1. Japan Notes

2. How has geography influenced Japan’s history?
Island nation- protected from invasion.
Culture very influenced by China & Korea.
Adopted Chinese writing, calendar, clothing, etc.

4. What was Japanese feudalism?
It was a lot like feudalism in Europe.
Nobles gave land to people below them to help defend their entire territory.
Land for loyalty!
Eventually, one family took more power than other nobles and the emperor.
He was called the Shogun. He was a military dictator.

6. What were samurai? Basically Japanese knights.
Different than European knights because they believed in education & being cultured.
They were fierce warriors, but also wrote poetry.
Followed bushido, which is like chivalry in Europe.

7. Why did Japan shut itself off from the world?
The shoguns were afraid of European influences on Japan.
They didn’t want to lose power.
From the mid-1600s to the mid-1800s, Japan was isolated.

8. Why did Japan open up?
Japan realized that if they didn’t open up, they would end up like China.
A group overthrew the shogun and made the Emperor the most powerful person in Japan.
The Meiji Restoration made Japan modern very rapidly.
It took Europe centuries to modernize, Japan took decades.

10. Japan & WWII
Japan became an imperial power like the Europeans in the Pacific.
They attacked Pearl Harbor to try to knock the US out as a Pacific power.
They lose the war.
The Emperor has to give up being a god.
Japan gives up its military as well.

12. What about Japan today?
After WWII, Japan becomes economic power instead of military power.
In the 1950s & 1960s, Japan builds up its businesses.
The US wrote a democratic constitution for Japan that they still use today.
Japan is the world’s 2nd largest economy.
Many famous companies: Sony, Mitsubishi, Nikon, Toyota, Honda, Nintendo, etc.