Legacy of the Opium
Wars in China Extends to Japan
US Navy Commodore Matthew Perry
Japan's Meiji Group
Meets with US Navy Commodore Matthew Perry (1853)
In
Japan, a pro-American faction developed, which learned the
difference between the British and American systems.
In
1853, between the two Opium Wars, a Japan previously closed to all
foreign contact received U.S. Navy Commodore Matthew Perry, and a
treaty of friendship was soon worked out.
Bust of Fukuzawa at at Keio
University
Yukichi
Fukuzawa Founds Newspapers and University, Promoting American System
A
circle of reformers grouped around the intellectual leader Yukichi
Fukuzawa founded newspapers and a university to educate Japanese
political layers to an understanding of the uniqueness of the United
States, and argue that Japan adopt America's revolutionary system as
a model.
Abraham Lincoln
Yukichi Fukuzawa
Yukichi
Fukuzawa: "America is our Father..."
"America is our Father," wrote Fukuzawa in Japan's first newspaper Jiji Shinpo, which he founded.
"I regard the human being as the most sacred and responsible of all orders, unable therefore, in reason, to do anything base.
So in self-respect, a man cannot change his sense of humanity, his loyalty, or anything belonging to his man-hood, even when driven by circumstances to do so," Fukuzawa wrote.
Yoshinobu Tokugawa (1837–1913)
was the last of the shoguns of Japan
The
Meiji Restoration of 1868 overthrew the warlord-feudalist Shogunate,
and returned full power to the Emperor, who was under the guidance
of a faction of pro-American reformers, steeped in the writings of
Alexander Hamilton and the U.S. Constitution.
President Grant
Dispatches Erasmus Peshine Smith to Japan, Teaching Henry Carey
Economics (1871)
American
System economist Erasmus Peshine Smith, the student of Lincoln's
ally and economic adviser Henry Charles Carey, was dispatched to
Japan by President Grant in 1871 to help guide the economic
development program.
Prime Minister Shigenobu
Okuma
Okuma: "Japan
Might Be Just Another Colony, Without the US" (1877)
Another
leader of the Meiji group, Shigenobu Okuma, wrote in his study Fifty
Years of the New Japan that without the "U.S.A. as
chaperone," Japan might be just another colonial satrapy.
Battle of Shiroyama took place on 1877-09-24, in Kagoshima, Japan. It was the final battle of the Satsuma rebellion
Meiji Group Quells
Satsuma Rebellion (1877)
After the crushing of the Satsuma rebellion in 1877, pro-American reform groups were able to abolish feudalism, nationalize land held by warrior clans, and begin large-scale industrial development.
Former US President
Ulysses S. Grant Visits Japan, Warning "Beware of British
Treachery" (1879)
When former President Ulysses Grant visited Japan in 1879, at the conclusion of a three-year world tour, he warned the Meiji government against the treachery of the British.
Great Britain was then the open enemy of patriotic Americans, and the battle between the American and the British systems the central struggle in the world.
