Millennial Fair – Introduction to Japanese

Japanese Flag

History of Japan:

The first Japanese people came from the Chinese mainlands. The Japanese islands were bountiful and fertile lands, ideal for the cultivation of rice and rich with seafood. The Japanese used the class system that was thought out by the scholar Confucius in order to build up their social structure. Feudal Japan was seperated into fiefs, and families or Shogunates ruled various parts of the country. After a great struggle between Oda Nobunaga and Ieyasu Tokugawa, the Tokugawa Shogunate took control of Japan.

For more than two hundred years, the shogunate ruled Japan. The central command and capital were moved from Kyoto to Edo, the largest city in the world. With confucianist ideals and a tight social structure, Japan was isolated from the rest of the world. Trade was mostly between provinces, or with the Chinese and the Dutch. It was not untill the late nineteenth century that the Japanese broke free from their isolation.

Revolution was afoot, and two factions once again turned Japan into a battlefield. One side, specifically the Tokugawa Shogunate, was against globalisation and change. But the revolunionists had the support of the Dutch, French and Brittish armies, and they eventually forced the surrender of all the Shoguns. The Emperor, who had been powerless since the Tokugawa family came to power, moved from Kyoto to Edo and was established as the head of the sovereignty. The Meiji reign was announced, and Edo was renamed Tokyo, or “Eastern Capital”.

The French, Brittish, and the Dutch pioneers helped mold the new Japanese structure. The society and its people changed, laws were altered, and the military strength grew immensely. But the Emperor once again became the all powerful head of state, and that prevented any real grow towards democracy. Progress was made, however, when the first Japanese parliament was formed in 1881, and a constitution was written in 1889.

The Japanese influence grew outside their boundaries, they took the Liaotung islands with Okinawa as its capital, and also forced Korea into accepting a trade agreement. Not long after, the Japanese launched a suprise attack against the Chinese in Korea. The ground war did not last long, and on the sea the Japanese fleet devasted the Chinese fleet. But the Russians and the Chinese remained a problem for the Japanese, and the Russians took the strategic location of Port Arthur. In 1904, however, Japan destroyed the Russian fleet in the pacific and took back Port Arthur. During World War one, the Japanese made great use of the disturbance in the west. The Imperial Fleet took the Marianas, the Palaus, the Carolines and the Marshalls, and remained in control of Korea.

In the period between World War I and II, the Japanese Army and Navy controlled the government and Tokyo made peace with the western powers, while holding out in their conquered teritories. In 1931, the Japanese army stationed in Korea invaded the Manchurian province of China. The country was torn in a political war between the Nationalist part of Chiang Kai Shek and the Communists of Mao Tzetung. The Japanese government agreed with the war, and the Japanese marched into central China and Mongolia.

The Government was unable to control the expiditionary forces in China, and in 1933, Japan removed itself from the League of Nations (the former UN). After the Nanking incident, there was no doubt that Japan was the most powerful force in Asia, and their collision with the US was imminent.

The United States under Roosevelt demanded the complete withdrawel of Japanese forces in China, but the Japanese Government still had no control over the military. The US immediately cancelled their trade agreements with Japan, so the situation for the Japanese was becoming rather desperate. In an unexpected move, the Japanese allied with Germany and Italy, the facist powers of the West, and that made them the definate enemy of the League of Nations. On the night of December seventh 1941, the Japanese launched a surprise attack on the US Fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Under Admiral Yamamoto, the Japanese Fleet destroyed all US and Brittish opposition in Eastern and Southern Asia. But after the failed attempt to conquer Australia and the defeat at Midway, the Japanese forces were driven back. In 1943, the US Combined Fleet launched their own offensive to “liberate” Asia.

By the end of 1944, the US had almost fully gained control of the Japanese teritory, and the atombombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima completely devasted Japan. The Japanese surrendered to the US aboard the Flagship of the Combined Fleet, the USS Missouri, on September 2nd 1945.

Japanese modern history saw many political changes, but it never regained control of a great military or expansionist power. Agricultural and educational systems changed, and in 1946 a new constitution was accepted. Five years later, Japan signed a preace treaty with the US and regain independance. Liberal and progressive parties now governed Japan, and the nation was admitted to the United Nations in 1957. But in the 1960ties, anti–American sentiment flared up again because of the renewed peace treaty with the Americans. A lot of political unrest continued, but the government under Prime Minister Ikeda fared well, and relations with the US were acceptable. In 1964, the Summer Olympics were held at Tokyo, as an international sign of Japanese recognition.

In the 70ties, Japan restored some ties with China, but broke off all trade with Taiwan. They were politically troubled years, but in 1978 a treaty of friendship was signed with China. Later into 1980, relations with the US became tighter, and Japan was getting more involved in international affairs.

In the next decade, many scandals filled the Japanese political scene, but internationally they made progress. Japan was now allowed to use its defensive troops in internation occasions, and in 1991, 1203 troops were sent on a UN Mission to Cambodia.

In 1995, a tremendous earthquake in Kobe caused the death of over 5300 people, and only two months later a subway station was attacked with Sarin nerve gas. Two years later, Japanese and US Governments signed more agreements concerning the defense of asia, and the relationship improved.

Currently, liberal parties are still at the head of the government, but the economy is going downwards due to fall of Hong Kong as economic super power, and the continued strife inside the United States. Nethertheless, Japan remains to be a center of cultural and technological complexity. The Japanese language, which we will discuss later on, plays an important part in that.

The Japanese Language:

The Japanese language is split into four different systems. The Kanji, the Hiragana, the Katakana, and the Romaji. Here it a better explanation:

Kanji:

The ancient characters adopted from the Chinese Hanzhi writing. They each convey an idea, and are used for nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. This collection of more than 7,000 characters usually has double meanings for each one, depending on the context and position in the sentence.

Hiragana:

Hiragana is a phonetic alphabet, used to present particles, verb inflextions (okurigana), explain the pronunciation of kanji (furigana), or words not written in Kanji.

Katakana:

Another phonetic alphabet. Katakana is not used to write kanji, but instead is used to display foreign names or things that cannot be translated into hiragana or kanji. They are easy to seperate from hiragana because of their straight lines.

Romaji:

The romanization of Japanese. Romaji uses the roman alphabet to display kanji, hiragana or katakana. Though used frequently by non–japanese, it is highly innacurate because of the double meaning that one kanji can have.

In further lessons, we will teach you more about the Japanese language.

 

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