Episode 120 - The Fall of the Samurai, Part 4

History of Japan

Isaac Meyer

Japan, History, Japanese

4.8 • 744 Ratings

🗓️ 3 October 2015

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, we'll explore Japanese reactions to Perry and his successor, the new US Consul in Japan Townsend Harris. As the foreign powers begin to muscle their way more and more into Japan, battle lines between two opposing camps with different visions of Japan's future will be drawn. Things haven't come apart yet, but we're now officially on the road to Tokugawa collapse.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This week's episode is brought to you by Audible.
0:03.5	Audible has over 180,000 titles to choose from, all compatible with iPhone, Android,
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0:14.2	For listeners of the show, Audible is offering a free 30-day trial membership, complete with credit for a free audiobook of your choice.
0:22.3	You can cancel any time and keep the free book, or keep going with one of Audible's subscription
0:27.3	offers. Go to audibletrial.com slash Japan to claim your offer. This week I'm going to recommend
0:34.9	the Search for Modern China by Jonathan Spence.
0:39.1	Those of you who have been listening for a while know that I'm a pretty firm believer in the idea that you have to know Chinese history to really know Japanese history.
0:48.7	And clocking in at an incredible 36 hours, the search for modern China can definitely teach you Chinese history.
0:57.5	Fascinating, readable, and incredibly detailed, this is easily the best book on China from the Ming Dynasty to the present day.
1:05.9	Go to audiblechild.com slash Japan to clean your copy.
1:29.9	Hello and welcome to the History of Japan podcast.
1:34.7	Episode 120, The Fall of the Samurai, Part 4.
1:38.9	Last week, we talked about the Perry Expedition.
1:41.3	This week, we're going to get into its consequences.
1:47.5	In the foreign arena, those consequences were actually surprisingly minimal. The other foreign powers followed in the wake of the United States and signed treaties
1:51.8	with Japan allowing their use of Hakodate and Shimoda, but for a few years at least, nobody
1:57.7	tried to press the issue any further. This was mostly a result of events on
2:03.0	the other side of the world. In 1853, war had broken out between the Ottoman Empire and Russia,
2:09.8	ostensibly over the treatment of Orthodox Christian pilgrims in the area of modern Israel and
2:15.3	Palestine, which the Ottomans controlled at this point.
2:19.6	In fact, the war was a result of Tsar Nicholas the first looking at his Ottoman neighbors to the south
	...

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