Sign of the Times
Japanese civilization has played role in transforming Western world history
Let us think about the rise and fall of Japanese civilization. Many people feel that Japan today is in a stage of decline. Is this true? In what way is it declining?
Moreover, upward and downward trends aside, what exactly is Japanese civilization? What are its characteristics, its standards, and its international status? How does our country's rich history answer such questions? We tend to preoccupy ourselves with what is unfolding right before our eyes, but at times it can be helpful to confirm where we are and where we are headed within the big historical picture.
During the Kamakura period (1185-1333), with the country in chaos, people had the sense of impending doom. Ceaseless conflicts led intellectuals to identify with the notion that they were in the midst of "mappo" or a degenerate age, one of the three ages -- "shoho" (age of true teaching), "zoho" (age of lip worship) and "mappo" -- in Mahayana Buddhism, in which the teachings of Buddha go unfollowed. Jien, a Tendai Buddist monk and witness of the Jokyu War of 1221, observed in his multivolume reflection on Japanese history, "Gukansho" (Jottings of a fool), that while the large cycle of history was headed toward "mappo," history was not comprised merely of a single trajectory. Rather, he argued, a small cycle with an upward moving phase exists within the larger cycle, and while there is nothing mankind can do if both cycles are simultaneously headed downwards, human actions can gain significance when the cycles are counteracting each other. Jien preached that it is important to know the logic behind history and to act accordingly.
The Buddhist priest Nichiren, who lived through the Mongol invasions of Japan in the late 13th century, believed that losing sight of "shoho," or the true teachings of the Buddha, had led the world into chaos, and implored rulers and commoners to mend their ways. At the same time, he preached that the Buddha's superlative teachings would emerge at the height of mappo degeneration, or the apocalypse.
"Mappo" was an apt description for the turbulent history experienced by Japan from the Onin War of 1467 to 1477 through the Warring States period. The relentless destructive energy that existed during this time was finally brought under control by the Tokugawa shogunate, resulting in 270 years of peace -- the longest such period in the history of the country.
The problem was that while Japan enjoyed its long-lasting peace isolated from the rest of the world, the Industrial Revolution had begun in Britain. Civilizations up to that point had relied on human labor and horsepower, but Western civilizations that had undergone the Industrial Revolution were now able to travel across land and water on engines. Western civilization had become the first world civilization in human history. World politics was now controlled by Western powers, and non-West societies became mere objects. The ballooning power of the West, which proceeded to boldly swallow non-Western societies, reached Japan. The country now faced an unprecedented crisis.
It is likely that Japan would have been colonized during the 19th century like many other non-Western societies, had Japanese civilization not achieved the level it had already reached at that point. Although by the Edo period Japan had not yet attained the modern conveniences or systems that rose out of the Industrial Revolution, its literacy rate was comparable to that of Western countries. Additional factors worked in Japan's favor, such as its geographical distance from the heart of Western power, and the fact that because Western nations were fighting with each other to gain control of Japan, no one country was able to do so. Still, had Japan not possessed the ability to respond remarkably to such challenging circumstances, it would not have succeeded in opening its doors to the West while still maintaining its independence, come out victorious from a war half a century later with Russia, a Western military giant, or grown into a major player in world affairs on equal footing with Western nations. So, what kind of response did Japan take to become an exception among non-Western countries?
The "joi" (expulsion of barbarians) movement that swept across the country from the final days of the Edo period through the Meiji Restoration seems to hold the key to this question. "Joi," in other words, is the expression of ethnic pride. In his 12-volume analysis of civilizations, "A Study of History," British historian Arnold J. Toynbee stated that when proud societies are challenged by powerful foreign civilizations, they give rise to passionate zealots. Countries that do not see the rise of such zealots or "joi" advocates are likely to submit to powerful countries. Thus, it was the strong samurai will to resist that had allowed Japan to maintain its independence during the age of imperialism.
Still, merely using one's military might to fight Western powers with far more military strength will put a weaker nation in danger of defeat. Even after the fall of Jerusalem in the 1st century BC, Jewish zealots took refuge in the Masada fortress and continued to resist the Roman invasion for three years, until, eventually, 960 warriors and their families chose to die at their own hands rather than be captured by the Romans.
Toybee dubbed the typical response to threats from outside powers as Herodism. Under the Herodist line of thinking, when challenged by a strong enemy, one tries to steal the secrets behind the enemy's powerful civilization -- a sober, rational response that helps in overcoming the enemy in the long run -- rather than electing for an honorable death. The Anglo-Satsuma War in 1863 and the Bombardment of Shimonoseki, in which Japan fought against the joint naval forces of Britain, France, the Netherlands, and the U.S. in 1864 , made the "joi" will and its limitations all too clear.
Subsequently, not only the shogunate, but the Meiji government ultimately settled on a Herodist approach. The nation resisted the pressure of proud samurai who continued to express their unyielding determination to fight, and chose a sensible approach that made international cooperation possible. This was why Japan was able cope with modern Western civilization. It was when the pervasive "joi" energy of the end of the Edo period was converted into the Meiji era push to learn from Western civilization that modern Japan found its path in becoming the only non-Western nation to overcome the threat of the West. Before we even discuss the decline of contemporary Japan, let us understand that Japanese civilization has achieved a standard high enough to have had an indispensable role in transforming Western world history into global world history. (By Makoto Iokibe, president of the National Defense Academy of Japan)
(Mainichi Japan) May 19, 2009