Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

In Japan the period of the Industrial Revolution spanned two phases of critical social and political periods that included the Tokugawa Shogunate (1603–1868) and the Meiji Restoration (1868–1912). The examination of peasant, union, and labor uprisings and strikes includes the study of oppressive taxation burdens imposed by officials and the combined malfeasance of taxing authorities and ministerial officials in complicity with the social/political elites in the repression of laborers. Specifically, a series of revolts occurred from 1800 to 1884 when regional crop failures together with excessive taxation and official malfeasance threatened the livelihood and lives of the populace and effectively brought about the end of the Shogunate period and the rise of the Meiji Restoration. The Meiji Restoration was followed by a steady progression of the nation toward militarism (1912–45). For more than 70 years Japan marched toward an ever-deepening militaristic posture. Beginning in 1874 with the Taiwan Expedition and proceeding through the Boxer Rebellion (1899–1900), the First Sino-Japanese War (August 1, 1894–April 17, 1895), Russo-Japanese War (February 10, 1904–September 5, 1905), Manchuria Invasion (1931–2), Second Sino-Japanese War (July 7, 1937–September 9, 1945), the Korean Occupation (1910–5), World War I (1914–17), and finally World War II (1941–5), Japan's cultural environment ... log in or subscribe to read full text