* World War II Japan background traditionl society World War II Japan: Background -- Traditional Society








World War II: Japanese Background--Traditional Society


Figure 1.--Japan at the time of World War II was at the same time the only indistrial country in sia and a trditional, virtully meieval society outside of the indistrial cities. People still wore traditionl clothes in the countryside. Western clothes were common in the cities, but traditional clothes still commonly worn as well. Here we see a mother and her children at a Tokyo Buddhist temple during 1929. Notice the boy's cadet-style school cap. This is presumbly how he dressed for chool.

Japan after experiencing a disruptibe perid as a resu;t of Western influene, tried to cut itself off grom the outside world. The Tokugawa shogunate attempted to cpmplelety isolate the country from all outside influences, especially Christian. The kept Japan an essentially feudal, medievel society. This did not change until until the arrival of Commodore Perry and his Black Ships (1853). The Japanese correctly concluded, unlike the Chinese, that the only way of maintaining their independence was to industrialize so they could build European weapons. China had a population 30 times the population of England in the 19th century, but industry gave Britain 10 times the firepower of the much larger Imperial Army. Japan saw this and China did not, even after rhe humiliation of the Opium Wars (1840s-60s). The result in Japan was the Meiji Restoration (1867). The Emperor Meiji and his advisors introduced many modernizing reforms. He began Japan's industrialization, a parlimentary government, a Western school system, aWestern military and secular civil service. At the same time the Emperor did not attempt to moderize Japanese society. Land remained in the hands of important nobels and was highly inefficient. Most of the population contunued to live in the countryside at subsistence levels. Women continued to live subservient rules. Labor unions were barely tolerated. Medevil concepts like emperor worship and bushido continued along with the moderizing reforms. While Japan was the only indutrial ecomomy in Asia, its economy was a fraction of the size of even European powers, let alone America and the Soviet Union. The urban population had begin to modernize, but not the rural population. The Army steadily grew in importamce especiallya after World War I. It was the major way that rural youth could seek opprtunity in Japan. By the time of the War the Japanese Army was controlled by a leadership which saw how it could conquer neighboring countries by military force, but withoiut any knowlledge of the modern countries of Europe and America. The Army leadership was fervently nationalistic and loyal ti the Army as an institutiom becuse it had offered oportunity and advancement. And because many came from the virtually medieval rural areas, embued in the spirit of medieval Europe with the Samarai and Bushido spirit. .







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Created: 12:03 AM 4/8/2016
Last updated: 12:03 AM 4/8/2016