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===Archaeology===
===Archaeology===
===Korean and Chinese influence===
===Korean and Chinese influence===
===Nara and Heian===
===Nara and Heian===
===The Fujiwara clan===
===The Fujiwara clan===
===Edo/Tokyo ===
===Edo/Tokyo ===
Edo (Tokyo) had been a small settlement for 400 years but began to grow rapidly after 1603 when Shogun [[Ieyasu]] built a fortified city as the administrative center of the new [[Tokugawa]] Shogunate. Edo resembled the capital cities of Europe with military, political, and economic functions. The Tokugawa political system rested on both feudal and bureaucratic controls, so that Edo lacked a unitary administration. The typical urban social order was composed of samurai, unskilled workers and servants, artisans, and businessmen. The artisans and businessmen were organized in officially sanctioned guilds; their numbers grew rapidly as Tokyo grew and became a national trading center. Businessmen were excluded from government office, and in response they they created their own subculture of entertainment, making Edo a cultural as well as a political and economic center. With the Meiji Restoration, Tokyo's political, economic, and cultural functions simply continued as the new capital of imperial Japan.
Edo (Tokyo) had been a small settlement for 400 years but began to grow rapidly after 1603 when Shogun [[Ieyasu]] built a fortified city as the administrative center of the new [[Tokugawa]] Shogunate. Edo resembled the capital cities of Europe with military, political, and economic functions. The Tokugawa political system rested on both feudal and bureaucratic controls, so that Edo lacked a unitary administration. The typical urban social order was composed of samurai, unskilled workers and servants, artisans, and businessmen. The artisans and businessmen were organized in officially sanctioned guilds; their numbers grew rapidly as Tokyo grew and became a national trading center. Businessmen were excluded from government office, and in response they they created their own subculture of entertainment, making Edo a cultural as well as a political and economic center. With the Meiji Restoration, Tokyo's political, economic, and cultural functions simply continued as the new capital of imperial Japan.
[[Image:Edo period architecture.jpg|thumb|290px}left|View of a Kabuki Theater, 1770.]]
===Three cultures===
===Three cultures===
==The Meiji Era: 1868-1912==
==The Meiji Era: 1868-1912==
Following the [[Treaty of Kanagawa]] with the [[United States of America]] in 1854, Japan opened its ports and began to intensively modernise and industrialise. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, Japan became a regional power that was able to defeat the forces of both China and [[Russia]]. It occupied [[Korea]], [[Formosa]] ([[Taiwan]]), and southern [[Sakhalin Island]].
Following the [[Treaty of Kanagawa]] with the United States in 1854, Japan opened its ports and began to intensively modernise and industrialise. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, Japan became a regional power that was able to defeat the forces of both China and [[Russia]]. It occupied [[Korea]], [[Formosa]] ([[Taiwan]]), and southern [[Sakhalin Island]].
====Revolt====
[[Image:Perry.jpg|frame|right|Commodore Matthew Perry, as portayed in a Japanese painting c. 1853]]
The rule of the Shoguns came to an end in the middle of the 19th century during a brief but bloody period of conflict known as the [[Meiji Restoration]], which was triggered in part by [[US]] Commodore Matthew Perry's naval expedition to Japan. During the Restoration a large number of young [[samurai]] from minor families, tired of the government's mishandling of the country and feeling that if action was not taken Japan would be dominated by western countries, initiated an armed revolt to restore imperial rule. Most samurai from the more powerful families sided with the Shogun, fearing that the minor families would replace them if the revolt was successful. Nonetheless, the shogunate was done away with in 1867 and the imperial period began. The capital was moved to [[Edo]], which was renamed [[Tokyo]]; by the early twenty-first century, it had become the center of the world's largest urban conglomeration. In 1898, the last of the "unequal treaties" with Western powers was removed, signaling Japan's new status among the nations of the world. In a few decades, by creating modern social, educational, economic, military, and industrial systems, the Emperor Meiji's "controlled revolution" had transformed a feudal and isolated state into a world power.
====Imperialism====
The phrase "imperial period" refers to Japan competing with European powers and the [[United States]] for colonies and influence during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The high point of Japanese prestige was the [[Russo-Japanese War]] of 1904-5, in which Japan became the principal power in [[Manchuria]] and consolidated its control of [[Korea]] and over the southern portion of [[Sakhalin]] Island and Taiwan. In [[World War I]] Japan fought over a limited number of German-controlled pacific colonies as part of the Anglo-Japanese alliance, gaining control of [[Qingdao]] (Tsingtao), a German-controlled colony in China, as well as several German-controlled Pacific Islands, the most significant being [[Truk]] lagoon.
====1930s====
===World War II===
Japan's success at this great game would ultimately prove its undoing. Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931 and set up the puppet state of Manchukuo. In 1933, Japan resigned from the League of Nations. By 1936, during the reign of Emperor [[Hirohito]], the Japanese Empire adopted the catch-phrase "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere". The increasingly powerful Japanese armed forces, similar to Italian [[fascists]], came to dominate Japanese politics, assassinating politicians whom they deemed insufficiently devoted to the Emperor and nation. For the next nine years, the military leadership installed its own members (such as [[Hideki Tojo]], chief Japanese strategist of [[World War II]]) or, occasionally, civilians who were completely identified with their agenda, as prime minister. The Japanese invasion of China in 1937 followed Japan's signing of the "anti-Comintern pact" with Nazi Germany the previous year and was part of a chain of developments culminating in the Japanese attack on the United States at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941.
===World War II===
==Economy and empire; war and defeat: 1912-1950==
==Economy and empire; war and defeat: 1912-1950==
===Pacific War===
===Pacific War===
In 1931 Japan occupied [[Manchuria]] ("Dongbei"), and in 1937 it launched a full-scale invasion of China. The U.S. undertook large scale military and economic aid to China and demanded Japanese withdrawal. Instead of withdrawing Japan took over French Indochina in 1940-41; the U.S., Britain and the Netherlands cut off oil imports in 1941, which accounted for over 90% of Japan's oil supply. Desultory negotiations with the US led nowhere. Japan attacked U.S. forces at [[Pearl Harbor]] in December 1941, triggering America's entry into [[World War II]]. In a bltzkrieg operation Japan rapidly expanded at sea and land, capturing Singapore and the Philippines in early 1942, and threatening India and Australia.
In 1931 Japan occupied [[Manchuria]] ("Dongbei"), and in 1937 it launched a full-scale invasion of China. The U.S. undertook large scale military and economic aid to China and demanded Japanese withdrawal. Instead of withdrawing Japan took over French Indochina in 1940-41; the U.S., Britain and the Netherlands cut off oil imports in 1941, which accounted for over 90% of Japan's oil supply. Desultory negotiations with the US led nowhere. Japan attacked U.S. forces at [[Pearl Harbor]] in December 1941, triggering America's entry into [[World War II]]. In a bltzkrieg operation Japan rapidly expanded at sea and land, capturing Singapore and the Philippines in early 1942, and threatening India and Australia.
===U.S. occupation===
===U.S. occupation===
After its defeat in World War II, Japan was occupied by the U.S. until 1951, and recovered from the effects of the war to become an economic power, staunch American ally and a democracy. While Emperor Hirohito was allowed to retain his throne as a symbol of national unity, actual power rests in networks of powerful politicians, bureaucrats, and business executives.
After its defeat in World War II, Japan was occupied by the U.S. until 1951, and recovered from the effects of the war to become an economic power, staunch American ally and a democracy. While Emperor Hirohito was allowed to retain his throne as a symbol of national unity, actual power rests in networks of powerful politicians, bureaucrats, and business executives.