TERMS AND GUIDE QUESTIONS FOR FILM

MEIJI: ASIA'S RESPONSE TO THE WEST

Note: For some additional information on the Meiji Reforms and its main themes, you may see the site "Schauwecker's Guide to Japan" (at http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2130.html). The author provides additional links of interest.

Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616): founder of Japan's final shogunate, the Edo Period (1603-1867). Matthew C. Perry (1794- 1858): honorary US "commodore" who led the naval expedition that forced Japan in 1853-54 to enter into trade and diplomatic relations with the West. Choshu and Satsuma: powerful daimyo in southwestern Japan that fought foreign influences under the slogan Sonno joi ("Revere the emperor! Drive out the barbarians!")Western naval forces bombarded Choshu in 1864. Young samurai from these regions agitated for the civil warfare that ushered in the Meiji Era. Meiji Restoration (1868-1912): the movement for the technological and cultural transformation of Japan that began in 1868 with the installation of the 13-year old emperor Mutsuhito (reign name Meiji, or "Enlightened Rule") in place of the Tokugawa shogunate at Edo (renamed Tokyo). Fukoku kyohei ("Rich country, strong military") was the Meiji slogan.

Ito Hirobumi: (1841-1909): statesman and premier (1885-88, 1892-96, 1898, 1900-01), who helped draft the Meiji Constitution (1889) and establish the legislative body known as the Diet (1890). Saigo Takamori (1827-1877): military leader in the overthrow of the Tokugawa shogunate who later fought the Meiji leadership he had brought to power. Saigo's defeat and death marked the death of the samurai class as a social force. Fukuzawa Yukichi (1835-1901): influential Japanese author and educator during the Meiji Era. Zaibatsu (Japanese: "wealthy clique"): large pre-WWII capitalist cartels in Japan, organized around a single family. Mitsubishi, formed in 1873 by Iwasaki Yataro, as such an enterprise. Portsmouth Treaty (Sept. 5, 1905): peace settlement signed at Kittery, Maine, ending the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05 and recognizing Japan as dominant power in Korea and much of Manchuria.

#1. What did Japanese society look like on the eve of the Meiji Restoration?

#2. What were the early years of the Meiji Era like? How did the reforms affect urban and rural communities differently?

#3. Describe the steps Japan took to join the exclusive turn-of-the -century club of global imperialist powers.