The Era Over Which Meiji Emperor Reigned - Research Paper Example

? Meiji Emperor Introduction Emperor Meiji was the most eminent emperor in the history of Japan. Meiji was the 22nd emperor in the reign of Japanese succession. During his tenure, he brought many changes in the Japanese’s nation. He was referred as the emperor of the enlightened rule due to his reforms, which earned him more fame thus making his way into the Japanese books of history. Owing to his long stay in power, he witnessed the transition of the country from insignificant position to among the top world superpowers. Meiji can be a very good choice for someone trying to create a radio or television documentary concerning the social history of Japanese’s nation. This is because of his role in the Japanese social and political reforms. His activities in office give him interesting candidature that does not only entertain, but also historic figure. The most famous sense of pride to the Japanese is the Meiji restoration that bears his names, the abolishment of the idea of feudalism, and the impending industrialization in the Japan. Meiji Emperor Emperor Meiji was initially referred to as Prince Mutsuhito, and was born on 3 November 1852 to Nakayama and emperor Komei. Mutsuhito used the name Meiji, which meant the enlightened government. Soon after being promoted to be the emperor, he changed his name to Meiji whilst moving the capital from Kyoto to Tokyo. Kyoto had been the imperial capital’s location for many years. During this period the Meiji restoration and revolution was still underway. The forces of imperialism gathered under Meiji’ rule and they manage to defeat the Tokugawa. Thereafter, the power passed to daimyo who was the leader of the revolution. Meiji retained his title and prowess as the emperor though the government had become an oligarchy comprising the political, economic, and greatest military men of Japan. Meiji himself was a symbol of leadership, and thus championed the peace restoration in his territory by assisting the imperialists defeat the Shoguanate. The Reign of Emperor Meiji When the emperor of Meiji was restored, Japanese State had a weak military. During this time, Japan was primarily an agricultural State with low levels of technological development. Many of the independent feud lords controlled the emperor. The western powers hard initially forced Japan to sign agreements that restricted its control over its own external trade. In this regard, they demanded that crimes touching on foreigners in Japan to face trial in the western courts, and not Japan. At the end of the Meiji emperor following his demise in 1912, Japan had improved in many ways (Herbert, 2000). They had a highly bureaucratic and centralized mode of government, and a constitution outlining the establishment of an elected parliament. In addition, they had a well-developed transport and communication network. They also had well-educated citizens free from feudal restrictions of class. Japan had established a rapidly growing industrial sector rooted on the latest advancement in technology. The establishment of powerful armed forces of the army and navy followed all these. By this time, Japan had completely regained foreign trade control and all the legal systems. It had established full self-governance and equality in almost all international affairs following its victory over the two wars. One of the wars was against Russia who was a major European power. Japan had gone past its goals in a less than a generation. In that process, it changed its society as a whole. Success in modernization of Japan has related interest in how and why it was in a position to adopt western social, political, and economic institutions within a very short time. The answer to this was found in Meiji restoration. The political revolution is what restored the emperor back to power and he did not rule directly. People expected him to listen to the advice of those who had overthrown the shogun. In this regard, small group of ambitious, patriotic, and able young men from the lower levels of samurai emerged from this group to establish, and take control of new political systems of their choice. The emperor’s acceptance to their advice and other strong feudal domains military support was their only strength at the beginning. They quickly moved to establish their own economic and military control. The feudal leaders had been requested to surrender their domains in July 1869. In 1871, the domains were abolished, and changed into parts of the unified State. A yearly striped was offered to the Samurai class and the feudal lords. They were later changed to a single government payment. When the governed declared equality among all the classes, sumaria lost their privileges. In 1876, the government abolished the carrying and wearing of the sumaria’s swords. The military of each domain were banned and the universal conscription- based army was created in 1872. This required all men to serve three years for both commoners and the samurai. There was the establishment of a national tax system for land that required money payment and not rice. By doing so, it enabled the government to stabilize the national expenditure and budgetary allocation. This allowed the government to have money to spend in building up a strong nation. Rebellion and Resistance Defeat The loss of the privileges by the people of samurai led to some rebellion and resentment although the changes were brought about in the name of national defense and the emperor. The conservative groups proposed that Japan must reply to the denial by Korea to review a centurised agreement with an inversion. This was to allow the loyal samurai to gain back their importance. This happened in 1872 when the high rank leadership travelled to United States and Europe to study western methods. The new leadership quickly went back from Europe to establish their control by arguing that Japan was to dwell mostly in its own ways of modernization, and to avoid such adventures in the foreign countries. The main priority was still the domestic reform whose aim was changing Japan’s economic and social institutions as per the model provided by the western powerful nations. The last blow to the samurai conservatives was in 1877 when the newly established army, which was trained in Europe on war techniques, attacked and defeated the resistance of the traditional warriors of samurai. Japan’s internal transformation continued with remarkably high speed, cooperation, and energy of the people except the little group of samurai outbreaks. This operation is one of the main contributions of the Japan’s modern history and developmental achievements. Ideology The Meiji leadership came up with civic ideas that were centered on the emperor himself. It was an effort to bring together the people of Japan in response to the challenges posed by the western countries. The emperor served as a symbol of history, continuity, and culture of Japanese although he had no political power. Meiji headed Japan’s native religion called the Shinto religion. According to the tenets of this religion, it is believed that the emperor came from the sun, and was sent by the gods who created Japan. This meant that the emperor was semi Devine. The western powers of that time knew him mainly as a ceremonial figure with less power. The reformers of Meiji brought up Shinto religion, and the emperor to be prominent nationally replacing friends as the aim religion in that nation (Stephen, 1997). This was done for ideological and political reasons. Meiji emperor became a strong power of the old-age unity. During this time, people carried out the emperor’s orders without questioning but they saw him. This was in his honor and unity among the people of Japan that he represented. A small group of his advisers controlled politics, carried out the reform process, and devised a program of change on behalf of the emperor. Social and Economic Changes Social, economic, and political changes were tremendously made possible when feudalism was abolished. Many people were immediately free to decide on their daily activities, and operate without restriction. The government got possible investment in new technologies and industries by providing a conducive environment for economic and financial securities. The government supported this by constructing the shipping and railway lines. These included three shipyards, five munitions works, telephone, telegraph systems, and many consumer industries. The government sold most of industries to individual and private organization investors since they were very expensive, and strained the government budget (Marius, 1977). It enraged this by subsidizing and giving other incentives. Some of the merchants and samurai who owned these industries teamed up with corporate companies, which were called, abet. They controlled most of the modern industrial sector in Japan. The government came up a national constitution and systems. Therefore, they created a parliament whose members were elected. By doing this, they created a good environment for the growth of the nation, thus, they earned due respect, and support from the western countries for the modern state of development. Japan changed the whole of its judiciary and adopted new civil and criminal code made similar to those of Germany and France. These were aimed at winning recognition of the westerners and make them change the unequal agreements that Japanese had been forced to sign. The western powers finally accepted to change and revise the agreements in 1894. They acknowledged that Japan was equal principle, but not international power. Colonialism and Expansion Japan went to war against china in 1984 over its interest in Korea. China claimed that Korea was a vassal State. The Korean cape is the closer part of Asia to Japan. It is less than one hundred miles in sea. The Japanese were bothered that the Russians may take control of the weak country, Korea. Japan gained control over Korea and took Taiwan to be a colony after winning the war. The certain victory of Japan over China shocked the rest of the world vexed some European powers. Japan then signed an agreement with China after their victory. Japan was given special rights on China’s special Liatung Peninsula (Donald, 2002). This was in addition to its control over Taiwan. Nevertheless, the victory of Japan was short lived. In a week’s time Russia, France, and Germany joined to compel Japan to surrender their rights on the Liaotung peninsula. Later, each of these powers then started to force China to give its naval bases, ports and its special economic base. Russia took the very peninsula, which Japan had been forced to give back. The government of Japan was angered by this act. It got a lesson that it was necessary to improve its military further so that they could maintain its independence as well to attain equal treatment in the international issues. Russia again was aggressive to take over Korea over Japan in 1904. Since Japan was now very strong in terms of military, it declared war on Russia using all of its strength. It got the victory because of surprise naval attack in Port Arthur. This made Japan take control over China Sea. Japan then established East Asia as its colony for itself and achieved supremacy over Korea. The Meiji contributed great changes in Japan and improved Japan’s place in the international affairs. It made itself strong enough to remain a sovereign country in the look of colonizing powers of the west. It became a colonizing power by itself (Ben-Ami, 2008). The Japanese citizens then began demanding for social freedom that would guarantee the hearing of their voices by the government. Japanese political systems and Japanese society were increasingly more transparent during this time than ever before. The influence of political parties increased and they became stronger enough that they appointed prime minister of their own between 1918 and 1931. Japan entered a worse economic depression at the end of the First World War. The optimistic and bright period of Taisho period gradually vanished. As much as Emperor Meiji might have lost part of his power by then, it became an oligarchy. His contribution over the nation is evident to date, and it is for this reason that Meiji is considered as interesting and a powerful figure. Summary Japan’s fight for recognition of its achievements for equality with the western powers was the major feature of Meiji’s period. Japan became successful in planning capitalist and industrial state on westerners’ model. The western powers reacted negatively when Japan started putting the lessons they learned from imperialism of the European powers. It is pertinent to note that Meiji was able to motivate his people and was able to stay in power until the age of fifty. He was a revolutionary reformist leader. He had many progressive ideas apart from his role as an important contributor to social and economic freedom. He is a leader who can likely become a good choice of people in the social history of Japan. He was able to change the government at the same time retaining some important traditional values. Meiji can be said to be a commodity, which was before its time. However, his influence might not have been accepted fully because of the surrounding environment. People started fighting for better living because of the Meiji. During the Meiji revolution, Japan borrowed social, technological, infrastructure, educational, and political methods from countries around it. Meiji restoration is ranked as the very important turning point in the history of Japan. It raised Japan to be the strongest power in Asia. It would have continued to reign if it was not for the pressure from the western countries. For those who can debate that Meiji restoration was not important turning the end in the history of Japan, they should be in a position to know the effects this period had, even to the modern Japan. References Ben-Ami, S. (2008). The Emperors of Modern Japan. (n.d Donald, K. (2002). Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World (n.d). Marius, J. (1977). “Monarchy and Modernization in Japan,” Journal of Asian Studies. Vol.36 (4). Herbert, B. (2000). Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan. (n.d). Stephen, L. (1997). Emperors of the Rising Sun: Three Biographies. (n.d). Read More