JapanWorld Literature Mr. Nurenberg

Like England, Japan is an isolated island nation whose inhabitants went on to wield vast world influence.

Japanese call their country “Nihon”, which means “source of the sun.” Western nations, which consider Japan the nation farthest to the east, translate this as “the Land of the Rising Sun.”

Modern Japan is actually a chain of several islands. For comparison, California is about the size of all of Japan’s islands put together.

Japan is one of the most densely populated nations in the world (it has more people than in all of Canada), and is home to some of the most cutting-edge technology, research, and business practices on Earth.

Japan is one of the least ethnically diverse regions in the world, with 99% of the population “ethnically Japanese”, with small Ainu, Korean, and European minorities.

The vast majority (84%) of Japanese practice a religion that is some combination of Shintoism (an animistic spirit-worship) and Buddhism, often Zen Buddhism. About 1-2% of Japanese are Christians.

You can see the influence of Buddhism in Japanese concepts like aware (pronounced “ah-WAR-ey”), which means “recognition of impermanence”…i.e., acknolwedging the Buddhist concept that nothing lasts.

Shinto influence can be seen, among other places, in Japanese anime, where characters often deal with spirits:

Shinto influence can be seen, among other places, in Japanese anime, where characters often deal with spirits:

Or in the concept of Miyabi, “aesthetic harmony” - the idea that a certain visual and sensory unity should be preserved in all things. Food, for example, should only only taste good, but look a certain way, and feel a certain way. There must be a balance in all things.

As early as 8,000 BC, early cultures like the Ainu flourished in Japan.

By 300 AD, settlers from China and Korea invaded their lands. Similar to how the Europeans displaced the Native Americans, the Ainu were driven off their lands and killed by force or by disease.

sss These settlers brought a system of writing and imperial rule, but eventually developed a culture and language very different from their ancestors.

Japanese and Chinese as languages have almost nothing in common except their character set.

Japanese society for the next few centuries became arranged around an aristocracy - an Imperial family ruled, and other important families ruled beneath them.

Rules of courtly chivalry and refinement predominated. A wealthy aristocrat was a man or woman of arts, learning, and elegant dress.

It is in this era, around 700-1000 AD, that a Japanese woman, Murasaki Shikibu, writes what is considered to be the world’s first novel - The Tale of Genji.

It is a 1,000+ page epic collection of the adventures of a courtly prince and his many love affairs. Today it is one of the most respected texts in Japanese literature.

Shakespeare would be the closest analogue in Western culture. For a modern Japanese reader, Murasaki’s language and metaphors are as sophisticated and complex as Shakespeare’s.

By the 1200s, the military class had taken over Japan. The emperor and the aristocracy remained, but the real power lay with the Shogun, the warlord, and his armies of loyal Samurai.

Samurai can be seen as analogues to European knights: of noble birth, trained in both warfare and the arts, held (in theory ) to a strict warrior code of honor and loyalty.

Over the next few centuries, rival families warred against one another. There were periods of stability under particular shoguns, and periods of intense civil war as Samurai clashed. As in Europe, the peasants tended to get the short end of it all - their lands were the ones seized, their sons the ones conscripted to fight the major battles.

During this time, Japan was remarkably isolated from the rest of the world. The Mongols tried invading twice, but each time were defeated by a giant typhoon. The Japanese called this “divine wind” or kamikaze, and took it as a sign that holy forces protected their land from outsiders.

Japan had limited contact with the West during the 15th-16th century. They learned how to make firearms from Portuguese traders, and Christian missionaries made some inroads.

However, for the most part, Japan kept its doors closed to the West, and all outsiders. Other than a few skirmishes with Russia, Japan and the West had next to no contact with each other until the 1800s.

That changes in 1853, when Commodore Perry and the “Black Fleet” (a United States Naval fleet) sail into Tokyo and force the Japanese, at gunpoint, to open trade relations with the West.

Instead of rebelling against the unfair trade agreements imposed upon them, the Japanese rulers instead decided that they needed to become more like the West, and learn its ways of power. The Mejii Restoration began, and Japan began incorporating Western styles of government and technology…as well as a desire to find weaker nations that it could then exploit.

Over the next 50 years, Japan waged a series of wars against Russia, China, and Korea. The pattern was similar - they would invade, defeat, and conquer their opponent, but lacked the manpower to hold on to and administrate the lands they conquered, so they would eventually withdraw.

As a consequence, the military became an increasingly powerful force in Japanese society, especially after World War I, when Japan, as an ally of the West, enjoyed economic prosperity.

Soon civilian rulers began to be displaced and even assassinated, and the modernized military began to turn the country into a dictatorship based on nationalism and propaganda.

The Japanese army accelerated its imperialist phase, re-invading China, Korea, and the Philippines.

The Japanese army accelerated its imperialist phase, re-invading China, Korea, and the Philippines.

The Japanese then settle their own citizens in these lands. For many Japanese of low caste, this was a rare chance to reinvent themselves in a new “frontier”.

Ideologically, the reasoning was that, like the West, Japan also needed to conquer and “colonize” weaker peoples in order to reap the benefits.

Of course, that was seldom said out loud…

Officially, the rhetoric was that the Japanese government was creating a “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere”, raising the standard of living for people in Korea, China, the Philippines, etc.

Officially, the rhetoric was that the Japanese government was creating a “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere”, raising the standard of living for people in Korea, China, the Philippines, etc.

The native peoples were forced to learn Japanese, to take Japanese names, and to obey the Japanese occupational governments.

(Japanese propaganda cartoons, showing the Japanese army protecting Burma from England, and raising the standard of living for Indonesia while driving out the Dutch colonists)

As with Western colonialism, Japanese colonialism was brutal. The Japanese military enacted violence against civilians as well as soldiers.

As with Western colonialism, Japanese colonialism was brutal. The Japanese military enacted violence against civilians as well as soldiers.

The Rape of Nanking was the most infamous of these incidents, where 300,000 Chinese civilians, mostly women and children, were tortured and mass-executed.

The Western nations condemned these actions…all except Germany, which had begun fighting the other Western nations in World War II.

Thus, an alliance of convenience was formed. Hitler promised that, if he was victorious, Japan would be allowed to keep its conquests. They, in turn, offered their financial support.

The allied Western powers responded to this event by boycotting all oil trade with Japan.

Japan did not have many natural oil resources, and thanks to the boycott, were in danger of losing their ability to wage mechanized war.

The Japanese military commanders face what they feel is a Catch-22. They can accept the boycott, and lose their power to wage war…or they can attack the United States in the hopes that the USA will back off.

The commanders know that if they attack the USA and the USA responds in force, they cannot win.

They take the risk and launch a sneak attack against the US naval bases in Pearl Harbor, in the territory of Hawaii.

Their risk does not pay off, and the United States declares war against Japan, marking the entry of the USA into World War II.

The Pacific War was far bloodier than the European part of World War II.

About 4.5 million soldiers and as many as 11 million civilians perished over the next five years in combat or occupation-related incidents.

When the tide turns against Japan, the Emperor and the military refuse to surrender, and vow to fight house-to-house, street to street.

The United States responds by dropping the first two atomic weapons on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing about 200,000 people, mostly civilians. Japan surrenders.

Previous to this, the ongoing firebombings of Japanese cities had claimed, according to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, as many as 100,000 Japanese a day.

Controversy exists today as to the morality of both the firebombings and the atomic attacks.

Under the terms of the surrender, Japan becomes ruled by US military occupation. The country is remade into a Western-style democracy, and is banned from having an offensive army.

Today, Japan presents a fusion of traditional and Western culture. It has become an economic superpower in the global community by pursuing innovative research in technology and business practices.

What made this change happen?

Was it just the military victory and occupation?

If so, why are current US efforts to achieve similar aims in Iraq and Afghanistan so stymied?

One reason might be the ethnic homogeneity of the Japanese people. While Iraq is an artificially drawn nation containing Shiites, Sunnis, Kurds, and other groups not traditionally forced to live and work together,the Japanese present as a previously unified people. While Saddam Hussein held his state together through force, Japan more-or-less had been united under hundreds of years of traditional fealty to the emperor.

Another reason is could be that the “unconditional” surrender of Japan was not entirely unconditional. Allied forces made some concessions, or at least some tactical decisions, as well to ensure the cooperation of the Japanese people, including keeping the Emperor alive and instated in some form, and not conducting any attacks on the history-rich city of Kyoto. US and British forces have not always been as careful in Iraq to preserve Muslim holy sites and historical treasures.

A major factor that I happen to credit involves the continuing and sustained efforts by civilians to promote communication and friendship between Japanese and American peoples, such as the doll exchange begun by Dr. Sidney Gulick.

In the years following the war, dozens of friendship societies were created in both countries, like the JASW in 1957, promoting exchange and communication, including scholarships for foreign study.

Contrast that with the post-9/11 restrictions on foreign student study in the USA, or American study abroad.

Another stabilizing force has been the large, majority antiwar movement in Japan.

In the wake of the atomic attacks, Japan became a world center for peace activism, particularly anti-nuclear activism.

Japan has also taken a leading global role in environmentalism, spearheading the Kyoto Protocols for greenhouse gas reduction.

(which the US has repeatedly refused to take part in)

“Cool Biz” dress to reduce air conditioning/electric drain.

Japanese influence on popular entertainment, through anime and video games, is felt throughout the world, unifying young people in many nations around a common set of cultural experiences.

Sister-City, Sister-School Exchanges --> Right here at CCHS!

“In a Grove” by Ryunosuke Akutagawa

Texts we’ll be exploring in the Japan unit:

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

Princess Mononoke

By Hayao Miyazaki