Modern Japan

Mention Japanese history to a non-Japanese, and the first thing that will likely come to mind is the samurai, the legendary warrior elite who ruled the country for over one thousand years. But how did they meet their end?

With their two swords, top-knot haircut, and legendary code of honor, the samurai were the absolute, unquestioned rulers of the country. That all began to change rapidly when the “black ships” of US Commodore Matthew Perry arrived in Tokyo Bay in 1853.

Since 1600, the Japanese had been closed off from the world. This began during the era of the Tokugawa shoguns, the family of generals who ruled Japan in the name of the emperor. Their reign ended in the early 1860s when the people of Japan realized that living in the past (under the samurai) had put them at a great disadvantage to the Western nations.

Between 1868 and 1912, Japan rose from a country stuck in the 17th century to a world power that defeated both China and Russia at war. In the 1920s and 1930s, Japan went from an evolving democracy to a resurgent military government, which attempted to dominate much of Asia and the Pacific. That effort ended with the two atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Japan yet again “rose from the ashes” and rebuilt itself as a modern Western-style democratic government and economic powerhouse. Today, the Japanese economy is the third-largest in the world, and Japanese culture is celebrated worldwide for its ancient wisdom, food, culture, and much more.

Inside Captivating History’s Modern Japan, you will discover:

How Japan remained stuck in time

How the samurai influenced Japan both during their rule and even today

The “great unifier” Tokugawa Ieyasu, who “took 100,000 heads” of his enemies to become the shogun of Japan

How the arrival of the US fleet in 1853 changed Japan forever

How Japan rose from a backward nation to a world power in the span of forty years

How Western, especially American, culture became so popular in Japan

Why the Japanese invasion of China cost millions of lives and what the Japanese military was guilty of during WWII

The dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Japan’s minorities

The Japanese post-war economic miracle

And much more!