I've recently moved into a phase of playing quite a few Japanese video games which I haven't done too often in the past, and it got me thinking about how they wouldn't have been such a force in pop culture today (perhaps just less than or even equal to the United States) if it weren't for the Meiji Restoration, and the extreme transformation of their society from medieval level warlords in 1850 to a respected, industrialized, imperial power that even had a mutually amicable treaty with Great Britain by 1902.
In my mind this seems like one of the most impressive things any society has ever done. They saw the writing on the wall, and successfully emulated those who could have potentially conquered them and essentially became their equal in such a short time, and of course they stomped Russia in 1904 and 5 proving how far they had come.
Are my thoughts on the uniqueness of this grand transformation correct, as well as my thinking that the leaders behind it were more forward thinking than it seems would be normal. Japan was really the only non-Western country to escape 19th century imperialism, either direct or indirect, not that people didn't try, so it really seems like Japan had something special going for it that allowed it to succeed so well.
What I'm looking for is somewhat a Japan version of the book "The Isles: a History" by Norman Davis; basically a telling of the history of Japan from prehistory to modern-day, or almost.
If something so extensive doesn't, comprehensibly, exist, I'd say I'm more interested in the middle ages up to 1800s history.
Thanks in advance.
I was just thinking how closely similar Fodlan and Japan seem to be. Case in point being that Fodlan is a country that stated by Claude, has closed their borders, xenophobic, and is racist. Japan could also be argued to be the same as throughout history, Japan has strictly cut themselves off from the world to the point of stagnation and falling behind the world as it advanced.
Japan also only traded with the Dutch at one point whilst China was trading with everyone. Then as time progressed, the US pretty much threatened to attack Japan if they didn't open up their borders which led to a change in government in Japan that allowed for trade and interaction with different countries. Which led to them going down an incredibly imperialistic approach to the world and leading to, well, the Rape of Nanjing, comfort women, and really, the systemic destruction of the lands they owned. As a Korean guy, the general attitudes older Koreans have towards Japan are very venomous. To the point that Korea even outlawed Japanese products until sometime in the 2000s meaning that companies like Nintendo had to pretty much sell their products under a different brand. This is all really to emphasize how much Japan left an impact on the people they invaded and ultimately looked down upon.
And this stems from the fact that in the early 1900s, Japan was really, really nationalistic. The government was pretty much hyping their country about being Japanese and that fact making them superior to the others. Japanese families genuinely believed that Japan was the head of other Asian families. Not only that, but Japan falsely accused Koreans of poisoning their water supplies which led them to executing 3000 and prisoning over 20000. In 1940s, it was common for Americans or British people to be subject to violence and abuse in Japan. To this day, Japan requires foreigners to exemplify what skills they have that locals don't just to get a work permit. There are also many businesses in Japan that will bar people from entry if they are not at least with a Japanese person. This led to a lot of lawsuits about racial discrimination. The UN even reported that Japan has a rampant issue with racism and xenophobic attitudes against minorities and other Asian groups.
Also, Japan is like, 97% all Japanese folk.
To bring the point back to the title, it feels like Fodlan is then a social commentary or analogy to Japan specifically. With the closing of borders and almost complete exclusion of outs
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It's absolutely hilarious, but I don't know enough about Japan to determine how accurate it truly is.
Video for reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh5LY4Mz15o
i want to learn about all the periods of japanese history such as sengoku era, edo era, meji era etc. without the book getting too complicated.
Japan is an island by Pacific with mountains and it's π dazzling!π
In -1,000,000,000... You might not find Japan. In -40,000 you can find it and you could walk to it. And a bunch of guys did walk to it. Fast forward, it got warm, aqua was rising, it did turn into an island, and now it has lots of shrubs, for it was warm.
So, now you could find humans on that island and it's basically sort of hanging out around mountains consuming nuts off shrubs and using rocks and bowls.
Ding dong. Itβs that world, and it has totally good tin and crazy grain farms! Now, you can farm a lot of grains totally quickly. That said, if you own a farm, you own a lot of food, which is a thing a human is using to sustain its vitality. So, that turns you king.
Grain farming and grain kingdoms did go across this land up to this part. Most important kingdoms lists as this, this, this, his, this, this and this . But, this was most most important, ruling by a "sky-bound kingβ.
Knock knock, go in, itβs divinity. This land's royal wants all to try this cool worshipping from this location. "Try Buddhism..." royal said. "No!" said that land's individuals. "Try it..." royal said. "No..." said that group again, not as loud now. And so, Buddhism and its laws was put.
Its ministry got took by this group and group got changing stuff, lists as such: making ministry go administrating a lot, and making ministry similar to Chinaβs ministry, which is a ministry that would go administrating a lot. "Hi, China." Japan said. "Hi, dipshit." said China. "Can you call us a thing that's not dipshit?" said Japan. "What do you want?" said China. "π How about sun origin?π " said Japan. And Japan took Chinaβs syllabary and did script a book about that land. And Japan had lots of stanzas and art and an additional book. Soon, it did stop moving its capital if that king pass away, and it did stay for a bit. In Kyoto. And, guys did go to that north part, finally. Got that out of our away.
A rich hippy Kukai thinks Buddhism is boring, visits China, and finds a cool divinity which is π spiritual,π did go back, adds an additional syllabary and got art and books to go π coolπ for long. And ministry did turn into such a good world of art that it didnβt go caring about running this country. So, if a guy is living not in ministry, how is it going to stop criminals? π Go own a samurai.π All in Japan was hiring samurai. (Rich guys did own samurai. Poor guys who could not afford to own samurai did not own samurai.)
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