The Empire of Japan, History Documentary. History of Japan.
 |
| Samurai warriors face Mongols, during the Mongol invasions of Japan. The Kamikaze, two storms, are said to have saved Japan from Mongol fleets. |
A Paleolithic culture around 30,000 BC constitutes the first
known habitation of the Japanese archipelago. This was followed from around
14,000 BC (the start of the Jōmon period) by a Mesolithic to Neolithic
semi-sedentary hunter-gatherer culture, who include ancestors of both the
contemporary Ainu people and Yamato people, characterized by pit
dwelling and rudimentary agriculture. Decorated clay vessels from this
period are some of the oldest surviving examples of pottery in the world.
Around 300 BC, the Yayoi people began to enter the Japanese islands,
intermingling with the Jōmon. The Yayoi period, starting around 500 BC, saw
the introduction of practices like wet-rice farming, a new style of
pottery, and metallurgy, introduced from China and Korea.
Japan first appears in written history in the Chinese Book
of Han. According to the Records of the Three Kingdoms, the most powerful
kingdom on the archipelago during the 3rd century was called Yamataikoku.
Buddhism was first introduced to Japan from Baekje of Korea, but the subsequent
development of Japanese Buddhism was primarily influenced by China. Despite
early resistance, Buddhism was promoted by the ruling class and gained
widespread acceptance beginning in the Asuka period (592–710).
The Nara period (710–784) of the 8th century marked the
emergence of a strong Japanese state, centered on an imperial court in
Heijō-kyō (modern Nara). The Nara period is characterized by the appearance of
a nascent literature as well as the development of Buddhist-inspired art and
architecture. The smallpox epidemic of 735–737 is believed to have killed
as much as one-third of Japan's population. In 784, Emperor Kammu moved the
capital from Nara to Nagaoka-kyō before relocating it to Heian-kyō (modern
Kyoto) in 794.
Samurai warriors face Mongols, during the Mongol invasions
of Japan. The Kamikaze, two storms, are said to have saved Japan from Mongol
fleets.
This marked the beginning of the Heian period (794–1185),
during which a distinctly indigenous Japanese culture emerged, noted for its
art, poetry and prose. Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji and the lyrics of
Japan's national anthem Kimigayo were written during this time.
Buddhism began to spread during the Heian era chiefly
through two major sects, Tendai by Saichō, and Shingon by Kūkai. Pure Land
Buddhism (Jōdo-shū, Jōdo Shinshū) greatly becomes popular in the latter half of
the 11th century.
Feudal era
Japan's feudal era was characterized by the emergence and
dominance of a ruling class of warriors, the samurai. In 1185, following the
defeat of the Taira clan in the Genpei War, sung in the epic Tale of Heike,
samurai Minamoto no Yoritomo was appointed shogun and established a base of
power in Kamakura. After his death, the Hōjō clan came to power as regents for
the shoguns. The Zen school of Buddhism was introduced from China in the
Kamakura period (1185–1333) and became popular among the samurai class. The
Kamakura shogunate repelled Mongol invasions in 1274 and 1281, but was
eventually overthrown by Emperor Go-Daigo. Go-Daigo was himself defeated by
Ashikaga Takauji in 1336.
Samurai could kill a commoner for the slightest insult and
were widely feared by the Japanese population. Edo period, 1798
Ashikaga Takauji established the shogunate in Muromachi,
Kyoto. This was the start of the Muromachi Period (1336–1573). The Ashikaga
shogunate achieved glory in the age of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, and the culture
based on Zen Buddhism (art of Miyabi) prospered. This evolved to Higashiyama
Culture, and prospered until the 16th century. On the other hand, the
succeeding Ashikaga shogunate failed to control the feudal warlords (daimyo),
and a civil war (the Ōnin War) began in 1467, opening the century-long Sengoku
period ("Warring States").
During the 16th century, traders and Jesuit missionaries
from Portugal reached Japan for the first time, initiating direct commercial
and cultural exchange between Japan and the West. This allowed Oda Nobunaga to
obtain European technology and firearms, which he used to conquer many other
daimyo. His consolidation of power began what was known as the Azuchi–Momoyama
period (1573–1603). After he was assassinated in 1582, his successor Toyotomi
Hideyoshi unified the nation in 1590 and launched two unsuccessful invasions of
Korea in 1592 and 1597.
Re-engraved map of Japan
Tokugawa Ieyasu served as regent for Hideyoshi's son and
used his position to gain political and military support. When open war broke
out, he defeated rival clans in the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600. Ieyasu was
appointed shogun in 1603 and established the Tokugawa shogunate at Edo (modern
Tokyo). The Tokugawa shogunate enacted measures including buke shohatto, as
a code of conduct to control the autonomous daimyo; and in 1639, the
isolationist sakoku ("closed country") policy that spanned the two
and a half centuries of tenuous political unity known as the Edo period
(1603–1868). The study of Western sciences, known as rangaku, continued
through contact with the Dutch enclave at Dejima in Nagasaki. The Edo period
also gave rise to kokugaku ("national studies"), the study of Japan
by the Japanese.
Modern era
On March 31, 1854, Commodore Matthew Perry and the
"Black Ships" of the United States Navy forced the opening of Japan
to the outside world with the Convention of Kanagawa. Subsequent similar
treaties with Western countries in the Bakumatsu period brought economic and
political crises. The resignation of the shogun led to the Boshin War and the
establishment of a centralized state nominally unified under the Emperor (the
Meiji Restoration).
Emperor Meiji (1868–1912), in whose name imperial rule was
restored at the end of the Tokugawa shogunate
Adopting Western political, judicial and military
institutions, the Cabinet organized the Privy Council, introduced the Meiji
Constitution, and assembled the Imperial Diet. The Meiji Restoration
transformed the Empire of Japan into an industrialized world power that pursued
military conflict to expand its sphere of influence. After victories in the
First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905),
Japan gained control of Taiwan, Korea, and the southern half of Sakhalin.
Japan's population grew from 35 million in 1873 to 70 million in 1935.
Chinese generals surrendering to the Japanese in the
Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895
The early 20th century saw a brief period of "Taishō
democracy" overshadowed by increasing expansionism and militarization.
World War I enabled Japan, on the side of the victorious Allies, to widen its
influence and territorial holdings. It continued its expansionist policy by
occupying Manchuria in 1931; as a result of international condemnation of this
occupation, Japan resigned from the League of Nations two years later. In 1936,
Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact with Nazi Germany, and the 1940 Tripartite
Pact made it one of the Axis Powers. In 1941, Japan negotiated the
Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact.
Japanese officials surrendering to the Allies on September
2, 1945 in Tokyo Bay, ending World War II
The Empire of Japan invaded other parts of China in 1937,
precipitating the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945). The Imperial Japanese
Army swiftly captured the capital Nanjing and conducted the Nanking
Massacre. In 1940, the Empire then invaded French Indochina, after which
the United States placed an oil embargo on Japan. On December 7–8, 1941,
Japanese forces carried out surprise attacks on Pearl Harbor, attacks on
British forces in Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong and declared war, bringing
the US and the UK into World War II in the Pacific. After the Soviet
invasion of Manchuria and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in
1945, Japan agreed to an unconditional surrender on August 15. The war cost
Japan and the rest of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere millions of
lives and left much of the nation's industry and infrastructure destroyed. The
Allies (led by the US) repatriated millions of ethnic Japanese from colonies
and military camps throughout Asia, largely eliminating the Japanese empire and
restoring the independence of its conquered territories. The Allies also
convened the International Military Tribunal for the Far East on May 3, 1946 to
prosecute some Japanese leaders for war crimes. However, the bacteriological
research units and members of the imperial family involved in the war were
exonerated from criminal prosecutions by the Supreme Commander for the Allied
Powers despite calls for trials for both groups.
In 1947, Japan adopted a new constitution emphasizing
liberal democratic practices. The Allied occupation ended with the Treaty of
San Francisco in 1952 and Japan was granted membership in the United
Nations in 1956. Japan later achieved rapid growth to become the second-largest
economy in the world, until surpassed by China in 2010. This ended in the
mid-1990s when Japan suffered a major recession. In the beginning of the 21st
century, positive growth has signaled a gradual economic recovery. On March
11, 2011, Japan suffered the strongest earthquake in its recorded history; this
triggered the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, one of the worst disasters in
the history of nuclear power.
Credits: Wikipedia
No comments:
Post a Comment