Places, Images, Times & Transformations

Forming a National Identity

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(A) The Age of Modernity and the Meiji Restoration (1868)

The social contradiction between a rigid caste system and fledgling mercantile capitalism grew, bound for a collision course, and that is indeed what happened eventually in the 19th century. Japan was already embroiled in social upheaval when it was threatened by encroaching global Western imperialism (Perry's demands, 1853). That led to the collapse of the Tokugawa regime. What followed was the Meiji Restoration in 1868, a 'restoration' of Imperial rule, which marked the beginning of Japan's wholesale modernization and industrialization. Japan took to modernization methodically and consciously, modeling itself on the 'modern' social institutions of the West. Examples of such new institutions were the aristocracy-led parliament, an election system, military conscription, international commerce and financial conglomerates, mass production capitalism, national police and schooling systems.

Modernization brought about a radical transformation of everyday life for Japanese individuals, degreed from above. They came to see themselves as experiencing European enlightenment, rationality, and scientism, infused with a sense that their feudal identities were exchanged for something new that represented 'progress.' The message was clear: trading in old identities could lead to gaining new ones with a promise of a better life.

(B) The Imperial Age and the Asia-Pacific War (1931)

Unfortunately, "creating the new nation-state modeled on the West" also meant molding Japan to become an Imperialist colonial power like the West. Japan's confidence and ambition to expand its territorial reach to China and Korea was fuelled further by the success in fighting China and Russia at the turn of the century before World War I. Japan's colonial aggression led to Japan occupying Manchuria and Taiwan and the annexation of Korea; a protracted war on mainland China lasted for fifteen long years. This is known as the Asia-Pacific War, Japan's disastrous expansion and military conflict across the Asian Continent and the Pacific-which is the Asian theater of World War II-indisputably the most lethal blunder in Japanese history. The War finally ended, after twenty-five million deaths, with Japan's unconditional surrender to the Allied military forces.

The world experienced this military conflict as a total war, a war that involved not only combatant soldiers, but also civilians and families on all continents of the world. World War II produced colossal destruction on all fronts, in lives, homes, and livelihoods, and culminated in the nuclear obliteration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In wartime Japan, people voluntarily and involuntarily embraced the fascist state headed by the Emperor and military leaders. The state demanded absolute allegiance and subjugation to the Emperor and the state; people lived in a state of emergency and under censorship. Those opposed to the state were intimidated and persecuted. The pain, loss, resentment, and guilt of the War still remain a bitter experience for many Japanese who lived through it. A sense of mistrust toward political ideologies and political leadership lingers today in part from this disastrous legacy.

(C) The Age of Postwar Reforms, Rapid Growth and Affluence (1945)

The rebuilding of Japan after the catastrophic defeat began with the U.S. Occupation in 1945. The Occupation, which lasted until 1952, brought forth many reforms. They included economic reforms like land reform, currency reform, corporate reform, and tax reform; political reforms like parliamentary reform, universal suffrage, and the drawing up of a new democratic constitution (1947) and civil law (1947); and social reforms like education reform, which was designed to transform an elite education system into a mass education system, change moral education into social studies, and promote co-education. In this process, the Emperor, who did not abdicate after the War, was "humanized" and de-politicized.

Japanese people experienced the Occupation with a mixture of humiliation and liberation, and most dedicated themselves first and foremost to rebuilding their own lives. The rebuilding, however, had to be done with radically different rules of the game. Defeat and the Occupation brought a transformation in the moral order akin to the revolutionary changes brought by the Meiji Restoration. With defeat, what was "right" and what was "wrong" traded places overnight. For example, what was "right" like state Shintoism, militarism and fascism became "wrong;" what was "wrong" like American superior power became "right." Now governed by the former enemy, the Japanese again experienced a radical and revolutionary transformation thrust upon them from above. People's response to the myriad confusing and contradictory changes was to embrace the moral rupture, divest from the haunting military past, and invest in an economic future.

Thus, the Japanese people turned to the postwar national goal of economic recovery with an intense determination to succeed. Explosive economic growth came soon enough, precipitated, ironically, by the Korean War in the early 1950s. The economy grew in double-digits during this period. Japan pursued a strategy of developing an export-oriented economy based on its strengths in manufacturing. This strategy made up for the shortage of natural resources and complete dependence on imports of raw materials with willingness to work long hours, to delay gratification, and to make sacrifices in individual and family life. In this way, Japan grew from a "developing country" to an affluent country in a relatively short period of time. The exponential economic growth peaked in the 1980s, when Japan became the second largest economy in the world.

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