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The statistical evidence from Japan for the 1870 to 1890 period bears out the extent of her modernization.  By any measure, railroad trackage, coal production or use, or miles of telegraph or telephone wires installed, Japan had vastly grown.

In February 1889, the Meiji Emperor presented to the Japanese people its written constitution.  It enshrined the Emperor's sovereignty and political and cultural role.  It created a bi-cameral legislative body called a Diet.  The document also importantly declared the citizens' basic civil rights such as religion, speech, and due process among many others.

The elections to the new Diet in both 1890 and 1892, installed lower house representatives antagonistic to the executive branch and the elites.   Eventually the sides found common ground and made the new constitution work.  

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Korea continued to be a major focus for Japan.  The Treaty of Kanghwa between Japan and Korea in 1876, ruffled China’s feathers.  In 1885, Japan and China agreed to their own treaty (Treaty of Tientsin) each promising to remove their armies from the Korean Peninsula and to stay out of the region.  At best it would buy only a few years of peace between these two nations. 

By the 1880s, Japan had successfully put their feudal past behind them and were far along in their modernization efforts.  Already clearly ahead of the Chinese Qing Dynasty in these efforts. 

A second generation of Meiji leaders took the stage in Japan and they differed in their political views, goals, and backgrounds from the first generation.  The second generation began the process of drafting a written constitution for the nation as well as continuing with Japan’s modernization efforts. 

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By the late 1870s, the new government faced enormous financial pressures.  It dealt with yen depreciation and price inflation.   The former Samurais  suffered greatly because of the conditions.  For that, and other reasons, some of them revolted in early 1877.  This caused the Seinan or Samurai War.  The Meiji Emperor was able to defeat the former Samurais after eight months.

The Ryukyu Island nation status had long been ambiguous.  Both Japan and China had claims to some or all of the islands.  This was finally decided in Japan's favor in 1879.  In a limited capacity, the decision involved an attempted mediation by former United States President US Grant.

The Korea issue was finally decided in the Treaty of Kanghwa (or Ganghwa) (1876) with Japan.  Not without, however, further damage to the relations between Japan and China.

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The new Meiji Government replaced the Shogunate. Gone were the Shogun and Samurai.  Now replaced with young, forward thinking leaders desperately wanting to overcome the treaty humiliations caused by the previous government.  

To do this they planned and executed an aggressive, comprehensive plan to modernize and westernize Japan.  They wanted the new nation to be taken seriously and be respected.  The Charter Oath, issued before the Meiji took control, set forth their goals and ideals.  

Soon after the Meiji took control of Japan, they began an ambitious diplomatic mission, the Iwakura Mission, to visit many nations.  Its primary purpose was to renegotiate the treaties that had been left to the Japanese by the previous government, and to gain insight into foreign institutions.  Japan also reached out to its neighboring Asian nations.

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The last fifteen years of the Edo Era is known as the Bakumatsu.  All the pressures on Japan came together ending the Era and the Tokugawa Shogunate.

Japan was warned the foreign nations were coming.  To her credit she began to modernize and westernize long before the Shogunate was toppled in the 1860s.  

The Boshin War (Japanese Civil War) ended the Shogunate and allowed the young 'Meiji' leaders to take over the rule of Japan.  Meiji is the name of the year the new government began in Japan.  Along with continuing the modernization of the nation, the young leaders did away with the Shogun and the Samurais, and elevated the status of the Emperor. They also tossed the ancient feudal system and the class structure hierarchy.

Japan would build a new government and nation and learned to confront the foreign nations on equal terms. 

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Continuation of the discussion of the Edo Era.  I will focus on the period of time beginning in the 19th century.

The class hierarchy system continues to erode and invert.  The arrival of American Commodore Perry will end Japan's isolationism, and set into motion her modernization and westernization efforts.

From the American expeditions to Japan, two treaties were signed.  The Treaty of Kanagawa, the first ever between Japan and the United States; and the Harris Treaty.  The Harris treaty built upon the measures agreed to in the first treaty.  Other nations would seek and receive similar treaties with Japan.  The Japanese viewed all of these treaties as humiliations.

I also will make comparisons between Japan and China and their reactions from the foreign nation aggressions.

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Any discussion of the Meiji Restoration in Japan would be incomplete without a discussion of the Era that preceded it.

The Edo Era (or Tokugawa Shogunate) began after the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600.  The first half of the Shogunate was a prosperous and peaceful time in Japan.  It was ruled by a Shogun (the Emperor was only a nominal political leader) and locally by Samurais.  It followed a complex feudal system and strict social class hierarchy.  As Japan prospered cracks began to appear in the class hierarchy and the feudal system.

Japan was largely isolated from the rest of the world until the early to mid-19th century.  From this Era we are all familiar with iconic Japanese institutions such as Geisha, Kabuki, Haiku, and to some extent Sumo.  

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Welcome to the second season of my podcast.  This season I want to delve into and answer the question that I have long wondered.  Why did Japan respond and fare better than China to relentless, aggressive assaults in the 19th century from foreign (particularly Western) nations?

To get there I talk about the Japanese Meiji Restoration including the Era that preceded it and greatly influenced the Meiji Era.  I will also compare and contrast Japan's experience with modernization and foreign nation aggression to that of China's. I designed the podcast series to also be a stand alone history of the Meiji Restoration.

The first few episodes I discuss the Edo Era (or Tokugawa Shogunate) that immediately preceded the Meiji Restoration.

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The new, young (and the last) Emperor took the Qing Dynasty throne.  He is most famously known by his Western name, Henry Puyi.  He would be Emperor for less than three and a half years.

What started out as a benign issue over the ownership and control of some railways in Central China metastasized into the Xinhai Revolution.  The Manchus badly managed both the railway issue and the reactions and revolution resulting from it.  The young Emperor abdicated in early 1912, ending the Qing Dynasty and Imperial China.  

Henry Puyi goes down in history as one of the most tragic and saddest figures in history.  After World War II, he was returned to China as a prisoner of war.  He eventually became a citizen of Communist China.

The year of the rat is a significant feature of this episode.  It also plays a role in Chinese culture.  It not only relates to the events that happened in China at the end of the Qing Dynasty.  I produced and published this podcast series in 2020, and during the global pandemic.  Also the year of the rat.  It may portend the future.

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Talk grew of removing the Manchus from power.  The revolutionary leader, Sun Yat Sen, emerged as a leader of a new revolutionary alliance.  Their goal was to replace the Qing Dynasty with a republican form of government.

The Manchus managed some reforms in the early 20th century.  They were too little and too late.

Russia and Japan went to war with each over their interests in Manchuria, China.  Japan handily defeated Russia.  As a result, Japan reclaimed and occupied the sea port city in Southern Liaoning Province, Port Arthur (modern day Dalian).

In 1908, both the Emperor Guangxu and the Empress Dowager died.  The two-year old nephew of the Empress Dowager was chosen to be the next (and last) Emperor.

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