Meiji Restoration: Japan's Rise from Feudal Isolation (Documentary)

[00:00:06]The Victorian Era is arguably the most crucial  epoch of technological progress in human   history. But while it was an age of rapid change,  scientific discovery and invention, it was also a   time of exploitative colonization. While huge  swaths of Asia and Africa fell under the rule   of Europe’s imperial juggernauts, one isolated  island nation managed to thwart colonization,   undergoing an incredible and rapid modernization  that eventually led to its emergence onto the   world stage as East Asia’s first true modern  superpower. In this video, we will explore the   Bakumatsu and Meiji periods of Japanese history  and discuss how a nation stuck in the feudal   age had one of the most successful modernization  processes in world history in less than a century.

[00:02:32]At the start of the Victorian age, in the 1830s  and 1840s, Japan was in its Tenpō Era. Even since   the Tokugawa Shogunate had united the nation  in 1600, its population had tripled and reached   the Malthusian limit; which is when agricultural  subsistence or wages are outstripped by population   growth. This exhausted possible resources,  leaving the countryside heavily taxed and   incapable of further growth. As such, the economy  fell into decline, a process exacerbated by the   sankin-kōtai system. This was a system implemented  by the Tokugawa Shogunate to prevent rebellions   from their most powerful feudal vassals, the  Daimyos, from rebelling, by making it legally   mandatory for them to travel and reside in the  capital of Edo every other year and for their   families to remain in Edo during their absences.  This allowed the Shogun to keep an eye on them   and leverage the safety of their families,  but it was a massive drain on the Daimyos,   who had to foot the bill for this mandatory airB&B  stay. Moreover, as Japan’s population increased,   so too did its cities. Rapid urbanization led to  problematic luxury-seeking amongst the Daimyo,   samurai and merchant classes. The samurai  class was expected to maintain a certain   standard of living appropriate to their honour,  but inversely, Japan’s script caste-based society   forbade them from engaging in agriculture  or business endeavours, which would have   helped them fund this lifestyle. To compensate  for this prohibition, Samurai were forced to   borrow money. As such, they increasingly  fell into debt with the merchant class.

[00:04:18]During the Tenpō Era, multiple natural disasters  led to political unrest, economic decline,   and societal shift. The Great Tenpō famine was  the result of crop failures due to unnatural   cold weather, leading countless people  to starve to death. Japan's staple crop,   rice, did not only feed the mouths of  many Japanese, it was intertwined with   Japan’s economy and societal order. Thus,  as rice harvests failed in the countryside,   prices increased astronomically,  causing massive social unrest.

[00:04:53]This led to the Tenpō reforms, an attempt by the  bakufu government to try and curb merchant profits   and lower prices. To that end, the government  dissolved the great guilds that had been licensed   to control internal commerce, a decision which  turned out to be a terrible miscalculation.   These guilds had operated to suppress  producer prices to maximize profits. Still,   with their dissolution, no regulations were  left in place to stop the price of rice from   increasing even more dramatically. Reacting to  the unchecked inflation of their own making,   the Bakufu led a campaign against monopolies and  tried to increase their own revenue at the expense   of certain Daimyo. This led to Daimyo and Hatamoto  increasingly needing to borrow more money,   which increasingly exacerbated their debt.  Before long, the Shogun’s most powerful   vassals had had enough of shouldering the cost  of the Bakufu’s reforms at their own expense.

[00:05:51]Everything came to a head in the years of 1837 and  1838. Mass starvation led to an epidemic in Osaka,   killing one-tenth of its population. This led to  the Ōshio Heihachirō's rebellion on February 19th,   1837, by the Samurai bureaucrat Ōshio Heihachirō  who set fire to his Osaka house and signalled   followers to rise in a revolt. Farmers and urban  poor seized the property of wealthy merchants to   redistribute it. 3000 houses and over 40,000  Koku of rice were burnt. Political unrest had   increased dramatically because of harsh taxation  resulting in protests collectively known as   Ikki. Ikki were spontaneous, special-purpose  organizations created contractually between   elites and commoners to pursue goals impossible  to achieve through ordinary channels. Bakufu   officials responded by warning the Daimyo that  they must cooperate to suppress these revolts.   This led to Daimyo gradually losing their  authority. The commercialized countryside   was no longer as willing to subsidize  urban guilds. Petty daimyo and bannermen   were unwilling to bear the cost of administrative  rationalization and centralization. A government   desperate for income could have met that  need only by decreasing the support it   owed its samurai retainers. Samurai,  except for the few who found public office,   were becoming irrelevant and superfluous,  consuming but not producing wealth.

[00:07:28]Another event which strained the Tokugawa  government in 1837 was the Morrison Incident,   an international crisis involving several  formerly shipwrecked Japanese sailors and   an American merchant ship which stressed  Japan’s isolationist Sakoku policy, but   also resulted in a repeal of the edict to  repel foreign vessels and an increase in   the school of rangaku: the art of learning  western knowledge. Throughout the 1840s,   Japan was bombarded with foreign attempts to  open their nation up to trade. Alongside this,   news of the British winning the First Opium War  against China caused alarm throughout the nation.   If even China, the cultural epicentre of the East  Asian world, could be humbled by the Europeans,   then how much danger was Japan in? In response,  the Bakufu government increased the study of   Western weaponry, and a national debate emerged  over what to do about foreign encroachments on   Japanese waters and on Japanese soil. Despite  this, the 1840s was ultimately a decade of   further economic, political and societal decline  for the Tokugawa regime, which already had one   foot on its deathbed when Matthew Perry showed up  with his gunships and opened Japan to the world.

[00:08:47]Bakumatsu period 1853-1868 The Perry expedition came at a time when Japan  was digesting news of numerous world events,   most particularly that of the plight of China.  Not wanting to share China’s humiliating fate,   and out of fear of a war with Western nations they  could not possibly win, the Tokugawa shogunate   signed a series of unequal treaties with various  Western nations, which created a dangerous social   divide in Japan. Amongst the ishin shishi, the  political activists among Japan’s noble class,   two factions emerged: the first were  loyalists to the Tokugawa shogunate,   who saw signing the treaties and working with  Western nations as necessary for survival. The   second faction harboured treasonous sentiments  against the Shogunate and sought “sonnō jōi,” a   phrase which meant “revere the emperor, expel  the barbarians!” Emperor Kōmei’s sympathies   naturally came to align with the group whose  catchphrase called for his worship. Eventually,   he openly sided with the sonnō jōi faction  and broke centuries of imperial tradition   by taking an active role in matters  of the state. On March 11th of, 1863,   he issued an edict “to expel the barbarians.” The  Tokugawa Shogunate had no intention of enforcing   this order, and as a result, as tensions  bubbled, violence soon broke out between   pro-Tokugawa and sonno-joi factions, and was  also inflicted upon westerners on Japanese soil.

[00:10:18]In 1865, the Tokugawa shogunate received  foreign military assistance from France,   which aided the Shogun's land-based armed forces  and helped build and purchase eight steam warships   for the Shogunate’s navy. However, this foreign  military assistance would not be enough however to   win the Boshin War of 1868-1869. After this  conflict, the Tokugawa shogunate was dissolved,   and the Imperial Court, for the first time  in centuries, regained its functional powers   to rule over Japan, with their new Emperor,  Meiji, taking the helm of the ship of state.

[00:10:54]The Meiji restoration 1868-1912 The victors of the Boshin War, the Satsuma and  Chōshū domains, became the leaders of reform,   driving Japan towards a period of rapid  modernization known as the Meiji Restoration.   Their policy of “sonnō jōi” was quickly replaced  with that of “Bunmei Kaika,” meaning ‘civilization   and enlightenment,’ and “Fukoku kyōhei,” meaning  ‘enrich the country’. The Meiji Restoration   was an incredible transformation whose initial  primary objective was to thwart the colonization   of Japan by Western nations. Japan sought to  use the best aspects of the western world while   simultaneously promoting “fukko” to restore  the cultural values of Japanese antiquity. In   order to usher in seismic social and technological  evolution, the new Meiji government had to learn   from the Western world. To do this, they sent  forth the famous Iwakura mission of 1871-1873.

[00:11:54]After the Boshin War, the Daimyo surrendered their  armies to the Emperor, and many were reappointed   as governors of prefectures, formerly known  as Hans. The prefectures would be governed by   appointed bureaucrats from the new centralized  government, which had been fully established   by 1871. This new Meiji government sought to  strengthen the national identity of Japan and   established a standard language, “hyōjungo,”  to replace the many variant dialects spoken   throughout the country’s many regions. The  Meiji government also allowed for the creation   of local assemblies, which provided the common  people opportunities to participate in politics,   but importantly not to have the ability to  challenge the authority of the government.   When writing their new national constitution,  the new Japanese government was picky about which   Western nation to model it on. The United States  Constitution was rejected for being to liberal,   France and Spain’s models were considered  too draconian, while Britain’s Westminster   system seemed too unwieldy and granted too  much power to parliament for their liking.   Ultimately, the legal structure of the Reichstag  of the new German empire proved to be the best   fit. A cabinet was formed in 1885, headed by Itō  Hirobumi as the first Prime Minister of Japan. The   cabinet was aided by foreign advisors, mostly  Germans, who helped their Japanese colleagues   build a model that balanced the sovereign power  of the Emperor with an elected legislature that   could limit his power when necessary. The Meiji  constitution of 1889 came into effect in 1890   and interestingly dictated that sovereignty  resided in the Emperor rather than the people.   The Emperor united within himself all three  branches of government and he alone commanded   the new Imperial Japanese Army and Imperial  Japanese Navy. There were many ambiguities in   the constitutional system revolving around cabinet  selection and the relationship of the cabinet to   the diet that would contribute to the future  militarization of Japan in the 20th century.

[00:14:05]The abolition of Shoguns, Daimyo’s and  “Shinokosho,” Japan's feudal caste system, meant   an end to the Samurai class, rendering everyone  into a commoner who could pursue their ambitions   as they saw fit. Ōmura Masujirō the former  Daimyo of Chōshū and rival of Saigō Takamori   was appointed “Hybou Daiyu”, vice minister of War.  His task was to modernize the Japanese military,   and this required the conscription and military  training of commoners. The samurai had thus   lost their monopoly on war and their special  societal privileges. Samurai had previously   been paid stipends, but there were 1.9 million  of them and it was simply too expensive. Thus,   these allowances were gradually abolished and all  ex-samurai lost anywhere between 10-75% of their   income. Many ex-samurai joined the new military,  became businessmen and joined other institutions.   However countless also fell into unemployment  and poverty, unable to cope with the new age.

[00:15:14]Saigō Takamori sought to help the disenfranchised  ex-samurai and after a breakdown in relations   with Korea after the Seikanron debate of 1869, he  proposed a military expedition into the peninsula.   One reason for this was to provide  income to the disenfranchised samurai   by giving them something to fight,  and give them land to occupy Korea,   like the Daimyo had once done in their former  hans. This proposal was rejected because Japan   was not nearly modernized enough to take on  such a feat at the time. This rejection was   one of the factors that pushed Saigō into  unleashing the Satsuma rebellion of 1877.   Ultimately Saigō and his fellow samurai lost their  lives in the battle of Shiroyama, putting a final   end to the Samurai, once and for all. However,  the bushido code the warrior caste had long   lived by would later be resurrected, albeit as a  bastardized version of its original feudal from.

[00:16:16]A major reason the Satsuma rebellion failed was  because of the modernization of the Japanese   military. In these new armed forces, commoners  were conscripted for a four year mandate, and   in 1872, the military was divided into the Army  ministry and Navy ministry. The initial model for   the military was built off the initial military  reforms the Tokugawa Shogunate's relationship had   undergone with French support. The French resumed  their advisory role between 1872-1880 when they   established the first school to train and educate  Japanese officers and NCO’s, trained infantrymen   using french rifles, created an arsenal for  munition manufacturing, and created the military   academy for Army officers in Ichigaya. However,  after France’s defeat in the Franco-Prussian war   in 1871, the Japanese gradually began shifting  their military infrastructure from French to   Prussian military models. By 1878, the Third Prime  Minister of Japan, Yamagata Aritomo, was pushing   to fully adopt the German military system. Another  important change during this time was the adoption   of the division of the army into two chains  of command, operational and administrative.

[00:17:31]The Imperial Japanese Navy was also  originally influenced by France,   but by 1870, an imperial decree determined  Britain’s navy would be the new model upon which   Japan’s maritime power would be developed.  The Douglas Mission of 1873-1879 laid the   foundations for Japanese naval officer to be  trained and educated in the British fashion.   16 Japanese trainees were also sent abroad  to Britain and the United States to study   the naval sciences in those countries. The  Meiji government began building 48 warships   in 1882. Although France was no longer the main  architect of Japanese modernization, it would   still influence the Imperial Japanese Navy through  the Jeune École doctrine of favoring smaller   and faster warships such as cruisers and torpedo  boats to face larger warships. In 1882, a imperial   rescript called for the unquestioned loyalty to  the emperor by the armed forces, which indirectly   meant high ranking military officials were given  direct access to the emperor and authority to   transmit his proclamations directly to the troops.  This would blur the lines between political and   military leadership, a contributing factor to  Japan’s entry in the Second Sino-Japanese War.   The Japanese military got their baptism by fire in  1874 during a military expedition against Taiwan,   which caused a minor conflict with the Qing  dynasty. Both the IJA and IJN would see further   actions during the First Sino-Japanese War of  1894-195 and the Boxer Rebellion of 1899-1901.

[00:19:17]The Meiji Restoration represented revolutionary  changes not just in the military but in civilian   society too. Education was remodelled from  the ground up, with school curriculums heavily   influenced heavily by America, Prussia and  then Germany. Three types of schooling emerged:   elementary, middle and university. In 1872  there was an attendance rate of 28%, by 1878,   it was 40%. A centralized school system gradually  formed, mobilizing students to serve their nation,   which entailed economic and political roles  in an industrialized society. During the Meiji   era, over 210 elementary, 32 middle and 8  university school districts were created,   and by 1912, 98% of the population was being  educated. The education system sought to take   the best aspects from the western world  while simultaneously promoting ancient   aspects of Japanese culture, such as  the Shinto faith. Chinese influences   on Japanese culture, such as Confucianism  and Buddhism, were gradually suppressed.

[00:20:29]The primary role of the educational reform was  to prepare the people for their new roles in   the industrialized economy. During the early  Meiji years, half of Japan’s imports came from   Britain in the form of textiles, by 1890,  Japanese textiles dominated its home market   and were being exported. At the beginning  of the Meiji era, 70% of the population was   involved in forestry, farming and fishing,  accounting for 60% of its economic output,   by 1920 the population working in these sectors  went from 70% to 50%. Exports dramatically   rose between 1872-1915, Japan’s merchant fleet  grew, lengths of train tracks expanded, and the   government set up model factories in collaboration  with entrepreneurs birthing the Zaibatsu business   conglomerates, which began to hold significant  influence over Japan's national and foreign   policies. Being industrialized meant Japan had  a need for coal, and this led the government to   build factories, shipyards, railroads, mines,  chemical industries and munition factories.   The government sent thousands of students to  Europe and the United States and hired 3000   Westerners to teach modern science, mathematics,  technologies and foreign languages. The Zaibatsu   and government together guided Japan into the  modern world by borrowing the best aspects from   the western world. Japan’s economy gradually  dominated Asia for manufactured goods, which is   quite impressive given Japan's lack of natural  resources. Reforms such as unifying currency,   modern banking, stock exchanges, communication  and law all aided economic development.

[00:22:18]Japan began the Victorian age as a feudal  society and emerged out of it on the cusp   of becoming a world power, a distinction  it would achieve by WW1. Japan avoided   colonization by adopting aspects of the West but  did not become a Western state, retaining much   of its ancient traditions and culture. More  videos on Japanese history are on the way,   so make sure to subscribe and press the  bell button. Please, consider liking,   subscribing, commenting, and sharing - it  helps immensely. Recently we have started   releasing weekly patron and youtube member  exclusive content, consider joining their   ranks via the link in the description or button  under the video to watch these weekly videos,   learn about our schedule, get early access  to our videos, access our private discord,   and much more. This is the Kings and Generals  channel, and we will catch you on the next one.