Kazoku Kokka Emergence of Meiji Japan as a “Family-State”

Kazoku Kokka

Emergence of Meiji Japan as a “Family-State”

Weiner: Chapter 1-- Invention of Identity: Self and Other in pre-war Japan

Meiji Task

• Take “Heterogenous” Population and provide sense of Homogenity and Community

Key Terms• kazoku kokka -- Japan as a Family state with the emperor as the father

• minzuko - the people, ethnicity, nation

• jinshu - race

Translate into Key Concepts• Nation = Race

• Blood = Culture

• Japan is merely the modern manifestation of a primordial community (we’ve always been like this, always the same)

• Thus there is a biological basis for the Japanese nation

• Thus Japanese “differentness” is related

• genes

• reflected in the culture

• Aside -- one might say that not only are Japanese different in using the left brain/right brain functions for reading and writing, but they have to be different

Where did this pre-Pacific (WWII) War idea come from?

• Western Concept of “Scientific” racism

• Social Darwinism (with underlying ideas like environmental determinism)

• suggests

•“self” as civilized (Japanese)

•“other” as uncivilized (minorities, outsiders…)

Geographic Perspective on the “Family State”

Human Geographical Look at Japan

• What is a Country?

• How did Modern Japan come into existence

Geographic Principles

Confusing and Overlapping terms

Country or State

Nation

Nation--State

What is a Country?

George Demko's Definition

Nation has:

1. Defined Territory

2. Stationary Population with common

culture

language

history

Hence Place and Common People/Experience

George Demko's Definition

State has:

1. Government and Political System

2. Organized economy policed by Government

Hence Stability and Security based on Rules

Matt Rosenberg expansion on Demko’s definition

Country/State has 8 things:

1. Has space or territory that has internationally recognized boundaries (boundary disputes are OK).

2. Has people who live there on an ongoing basis.

3. Has economic activity and an organized economy. A country regulates foreign and domestic trade and issues money.

http://geography.about.com/cs/politicalgeog/a/statenation.htm

http://geography.about.com/mbiopage.htm

Matt Rosenberg expansion on Demko’s definition cont…

4. Has the power of social engineering, such as education.

5. Has a transportation system for moving goods and people.

6. Has a government that provides public services and police power.

7. Has sovereignty. No other State should have power over the country's territory.

8. Has external recognition. A country has been "voted into the club" by other countries.

http://geography.about.com/mbiopage.htm

A Nation-State has:

1. All the hallmarks of a single nation (people and place)

2. Plus those of a state (government and policed economy)

This is opposed to a multinational state

A country made up of many different and distinct ethnic groups, languages, cultures, histories… (past places like the Soviet Union or Yugoslavia or present day African Countries like Congo)

No place except perhaps Iceland is a perfect Nation-State, but most European Countries are close (although recent immigration is changing this)

Note

• A Nation is not synonymous with State• Kurds are by this definition a Nation without a

state, so are Lummi’s, or Ainu• On the other hand the post-colonial world and

remaining “land empires” are states with multiple nations.

• The Meiji issue – make the Japanese state synonymous with the Japanese nation

• Yet Meiji Japan had imperial ambitions that caused it to expand the State beyond even its self defined Nation

Quick Review of Historical Emergence of Japan

Short Course in Japanese History

1185 -- 1598 Medieval Age

Weak Emperor

Warrior class government

Era of Warring States

Three Southern Islands, certainly Nation

Government only in name

Drive for Unification termination period

Oda Nobunaga(1534--82) dies attempting

Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536--98) finishes unification then tries to conquer Korea (China)

Tokagawa Iasu solidifies the new nation-state

http://www.nigelspencer.co.uk/web-pages/old-map-pages/old-map-early.htm

1603--1868 Tokugawa Or Edo Era

Tokugawa Iasu Completes Unification

Continued weak Emperor System

Single Family rule

Closed to outside world

Tokugawa Period

• Typified as “Feudal” Era• Emphasized Stability

– Time is seen as effectively “eternal” in length

– However Time is cyclical in day-to-day/seasonal events

• Country – a confederation of Feudal Domains

Tokugawa Period

Cultural similarity & differences based on concentric spatial distance

Ka-i System

Borrowed from China

Ka-i

Ka – the civilized center• Write with characters• Eat rice with chopsticks• Live close to capital• Included the 3 Main Islands

i – the barbarian fringe• Do the above to ever

decreasing degree• Most distant absolute

savages• Thus, China not more

civilized then Japan, but Aniu more “civilized” then Dutch or Portugese

Internal and External Controls

– “Japaneseness” based on location

– Since the far outside is Savage, can be avoided

• Closed to outside world

Barbarians at the gates: Admiral Perry’s Black Ships

1868 -- 1945 Early Modern Period -- Oligarchy Rules

Emperor "restored"

Top down rule

Modernization = Industrialization = Militarization

• Rich Country, Strong Military

Meiji Era

Creation of Strong State task 1

Creation of Nation-State task 2

Time recognized as dynamic – social development a possibility

Ainu and other minorities although “Japanese” by location – are seen as remnants of a primitive/dying race

Task of Meiji Government is to give voice to these contradictions and prove the Japanese race has an eternal, homogeneous heritage.

Meiji Era‘create an unbroken sense of continuity based on the restoration of the

Emperor’

Creation of Strong Imperial State -- task 1

Creation of Asian Hierarchy -- task 2

Japan demonstrates equality with the West at the Imperial Game

Other Asians should gladly accept and respect the role of Japan as “the head” of the Asian family of races

From all of this will result Japan’s relationships with other groups/minorities it comes in contact with.

Meiji EraHeritage

Kazoku Kokka Emergence of Meiji Japan as a “Family-State”

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