Modern Japan: A Historical Survey (Fourth Edition)

591 Pages·2008·2.952 MB·English

by  Mikiso Hane, Louis G. Perez

0813344096-Hane.qxd 11/17/08 11:22 AM Page i
MODERN JAPAN
0813344096-Hane.qxd 11/17/08 11:22 AM Page ii
This page intentionally left blank
0813344096-Hane.qxd 11/17/08 11:22 AM Page iii
MODERN JAPAN
A Historical Survey
FOURTH EDITION
MIKISO HANE
late of Knox College
LOUIS G. PEREZ
Illinois State University
Westview Press
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
0813344096-Hane.qxd 11/17/08 11:22 AM Page iv
Copyright © 2009 by Westview Press
Published by Westview Press,
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
Every effort has been made to secure required permissions to use all images, maps,
and other art included in this volume.
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book
may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except
in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For
information, address Westview Press, 2465 Central Avenue, Boulder, CO 80301.
Find us on the World Wide Web at www.westviewpress.com.
Westview Press books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the
United States by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more
information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books
Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, or call (800)
810-4145, x5000, or e-mail [email protected].
Designed by Brent Wilcox
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hane, Mikiso.
Modern Japan : a historical survey / Mikiso Hane, Louis G. Perez. — 4th ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8133-4409-6 (alk. paper)
1. Japan—History—19th century. 2. Japan—History—20th century.
I. Perez, Louis G. II. Title.
DS881.H36 2009
952.03—dc22
2008045539
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
0813344096-Hane.qxd 11/17/08 11:22 AM Page v
Contents
Preface ix
1 Japan Before the Seventeenth Century 1
Early History of the Japanese People 1 ° Traditional Culture and
Institutions of the Pre-Tokugawa Years 6 ° Notes 15
2 Establishment of the Tokugawa Bakufu 17
The ShÄgun of the Tokugawa Bakufu 17 ° Tokugawa Institutions 20 °
The Structure of Tokugawa Society 25 ° The Culture of the
Tokugawa Period 32 ° Notes 35
3 The Late Tokugawa Period 37
Political Developments 37 ° Economic Problems 40 ° The Lot
of the Peasants 45 ° Peasant Uprisings 49 ° Agricultural
Improvements 52 ° Intellectual Currents: Reformers and Critics 54 °
Notes 60
4 The Fall of the Tokugawa Bakufu 63
Arrival of Commodore Perry 63 ° The Immediate Consequences 66
The Mentality of SonnÄJÄi 69 ° The Rise of the Anti-Bakufu
Forces 72 ° The Meiji Restoration 78 ° Notes 82
5 The Meiji Restoration:The New Order 83
Political Changes 86 ° Local Government 89 ° Social Reforms 90 °
Pensions for the Kazoku and Shizoku 92 ° Revision of the Land
Tax and the Plight of the Farmers 93 ° Legal Reforms 94 ° The
Police System 95 ° The Army and the Navy 95 ° Economic
v
0813344096-Hane.qxd 11/17/08 11:22 AM Page vi
vi Contents
Developments 96 ° Education 100 ° Civilization and
Enlightenment 104 ° Religion 106 ° Notes 108
6 The Continuing Meiji Revolution (I):
Political Developments 111
Political Reactions 113 ° Agrarian Unrest 117 ° The Movement for
Popular Rights 120 ° Fortification of the Central Government 129 °
The Constitution 131 ° Notes 133
7 The Continuing Meiji Revolution (II):
Cultural,Economic,and Social Developments 135
Cultural Nationalism 135 ° Initial Modern Economic Growth 143 °
The Plight of the Workers 147 ° Social Conditions 151 ° Notes 153
8 Political Developments in Later Meiji 157
Partisan Politics: 1887–1894 159 ° The Korean Question and
the Sino-Japanese War 163 ° Postwar Domestic Political
Developments 168 ° Notes 176
9 The Conclusion of the Meiji Era 179
The Russo-Japanese War 179 ° Foreign Affairs After the War 187 °
Internal Affairs After the War 188 ° The Death of Emperor Meiji
191 ° Meiji Japan: An Assessment 194 ° Notes 199
10 The Era of Parliamentary Ascendancy (I) 201
Internal Political Affairs: 1912–1918 202 ° Foreign Affairs 207 °
Economic Developments: 1906–1930 215 ° Social Reform
Movements: Labor 218 ° Agrarian Reform Movements 220 ° The
Outcastes and the Suiheisha 221 ° Movement for Women’s Rights 222 °
Democratic and Socialistic Political Movements 224 ° Notes 228
11 The Era of Parliamentary Ascendancy (II) 231
Culture of the TaishÄEra 231 ° Political Developments:
1918–1932 239 ° Notes 255
12 The Ascendancy of Militarism 257
Radical Nationalists and Militarists 257 ° Conspiracies and
Assassinations 263 ° The Manchurian Incident 266 ° Internal
Political Developments: The Triumph of the Militarists 271 °
Economic Developments 283 ° Notes 286
0813344096-Hane.qxd 11/17/08 11:22 AM Page vii
Contents vii
13 The Road to War 289
China Policy to 1937 289 ° The China Incident 294 ° Internal
Developments 301 ° Further Foreign Entanglements 305 °
Negotiations with the United States 312 ° The Occupation of Southern
French Indochina 314 ° The Decision for War 316 ° Notes 327
14 War and Defeat 329
The Offensive War 329 ° The War at Home 333 ° The Defensive
War 338 ° The Allied Strategy: “Island Hopping” 339 ° The
Transference of Leadership from TÄjÄto Koiso 344 ° The Beginning
of the End 346 ° The Battle for Leyte Gulf 347 ° The End of the
Fighting: The Kamikaze 349 ° The Economics of Warfare 351 °
The Finale 352 ° Notes 359
15 The Postwar Years (I):Reform and Reconstruction 363
The MacArthur Era 363 ° Political Developments During the
Occupation Years 376 ° Notes 381
16 The Postwar Years (II):Political Developments
After Independence 383
The Yoshida Years 383 ° After Yoshida: The 1955 System 385 ° End
of LDP Dominance 391 ° Foreign Relations 394 ° Economic
Developments 406 ° The Japanese Economy in the Early 1990s:
Recession 420 ° Notes 421
17 Social and Educational Developments 427
Social Developments 427 ° Education 447 ° Notes 454
18 Cultural Developments 459
American Influence 459 ° Survival of the Traditional Outlook 462 °
Religion 464 ° Literature 466 ° Cinema 473 ° Art and
Architecture 476 ° Popular Culture 478 ° Baseball and Other Sports
480 ° Revival of Nationalism? 482 ° End of the ShÄwa Reign 485 °
Notes 489
Appendix A: The Internet 493
Appendix B: Chronological Chart 499
Appendix C: List of Prime Ministers 505
Selected Bibliography 507
Index 557
0813344096-Hane.qxd 11/17/08 11:22 AM Page viii
This page intentionally left blank
0813344096-Hane.qxd 11/17/08 11:22 AM Page ix
Preface
The Gold Standard for Chutzpah used to be the no-doubt apocryphal story of
Lizzie Borden, who at her trial for having chopped up her parents with an axe,
begged the mercy of the court on account of being an orphan.
I now suggest that my revision of this book might similarly qualify as an act
of chutzpah. When I first came to the Midwest in the mid-1980s, Mikiso
Hane became a friend and something of a mentor. He was among the half-
dozen scholars in attendance at my first professional presentation at the Mid-
west Conference on Asian Affairs in 1986. He came up afterward and
introduced himself, then offered some valuable suggestions about my paper.
He later read a version of that paper and wrote a letter on my behalf to the ed-
itor when I submitted it to a refereed scholarly journal.
Two years later his kindness to me continued. When approached to do
some very lucrative consultation with a Midwestern company, he demurred
because he was busy writing this very book. Instead he gave the company my
name, and I very gratefully accepted the job. The consultant’s fee I received
went a long way in the Perez household that year.
But it was not out of a sense of obligation that I have assigned this book as
required reading for my Modern Japanese History classes. I have done so be-
cause it was simply the best book available for my students. It was written for
students who knew absolutely nothing about Japan. It probably gave them
more information than they would ever use, but it was always as readable as it
was erudite.
When approached by Karl Yambert, editor at Westview Press, about the
possibility of my revising the book, I immediately declined the honor. How
could I ever consider messing with Miki’s timeless classic? Karl finally con-
vinced me to do it after assuring me that the book would probably go out of
print unless it was revised to include the latest scholarship.
So how does one go about editing the work of a deceased friend? Karl elicited
the views of a handful of historians of Japan. Their anonymous comments
ix