Study Guide for Video

                           "The Meiji Restoration"

Part II of "The Asian Century" from which video was edited is available in
the Curriculum Resources section of the library under the call number: VID.C
1952.03M476R.

Click here for the text of the version shown in class which will help you to
fill out this study guide.

I would advise that rather than printing this sheet from the browser, that
you copy it into a word processor and create empty lines in which to answer
the questions.

*Who was Tokugawa, what did he accomplish? What did he declare himself?

        o What were the four classes from bottom to top.
            1. ______________
            2. ______________
            3. ______________
            4. ______________

        o What had Tokugawa society been "built for"? ________
        o Why did history "get away from it"? That is"
             + What had happened to feudalism, which had originally been a
               military system?
             + What happened to the economy and what was the significance of
               this for the merchant class and the samurai class?
        o Why was this a "society about to explode"?

*What was the impact of Perry 1853-1854?

   * Why did the Shogun give sanctions to Americans, and then to the
     British, Russians, etc., forcing unequal Treaties ---
     extraterritoriality, controlled tarrifs.

   * Where were the centers of anti-Western, nativist reaction?

   * Who were Shi-shi? Why were they furious and how did they express their
     indignation?

   * What was the response of the Westerners?

   * Who was the radical teacher from Choshu who found the solution to the
     problem of Western domination that "would change forever the history of
     Japan"?__________

        o What did he do?
        o What was new slogan that represented his new idea?
          ________________________________

   * Who was his student and what idea did he accept as necessary before
     Japan should try and confront the barbarians?

   * What was the experience of the future reformers in the West and in
     China?

   * How did the experience of China propel the Shi-Shi into action?

   * In what regions was their action centered?___________________
   * What did they do?_______________________________________

   * What is the significance of the date 1867 and Saigo Takamori?

   * Who was Meiji and what did he become?

   * Who did the real governing? What gave them the power.

   * What was the reaction of the country-side to the Meiji Restoration and
     what did the bureaucrats do about it?

        o How was the farmers' problem solved?
        o What was the wider problem and what was the "first, hardest thing
          that they had to do"? How did they do it?
        o What was the reaction of Saigo and what was the result?
   * What was the slogan of the new era and what did it mean?

   * Why may they restoration of the absolute power of the Emperor be seen
     as a means of promoting democratization?

   * What was the notion of Fukuzawa Yukichi and how was this evidenced
     among the new generation of youth?

   * What changes did this new era see in the way of life, particularly in
     the cities?

   * What was the role of the farmers in this new era? Whyd did they endure
     their hardships?

   * What is the significance of Professor Diukichi Irukawa's discoveries in
     a small mountain village fifty miles from Tokyo?

*How did this put pressure on Ito Hirobumi and how did he respond?

        o Who was his idol_______________ and what kind of government had he
          created that Ito used as a model for Japan?
        o How does the classical puppetry of Bunraku illustrate the kind of
          government built by Ito?
        o What is the key position in this?
        o What gradually happened to the Meiji constitution
   * Now that Meiji bureaucrats had secured their power, what did they move
     to do?

        o What was the new slogan?_____________________
        o How was it to be paid for?

   * From what sector did modernization initially come?

        o What happened?
        o How was the Zaibatsu an answer to this problem?
        o What was the bureaucracy's relationship with the Zaibatsu?

What were the positive and negative sides of rapid modernization?

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