ever since the fall of the soviet union
the united states has been the only true
worldwide superpower now the modern
world is full of potential superpowers
like china and india but in the 1980s
people widely thought that a different
country was destined for this world
superpower status
japan
within only a few decades japan went
from utter devastation to becoming the
second largest economy in the world and
were projected to become a new economic
superpower on par with the united states
itself
and then it didn't
japan fell into a recession and now no
one even entertains the idea of japan
rivaling the us
or china for that matter but the real
impressive story is how japan rose to
become a major world power in only a few
decades
twice
so why do people think japan was
destined to be the next world superpower
why didn't it and how did it get from
this to this in such a short time
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in the 1630s japan's tokugawa shogunate
issued a series of decrees that
completely closed the country off from
the outside world no one could enter and
no japanese citizen could leave for over
200 years
this period of isolation would become
known as sakuku or locked country and it
came as a sudden change of character to
japan that had previously sent traders
and embassies all across east and
southeast asia and even as far away as
new spain
one common explanation for these
decisions was the continuing
encouragement of foreign powers like
spain and portugal and the gradual
spread of catholicism which the edo
based government saw as a potential
threat and possibly a pretext for a
spanish or portuguese invasion
and so the country was closed
this theory however has been challenged
by modern historians and in fact the
narrative of japan being completely
isolated from the rest of the world for
two centuries isn't completely true
either in addition to a small dutch
factory on the island of dijima and
nagasaki's harbor japan also maintained
a strong trading relationship with china
though which was mostly restricted to
the island of kyushu nonetheless while
shoguns like tokugawa yoshime encourage
the so-called dutch studies this would
be japan's only formal contact with the
western world as the western world
itself went through a series of dramatic
changes
the united states of the 1850s was one
that had started to exert its might as
an independent power mostly by stealing
a crap generally in mexico and beginning
to grow its power in the pacific
in 1853 when commodore matthew perry and
his four black steam-powered ships
arrived in japan bearing a message from
president fillmore they became the first
non-dutch westerners to be allowed into
the country ever since it was closed
this was not the first attempted
expedition to japan from a foreign power
but it was the first successful one
being granted a meeting with the bakufu
or the shogun's court which the
americans assume was the imperial court
it actually wasn't the actual emperor
was over in kyoto while the shogun held
a real power reportedly the court
organized a sumo match as a display of
pure japanese strength in machismo
an event the american delegates only
found laughable the americans in turn
assembled a small hundred meter railway
with the quarter-scale locomotive
showing the technological progress the
western world has made with japan having
missed out on the enlightenment and most
of the industrial revolution
the tokugawa government was forced to
sign the convention of kanagawa ending
its period of isolation four years later
in 1858 japan also signed the harris
treaty which along with similar treaties
from the british judge and french mandy
did japan open certain ports to foreign
trade and gave extra territorial rights
to any of their citizens in japan
many citizens of these countries did not
have to follow japanese laws while in
japan you're kidding you may i still
have to wait three more years to drink
sake you know the drinking age in
america won't be raised to 21 for
another 130 years right
shut up duchy i bet you dump your fries
a mayonnaise without a shop being fired
japan ended up in a similar position to
china after the recent opium wars forced
to sign asymmetrical treaties
purportedly on the basis that japan was
a non-industrial non-constitutional
non-modern power
japan referred to these treaties as the
unequal treaties and sought to bring an
end to this humiliating status quo
the meiji restoration of 1868 was a
dramatic shift in power that saw the
japanese emperor once again overthrow
the shogun as the true leader of japan
unlike previous revolutions of this kind
however this one came with a series of
reforms so significant it actually
affected the average person
most japanese powerships of this sort
didn't affect the average person all
that much though the meiji restoration
named for the emperor in question had
much more drastic effects on the country
the government enacted the charter rose
or five article lows with five pledges
to establish deliberative assemblies in
order to involve the public in decision
making to involve all levels of society
and the affairs of the state to abolish
restrictions on the occupation and
function for all people to abandon the
superstitions of the past and embrace
rational laws of the future
and to seek knowledge from around the
world to strengthen japan
japan reorganized its government with
the former constitution sent envoys
around the world and grew its army and
navy to a truly gargantuan size
eager to establish itself as the true
world power on par with those of europe
japan set its sights outside
first on the ainu and ryukyu kingdom
then korea and taiwan and then into a
now much weaker qing empire
however another power also had plans for
korea and manchuria
russia
russia had been expanding into manchuria
and at least port arsenal on the
lyaudong peninsula just west of korea
the 19-month russo-japanese war resulted
in a victory for japan the first time a
european colonial power was defeated by
an east asian power was russia forced to
abandon its expansion efforts in east
asia
through a world war then a big time sad
and now allied with the worst regime to
ever exist japan continues to grow even
further
japan spread across the asia pacific
region committing unspeakable atrocities
in their wake across china korea and
southeast asia
their aggression however eventually
resulted in the united states joining
the war and once germany and italy had
capitulated japan was left on its own
refusing to surrender until
when the dust had settled and emperor
hirohito declared via radio that the war
situation has developed not necessarily
to japan's advantage which is a huge
freaking euphemism if i've ever heard
one reactions among the ordinary folk
were mixed many were either ashamed at
japan's loss of the war fearful of what
the americans might do to the country
and the people or even hopeful of what
could be a change for the better
in part of his speech the emperor called
on the japanese people to endure the
changes that would inevitably follow
japan was virtually left in ruins by the
war cities have been destroyed hundreds
of thousands killed and the once
powerful empire cut up and disbanded
japan was put under military occupation
under the allied powers with the
responsibility of reconstructing japan
largely falling to american general
douglas macarthur as the supreme
commander of the ally powers or scapp
officially this occupation was under the
multinational far eastern advisory
council though in practice it ended up a
mostly american run operation
in macarthur's mind the problem lie
mainly in japan's over centralization
militarism and fascism
and as such his agenda focused primarily
on increasing democracy and
demilitarizing the country
the title of emperor was kept in place
albeit in a much more limited fashion
something which seemed to many both at
the time and ever since like a terrible
idea however the goal with this decision
was to keep a sense of continuity and to
prevent the people from turning against
the occupation
while the emperor was made to publicly
renounce his divinity macarthur still
received strong criticism for keeping
him out of the tokyo trials which saw
many of the wartime government's top
leaders tried and sentenced
the military was also disbanded which
required around 7 million former
soldiers be brought home as was the
special hire police the so-called
thought police of the wartime government
as many as 200 000 government officials
and businessmen were removed from their
posts in an attempt to transition japan
away from their fascist administration
macarthur also wished to dissolve the
zaibatsu corporations companies which
had notable influence over the imperial
economy convinced they had operated the
wartime economies of japan's colonies
but this wasn't completely successful
often those zaibatsu that were dissolved
simply reformed around the banks that
replaced them now known as kiritsu
including the likes of fuji mitsui
mitsubishi nissan and sumitomo
in october 1945 macarthur tasked legal
scholar matsumoto joji with assembling a
committee to rewrite a new constitution
for japan preferably before the first
meeting of the allied council japan in
december because the soviets will be
there too
matsumoto's committee however concluded
that the emperor should keep his
sovereignty over the country and just
not exercise his power that much
something which macarthur found
completely unacceptable and asked major
general courtney whitney to draft a more
appropriate document
they then presented their draft to the
japanese authorities who likely through
a miscommunication adopted and passed it
with almost no alterations assuming it
was meant to be the final draft passed
by the emperor as essentially an
amendment to the meiji constitution the
1947 constitution transferred leadership
of the country over to the people
instead of the emperor who was to be a
merely symbolic figure
it also guaranteed rights to the people
based on the american bill of rights and
most controversially forbid japan from
developing any sort of war potential
basically any army or navy building that
isn't solely devoted to japan's
self-defense
japan however still needed to reform its
image on the world stage
possibly the most consequential figure
in the japanese government at that time
was yoshida shigeru who served as prime
minister on and off for the first eight
years after the war
the yoshida doctrine emphasized
rebranding japan's infrastructure and
economy relying on america's military
strength as they were not allowed their
own and also emphasized economic
diplomacy on the world stage an
accomplished diplomat and a student of
diplomatic history yoshida once remarked
history provides examples of winning by
diplomacy after losing in war
the allied administration also allowed
the establishment of political parties
though in practice many of these were
simply rehashings of older parties
with some exceptions
namely the japan socialist party which
won a modest 18 of the vote in 1946
but then the next years they won 28 of
the vote alarming scap and setting forth
a dramatic purge of 13 000 accused
socialists from politics and business
even going as far as to reinstate many
of those who have previously been purged
from the wartime government and ending
their campaigns against the zaibatsu
corporations
the administration also won on somewhat
of a union busting spree with the union
membership nationwide decreasing from 50
percent to 25 by the 1960s
as japan emerged from the rubble the new
government invested heavily in coal
mining and iron and steel manufacturing
becoming the second most profitable
steel industry in the world by 1959
partly through demand from the nearby
korean war this also had the
knock-and-effect of drastically boosting
the shipbuilding in auto manufacturing
industries
japan became the largest shipbuilder in
the world and as the average income
steadily rose also became the second
largest car manufacturer and with the
populace becoming richer so too did
demand skyrocket for consumer goods
being under the us's sphere of influence
and not being allowed to grow its
military japan never had to spend much
on its armed forces and having been
behind most of the world in technology
it also didn't have to spend much on
research and development as the 20th
century progressed japan's economy
started to grow to astronomical levels
while japan's rapid growth during this
time was far from unique it was
certainly one of the fastest and many
even started to predict japan's rise as
the next world superpower it had a high
population a huge gdp and an economy
growing so fast that it was projected to
overtake the us as the world's premier
economic superpower and then
it didn't
and economic bubbles started to form in
1986 as real estate and stock market
prices were drastically over inflated
homes were often so expensive that
families bought out multi-generational
loans to pay them back and according to
some reports the imperial palace if it
could be sold of course would have been
worth as much as the entire state of
california in 1991 that bubble finally
burst and with drastic mismanagement
from national leadership caused a
recession that would last until 2002.
this era is known in japan as the lost
decade and it was marked by anxieties of
japan's place in the world
while the recession didn't result in a
japanese great depression it did signal
the end of the post-war economic miracle
as well as any realistic aspirations for
outperforming the us
as japan's growth started to slow it was
also overtaken by another emerging east
asian superpower
china
while china now seems poised to join the
us in superpower status the idea of who
is and isn't a world superpower is
incredibly vague at best
japan however has definitely taken over
the world in another way
not politically or economically and
certainly not militarily but if this
were a game of civilization they have
definitely won themselves the cultural
victory
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[Music]
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