HISTORY
Traditional Japanese legend maintains that Japan
was founded in 600 BC by the Emperor Jimmu, a direct descendant of the sun
goddess and
ancestor of the present ruling imperial family. About AD 405, the Japanese
court officially adopted the Chinese writing system. During the sixth century,
Buddhism was introduced. These two events revolutionized Japanese culture and
marked the beginning of a long period of Chinese cultural influence. From the
establishment of the first fixed capital at Nara in 710 until 1867, the emperors
of the Yamato dynasty were the nominal rulers, but actual power was usually
held by powerful court nobles, regents, or "shoguns" (military governors).
Contact With the West
The first contact with the West occurred about 1542, when a Portuguese
ship, blown off its course to China, landed in Japan. During
the next century, traders from Portugal, the Netherlands, England,
and Spain arrived, as did Jesuit, Dominican, and Franciscan
missionaries. During the early part of the 17th century, Japan's
shogunate suspected that the traders and missionaries were
actually forerunners of a military conquest by European powers.
This caused the shogunate to place foreigners under progressively
tighter restrictions. Ultimately, Japan forced all foreigners
to leave and barred all relations with the outside world except
for severely restricted commercial contacts with Dutch and
Chinese merchants at Nagasaki. This isolation lasted for 200
years, until Commodore Matthew Perry of the U.S. Navy forced
the opening of Japan to the West with the Convention of Kanagawa
in 1854.
Within several years, renewed contact
with the West profoundly altered Japanese society. The shogunate
was forced to resign,
and the emperor was restored to power. The "Meiji restoration" of
1868 initiated many reforms. The feudal system was abolished,
and numerous Western institutions were adopted, including a Western
legal system and constitutional government along quasi-parliamentary
lines.
In 1898, the last of the "unequal treaties" with Western powers
was removed, signaling Japan's new status among the nations of
the world. In a few decades, by creating modern social, educational,
economic, military, and industrial systems, the Emperor Meiji's "controlled
revolution" had transformed a feudal and isolated state into
a world power.
Wars With China and Russia
Japanese leaders of the late 19th century regarded the Korean
Peninsula as a "dagger pointed at the heart of Japan." It was
over Korea that Japan became involved in war with the Chinese
Empire in 1894-95 and with Russia in 1904-05. The war with
China established Japan's dominant interest in Korea, while
giving it the Pescadores Islands and Formosa (now Taiwan).
After Japan defeated Russia in 1905, the resulting Treaty of
Portsmouth awarded Japan certain rights in Manchuria and in
southern Sakhalin, which Russia had received in 1875 in exchange
for the Kurile Islands. Both wars gave Japan a free hand in
Korea, which it formally annexed in 1910.
World War I to 1952
World War I permitted Japan, which fought on the side of the
victorious Allies, to expand its influence in Asia and its
territorial holdings in the Pacific. The postwar era brought
Japan unprecedented prosperity. Japan went to the peace conference
at Versailles in 1919 as one of the great military and industrial
powers of the world and received official recognition as one
of the "Big Five" of the new international order. It joined
the League of Nations and received a mandate over Pacific islands
north of the Equator formerly held by Germany.
During the 1920s, Japan progressed toward a democratic system
of government. However, parliamentary government was not rooted
deeply enough to withstand the economic and political pressures
of the 1930s, during which military leaders became increasingly
influential.
Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931
and set up the puppet state of Manchukuo. In 1933, Japan resigned
from the League of Nations.
The Japanese invasion of China in 1937 followed Japan's signing
of the "anti-Comintern pact" with Nazi Germany the previous year
and was part of a chain of developments culminating in the Japanese
attack on the United States at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December
7, 1941.
After years of war, resulting in the loss of 3 million Japanese lives and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan signed an instrument of surrender on the U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Harbor on September 2, 1945. As a result of World War II, Japan lost all of its overseas possessions and retained only the home islands. Manchukuo was dissolved, and Manchuria was returned to China; Japan renounced all claims to Formosa; Korea was occupied and divided by the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.; southern Sakhalin and the Kuriles were occupied by the U.S.S.R.; and the U.S. became the sole administering authority of the Ryukyu, Bonin, and Volcano Islands. The 1972 reversion of Okinawa completed the U.S. return of control of these islands to Japan.
After the war, Japan was placed under international control
of the Allies through the Supreme Commander, Gen. Douglas MacArthur.
U.S. objectives were to ensure that Japan would become a peaceful
nation and to establish democratic self-government supported
by the freely expressed will of the people. Political, economic,
and social reforms were introduced, such as a freely elected
Japanese Diet (legislature) and universal adult suffrage. The
country's constitution took effect on May 3, 1947. The United
States and 45 other Allied nations signed the Treaty of Peace
with Japan in September 1951. The U.S. Senate ratified the treaty
in March 1952, and under the terms of the treaty, Japan regained
full sovereignty on April 28, 1952.
