Modern Japan: A History in Documents (Pages from History)

225 Pages·2004·1.77 MB·English

by  James L. Huffman

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m Modern Japan
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A History in Documents
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James L.Huffman
3
To Grace and Simon PAGESfhroismtory
General Editors
Sarah Deutsch
Associate Professor of History
University of Arizona
Carol K. Karlsen
3
Professor of History
University of Michigan
Oxford New York Robert G. Moeller
Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai Professor of History
Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata University of California, Irvine
Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi
Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom
São Paulo Shanghai Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto
Associate Professor of History
Indiana University
Copyright © 2004 by James L. Huffman.
Board of Advisors
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
Steven Goldberg
www.oup.com
Social Studies Supervisor
New Rochelle, N.Y. Public Schools
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
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West Milford, N.J. Public Schools
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Huffman, James L., 1941–
Modern Japan: a history in documents / James L. Huffman.
p. cm. — (Pages from history)
Includes index.
ISBN 0-19-514742-1 (alk. paper)
Cover: The main shopping street of Shinjuku,
1. Japan—History—1868– 2. Japan—History—Tokugawa period,
Tokyo, Japan. Copyright © Cheryl Conlon.
1600-1868. I. Title. II. Series.
DS881.9.H85 2004 Frontispiece: At the beginning of the twentieth
952.025—dc22 century, crowds took to the streets frequently in
2004008185 Japan’s cities: for festivals, to demonstrate for
lower streetcar fares, to celebrate military triumphs.
Printed in the United States of America Here, residents of Yokohama celebrate with flags,
On acid-free paper lanterns, and banners in the aftermath of Japan’s
1905 victory in the Russo-Japanese War.
Title page: The feminist poet and essayist
Yosano Akiko sits for a formal photo in 1915
with her husband, the less-famous writer Yosano
Tekkan, and their children.
Contents
6 WHAT IS A DOCUMENT? Chapter Seven
8 HOW TO READ A DOCUMENT 159 THE REEMERGENCE: 1945–70
11 INTRODUCTION 161 An Occupied Land
170 The Return to Normal Life
Chapter One 176 The Reemergence
17 THE SHOGUN’S REALM
20 Closing the Country Chapter Eight
28 A Feudal Regime 185 JAPANASAWORLDPOWER:
37 Life Under the Tokugawa AFTER 1970
42 The Shogunate Under 187 Surmounting Crises
Challenge 195 Awash in Capital
201 As the Century Ended
Chapter Two: Picture Essay
47 THE OLD ORDER TOPPLES: 212 TIMELINE
1853–68 214 FURTHER READING AND
49 Japan’s Sense of the World WEBSITES
50 Perry’s Arrival 216 TEXT CREDITS
51 A Land in Transition 219 PICTURE CREDITS
52 Symbols of Change 220 INDEX
54 Tumultuous Times
55 Demise of a Domain Lord
Chapter Three
57 CONFRONTING THE MODERN
WORLD: 1868–89
59 Envisioning a New World
67 Creating a New System
74 A New Society
Chapter Four
81 TURNING OUTWARD: 1890–1912
83 Rising Nationalism
87 An Expansionist Turn
98 A Modern, Urban Society
Chapter Five
107 IMPERIAL DEMOCRACY: 1912–30
109 The Energy of Modernity
121 Reining in Diversity
Chapter Six
131 THE DARK ERA: 1930–45
133 The Militarist Turn
147 War
6 MODERN JAPAN
Pick up this page from previous book
What Is a Document?
T
o the historian, a document is,
quite simply, any sort of histori-
cal evidence. It is a primary
source, the raw material of his-
tory. A document may be more than the
expected government paperwork, such as a
treaty or passport. It is also a letter, diary,
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will, grocery list, newspaper article, recipe,
memoir, oral history, school yearbook, map,
chart, architectural plan, poster, musical
score, play script, novel, political cartoon,
painting, photograph––even an object.
Using primary sources allows us not
just to read about history, but to read his-
tory itself. It allows us to immerse ourselves
in the look and feel of an era gone by, to
understand its people and their language,
whether verbal or visual. And it allows us
Cartoon
to take an active, hands-on role in (re)con-
This political cartoon addresses the issue of church and
structing history. state. It illustrates the Supreme Court’s role in balancing
the demands of the 1st Amendment of the Constitution and
Using primary sources requires us to
the desires of the religious population.
use our powers of detection to ferret out
the relevant facts and to draw conclusions
from them; just as Agatha Christie uses the
scores in a bridge game to determine the
identity of a murderer, the historian uses
facts from a variety of sources––some, per-
haps, seemingly inconsequential––to build
a historical case.
The poet W. H. Auden wrote that his-
Illustration
tory was the study of questions. Primary Illustrations from Image Not Available
sources force us to ask questions—and children’s books,
such as this
then, by answering them, to construct a
alphabet from the
narrative or an argument that makes sense New England
to us. Moreover, as we draw on the many Primer, tell us
how children were
sources from “the dust-bin of history,” we
educated, and
can endow that narrative with character, also what the
religious and
personality, and texture—all the elements
moral values of
that make history so endlessly intriguing. the time were.
WHAT IS A DOCUMENT? 7
Pick up this page from previous book
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Treaty
A government document such as this
1805 treaty can reveal not only the
Map
details of government policy, but
A 1788 British map of
information about the people who
India shows the region prior
signed it. Here, the Indians’ names
to British colonization, an
were written in English translitera-
indication of the kingdoms
tion by U.S. officials; the Indians
and provinces whose ethnic
added pictographs to the right of
divisions would resurface
their names.
later in India’s history.
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Literature
The first written version of the Old English epic Beowulf,
from the late 10th century, is physical evidence of the tran-
sition from oral to written history. Charred by fire, it is
also a physical record of the wear and tear of history.
8 MODERN JAPAN
How to Read a Document Brackets
In translated materials, the translator often has to include words or ideas
not found in the original text, so that the meaning will be clear to the
English-speaking reader. Such materials normally are placed in brackets.
T
his book aims to bring us close to
Tone
the people who actually lived out
Tone may be as important as actual words in helping us understand a docu-
Japan’s modern era, through their let-
ment. Kume’s balanced tone here gives us immediate clues about the kind
ters, speeches, documents, cartoons,
of man he was and the purpose of the writing. The fact that he sees behav-
statistical charts, and maps. To understand ioral differences as signs of variant cultures rather than as indications that
those people, however, we must treat these Americans were just barbaric suggests to the reader that Kume was well
documents as a detective would, looking for educated and a careful observer. The tone also may be our first clue to the
clues about what they really mean. We need fact that he was on an official mission and that Japanese were quite open to
to ask ourselves constant questions as we read cultural relativity.
what people in the past have written:
Subconscious Values
Is this accurate? In the first chapter of this
Certain phrases tell the reader that the writer may have had values that
book, a Portuguese merchant named Alvares
even he himself (and his fellow countrymen) did not fully understand. Few
describes Japanese “kings” of the late 1500s; history
people today would think of American men as having been servants of their
tells us, however, that Japan had no kings then.
wives in the nineteenth century. Yet that is what Kume thought when he
Why did Alvares make this mistake? Does his error
saw American men holding chairs for women and carrying their things in
make the document useless? If not, what does it tell
public. His statement should prompt the reader to ask what Japanese values
us? Errors themselves often give us insights into the
led to such an assessment. Even if Kume’s evaluation of American values
writer’s world and worldview.
was wrong, it helps us understand Japan’s own values then.
What are the writer’s biases? All people are
biased, but we must ask what the bias was and how Unintended or Suggestive Information
it affected the source. When the nineteenth-century Although Kume is describing American practices in this journal entry, his
traveler Kume Kunitake described Christian scrip- obvious surprise makes it clear that the gender-related behaviors he
tures as “delirious ravings,” was he telling us more observed were not common in Japan. The careful reader would use Kume’s
about Christianity or more about Japanese under- material as a stimulus to further research, and might learn that in the 1870s
standings of religion? Since we want to know how Japanese women indeed did avoid going out publicly with their husbands,
people saw the world, biased materials often give us and that Japanese of both genders would have found it not only unusual
as much insight as balanced materials do. but morally offensive for men to treat women deferentially in public.
What is the context? When we hear the jour-
Concrete Details
nalist Kiryu¯ Yu¯yu¯ decry the army’s “reckless actions”
Even if an observer’s interpretation of a situation is wrong, the document
in 1936 (Chapter 6), we must ask what was happen-
still may yield a rich, concrete picture of the setting. This entry makes it
ing in Japan then. Does his diatribe suggest that
clear that when Kume visited the United States, men were restrained in
people were free to criticize their government, or
their behavior when women were present but “lax” when by themselves.
simply that a few brave men risked prison for the
People also ate by lamplight, rode in carriages, wore shoes, and used chairs
right to speak up?
(an uncommon practice in Japan then). And Kume obviously saw (or heard
What lies beneath a document’s surface? An
about) instances of husbands being punished by their wives when they had
important trend among historians is the use of liter-
acted offensively.
ary and visual materials, because they often tell
us more than their composers intended. It is not
enough to ask if the facts are accurate, however; Photos
we must ask what clues they reveal about life at the Photos may not provide the concrete facts of an era, but they help us
time. Omissions can tell us much about a writer’s understand the human values that undergirded those facts. The photo here,
way of seeing the world. taken by a professional photographer in 1876, shows Sakai Denpatsu,
The British historian E. H. Carr said that a fact Kyoto’s first governor, just before a new law took effect requiring samurai
resembles an empty sack, which the historian must to give up their swords and cut their hair. Careful readers may be impressed
fill with meaning. So too with documents. They by Sakai’s eagerness to retain a record of the traditional samurai dignity and
will not yield much insight unless the reader asks garb, but they also will note how even he blended Japanese and Western
the right questions. Read carelessly, documents may elements: old Japanese kimono, sword, and shoes alongside a Western-style
mislead, confuse, or hold the full picture back from chair, the traditional hairstyle carefully combed to be recorded by a new-
us. Examined carefully, they bring the past to life. fangled camera.
HOW TO READ A DOCUMENT 9
Journal of Kume Kunitake on 1872 Visit to the United States
From the time our group boarded ship at Yokohama, [we found ourselves]
in a realm of completely alien customs. What is appropriate deportment
for us seems to attract their curiosity, and what is proper behavior for
them is strange to us. . . . What we found most strange in their behavior
was the relations between men and women.
With respect to relations between husbands and wives, it is the prac-
tice in Japan that the wife serves her husband’s parents and that children
serve their parents, but in America the husband follows the ”Way of
Serving His Wife.” The [American husband] lights the lamps, prepares
food at the table, presents shoes to his wife, brushes the dust off [her]
clothes, helps her up and down the stairs, offers her his chair, and carries
her things when she goes out. If the wife becomes a little angry, the hus-
band is quick to offer affection and show respect, bowing and scraping to
beg her forgiveness. But if she does not accept his apologies, he may find
himself turned out of the house and denied meals.
When riding in the same ship or carriage, men stand up and offer
their seats to the women, who accept with no hesitation at all. When
women take their places sitting down, the men all crowd around them to
show their respect. Men are restrained in their behavior when together
[with women] at the same gathering. . . . It is only when the women
retire that the men begin to become lax in their behavior. . . .
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