Dbq Essay On Japan

Japan’s economic development had been shaped in various ways, including Japanese internal forces, and external forces from other countries. Although during the Tokugawa era, the Japanese were very closed off from the world for 250 years, once Commodore Perry and the rest of America threatened Japan with war Japan was forced to open ports for trade. Due to the Japanese lack of weapons the trading environment was very biased on the side of America with unequal trade.
The shogun was once a Samurai and is now almost in control of Japan. Although the close-off from the world had resulted in relative peace, the shogun also had other policies highly criticized by others. As stated in Document 1, “The shogun rules firmly and with justice at Edo.”

If they did not return to Edo, spoke out against the shogun, or went against any laws in place their families would be killed. This was how the shogun managed to hold power over Japan, with families' lives on the line many were forced to follow what the shogun had told them. The end of the shoguns ruling was when Commodore Perry, an American who had been sent to force Japan to open their ports arrived. With Japan's lack of military power, they were forced to do as the Americans said. Many were unhappy with their shogun, as they realized how weak Japan as compared to other countries. Groups of Samurai came together to finally overthrow the shogun, and restore Meiji to power. As stated in Document 2, the Charter Oagth states that all classes, no matter their rankings would unite, “carrying out the administration of affairs of state.” This was a massive change to the past 250 years when class systems were extremely separated with no way to move up or down the social

With their ultranationalistic mindsets they believed their country was the best, and they were not ready to stop expanding. As Japan decided to turn away from further westernizing their country due to the mistreatment in the League of Nations, they wanted to invade other countries for their natural resources. As mentioned in Document 4, three-fifths of the “total land area of the earth” was held by the four largest powers. As Japan felt excluded from this although their country's military was one of the strongest at their time, Japan decided to invade China. The Greater East Asia Co-Properity Sphere was something that Japan strongly believed in. With their need for natural resources, they believed that Asian countries should become one, and they thought that they would “together get better.” with Japans power hungry ideals they seized control of Areas of China which they remained in control from 1937 until their defeat in world war 2. As wars were being fought over land in the Asian countries, Japan was running out of materials. They knew they needed to take control of more land so they were able to hold strong against their enemies. Their issue was that once America got involved Japan would be destroyed. This prevented them from attacking other countries due to allies that were formed between them and America. With America’s strong military forces, Japan decided that to keep America out of