Essays
- Historians have argued that the success of the Meiji Restoration can be attributed to the talents of the samurai who led the early efforts to modern Japanese. From the following list of leaders chose the individual that you believe was most important to the Meiji Restoration: Okuma Shigenobu, Kido Koin, Yamagata Aritomo, Ito Hirobumi Saigo Takamori, Okubo Toshimichi. Evaluate his personal contributions to Japan’s early modernization and explain why you think his contribution was most important.
- During the 1880s Japan’s senior leaders took several steps to protect their power and privilege prior to the promulgation of the Meiji Constitution. These included Press and Peace Preservation Laws, instituting a “transcendental” cabinet, the Peerage Law, and the establishment of the Privy Council. How were these changes intended to preserve the power of the Meiji oligarchy?
- The Potsdam Declaration of 1945 set the terms for Japan’s surrender and stated that if Japan did not surrender, it would face “prompt and utter destruction.” What were the terms of the Potsdam declaration? How successful was SCAP in implementing the terms of the declaration? Be sure to describe specific measures that SCAP undertook under the terms of the Potsdam declaration.
- In the space of a decade, 1895-1905, Japan’s victories over China and Russia, established it as a major regional power in East Asia. Choose one of these wars and discuss the impact of the victory on Japan’s standing in the world. How did the victory contribute to Japanese plans for expansion in East Asia?
- What were the four legal challenges to the Tokyo War Crime Trials? Did the Tokyo War Crime Trials match the high ideal of enlisting international law in the cause of world peace? Or was the Tokyo trial only barely disguised revenge?
- John Dower, the author of War Without Mercy, makes a powerful argument that the War in the Pacific was a race war quite unlike the war in Europe. How did official US propaganda help to create and foster racial stereotypes about the Japanese? According to Dower, what were the fatal consequences of racial stereotyping?
- How did domestic political competition in Japan combined with the forced opening of the country lead to the Meiji Restoration?
