Attempts at radical reform, such as the 1884 failed coup, failed for lack of popular support and lack of support among the ruling elite (the yangban). (pp.374-5) • China sent Yuan Shikai to try to both make sure Korea stayed in China’s camp and help Korea resist the Japanese and the West. (Ebrey, p. 375) • The Donghak Rebellion (1894-95) led to a Sino-Japanese War, and Japan replacing China as the dominant power on the Korean peninsula. (p.376-77)

20. Why was Korea unprepared? • Korea lacked the financial resources needed to modernize the military and the economy • Korea had a government that was remarkably stable (that’s how it lasted five centuries) but did not allow much room for innovation. (The king and the yangban checked each other’s actions) [p. 378] • Having a Chinese resident in Seoul in the 1880s (Yuan Shikai) limited Korean freedom of action. • Koreans were more committed to their culture than to their nation. (Nationalism didn’t exist yet.)