How did domestic political competition in Japan combined with the forced opening of the country lead to the Meiji Restoration?

Asian History by Geoffrey

 

Essays (Two essays will be on the exam.)

 

  1. Historians have argued that the success of the Meiji Restoration can be attributed to the talents of the samurai who led the early efforts to modern Japanese. From the following list of leaders chose the individual that you believe was most important to the Meiji Restoration: Okuma Shigenobu, Kido Koin, Yamagata Aritomo, Ito HirobumiSaigo Takamori, Okubo Toshimichi.  Evaluate his personal contributions to Japan’s early modernization and explain why you think his contribution was most important.

     

    1. During the 1880s Japan’s senior leaders took several steps to protect their power and privilege prior to the promulgation of the Meiji Constitution. These included Press and Peace Preservation Laws, instituting a “transcendental” cabinet, the Peerage Law, and the establishment of the Privy Council.  How were these changes intended to preserve the power of the Meiji oligarchy?

     

    1. The Potsdam Declaration of 1945 set the terms for Japan’s surrender and stated that if Japan did not surrender, it would face “prompt and utter destruction.” What were the terms of the Potsdam declaration?  How successful was SCAP in implementing the terms of the declaration?  Be sure to describe specific measures that SCAP undertook under the terms of the Potsdam declaration.

     

    4. In the space of a decade, 1895-1905, Japan’s victories over China and Russia, established it as a major regional power in East Asia.  Choose one of these wars and discuss the impact of thevictory on Japan’s standing in the world.  How did the victory contribute to Japanese plans for expansion in East Asia?

     

    1. What were the four legal challenges to the Tokyo War Crime Trials? Did the Tokyo War Crime Trials match the high ideal of enlisting international law in the cause of world peace? Or was the Tokyo trial only barely disguised revenge?

     

    1. John Dower, the author of War Without Mercy, makes a powerful argument that the War in the Pacific was a race war quite unlike the war in Europe. How did official US propaganda help to create and foster racial stereotypes about the Japanese? According to Dower, what were the fatal consequences of racial stereotyping?

     

    1. How did domestic political competition in Japan combined with the forced opening of the country lead to the Meiji Restoration?Treaty of Shimonoseki 1884 Peerage Law
      February 26 1936 Rising Kita Ikki
      Honshu Altaic
      Douglas MacArthur Yoshino Sakuzo
      Manchurian Incident 1931 Okuma Shigenobu
      Li-Ito Convention Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
      An Jung-geun Suzuki Bunji
      Hamilton Fish Ise Shrine
      Oshio Heihachiro Abe Masahiro
      Privy Council Nomonhan Incident
      Black Dragon Society London Naval Treaty
      Ito Hirobumi Townsend Harris
      Saigo Takamori Charter Oath of 1868
      Treaty of Portsmouth (1905) “Shidehara Diplomacy”
      Ishiwara Kanji Treaty of Kanagawa (1854)
      Panay Incident (1937) Tokyo War Crimes Trials
      Meiji Constitution Japanese Diet (not food)
      Nishihara Loans Saionji Kinmochi

      Millard Filmore                                                           Theodore Roosevelt

      SCAP                                                                          Boshin War

      Universal Manhood Suffrage Act (1925)                   Inchon Landing

      1955 System                                                               Ii Naosuke

      Anglo-Japanese Alliance (1902)                                “sword hunt”

      Araki Sadao                                                                Band of Thousand Stitches

      Matsuoka Yōsuke                                                       “zaibatsu busting”

      “sonno joi”                                                                  Korean Crisis (1873)

      “Income Doubling”                                                     Jeannette Rankin

      Kawakami Hajime                                                      Minponshugi