Episode 135 - The Fall of the Samurai, Part 18

History of Japan

Isaac Meyer

Japan, History, Japanese

4.8 • 744 Ratings

🗓️ 6 February 2016

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, we cover the major issues of the new government. Who's in charge? What do they want to do? And what could possibly go wrong if we just take half the leadership off for a two year trip?

Transcript

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0:00.0	This week's episode is brought to you by Audible.
0:03.6	Audible has over 180,000 titles to choose from, all compatible with iPhone, Android, Kindle, or your MP3 player of choice.
0:14.4	For listeners of the show, Audible is offering a free 30-day trial membership, complete with credit for a free audiobook of your choice.
0:22.5	You can cancel any time and keep the free book, or keep going with one of Audible's subscription
0:27.5	offers. Go to audibletrial.com slash Japan to claim your offer.
0:33.5	This week, I'm going to recommend Enemy at the Gates by William Craig.
0:43.1	Craig weaves together both the grand narrative and a series of personal stories in his telling of the Battle of Stalingrad, one of the most important moments in the war between
0:48.3	the Nazis and the Soviets. It's masterfully written and a deeply tragic look at this
0:54.0	critically important moment in the history of World War II.
0:58.1	Go to audibletrial.com slash Japan to claim your copy. Hello and welcome to the History of Japan podcast, episode 135, The Fall of the Samurai, part 18.
1:27.3	This week, we're going to move on to two of the most momentous decisions of the early Meiji period,
1:33.2	both of which are going to go a long way towards beginning the end of our story here.
1:39.4	The first is easily the most important domestic reform of the Meiji Restoration, the decision
1:45.4	to abolish feudalism.
1:48.8	Now, what to do about Japan's political organization had been a hot-button topic for years.
1:55.6	On the one hand, both technocrats and liberals saw things in a fairly cut and dried way. In order to survive, Japan has to
2:04.1	modernize. Well, what does that mean? Well, they had to become more like European countries,
2:10.0	and what did that mean? Well, when France became a modern state during the French Revolution,
2:15.5	what had it done? It had abolished feudalism with the
2:18.4	August decrees of 1789. The British, they'd passed all those reform acts. The Americans,
2:25.4	well, their whole schick is about rebelling against the feudalistic oppression of their natural liberties.
2:31.7	Conversely, what states were considered backward or unmodern by European standards?
	...

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