Nuvem
6th September 2010, 23:12
Japan is not often mentioned in historical conversation between Leftists, as its society has been markedly anti-Communist since it first learned of the ideology, probably somewhere in the early 20th century. The Imperial government condemned Left-wing socioeconomic philosophy and instead pursued an imperialist capitalist rampage across far-eastern Asia, beginning with the Sino-Japanese war of 1894-1895 in which Japan engaged China for control of Korea. This resulted in a stalemate in which Korea was granted independence from China, as both China and Japan decided that the casualties did not merit the strip of land. However, just one month later, Japanese forces landed on Taiwan, which had claimed independence amid the fighting between the former two nations, bloodlessly stripping the island of its new-found autonomy. The peace between the two countries was maintained regardless.
In 1904-1905, the Russo-Japanese war was fought between our friend Tsar Nicholas II and Emperor Meiji, a textbook imperialist war in which Japan made preemptive strikes to prevent territorial gains in the far east by the Russian Empire, which sought a warm-water Pacific port as Vladivostok is too far north and its coastal waters freeze in the winter. The Empire had designs on Manchuria, the northeastern section of China, as well as Port Arthur further south; so did the Japanese. The war was a humiliation of massive proportions for the Tsar as the Japanese soldiers outmaneuvered the Russian forces time and again and in fact this failure contributed significantly to the bourgeois Russian Revolution of 1905. Two thirds of the Russian fleet was destroyed, half of Sakhalin went into Japanese hands and Japanese imperial dominance was established in the east.
I trust that all of us are fully aware of Japan's history and role during the 1930s and 1940s with its full-scale invasions of China, the Philippines, Southeast Asia, Indonesia and countless minor islands in the Pacific. This ranks as one of the most brutal and merciless imperial campaigns in human history; the first-hand accounts of the atrocities committed by the Japanese Imperial Army are as shocking as the photographic evidence.
Death tolls, while most likely exaggerated, are cited as being around 20-30 million for the Chinese alone, with many of these being civilians killed during occupation rather than combat.
http://executions.justsickshit.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/field-of-skulls.gif
[Skulls piled in the foreground following the Rape of Nanking; these were deliberately separated from the rest of the skeletons, the remains of which can be seen in the background.]
This fifty year campaign of subjugation and murder was finally ended in 1945 when Japan's war against the USA and the Soviet Union turned for the worse. Soviet soldiers repelled the Japanese in much of China and Korea, assisting the native populations in sending the invaders back home. Meanwhile the American troops island hopped their way closer and closer to mainland Japan and after several major victories over the Imperial Army and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese government was forced to finally cede defeat, losing virtually all territory save for its native mainland islands and a handful of other small islands. All territory seized within the past 50 years was stripped from Japanese rule, in some cases returned to China, Korea was placed under Allied jurisdiction until border arrangements were decided (unsuccessfully) and in Vietnam French occupation was to be resumed, which reignited the troubles in Vietnam which would destabilize the nation until 1975. We're still seeing the results of the Japanese imperial war today, most especially in Korea where the North/South distinction still stands and talks of war renew every few years.
This brings me finally to my actual thesis and the purpose of my writing. (TL;DR, am I right?)
To understand imperialism it is important to understand how Japan reached this point in its developmental history and how it rose out of obscurity to be one of the most dominant countries in the world, first militarily and now economically. To understand this a smattering of knowledge of Japanese history is necessary, most especially that Japan had a policy of strict isolationism until 1854.
In the 1460s and 1470s, a war erupted within Japan known as the Onin war, which was a struggle over succession. The Ashikage Shogunate was ending and no consensus could be found among the Daimyo (the feudal lords of Japan) as to who would be named as the next Shogun, the supreme military ruler of Japan. It is important to note that the Shogun was not an emperor, and in fact the emperor of Japan had no political power until the 1860s. This relatively small-scale war was the catalyst for the "Sengoku Jidai", the "period of the nation at war". This civil war lasted from the 1470s until the beginning of the 17th century. It was characterized by many feudal clans fighting constantly for supremacy over Japan. Twice power was almost centralized in the hands of first Oda Nobunaga, who very nearly unified all of Japan before being betrayed and forced to commit ritual suicide by his closest adviser, then by Hideyoshi Toyotomi, who succeeded in unifying Japan but never achieved the title of Shogun. He was a controversial leader who disarmed the peasantry, causing many rebellions, some even assisted by the Samurai warrior class.
http://image.absoluteastronomy.com/images/encyclopediaimages/t/ta/takeda_shingen_versus_uesugi_kenshin_statue.jpg
[ A sculpture commemorating the meeting of Takeda Shingen and Uesugi Kenshin, notable Daimyo of the Senkogu period who during a battle engaged in a dramatic duel. Both lived.]
Finally, in 1603 as Toyotomi rule ended, Tokugawa Ieyusa ascended to power, achieved the title of Shogun and forced all of the more minor lords to sign off on a treaty which made the Shogunate hereditary, ensuring that the Tokugawa family would forever be the rulers of Japan. This treaty was made even more sacred in the eyes of the people when the Emperor himself signed the document, which gave it no more legality so much as novelty. The "Edo Period" (Edo being the former name for Tokyo, where Tokugawa Ieyusu established his capital) or "Tokugawa Period" was marked by unification of the warring clans of Japan, the centralization of government power and the imposing of strict class boundaries not only on the peasantry and working classes but on the merchant and warrior classes as well. In the wake of the civil war, so long that no one had lived to see it from start to finish, the Shogun saw fit to pull tight the reins of society not only to consolidate power but also to ensure order and prevent any further conflict.
This worked marvelously. Daimyo disputes were minor and any skirmishes between them were short-lived. Peasants revolted often due to their high taxes and tight social restrictions, but they never achieved much. In the peace, production flourished, though Japan remained in a primitive cottage industry stage of capitalism, mixing renaissance economics with centralized feudal government. In fact, this period could be considered the renaissance of Japan, as in this state of peace the arts thrived. Chromatic paintings first came to be in Japan as opposed to the traditional black and white, Kabuki theatre became an art form all its own, poetry became popular, as did fictional novels. Woodcut paintings were cheap and massively produced, meaning even a homely peasant could have a few beautiful paintings in the house. For the first time in Japanese history, men were able to make meaningful contributions to the arts on a large scale; previously writing, painting and poetry were practiced more by women than men due to differing gender roles, which of course remained but changed considerably. Samurai were less a warrior class and more of an administrative class, used as overseers, diplomats and landlords. Samurai began to read, write and paint, things they had no time for during the Sengoku Jidai period. In some cases, recitation of poetry was made illegal for the Samurai out of fear that such emotions would weaken them on the battlefield. Of course they retained their traditions of warfare and still practiced the martial arts and kept their heirloom weapons and armor. Unfortunately, these were most often turned against the peasants during their numerous uprisings.
http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:qyHhRjApxEe_CM:http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd245/Obenjo_Kusanosuke/TokugawaSankaku.jpg&t=1
[ A crude representation of the Japanese social structure and indicative of class values. Notice Artisans and Farmers above the Merchant class; the profit motive was considered dishonorable in Japan, and merchants were ostracized as greedy and opportunistic for buying goods at low prices and selling them at high prices. Despite its feudal structure, in this sense even classical Japanese society had its head screwed on straight.]
During this period, leaving the islands of Japan was unthinkable for most citizens and diplomats for foreign lands were few. Throughout most of the Tokugawa period of 1603 to 1868, only two foreign ships came into port each year, with some exceptions. Usually these would be to trade silk, spices and artwork for firearms or other "oddities" of the West. However, Western culture was mostly disdained as being crude and unenlightened. Japanese traders found Westerners horribly rude. Christianity was also dogmatically hated and was in fact illegal during the vast majority of the period despite numerous attempts by foreigners to establish missions; during the Sengoku period Christianity found a foothold in parts of Japan because foreign traders offered flintlock guns to Daimyo who embraced Christianity and allowed the building of churches and missions in their territory. This was clearly agreed upon by the Daimyo not because they cared for Christianity but for military superiority and when Tokugawa took power the churches and missions were burned, the priests killed and the religion forbidden. Japan was firmly locked in isolation geographically, politically and philosophically. However, the culture thrived.
The Tokugawa period began to come to an end in 1853, when Commodore Matthew Perry of the United States Navy came into Tokyo Bay with 4 ships. He presented a proposal to the Emperor asking for trade agreements with Japan, essentially an open door policy similar to China's which would allow American economic interests to establish themselves in Japan and take control. The Japanese rulers were angered by Perry's disregard for Japanese government and the proposal was redirected to the Shogun, to whom it should have been brought initially and was firmly rejected. In 1854, Commodore Perry returned with 7 ships and 1,600 marines. They opened fire on Tokyo harbor with their canons, and the Japanese quickly allowed him an audience with the Emperor and the Shogun. The Americans asserted the dominance of their firearms and flotilla; the Japanese used only very crude canons and still used flintlock guns from the 16th century, which they had copied repeatedly with very little innovation. The Americans by contrast had armored steamships, modern canons and repeating rifles and 6-shot magnums. The isolation had left Japan technologically centuries behind the curve and resisting the USA wasn't a viable option.
This began the period known at the Meiji Restoration, and this is when we can FINALLY get down to business. In 1868, the young Emperor Meiji finally asserted his imperial birthright and to cut a long story short dethroned the Shogun and with American backing adopted Western ways- Western clothing, technology and culture, allowed Christianity (which still had little success). The schools in Japan taught that the old ways were folly and children were told to be more enterprising and modern like Americans. Training of a modernized military was top on the priority list and preparations began for Japan's future of military and economic dominance. However, one obstacle remained which hindered the march towards modernity and imperialism; the Samurai, the now-outlawed former warrior class. Laws were passed to disgrace and abolish the Samurai culture, including the outlawing of the wearing of two swords on the belt (a traditional mark of the Samurai) and the traditional Samurai haircut, the "top knot". This served only to incite the Samurai, not pacify them. Out of the far-southern region of Japan, Satsuma, a Samurai rebellion led by Saigo Takamori, a former Daimyo and strong voice in the Shogun's court, began opposing the Japanese Imperial Army, ambushing Imperial Army patrols and appealing to the sensibilities of the more traditional Southern peasants who sought to resist Western imperialist influence and culture. In the early stages of the rebellion, these Samurai used firearms, which had a dishonorable stigma on them ever since they were introduced to Japan. Later, firearms were abandoned and the rebels began using only traditional weapons such as their swords, spears and bows.
http://inlinethumb03.webshots.com/5186/2906324830100310710S600x600Q85.jpg
[ Late Edo-period Samurai. Notice the Samurai in the back wearing modernized military uniform in contrast with the traditionally garbed in front.]
The Satsuma rebellion was in fact composed more of peasant and worker supporters of the Samurai than Samurai themselves. Many Samurai gave in to the new laws and were absorbed into the new Japanese culture, usually as officers in the newly founded Imperial Army. It's estimated that about 40,000 soldiers made up the rebellion forces from Satsuma, more than enough to cause serious discord in the region and potentially destabilize the entire southern portion of Japan. It should also be noted that this number cannot possibly only represent the Samurai class in Satsuma, as during the Meiji period the Samurai constituted only approximately 8% of the population of Japan and this was only one prefecture; though it was a large prefecture in the context of Japan, comparatively it was smaller than the state of Rhode Island and far less populated. Satsuma was overwhelmingly rural.
In the early days of the rebellion there was some success. However, these were short-lived and minor wins which were to be followed by crushing defeats one after another. The battle of Tabaruzaka was devastating for both sides with over 4000 casualties for both rebels and Imperial Army alike. Of course, this was much more significant for the rebels, who were significantly outnumbered. At Hitoyoshi, the rebels were trapped in a pincer attack and barely managed to break free from encirclement and escape with 3000 men remaining; many had surrendered or committed ritual suicide. Outnumbered 7:1, the rebels made a stand at Mount Enodake. They were surrounded and reduced to only 500 soldiers who narrowly escaped. Saigo Takamori at this point had accepted defeat for the Satsuma Rebellion, burning his military uniform and reverting to his traditional Samurai armor, as most of his soldiers already had. At Shiroyama, the remaining Samurai would make their final stand against the Imperial Army. Outnumbered 60:1, the rebels knew that they would die in this battle. The assault by the Imperial Army began in the early morning, and by 6 AM only 40 rebels still lived. Saigo Takamori was direly wounded in the fighting, and stories conflict as to what took place. Some sources claim his retainer assisted him in committing ritual suicide, other sources claim he died by the bullet of an enemy and that his retainer beheaded him and buried his head and body so that the enemy could not retrieve either and disgrace him. The remaining 40 Samurai made one last dramatic charge down the hill on horseback towards the Imperial army, their final act of defiance. They were all killed before they could reach the enemy lines, gunned down with Gatling guns that had been introduced to the Imperial Army by the Americans. This was the last rebellion that would take place against the Emperor. Japan's imperial wars began less than a decade later.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5c/SaigoWithOfficers.jpg/800px-SaigoWithOfficers.jpg
[Saigo Takamori, seated in 19th century officer's uniform, surrounded by his Samurai officers.]
The Samurai were a strange class in the history of class interaction and conflict. They were clearly a favored class considered to be above the peasants and workers in social status, but the majority of them were also not part of the true ruling clique, which was made up of a handful of families within the Samurai class. Most Samurai lived rather modestly and lead harsh, rigorous lives. They were subject to the code of Bushido with its harsh restrictions and penalties, they were constantly subject to social scrutiny. In fact, Bushido demanded utter subservience by a Samurai to the lord who he served. Samurai, while they lived in more urban environments and had a higher standard of living, were slaves to their masters just as much as the serfs. It could be said that feudal Japanese society was not so different from the typical American workplace: On the bottom is your lowly worker, subjugated to wage slavery as a means of survival. Directly above him is your petty overseer, your low-level management, the boss who lords over the lower workers. However, this person still only holds a tenuous shred of power and is just as expendable to the greater business as a whole and means nothing to its owners/rulers, while the petty overseer needs to be sustained by the owners/rulers above him. This is an abstract reflection of the Samurai. They could not leave their lord's domain without permission and good reason, they could not act outside of their social boundaries, they were forbidden from most meaningful contact with people of lesser social status, they were forced to marry usually without consent or input and perhaps most direly of all they were obligated to put their lives at stake in the petty wars of their lord. They were the favored slaves, held to obligation by a hostage system and the only true distinction between the Samurai of low nobility (the majority) and the workers and peasants is that one was handed a hammer, another a spade, another a sword.
Why does any of this matter? Well, on the most basic level it's a fascinating look into history. If you look deeper, we can see one of the first major casualties of economic globalization rather than colonial imperialism, which was the primary tool of the age. Japan was allowed to retain its autonomy while simultaneously being economically fueled and nurtured for future economic exploitation by the USA. As is typical, however, the USA failed to calculate the future ramifications of its actions and did not foresee the massive imperialist campaign that Japan would soon pursue or the strong individuality that the Japanese would retain in spite of American influence. Once World War II came around, the monster they created finally came roaring to their doorstep and millions of lives were lost as a consequence. Following the war, the Japanese constitution was drafted by foreigners from the Allies and Japan's Emperor was dethroned, a prime minister elected and the nation set on the path of bourgeois representative democracy. Japan has been a corporatist economic powerhouse ever since, dominating the auto and electronics industries in many countries since the 1970s. In fact, it has even turned the tables on American industrialists and businessmen and thanks to its superior mixed economic system is beating the laissez-faire policies of the Americans left and right thanks to greater government/corporation cooperation. Modern Japan is a veritable festering neon pit of corporate capitalism. The merchant has risen from the bottom of the social hierarchy to the master of society in Japan. The state of Leftist ideologies there is no better than it is in America, where revolutionaries go to give up. This is why we must fight globalization while we can. Imagine if rather than American intervention it had been early Communists who visited Japan in the 1850s, the possibility that there might have been for rallying of the peasants, workers and samurai against their lords. If rapid industrialization, overthrow of the Shogun, formation of a modern military and the defeat of rebellions was possible in such a short period of time, I see no reason it could not have been equally possible to overthrow the Shogun and Daimyo and establish the former clans as communes and form council governments, while still retaining much of Japan's cultural identity. It sounds like a long shot, but so does the idea of a backwards, isolated feudal nation rising to one of the world's supreme powers in a matter of 30 years.
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/11/16/business/16capital.600.jpg
[Modern day Tokyo, particularly the downtown financial district at center.]
http://www.you-are-here.com/downtown/higashi.jpg
[The stark contrast of Japan; a traditionally built Buddhist temple in the foreground, a towering modern structure in the background. The land of Buddhist businessmen.]
The battle for the soul of Japan is still being fought just as it was during the Satsuma rebellion, only in subtle cultural ways. In the city, rampant capitalism, corporate greed, government corruption, Western society with a Japanese flair. In the countryside, traditional architecture, sprawling forested mountains, the clothing and mannerisms of the past sprouting up here and there. In some ways Japanese culture has blended with Western culture, in other ways ceded to it entirely, in other ways it resists. However, just as in Satsuma, the resistance to Western Capitalist culture is rural, outnumbered, surrounded and hopelessly outmatched.
In 1904-1905, the Russo-Japanese war was fought between our friend Tsar Nicholas II and Emperor Meiji, a textbook imperialist war in which Japan made preemptive strikes to prevent territorial gains in the far east by the Russian Empire, which sought a warm-water Pacific port as Vladivostok is too far north and its coastal waters freeze in the winter. The Empire had designs on Manchuria, the northeastern section of China, as well as Port Arthur further south; so did the Japanese. The war was a humiliation of massive proportions for the Tsar as the Japanese soldiers outmaneuvered the Russian forces time and again and in fact this failure contributed significantly to the bourgeois Russian Revolution of 1905. Two thirds of the Russian fleet was destroyed, half of Sakhalin went into Japanese hands and Japanese imperial dominance was established in the east.
I trust that all of us are fully aware of Japan's history and role during the 1930s and 1940s with its full-scale invasions of China, the Philippines, Southeast Asia, Indonesia and countless minor islands in the Pacific. This ranks as one of the most brutal and merciless imperial campaigns in human history; the first-hand accounts of the atrocities committed by the Japanese Imperial Army are as shocking as the photographic evidence.
Death tolls, while most likely exaggerated, are cited as being around 20-30 million for the Chinese alone, with many of these being civilians killed during occupation rather than combat.
http://executions.justsickshit.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/field-of-skulls.gif
[Skulls piled in the foreground following the Rape of Nanking; these were deliberately separated from the rest of the skeletons, the remains of which can be seen in the background.]
This fifty year campaign of subjugation and murder was finally ended in 1945 when Japan's war against the USA and the Soviet Union turned for the worse. Soviet soldiers repelled the Japanese in much of China and Korea, assisting the native populations in sending the invaders back home. Meanwhile the American troops island hopped their way closer and closer to mainland Japan and after several major victories over the Imperial Army and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese government was forced to finally cede defeat, losing virtually all territory save for its native mainland islands and a handful of other small islands. All territory seized within the past 50 years was stripped from Japanese rule, in some cases returned to China, Korea was placed under Allied jurisdiction until border arrangements were decided (unsuccessfully) and in Vietnam French occupation was to be resumed, which reignited the troubles in Vietnam which would destabilize the nation until 1975. We're still seeing the results of the Japanese imperial war today, most especially in Korea where the North/South distinction still stands and talks of war renew every few years.
This brings me finally to my actual thesis and the purpose of my writing. (TL;DR, am I right?)
To understand imperialism it is important to understand how Japan reached this point in its developmental history and how it rose out of obscurity to be one of the most dominant countries in the world, first militarily and now economically. To understand this a smattering of knowledge of Japanese history is necessary, most especially that Japan had a policy of strict isolationism until 1854.
In the 1460s and 1470s, a war erupted within Japan known as the Onin war, which was a struggle over succession. The Ashikage Shogunate was ending and no consensus could be found among the Daimyo (the feudal lords of Japan) as to who would be named as the next Shogun, the supreme military ruler of Japan. It is important to note that the Shogun was not an emperor, and in fact the emperor of Japan had no political power until the 1860s. This relatively small-scale war was the catalyst for the "Sengoku Jidai", the "period of the nation at war". This civil war lasted from the 1470s until the beginning of the 17th century. It was characterized by many feudal clans fighting constantly for supremacy over Japan. Twice power was almost centralized in the hands of first Oda Nobunaga, who very nearly unified all of Japan before being betrayed and forced to commit ritual suicide by his closest adviser, then by Hideyoshi Toyotomi, who succeeded in unifying Japan but never achieved the title of Shogun. He was a controversial leader who disarmed the peasantry, causing many rebellions, some even assisted by the Samurai warrior class.
http://image.absoluteastronomy.com/images/encyclopediaimages/t/ta/takeda_shingen_versus_uesugi_kenshin_statue.jpg
[ A sculpture commemorating the meeting of Takeda Shingen and Uesugi Kenshin, notable Daimyo of the Senkogu period who during a battle engaged in a dramatic duel. Both lived.]
Finally, in 1603 as Toyotomi rule ended, Tokugawa Ieyusa ascended to power, achieved the title of Shogun and forced all of the more minor lords to sign off on a treaty which made the Shogunate hereditary, ensuring that the Tokugawa family would forever be the rulers of Japan. This treaty was made even more sacred in the eyes of the people when the Emperor himself signed the document, which gave it no more legality so much as novelty. The "Edo Period" (Edo being the former name for Tokyo, where Tokugawa Ieyusu established his capital) or "Tokugawa Period" was marked by unification of the warring clans of Japan, the centralization of government power and the imposing of strict class boundaries not only on the peasantry and working classes but on the merchant and warrior classes as well. In the wake of the civil war, so long that no one had lived to see it from start to finish, the Shogun saw fit to pull tight the reins of society not only to consolidate power but also to ensure order and prevent any further conflict.
This worked marvelously. Daimyo disputes were minor and any skirmishes between them were short-lived. Peasants revolted often due to their high taxes and tight social restrictions, but they never achieved much. In the peace, production flourished, though Japan remained in a primitive cottage industry stage of capitalism, mixing renaissance economics with centralized feudal government. In fact, this period could be considered the renaissance of Japan, as in this state of peace the arts thrived. Chromatic paintings first came to be in Japan as opposed to the traditional black and white, Kabuki theatre became an art form all its own, poetry became popular, as did fictional novels. Woodcut paintings were cheap and massively produced, meaning even a homely peasant could have a few beautiful paintings in the house. For the first time in Japanese history, men were able to make meaningful contributions to the arts on a large scale; previously writing, painting and poetry were practiced more by women than men due to differing gender roles, which of course remained but changed considerably. Samurai were less a warrior class and more of an administrative class, used as overseers, diplomats and landlords. Samurai began to read, write and paint, things they had no time for during the Sengoku Jidai period. In some cases, recitation of poetry was made illegal for the Samurai out of fear that such emotions would weaken them on the battlefield. Of course they retained their traditions of warfare and still practiced the martial arts and kept their heirloom weapons and armor. Unfortunately, these were most often turned against the peasants during their numerous uprisings.
http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:qyHhRjApxEe_CM:http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd245/Obenjo_Kusanosuke/TokugawaSankaku.jpg&t=1
[ A crude representation of the Japanese social structure and indicative of class values. Notice Artisans and Farmers above the Merchant class; the profit motive was considered dishonorable in Japan, and merchants were ostracized as greedy and opportunistic for buying goods at low prices and selling them at high prices. Despite its feudal structure, in this sense even classical Japanese society had its head screwed on straight.]
During this period, leaving the islands of Japan was unthinkable for most citizens and diplomats for foreign lands were few. Throughout most of the Tokugawa period of 1603 to 1868, only two foreign ships came into port each year, with some exceptions. Usually these would be to trade silk, spices and artwork for firearms or other "oddities" of the West. However, Western culture was mostly disdained as being crude and unenlightened. Japanese traders found Westerners horribly rude. Christianity was also dogmatically hated and was in fact illegal during the vast majority of the period despite numerous attempts by foreigners to establish missions; during the Sengoku period Christianity found a foothold in parts of Japan because foreign traders offered flintlock guns to Daimyo who embraced Christianity and allowed the building of churches and missions in their territory. This was clearly agreed upon by the Daimyo not because they cared for Christianity but for military superiority and when Tokugawa took power the churches and missions were burned, the priests killed and the religion forbidden. Japan was firmly locked in isolation geographically, politically and philosophically. However, the culture thrived.
The Tokugawa period began to come to an end in 1853, when Commodore Matthew Perry of the United States Navy came into Tokyo Bay with 4 ships. He presented a proposal to the Emperor asking for trade agreements with Japan, essentially an open door policy similar to China's which would allow American economic interests to establish themselves in Japan and take control. The Japanese rulers were angered by Perry's disregard for Japanese government and the proposal was redirected to the Shogun, to whom it should have been brought initially and was firmly rejected. In 1854, Commodore Perry returned with 7 ships and 1,600 marines. They opened fire on Tokyo harbor with their canons, and the Japanese quickly allowed him an audience with the Emperor and the Shogun. The Americans asserted the dominance of their firearms and flotilla; the Japanese used only very crude canons and still used flintlock guns from the 16th century, which they had copied repeatedly with very little innovation. The Americans by contrast had armored steamships, modern canons and repeating rifles and 6-shot magnums. The isolation had left Japan technologically centuries behind the curve and resisting the USA wasn't a viable option.
This began the period known at the Meiji Restoration, and this is when we can FINALLY get down to business. In 1868, the young Emperor Meiji finally asserted his imperial birthright and to cut a long story short dethroned the Shogun and with American backing adopted Western ways- Western clothing, technology and culture, allowed Christianity (which still had little success). The schools in Japan taught that the old ways were folly and children were told to be more enterprising and modern like Americans. Training of a modernized military was top on the priority list and preparations began for Japan's future of military and economic dominance. However, one obstacle remained which hindered the march towards modernity and imperialism; the Samurai, the now-outlawed former warrior class. Laws were passed to disgrace and abolish the Samurai culture, including the outlawing of the wearing of two swords on the belt (a traditional mark of the Samurai) and the traditional Samurai haircut, the "top knot". This served only to incite the Samurai, not pacify them. Out of the far-southern region of Japan, Satsuma, a Samurai rebellion led by Saigo Takamori, a former Daimyo and strong voice in the Shogun's court, began opposing the Japanese Imperial Army, ambushing Imperial Army patrols and appealing to the sensibilities of the more traditional Southern peasants who sought to resist Western imperialist influence and culture. In the early stages of the rebellion, these Samurai used firearms, which had a dishonorable stigma on them ever since they were introduced to Japan. Later, firearms were abandoned and the rebels began using only traditional weapons such as their swords, spears and bows.
http://inlinethumb03.webshots.com/5186/2906324830100310710S600x600Q85.jpg
[ Late Edo-period Samurai. Notice the Samurai in the back wearing modernized military uniform in contrast with the traditionally garbed in front.]
The Satsuma rebellion was in fact composed more of peasant and worker supporters of the Samurai than Samurai themselves. Many Samurai gave in to the new laws and were absorbed into the new Japanese culture, usually as officers in the newly founded Imperial Army. It's estimated that about 40,000 soldiers made up the rebellion forces from Satsuma, more than enough to cause serious discord in the region and potentially destabilize the entire southern portion of Japan. It should also be noted that this number cannot possibly only represent the Samurai class in Satsuma, as during the Meiji period the Samurai constituted only approximately 8% of the population of Japan and this was only one prefecture; though it was a large prefecture in the context of Japan, comparatively it was smaller than the state of Rhode Island and far less populated. Satsuma was overwhelmingly rural.
In the early days of the rebellion there was some success. However, these were short-lived and minor wins which were to be followed by crushing defeats one after another. The battle of Tabaruzaka was devastating for both sides with over 4000 casualties for both rebels and Imperial Army alike. Of course, this was much more significant for the rebels, who were significantly outnumbered. At Hitoyoshi, the rebels were trapped in a pincer attack and barely managed to break free from encirclement and escape with 3000 men remaining; many had surrendered or committed ritual suicide. Outnumbered 7:1, the rebels made a stand at Mount Enodake. They were surrounded and reduced to only 500 soldiers who narrowly escaped. Saigo Takamori at this point had accepted defeat for the Satsuma Rebellion, burning his military uniform and reverting to his traditional Samurai armor, as most of his soldiers already had. At Shiroyama, the remaining Samurai would make their final stand against the Imperial Army. Outnumbered 60:1, the rebels knew that they would die in this battle. The assault by the Imperial Army began in the early morning, and by 6 AM only 40 rebels still lived. Saigo Takamori was direly wounded in the fighting, and stories conflict as to what took place. Some sources claim his retainer assisted him in committing ritual suicide, other sources claim he died by the bullet of an enemy and that his retainer beheaded him and buried his head and body so that the enemy could not retrieve either and disgrace him. The remaining 40 Samurai made one last dramatic charge down the hill on horseback towards the Imperial army, their final act of defiance. They were all killed before they could reach the enemy lines, gunned down with Gatling guns that had been introduced to the Imperial Army by the Americans. This was the last rebellion that would take place against the Emperor. Japan's imperial wars began less than a decade later.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5c/SaigoWithOfficers.jpg/800px-SaigoWithOfficers.jpg
[Saigo Takamori, seated in 19th century officer's uniform, surrounded by his Samurai officers.]
The Samurai were a strange class in the history of class interaction and conflict. They were clearly a favored class considered to be above the peasants and workers in social status, but the majority of them were also not part of the true ruling clique, which was made up of a handful of families within the Samurai class. Most Samurai lived rather modestly and lead harsh, rigorous lives. They were subject to the code of Bushido with its harsh restrictions and penalties, they were constantly subject to social scrutiny. In fact, Bushido demanded utter subservience by a Samurai to the lord who he served. Samurai, while they lived in more urban environments and had a higher standard of living, were slaves to their masters just as much as the serfs. It could be said that feudal Japanese society was not so different from the typical American workplace: On the bottom is your lowly worker, subjugated to wage slavery as a means of survival. Directly above him is your petty overseer, your low-level management, the boss who lords over the lower workers. However, this person still only holds a tenuous shred of power and is just as expendable to the greater business as a whole and means nothing to its owners/rulers, while the petty overseer needs to be sustained by the owners/rulers above him. This is an abstract reflection of the Samurai. They could not leave their lord's domain without permission and good reason, they could not act outside of their social boundaries, they were forbidden from most meaningful contact with people of lesser social status, they were forced to marry usually without consent or input and perhaps most direly of all they were obligated to put their lives at stake in the petty wars of their lord. They were the favored slaves, held to obligation by a hostage system and the only true distinction between the Samurai of low nobility (the majority) and the workers and peasants is that one was handed a hammer, another a spade, another a sword.
Why does any of this matter? Well, on the most basic level it's a fascinating look into history. If you look deeper, we can see one of the first major casualties of economic globalization rather than colonial imperialism, which was the primary tool of the age. Japan was allowed to retain its autonomy while simultaneously being economically fueled and nurtured for future economic exploitation by the USA. As is typical, however, the USA failed to calculate the future ramifications of its actions and did not foresee the massive imperialist campaign that Japan would soon pursue or the strong individuality that the Japanese would retain in spite of American influence. Once World War II came around, the monster they created finally came roaring to their doorstep and millions of lives were lost as a consequence. Following the war, the Japanese constitution was drafted by foreigners from the Allies and Japan's Emperor was dethroned, a prime minister elected and the nation set on the path of bourgeois representative democracy. Japan has been a corporatist economic powerhouse ever since, dominating the auto and electronics industries in many countries since the 1970s. In fact, it has even turned the tables on American industrialists and businessmen and thanks to its superior mixed economic system is beating the laissez-faire policies of the Americans left and right thanks to greater government/corporation cooperation. Modern Japan is a veritable festering neon pit of corporate capitalism. The merchant has risen from the bottom of the social hierarchy to the master of society in Japan. The state of Leftist ideologies there is no better than it is in America, where revolutionaries go to give up. This is why we must fight globalization while we can. Imagine if rather than American intervention it had been early Communists who visited Japan in the 1850s, the possibility that there might have been for rallying of the peasants, workers and samurai against their lords. If rapid industrialization, overthrow of the Shogun, formation of a modern military and the defeat of rebellions was possible in such a short period of time, I see no reason it could not have been equally possible to overthrow the Shogun and Daimyo and establish the former clans as communes and form council governments, while still retaining much of Japan's cultural identity. It sounds like a long shot, but so does the idea of a backwards, isolated feudal nation rising to one of the world's supreme powers in a matter of 30 years.
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/11/16/business/16capital.600.jpg
[Modern day Tokyo, particularly the downtown financial district at center.]
http://www.you-are-here.com/downtown/higashi.jpg
[The stark contrast of Japan; a traditionally built Buddhist temple in the foreground, a towering modern structure in the background. The land of Buddhist businessmen.]
The battle for the soul of Japan is still being fought just as it was during the Satsuma rebellion, only in subtle cultural ways. In the city, rampant capitalism, corporate greed, government corruption, Western society with a Japanese flair. In the countryside, traditional architecture, sprawling forested mountains, the clothing and mannerisms of the past sprouting up here and there. In some ways Japanese culture has blended with Western culture, in other ways ceded to it entirely, in other ways it resists. However, just as in Satsuma, the resistance to Western Capitalist culture is rural, outnumbered, surrounded and hopelessly outmatched.