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The origin of history
See also Jomon for more detail
The origins of Japanese civilization are buried in legend, with the country's first written records dating from the sixth to the eighth centuries A.D., after Japan had adopted the Chinese writing system.
February 11, 660 BC is the traditional founding date of Japan by Emperor Jimmu Tenno.
Yayoi
Kofun
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).
Nara Period Japan
Heian Period Japan
"Feudal" Japan
The "feudal" period of Japanese history, dominated by the powerful regional families (daimyo) and the military rule of warlords, stretched from the twelfth through the nineteenth centuries. This time is usually divided into periods following the reigning family of the shogun:
- Kamakura Shogunate (Kamakura era)
- Ashikaga Shogunate (Muromachi era)
- Sengoku Period (Muromachi era)
- Transitional shoguns (Momoyama era)
- Tokugawa Shogunate (Edo era)
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 Tokugawa 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 quasiparliamentary 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 the first Sino-Japanese War with the Chinese Empire in 1894-1895 and the Russo-Japanese War with Russia in 1904-1905. 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 End of World War II
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 (the second Sino-Japanese War 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 United States naval forces at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941.
After almost 4 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 granted independence; southern Sakhalin and the Kuriles were occupied by the U.S.S.R.; and the United States became the sole administering authority of the Ryukyu, Bonin, and Volcano Islands. The 1972 reversion of Okinawa completed the United States' return of control of these islands to Japan.
Occupied 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.
One commonly accepted periodization of Japanese History:
- Jomon ( - circa 300 BC )
- Yayoi ( circa 300 BC - 250 AD )
- Kofun ( circa. A.D. 250-ca. 600 )
- Yamato ( circa 600 - 710 )
- Nara ( 710 - 794 )
- Heian ( 794 - 1185 )
- Kamakura ( 1185 - 1333 )
- Kemmu restoration ( 1333 - 1336 )
- Muromachi (also called Ashikaga) ( 1388 - 1573 )
- Azuchi-Momoyama ( 1573 - 1603 )
- Edo (also called Tokugawa) ( 1600 - 1867 )
- Meiji ( 1867 - 1912 )
- Taisho ( 1912 - 1926 )
- Expansionism ( 1926 - 1945 )
- Contemporary ( 1945 - present )
Era Name (Gengo) in Japan ( after Meiji )
- Gengo is commonly used in Japan together with Gregorian Era.
- For example, in censuses, birthdays are written using Gengo.
- Dates of newspapers and official documents are also written using Gengo.
- Gengo is changed upon enthronement of each new Japanese emperor (Tennou).
- Meiji ( 1868 - 1912 (July 29) )
- Taisho ( 1912 (July 30) - 1926 (December 24) )
- Showa ( 1926 (December 25) - 1989 (January 7) )
- Heisei ( 1989 (January 8) - present )
- For Example :
- 1945 was the 20th year of Showa.
- 2001 was the 13th year of Heisei.
- 1989 was the 64th year of Showa through January 7, but on January 8, it became the 1st year(Gan-nen) of Heisei.
- Before World War II ended, Imperial era (Kouki) is also used in common that the year of enthronement of first emperor (Jinmu-Tennou) is defined as First Year. (= 660 B.C.)
External links
- A Short Introduction to Japanese History by Christopher Spackman. This is published under the terms of the GFDL, so it should be usable as a resource for Misplaced Pages.
- Encyclopedia of Japanese History by Christopher Spackman. Also published under the GFDL, this is highly stubby, with most entries very short or empty. However, it may be a good source of inspiration for subjects to write articles on.
Credit
The article contains materials from Library of Congress: Country Study
See also: