Introduction to History of Japan

Japan's earliest past is obscured in legend. There is little authenticated history of Japan before the Christian Era. Two documents written in the eighth century—Kojiki (A Record of Ancient Matters) and Nihonshoki (Chronicle of Japan)—present the country's ancient mythological past. According to these records, the first emperor, Jimmu, ascended the throne in 660 B.C. He was a direct descendant of Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess and supreme deity of Shinto.

The first factual accounts of Japanese history come primarily from Korean and Chinese sources. According to these accounts, the Yamato clan in about the 5th century emerged as the strongest of the warring clans that made up most of Japanese society. The first Japanese emperor came from the Yamato clan.

About the middle of the sixth century, Buddhism was introduced into Japan from China and Korea. Through Buddhism, the Japanese became acquainted with the ideas, philosophy, art, architecture, writing system, and other aspects of Chinese civilization.

From the mid-seventh century to the early eighth, the emperor succeeded in reorganizing the country along the Chinese political and economic pattern under the Taika (“Great Change”) Reforms. The Japanese adopted a legal code and administrative structure modeled after that of the Chinese; the government was highly centralized under the emperor's rule and the country was divided into provinces. The Chinese land-ownership and tax-collection systems were adopted. The first national capital was established at Nara in 710. The capital was moved to Nagaoka in 784 and then to Kyoto in 794.

From the 8th century through the 12th century, the emperors were members of the Fujiwara family. Under the patronage of the imperial court, literature and other arts flourished during this time. Japan's most famous novel, The Tale of Genji, was written in the 11th century.

Kamakura Period

By the 12th century, a large military class of nobility—the samurai (warrior-knights) and their retainers—had come into existence. The power of the central government and the Fujiwara family was in decline. During 1156–85, a series of wars among the most powerful samurai left Minamoto Yoritomo, a lord from Kamakura, near Tokyo Bay, in control of the country. He took the title of shogun (military governor). The emperor, in Kyoto, retained his title but held no power. Japan became a feudal society in which the shogun's power was based on the personal loyalty of lesser lords, or vassals, who gave their support in exchange for land, the right to collect taxes, or other privileges. Meanwhile, various new Buddhist sects of Japanese origin were spreading among the people.

With an attack by a Mongol reconnaissance force of some 25,000 men in 1274, Japan was threatened with invasion for the first time in its history. The Japanese repelled the attack, but in 1281 Kublai Khan, Mongol ruler of China, sent an even greater invasion force of about 150,000 men. Before all his forces could be landed, a typhoon struck, destroying much of the invasion fleet and ending the Mongol threat. The Japanese called the typhoon kamikaze, or “divine wind.”

In 1333 the Kamakura shogunate was overthrown by the emperor. There followed a period of civil war between the imperial government and a new shogunate established by the Ashikaga family at Kyoto in 1338. By 1392 the Ashikaga shogunate had defeated the imperial government.

Ashikaga Period

The central government of the shogun was weak and it exercised little control over distant and powerful samurai lords known as daimyo. During the 14th to 17th centuries, Zen Buddhism flourished and became dominant among the samurai. The most distinctive expression of Zen, the tea ceremony, became a national custom. Zen also shaped brilliant developments in philosophy, art, and literature. The no drama was created at this time.

Japan's contact with Europeans began in 1542 with the arrival of Portuguese merchants. In 1549 Francis Xavier opened a Jesuit mission in southern Japan. Soon a number of Spanish and Portuguese missionaries were active in the country and many converts were made. Traders from the Netherlands and England began arriving in 1600.

During the late 15th century, the daimyo had grown so powerful that the country broke up into warring factions. One military leader, Hideyoshi, for a short time held all of Japan. He tried to invade Korea in 1592 and 1597, but was beaten off by the Chinese. Hideyoshi died in 1598, and in the struggle for power that followed, Tokugawa leyasu, one of the strongest daimyo, won. He founded the Tokugawa dynasty of shoguns in 1603 and ruled from Tokyo (then known as Edo).

Tokugawa Period

The Tokugawas were distrustful of the political designs of foreign powers. The Spanish were expelled in 1624, the Portuguese in 1638. (The English trading venture had meanwhile failed.) The Dutch and Chinese, the only foreigners allowed to remain, were confined to Nagasaki. Christian Japanese met such persecution that they were virtually wiped out.

The Tokugawas maintained a strong central government, greatly reducing the power of the daimyo, and there was a long era of internal peace. Japanese culture was in a vigorous period, with the haiku poem, the kabuki drama, and the art of woodblock printing reaching great heights.

The country remained closed to the West until 18S4, when a U.S. Navy expedition under Commodore Matthew C. Perry succeeded in making a treaty opening two of Japan's ports to United States trade. Some samurai took advantage of the crisis created by the coming of the West and began to call for an end to Tokugawa rule and the restoration of imperial authority.

Meiji Period

In 1867 Mutsuhito succeeded to the throne. He was known as Meiji Tenno (Emperor of the Era of Enlightened Rule). The following year samurai military forces supporting the emperor forced Shogun Tokugawa Keiki to resign. The emperor's throne was moved from Kyoto to Tokyo. The ruling oligarchy, in the name of the emperor, made revolutionary reforms. Feudalism was abolished, the daimyo were stripped of their domains, and the samurai-warrior army was replaced with a modern army conscripted from the peasantry. Many Japanese were sent to the West to study customs and institutions. A system of compulsory education was introduced and modern industries were started.

With the adoption of a constitution in 1889, a Diet (parliament) was formed. All power, however, was in the hands of the oligarchy. The latter part of the 19th century saw the country become industrialized and emerge an important power in Asia.

Continental Expansion

Because of the attempts by European nations to force concessions from China, Japan feared the West. However, Japan followed the Western example, and went to war with China over the question of control of Korea, in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–95. Japan won dominance in Korea and possession of Taiwan and the Pescadores Islands.

Russian influence in Manchuria and Korea led to the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05, in which the Russians were decisively defeated. Russia lost southern Sakhalin (Karafuto) to Japan, and was forced to withdraw from Manchuria, permitting Japan to exploit the natural resources of southern Manchuria. In 1910 Japan annexed Korea. Emperor Mutsuhito died in 1912 and was succeeded by Yoshihito.

World War I

In 1914 Japan joined Great Britain and the other Allies in the war against Germany, primarily because of the Anglo-Japanese alliance of 1902. Japanese troops occupied German colonies on the Kiaochow Peninsula of China.

After the Russian Revolution of 1917, Japan joined an Allied expedition to Siberia against the Communists. The campaign soon developed into a stalemate.

The Treaty of Versailles gave Japan the Kiaochow Peninsula and the former German islands in the Pacific, excepting German Samoa. At the Washington Naval Conference in 1921, Japan agreed to return the Kiaochow Peninsula to the Chinese, to withdraw from Russian Siberia, and to reduce its naval armament. In 1926, Hirohito succeeded to the throne.

Japan participated in the Three Power Conference at Geneva in 1927 and was a party to the London Naval Treaty of 1930. It appeared that the Japanese had given up expansion on the Asian mainland. However, a military group had been gaining power in the Japanese government.

Imperialism Continues

Japan's silk trade had been ruined by the depression of 1929. The militarists maintained that the economy could be revived only by expanding Japan's sphere of influence in China. Japanese armed forces conquered southern Manchuria in 1931 and northern Manchuria the following year.

Under Japanese auspices, a new Manchu-rian state, renamed Manchukuo, was established in 1932. The following year, Japan invaded Jehol, a Chinese province bordering on Manchuria. Upon protests from the League of Nations against the aggression, Japan withdrew from the League in 1933. Meanwhile, the militarists increased their control in the Diet by threats, force, and assassinations, as well as by constitutional means. In February, 1936, in Tokyo, four statesmen were assassinated in an uprising of young military officers. Although the leaders were put to death, military influence in the government continued to grow.

War In China

Full-scale war broke out when Japan invaded eastern China in 1937. The Chinese government withdrew to the interior. Because of the war, Japan's military-dominated government was able to mobilize the country without opposition from the liberals. In March, 1940, the Japanese established a puppet government in eastern China.

World War II

After France was invaded by Germany in 1940, Japanese troops began in September to occupy French Indochina. A few days later Japan concluded the Berlin Pact with Germany and Italy, becoming the third member of the Axis. In October, 1941, an ultranationalist army officer, General Tojo Hideki, became premier of Japan. Relations with the United States grew more strained. While Japanese envoys were negotiating in Washington; the Japanese on December 7, 1941, made a surprise attack on the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and declared war. Although successful at first, Japan fell to crushing defeat and formally surrendered September 2, 1945, after atomic bombs had been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

General Douglas MacArthur was appointed supreme commander of the allied powers (SCAP) to supervise the occupation of Japan. Emperor Hirohito, divested of his claim to divinity, was permitted to remain on the throne. The new constitution, under which the people's democratic rights were recognized and Japanese rearmament was made illegal, was adopted in 1946 and went into effect in 1947. In 1948 Tojo and six other wartime leaders were hanged as war criminals.

Postwar Progress

Under SCAP orders, the Japanese government encouraged democratic practices, the decentralization of business cartels, and thf formation of free labor unions. The ancient system of tenant farming was broken up, and extensive land reform instituted.

Assistance from the United States helped Japan rebuild and modernize its industry and agriculture. An economic boom began in the mid-1950's and living standards steadily rose to equal those of Western Europe. By 1970 Japan had become the world's third largest industrial power and a leading exporter of industrial goods.

Japan's standing in the world community was enhanced when it played host to the 1964 Olympic Games at Tokyo and 1972 Winter Olympic Games at Sapporo.

Foreign Relations

In 1951, Japan regained its sovereignty upon signing a peace treaty with 48 nations. A security treaty with the United States signed at the same time provided for the stationing of American troops in Japan. On United States insistence, Japan agreed to assume some responsibility for its own defense. During 1957–58, United States ground troops were withdrawn. In 1972, Okinawa and other Ryukyu islands held by the United States were returned.

Japanese wartime occupation of other Far Eastern countries left a legacy of ill will and distrust toward Japan. Huge reparation and aid payments in the 1960's and 1970's by Japan, however, led to improved relations. A growing rapprochement with China resulted in the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1972. In 1989 Emperor Hirohito died. He was succeeded by his son Akihito.

During the 1980's, Japan's success at selling its products overseas strained relations with the United States and Western European countries, which faced mounting trade deficits with Japan. In 1990 the Japanese real estate and stock markets crashed, leading to Japan's worst economic recession since World War II. An earthquake in 1995 devastated the port city of Kobe and killed more than 6,000.

The Liberal Democratic party, which had ruled the country since 1955, was voted out of office in 1993 in favor of a coalition of smaller parties. Various coalitions headed by three successive prime ministers ruled the country until the Liberal Democrats regained an absolute legislative majority in elections held in November 1996. A series of major banking and brokerage house failures in 1997 and 1998 furthered Japan's economic problems.