Japanese History

Why write new histories?

History may never change, but historical knowledge constantly does.

Japan's first history book was written over 1300 years ago. We are not quite sure what was in it, because it was burnt shortly afterwards along with its author. This happened in a pitched battle rather than in an academic witch hunt. It seems the author had produced his history in attempt to establish the basis of a claim to power in the imperial court. His opponents were less than happy with this maneuver and responded in a somewhat heavy handed fashion. They then decided it was a good idea to produce their own history book which is the oldest existing history of Japan.

These early works were chronicles very similar to the genealogical books of the Bible. They were intended to establish links between current political leaders and the imperial family and between the imperial family and the gods of the Shinto religion. Over the centuries since then such chronicles of families and their place in society have played an important role in defining Japanese politics and history. They generally make for rather dull reading as many a reluctant student of them has noted. However, if one scratches below the surface this often exposes a world of political maneuvering, murder, intrigues and scandals that would boggle the mind of a soap opera script writer.

Of course that world was the world of the ruling classes and military leaders. Ordinary people lived in a very different world which was left unrecorded in the chronicles. There was no need to establish or define their place in society. Yet some made very dramatic impacts on it by changing the ways in which people thought about themselves. For example, notable buddhist monks, such as Gyoki led a resistance movement against the machinations of the artistocratic chronicle writers. He forced land reform and preached a doctrine of human equality - in the 8th century.

Still there is even more to Japan's history than this. People have lived in Japan since long before the last ice age. In fact there are findings which indicate people may have lived here as long as 500,000 years ago. Of course, these findings are subject to debate, not so much for religious reasons as for political ones. Left-leaning paleontologists tend to reject the idea of ancient occupation while right-leaning ones tend to embrace it.

The reason for this is a simple one. Left-leaning paleontologists want to emphasize the Japanese people's common links with the rest of humanity while right-leaning ones wish to emphasize the uniqueness of the Japanese people. Academic conflicts between them reflect the larger political debate in Japanese society which also spills over into such areas as history text book writing.

For some years, there has been an ongoing debate going over the topic of how to address Japan's role in World War II. Rightists want to depict the war as a struggle to preserve Japanese autonomy in the face of growing Western incursions and also as a war of liberation to free Asian colonies held by western nations. Leftists want to depict it as a war of aggression conducted by a facist ruling class interested in exploiting cheap labor both at home and abroad.

Of course, the argument is not carried out in these general terms. Rather it latches onto specific topics, such as the debate over the Japanese army's use of sex slave from Japan as well as from conquered and colonial areas. This gained attention recently in reaction to a growing international movement to compensate women were forced into this "service." After hearings were held by the United Nations, the government was forced to acknowledge that there was a problem. Yet right wing groups still deny that there was any sex slavery.

The newest secondary school history textbooks follow the government position and make reference to the military forcing women to work in its brothels. However, rightists denounce this on the grounds that they believe the women involved were professional prostitutes who joined up voluntarily as camp followers. They contend that the history books create the impression of a mass enslavement of hundreds of thousands of women for which there is no evidence. Leftists counter by observing that there are reliable records and witness's testimony to support the idea that the military was actively involved in forcefully procuring women and that kidnapping did take place.

The politically charged nature of the debate reflects the great difficulty Japan still has in establishing a sense of what its role in the war was and what its place in the modern world should be. It also reflects the intense feelings which other nations have towards Japan's war time activities and their sense of the threat posed by Japanese militarism. Such concerns and Japan's war renouncing constitution help account for Japan's reluctance to become involved in the military aspect of UN peace-enforcement operations, such as the Gulf War. So history and its implications are very alive in Japan today.

Japan Chronology - From elephant hunters to rocket scientists

This column will be a twelve part series introducing the broad scope of Japanese history and pre-history. This first column will provide an overview, while the last will look to the future. The ten columns coming in-between will deal with specific eras in Japan's past.

The divisions used follow generally accepted historiography. However, their focus and content are slightly different from standard histories in that they will place more emphasis on social trends than on dates and personalities. The History Makers department will be the area which will highlight individuals and events on a thematic basis.

The second column describes the earliest Japanese. These people came here perhaps as long as 500,000 years ago. We know about them mainly from stone implements and camp sites. They were hunter gatherers who followed a similar subsistance pattern to their Mainland counter-parts. By the ice age about 30,000 years ago, they had become specialized in taking on large game, such as the Naumann elephant.

The third column introduces the Jomon (11000B.C.-300B.C.). They are widely believed to have been the world's first pottery makers. They were hunter- gatherers who specialized in harvesting the abundant plant foods which spread after the last ice age as well as shellfish. Their way of life had a lot in common with the native coastal and wood land people of pre-Columbian North America. Despite having pottery, the Jomon never developed metal making technologies.

The fourth column is devoted to the Yayoi (300B.C.-300A.D.). This farming culture supplanted Jomon hunting-gathering culture. It also may have been marked by an immigration of new people into Japan. The Yayoi introduced rice farming and metal working to Japan. They lived in well developed, often heavily protected settlements.

The fifth column describes the Yamato era (300-700A.D.). This period marks the beginnings of Japanese recorded history. It was the time when Japan experienced a transition from a clan based social system to formal institutions of the early imperial state. Chinese and Korean culture played a major role in this process of shaping Japanese national identity. It was a complex period marked by intrigue, murder and scandal.

The sixth column addresses the development of Heian society (794-1185A.D.). This period was the golden age of classical Japanese society which has been the subject of much nostalgia. The people of the Heian imperial court lived a refined life and produced great literature. In fact, it was a Heian woman, Murasaki Shikibu who wrote the Tale of the Genji, a book which is often describe as the first true novel.

The seventh column tells about the age of feudal wars (1186-1600). This came about when feudal war lordsdisplaced the mechanisms of the peaceful Heian state. It was the time which two Mongolian invasion attempts failed to subjugate Japan. Yet they triggered a sequence of events which led to a long period of struggles, which only ended when the Tokugawa family united Japan.

The eighth column describes how people developed what we consider a uniquely Japanese way of life under the Tokugawa shogunate (1600-1867). This age was a period of self-enforced isolation from the outside world, during which the urban merchant class gradually acquired economic powers which undermined the feudal order.

The ninth column relates how the shogunate system collapsed and was replaced by the Meiji (1868-1912) This new imperial government modernized Japan and enabled it to withstand growing foreign pressures. During the Meiji era, Japan adopted the Western policy of seeking colonies as captive markets for its growing industries.

The tenth column describes how the era of military industrialization (1912-1945). It was a period in which Japan rapidly modernized, but resisted the development of democracy. Political assassinations and military attempts at coups disordered civil society. Military leaders committed themselves to colonial expansionism as the way of coping with agricultural and economic crises at home. This led to the clashes which triggered World War II.

The eleventh column tells how Japan moved into peaceful industrialization (1946-1989) and embraced a war renouncing constitution. This has made Japan the world's second most prosperous nation and has put Japan in a position to be a leader in world affairs. Yet other nations see Japan as being unwilling to assume the burdens which come with global leadership.

The twelfth column looks at the challenge of the information age (1990-present). It examines Japan's current social trends with a focus on the questions surrounding Japan's place in an information oriented world.