JAPAN'S EMERGENCE AS A WORLD POWER

POLITICAL CHANGE

Yamagata Aritomo (1838-1922) "father of the Japanese Army" and Japan's Prime Minister (1889-91, 1898-1900).

Russo-Japanese War (1904-05): Japanese suffered heavy losses, but the Japanese navy destroyed both the Russian Pacific and Baltic fleets, sinking nearly every navy vessel. The defeat was devastating for Russia’s Czarist government, and can be directly linked to the Russian Revolution of 1917. Japan took control of Russian interests in Manchuria, including the railway. Private Japanese companies moved into the region.

Ito Hirobumi (1841-1909): Assassinated by Korean nationalist while serving at a diplomatic post in Korea.

1889 Meiji Constitution: gift from the Meiji Emperor to the Japanese people.

1890 Imperial Edict on Education: instilling principles of loyalty and service to society and the State.

1888 Town and Village Code: Local government was given some autonomy. By 1906 local Shinto shrines were established in each administrative villages. Shinto customs were standardized; the images of local kami were "sanitized" and nationalized.

Seiyukai Party: ruling political party in the wake of the Meiji emperor's death.

Taisho Emperor (r. 1912-26): rumored to be mentally unstable at time of ascension.

seisho: political merchants

Hara Kei (1856-1921): political leader in the period preceding Japan's swing to the political right.

INTELLECTUAL CHANGE

Okakura Tenshin (1862-1913) and his Ideals of the East (1902) mapped out the nation's responsibility to preserve an "Asian" cultural essence in the region.