Summer DBQ

The Meiji restoration of 1868 greatly changed the society and politics of Japan with some help of impacts from the West. Japan wanted more equality with other countries and nations.ODD OPENING--READ THAT FIRST SENTENCE OUT LOUD--IS IT CLEAR?--THE END SEEMS TACKED ON -MrViles 8/25/09 12:01 PM Japan's politics changed greatly and took on many Western qualities that were much different from the traditional forms of Japanese politics. Japan's society also changed a lot during this time of the Meiji restoration, the culture and society of Japan gained aspects of Western culture and society from more contact and impacts with the West. Overall these changes seemed to be positive and helped not only Japan but the West. Japan changed over the time of the Meiji restoration by leaving behind a lot of their traditional politics and society. Additional documents that would help show this would be from more European countries because they also had major impacts on Japan. Japan wanted more equality between themselves and the West, and around the time of the Meiji restoration theProxy-Connection: keep-alive Cache-Control: max-age=0 politics showed some changes becoming similar to the West. In 1889, the Japanese developed a constitution, the United Sates of America must have influenced them to do this because they also formed a constitution. The constitution itself has aspects similar to that of America's. It shows a justice system, strict laws, the government having authority and qualifications, and even a House of Representatives showing that America had an impact on Japan developing. In the American constitution, citizens have freedom of speech, press, religion, assembly and petition, so this document showed many impacts the West had on Japan's politics (doc 3). Japan showed impact from the West when it declared war on Russia. Before actually launching the war, they tried to negotiate for peace and be recognized by Russia as equal to other foreign powers. The army and navy of Japan that was mentioned in this proclamation of war also shows impacts of the West, because it wasn't until the Meiji restoration that these actually developed, and the ships of the Japanese navy use Dutch designs. The army of Japan was assisted by foreign powers such as France, so it is likely that many of the tactics the army use were borrowed from the West (doc 5). More political similarities shown in this time period between Japan and the west come from Emperor Meiji himself. In a photograph taken of him in his 20's, his clothing shows some western influence. It was Emperor Meiji himself that brought about all these political changes with the Meiji restoration. He abolished the shogunate and installed a parliement, which shows that Europe impacted Japan. Meiji also installed a democratic type of government, complete with a constitution, which shows that America impacted Japan (doc 8). The way Japan wanted to be treated politically by other nations also showed impact from the West, because they wanted to be treated like the other foreign powers. At the end of a war Russia acknowledged this in a treaty saying that Japan and all other citizens in Korea even if they were Russian "shall be treated in exactly the same manner as the subjects and citizens of other foreign Powers; that is to say, they shall be placed on the same footing as the subjects and citizens of the most favored nation." (doc 11). A final way that impact of the west on Japan is seen when Lt. Tadayoshi Sakurai was describing the attack on Russian Port Arthur. A Minister of War in Tokyo sent a message praying for the success of the army, and it "was read by the aide-de-camp", which is French. France had impacted Japan in politics by helping to develop the army, and now the army had French aspects (doc 9). All these documents seemed to have a positive point of view towards the Western impact on Japan's politics, because it helped them to develop and gain more power in Eastern Asia and not be a weak country.
However, the Western impact on Japan's politics was not always viewed as a very good thing. President Theodore Roosevelt had a negative point of view towards "the relations of the United States and Japan." He noticed some of the good things about the Japanese, but said they were "influenced by two contradictory feelings; namely, a great self-confidence, both ferocious and conceited, due to their victory over the mighty empire of Russia; and a great touchiness because they would like to be considered as on a full equality...and have been bitterly humiliated..." Mr. Roosevelt said English, Japan's allies, and America, Japan's friends, wouldn't admit them to association and citizenship. Mr. Roosevelt was negative about the Japanese becoming citizens in America, they were overpopulated and would overpopulate other countries if they could. One can conclude that this was a negative political point of view about the West impacting Japan, because it seems like Mr. Roosevelt is saying don't be too friendly or help them too much. He is warning the incoming secretary of state because Japan is "very proud, very warlike, very sensitive", and this could be dangerous.
When the Meiji restoration took place, Western impacts on Japan can be seen in society because Japan started to take on aspects of Western culture. This can be said because of some architecture changes in the Japanese culture. Japanese buildings were and some still are known for their arches, spikes, and peaks. However, when the Meiji restoration took place, this architecture began to change. The Mie Prefectural Normal School built in 1888 didn't have the prominent Japanese cultural architecture, it had more of a western style. It didn't have the high arches peaks and spikes that the traditional buildings had, though it did have three small arches in the front, it was a very western style architecture (doc 2). Another impact shown in culture can be seen in the Johnson family home. The Johnson's were from Syracuse, New York, but they were missionaries in Japan for awhile. This document is a picture of their home which has Japanese style architecture. Since they were missionaries and brought back with them some architecture, one can conclude that there was a culture exchange. This can be said becuase the Johnson's were originally from New York, and they were missionaries, so most likely they left an impact in Japan of not only Western styles, but Western religion and architecture, possibly even Western culture as a whole (doc 4). Another example of the West having an impact in the Japanese society is seen in education. It can be said that the West had an impact on Japan's education because of the age a child begins school, the levels of school the child goes through, and how long they go for each day. The west has elementary, middle, and high school, then the child can go on to college which is higher studying. The child starts around age 6, and a normal school day lasts around 6 hours. In Japan, "the Japanese lad began his education at the age of six or seven years...there were three grades of school...In the Sei Do, or old Chinese college in Yedo, the course of literary study ranged somewhat higher." (doc 6). In a Japanese updated calendar series, Western industrialization can be seen in the bacground in a busy street, so the West impacted Japan's society through industrialization. It looks like trollies in the busy streets, an impact from the West (doc 7). Another way the West impacted Japan's society was through trade. This was an impact to society because before the restoration and before Japan had contact with the west, they developed mostly in isolation, with some contact with the Chinese. When Japan came into contact with the west, their culutre started to change and their way of life. A lot of trade started to happen between Japan and the West, and Japan likely saw more cultures through all this trade and changed their society. "Trade between the Orient and San Francisco will serve to lessen the prices of commodities in the latter city and bring about prosperity to both." From this one can conclude that Japan would become more involved in trade and changing to make other countries want their business, because that would make them prosper as well as have an impact on their society (doc 10). It is clear that it wasn't just American culture that was impacting the Japanese society through trade because in a color woodblock print from Japan that shows trade happening, the flags on the ships are from America, France, and the Dutch. This shows that the society of Japan was impacted from many Western countries (doc 12).
In conclusion, the West impacted Japan in many ways and to far extents. The overall point of view was very positive, the contact with the West seemed to be a beneficial thing for all during the Meiji restoration. Their was only one negative point of view, but it can be said that overall the West impacting Japan had more pros than cons because there was only the one negative point of view. The politics of Japan had a positive point of view when they were impacted by the West because they changed for the better. The society that was impacted turned out to be very positive and benificial when it was impacted by the West because it helped not only Japan but the countries that gave the impact. There was no negative view of the changed society. Additional documents that would help in determining the extent and ways in which contact with the West may have impacted Japan would be documents from the French and Dutch or other European countries in the West because from some of the documents used here it seemed as though these countries also had an impact, but there were no documents from them from this area and time period.