Rather than falling for the simplistic trap of framing Japan's 'modernization' as an external agent foisted upon the country with the arrival of Commodore Perry's black ships, Goto-Jones is careful to set the stage for a nation both ostensibly stable yet at the knife-edge of upheaval. The picture he paints of Japan is that of a heavily-stratified society, based on the shi-no-ko-sho system of samurai at the top, and merchants at the bottom, with a deeply conservative strain of Confucianism whose emphasis on obedience circumvented not only social mobility but individual assertion.
While Edo-era Japan is renowned for its cultural richness – particularly the flourishing of the arts, the rapid growth of the ukiyo, as well as the patronage of the kabuki theater – there is unarguably the sense of a society sunk into dissipation and depression. A long era of peace left the samurai as little more than relics, their wealth and social standing threatened by the rising merchant class; the Seclusion laws, or sakoku, while allowing the nation to focus inward, nonetheless left it a step behind the Industrial Revolution sweeping the rest of the world. Into this volatile sociopolitical mix, foreign intrusions and lopsided trade treaties sparked a slow-burning but ultimately sweeping struggle between the bakufu, and its opponents. By the mid-nineteenth century, the growth of anti-bakufu factions, particularly in domains such as Choshu and Satsuma would lead to the dissolution of the Tokugawa shogunate altogether.
Goto-Jones' analysis is thoughtful and clear-cut. That said, I would have enjoyed a closer examination into the intricacies of Edo-period society. While arguably caught in a state of segregation and stagnation, there is no denying that the sakoku policy saw the development of some of Japan's most salient cultural aspects, in addition to a flourishing literacy rate (at least for males). It would also have been interesting to touch upon specific social characteristics and cultural values fostered during the era, that may later have actually enabled Japan to propel itself into 'modernization' with such alacrity.
In the third and early fourth chapters of Modern Japan, Goto-Jones traces the tail-end of the Meiji restoration, into the nation's efforts at empire-building, down to the wartime eras of Sino-Japanese conflict, and finally into WWII and its immediate aftermath. Although at times sacrificing complexity for concision, he nonetheless effectively illustrates Japan's often contentious negotiations with 'modernity' and self-essentialization, as well as their motivations for wanting to emerge as a formidable empire in their own right, standing shoulder to shoulder with their Western peers.
While historians oftentimes succumb to the oversimplifed formula of lauding the Meiji Restoration as the sole catalyst for transforming Japan into a democratic state, Goto-Jones is careful to avoid this misconception. Rather, he explains that the Meiji restoration did not see an equalizing of power so much a 'reshuffling' of it within the same vertical hierarchy, while the Emperor retained his place as the nexus of authority. At the same time however, Goto-Jones is quick to note that the Meiji-era industrialization, while serving less as a catapult for Japan's economic success following WWII, was nonetheless a solid foundation that allowed the nation a recourse in the wake of wartime devastation, largely in the form of existent industries and a centralized government.
Apart from that, Japan's economic upswing in 1945, according to Goto-Jones, can be credited to the sociopolitical reform and stability Japan enjoyed under SCAP, in addition to the influx of personnel emerging into the workforce as a result of demilitarization, as well as the ironically fortuitous event of the Korean War, which enabled the nation to become a supplies depot for the US and UN.
On the whole, Goto-Jones chronological yet non-linear style proves effective at painting a portrait of Japan's stumbling yet determined efforts toward gaining recognition among the European powers as an empire sui generis. He also details with sensitivity both Japan's own militaristic follies in the endeavor, as well as the subsequent double-standards to which they were subjected to by European powers, many of whom viewed the nation as a small but threatening upstart.
While I would have appreciated a more detailed dovetailing of the era with global events, particularly during the late Showa period from the 1930s-40s, this is understandably beyond the scope of the book – and Goto-Jones nonetheless succeeds in bringing certain incidents such as the Panay Incident and the massacre at Nanjing into critical focus.
The final chapters of Goto-Jones' Modern Japan pivot on the nation's postwar identity crisis, and its continuing existential angst. Drawing from a wealth of political, historical and literary discourse, the author frames the nation's postwar and postmodern struggles toward identity formation in distinctly psychological terms – 'schizophrenic', 'mentally ill', 'splintered' – thereby revealing the painful dichotomy still prevalent in Japanese society as it plays tug of war between militarist/pacifist and global/national ideologies.
Tracing the nation's 1960s economic boom through the Lost Decade of the 1990s and into the contemporary sphere of the 21st century, Goto-Jones emphasizes the challenges that arise within a nation that has both willingly and unwillingly appropriated aspects of Western culture, and the subsequent fissures in its national psyche as it veers back and forth between self-assertion and co-dependence in its relationship with the US.
At the same time, however, Goto-Jones is quick to note the fallacies of essentializing an entire population in terms of national character. Not only does it run afoul of ethnocentric standards of cultural coherence versus disintegration, but it creates an insidious deflection of blame, denying Japan's brutalities during its empire-building era by transforming "the perpetrator into the patient." Goto-Jones is especially interested in how these efforts toward unitary selfhood effect the populace, from the birth of otaku subcultures to generational frictions and youth movements across the historical spectrum.
While it would easy to describe Goto-Jones closing chapters as bleak, with Japan caught in a simultaneous state of urban inertia and volatility, he instead preserves a modicum of optimism. The nation's identity, while fluid, is nonetheless uniquely its own. Supplemental materials, such as the Made in Japan television series viewed in class, reinforce this view. While the focus appears to be very much on a corporation – and by proxy a nation – struggling against its dying gasp, with the lives of its employees hollowed out and dictated by uncertainty, the underpinnings are uniquely human and hopeful.
While Japan as a nation may not be able to recapture its former glory as a major economic force in the 1980s – or even earlier, as a unified empire pre-Meiji era – its story is not a stillborn one. As it continues to negotiate its relationship with modernity, it may discover new facets of its own identity – positive or negative, traditional or global – but with the choice to do so on its own terms.
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