Meiji Restoration

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I re-watched a documentary about the Meiji Restoration with my family (who didn't watch it). Before I watched the documentary, I had always been curious why Japan seemed to like Western culture so much, and also why they seemed to really like America. Then, of course, the documentary answered my question, and it was very intriguing to look at. It also astounded me that Great Britain took 150 years to industrialize, while Japan on the other hand, took less than 40 years to industrialize their nation.

What are your thoughts on the Meiji Restoration?

From your lovely intellect,

-LegoMaster2149 (Written on February 21, 2018)

It was good for Japan---it wasn't so great for China after a while.

Read up on the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. And the "event" in Nanking.

In effect, it created an expansionist spirit in Japan (understandable given the small land area, and the large population). But this "expansionist spirit" became a really screwy thing after a while.

Throughout the early 20th century, the Japanese were not exactly upstanding world citizens.

Then again, it really wasn't a great time for the world in general.

Yes, one of the main reasons being that they didn't modernize, since the ruler wanted to preserve the past cultures and ideals. And because of that, they suffered very high casualties when Japan invaded their country.

It was more than just that.

The Japanese committed atrocities upon the Chinese which rivaled, at times, what occurred in Russia and Nazi Germany.

"Failure to modernize" is no justification for what the Japanese did.

I wasn't in any way justifying that it was alright for what they did to China and the other countries they conquered. I was just listing one of the reasons why China wasn't too well. I apologize for not phrasing that properly.

I know you're not excusing it. No rational person would excuse it. And you seem like a decently rational person.

I'm just saying there were more complex causes to what happened to China.

The Meiji is looked upon as a kind of "golden age". And it was not only an important but mostly positive epoch in Japan's transformation from being an isolated feudal hermit kingdom to becoming the modern economic power it became in the 20th century. Not sure what aspect of it you wanna talk about.

It was a "golden age," for Japan.

Japan accomplished many, many things in such a short time. That is to be admired, via any objective standard.

But, alas, Japan used the progress they made to become the main aggressor in the East Asian theater. Alas, especially, for the Chinese.

They shouldn't have perpetrated all those atrocities against the Chinese.

It would have been nice had they been more "conventional" aggressors. Then, I wouldn't judge the Mejii Restoration so much.

Were talking about two different things.

The term "Meiji Restoration" only refers to the late Nineteenth Century in Japan. The brief period of transiton from being a feudal hermit kingdom to laying the foundations of the modern nation. The pre WWII Twentieth Century is thought of a separate later phase. The Meiji was when the Japanese were still getting their act together in their own country (even fought a civil war shortly after our own civil war)-and were not into attacking neighbors yet.

So the Meiji was good for Japan, and actually also good for everyone else because Japan began to go whole hog into trading with everyone else.

The turn of the century when Japan began to flex its muscles is thought of as being in the next phase. The phase in which they took the wrong turn, and veered off into gradually increasing militarism, and gradualing escalating imperialism and aggression. WHY they took that wrong turn is indeed the interesting question. But the atrocities your talking about were in the 1930's. Long after the "Restoration" was a done deal and considered ancient history.

But you're right that when the Japanese invaded China proper (while China fighting its own civil war between the Nationalists and the Communists) in the 1930's they were about a nice as the Nazis would later be in Europe. The number of civilians murdered in Nanking was more than the death toll of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.