Hello, the episode you're about to listen to is part of a multi-part series introducing an overview

of Japanese history.

This is a repeat of one of the original projects the History of Japan podcast was built on,

and is intended to serve as an update and supplement to these original works.

After 10 years, my hope is to return to this approach and to do it a little bit better,

given the skills that I have improved in the intervening years.

If you haven't been doing so already, you should listen to these episodes sequentially,

starting with episode 501.

Without any further ado, enjoy the episode.

Hello and welcome to the History of Japan podcast, episode 504, The Great Change.

When I was back in graduate school, oh so many years ago, my PhD advisor, Dr. Ken Pyle,

had a line he would pretty much always use whenever he got the chance in lectures, public talks, or what have you. He would say there are three decisive turning

points in Japanese history, moments that saw the structure of Japanese politics and society change

decisively. And for him, the important thing about these moments was that they were all triggered,

so to speak, by contact with an outside power.

The second two on the list were the Meiji Restoration in 1868,

and the American occupation of Japan, from 1945 to 195, 195, 52, about which we will certainly

have much more to say down the line.

For Dr. Pyle, both of these were decisive turning points in the evolution of modern Japan,

and were both central to what is arguably his most famous written work, a book called Japan Rising,

which contains as its major sub-argument the idea that much of Japan's political history

has been shaped by forcible contact with stronger external powers.

...