Japanese History

Ancient Japan and the Founding of an Empire

The islands of Japan have been home to human populations for about 40,000 years. The first major culture to develop there was the Jomon people, recognizable from around 14,000 BCE on. The Jomon are distinctive for their intricate pottery decorated with cords and the beginnings of sedentary agriculture. By about 300 BCE, a new wave of settlers from the Korean Peninsula, known as the Yayoi, arrived on the island of Kyushu. As they moved north, the Yayoi gradually mingled with or displaced the Jomon. Jomon people to the north maintained a distinct identity for much longer. Their culture evolved in closer contact with those of Northeast Siberia, eventually producing the Ainu people of Hokkaido, Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, and the Kamchatka Peninsula. In this way, Ainu people are not the ‘ancestors’ of Japanese people but their distant relatives.

The Yayoi culture brought rice farming, coin-based currencies, weaving, and metalworking to Japan. Further cultural invasion occurred during the Kofun Period. The Kofun people, likely also from Korea and China, brought with them a custom of tomb-building and armored cavalry. It was in this period, between roughly 300 and 700 CE, that the practices of Shinto first developed. By the 7th century, Buddhism had also reached the islands, which were gradually unifying around the Yamato court. This hierarchy of noble families solidified into an imperial dynasty that has survived to the present day.

The Heian Period

In 794 CE, Emperor Kammu moved the capital of the Yamato court from Nara to Heian, or modern Kyoto. There, the court flourished, particularly through the arts. The Heian Period is remembered as a golden age of Japan, though its wealthy and isolated court held little real power. One clan, the Fujiwara, gained influence through a series of carefully planned marriages into the imperial line. More clans sought to protect their interests by funding their own private armies. The lords grew more militaristic, precursors of the samurai class.

These warriors consolidated power around three major families: the Fujiwara, Taira, and Minamoto. In 1180, a succession crisis pitted the Taira and Minamoto clans against each other in the Genpei War. The conflict turned in 1185, when the Taira fleet was resoundingly defeated at the Battle of Dan-no-ura. The ascendant Minamoto did not attempt to seize the throne for themselves. Instead, Minamoto no Yoritomo was rewarded in 1192 with the title of shogun.

The Kamakura and Muromachi Eras

The Kamakura Period began with this dramatic shift in power, which would define much of the medieval era in Japan. Under the shogunate, local lords grew more independent, establishing feudal states backed by the power of the warrior class. The shogunate faced rivals from the Fujiwara clan to the north. The authority of the shoguns slowly declined after Minamoto no Yoritomo’s son died with only a child as his heir. His wife Hōjō Masako, a descendant of the Taira, named her father regent. The Hōjō clan thus became the dominant force of feudal Japan.

By this time, the affairs of the continental empires to the west could no longer be ignored. Kublai Khan, fresh off his conquest of China, intended to control Japan as well. He launched two separate attacks on the islands in 1274 and 1281. Both attempts were thwarted by unexpected typhoons, which the Japanese interpreted as divine favor. The Kamakura era ended when Emperor Go-Daigo attempted to wrestle real power from the Hōjō. Despite initial victories, his gambit resulted in civil war between 1336 and 1392. The Hōjō regency ended in 1333, ushering in the Muromachi Period.

Without a strong central authority, the feudal lords formed strong, semi-autonomous states, or the daimyo. Their lands defined much of Japan’s regional cultures today. Warfare between the lords was frequent and violent, a time known as the Warring States. The Onin War between 1467 and 1477, for example, saw much of Kyoto burned to the ground. The peasantry at this time suffered from famine, high taxation, and violence as nobles amassed and spent wealth to maintain their power. Both the samurai class and the use of ninjas were refined in this period. Samurai in particular came to be relied on by the nobility as bodyguards, military commanders, and elite soldiers.

The 16th century brought sweeping changes to the islands of Japan. The samurai class continued its slow ascension; many became minor nobles themselves. In 1543, Portuguese traders arrived near Kagoshima Bay on Kyushu. They brought with them firearms, which local lords used to great advantage, and communicated with the help of Chinese pirates and smugglers. More missionaries and merchants followed.

Soon after, three successive daimyo worked to unify the islands. Oda Nobunaga was particularly known for his brutal tactics and thorough elimination of competition. Toyotomi Hideyoshi succeeded him in influence by 1583. Although he led successful conquests and built new infrastructure, Hideyoshi is best remembered for his disastrous invasion of Korea and later crucifixion of European missionaries. His successor, Tokugawa Ieyasu, would found the Tokugawa Shogunate and its Edo Period.

The Edo Period

Tokugawa Ieyasu inherited a largely unified Japan, though it was still troubled by regional disputes and foreign interference. He assumed the title of shogun and ruled from Edo Castle in modern Tokyo. Among his dynasty’s many reforms was the gradual closing of Japan by 1641. Foreign traders were now restricted to the island of Dejima in Nagasaki Harbor. Japan was never completely closed, however, and continued to import both goods and ideas from the outside world. This relative independence may have shielded Japan from colonialism, but it came at the cost of technological stagnation.

After roughly 220 years of isolation, a new world power eyed Japanese markets. President Millard Fillmore of the United States ordered Commander Matthew Perry to lead a naval expedition to open Japan. Perry arrived at Edo Bay in 1853. Through a mix of diplomacy and threats, he eventually succeeded in opening US relations with Japan. With the outside world closing in, the Tokugawa Shogunate could no longer maintain power. In 1868, a civil war broke out. Forces loyal to the emperor, rather than the shogun, prevailed by 1869, and the Tokugawa Shogunate came to an end.

The Meiji Restoration

Late-19th-century Japan found itself in a difficult position. The nation did not possess the natural resources, technology, and military tactics needed to fend off powers like the United States, Russia, and the Europeans. Rather than accept unequal treaties, the Meiji reformers sought to bring Japan to equal footing with the foremost countries of the world. With imperial approval, Japan industrialized within a few short decades. Scholars and soldiers traveled abroad, bringing back skills and technology from many nations and implementing the best of them. Japan began testing its new military in skirmishes with its neighbors, including the forcible takeover of Korea between 1894 and 1910. The government also solidified its grip on Hokkaido and the remaining Ainu people at this time. Most impressively, the Russo-Japanese War ended with a clear Japanese victory in 1905.

Modern Japan

By the early 20th century, the Japanese Empire had established itself as a global force to be reckoned with. It allied with Britain against Germany in World War I. After the war, its territorial expansions continued in Manchuria. In 1937, Japanese forces captured China’s capital, Nanking, which ended with atrocities committed against its civilian populace. Above all, the Japanese military recognized its need for a stable, independent supply of oil. When the empire expanded into Indochina, the United States retaliated with an oil embargo. This placed the Japanese in an unsustainable situation. On December 7, 1941, the empire attacked a United States naval fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The event drew the United States into World War II, which would end with the dropping of two atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan, under threat of annihilation, surrendered in 1945.

The Allies occupied Japan between 1945 and 1952, forcing many reforms on its government and society. Since its defeat, modern Japan has recovered to become a major economic power. An industrial boom that lasted into the 1990s has since stabilized into a strong but somewhat stagnant economy. In 2011, an earthquake followed by a tsunami killed thousands and damaged the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The crisis displaced tens of thousands and has reshaped Japan’s energy policy.

References

Alexis-Martin, Becky, and Thom Davies. “Japan Earthquake: Social Aftershocks of Fukushima Disaster Are Still Being Felt.” The Conversation, The Conversation US, 23 Nov. 2016,theconversation.com/japan-earthquake-social-aftershocks-of-fukushima-disaster-are-still-being-felt-69241.

Brown, Delmer, Ed. The Cambridge History of Japan. 4 vols. Cambridge University Press. 1988.

Friday, Karl. Routledge Handbook of Premodern Japanese History. Taylor & Francis. 2007.

Henshall, Kenneth. Springer. A History of Japan: From Stone Age to Superpower. 2012.

Imamura, Keiji. Prehistoric Japan: New Perspectives on Insular East Asia. University of Hawaii Press. 1996.

Perez, Louis G. The History of Japan. Greenwood Publishing. 1998.

“The World Factbook: Japan.” Central Intelligence Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, 17 Oct. 2018, www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ja.html.

Walker, Brett L. A Concise History of Japan. Cambridge University Press. 2015.

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