CHINESE & JAPANESE HISTORY

© MMXX V.1.0.1

by Morley Evans

CHINESE & JAPANESE 

MODERN HISTORY

The Shogun and the Chinese Emperor both had the same policy to deal with foreigners. They allowed foreigners to exchange goods for a few hours on one day a year in one place only. They did not want their regimes to be contaminated by foreigners. The British having had learned how to make smokable opium from the Dutch engaged in international drug trafficking to rectify the balance of trade. The Chinese had lots of stuff everyone wanted to buy while everyone else had little the Chinese wanted to buy. The situation was very similar to today! The British East India Company plan was to open an opium den on every street corner in China. When the Emperor of China objected to the British turning everyone in China into a drug addict, war broke out. China ceded Hong Kong for a 100-year-lease to the British. The Chinese Empire was doomed until Mao restored Chinese sovereignty in the 20th century. The British East India Company was owned by bankers in the City of London — not the Crown, despite Hong Kong being called a Crown Colony. If the business plan of the East India Company sounds bizarre, please remember the United Cigar Stores selling tobacco on every street corner and the current worldwide pharmaceutical industry that has most people taking at least two pharmaceutical drugs for life. That isn’t much different from what the Chinese Emperor disliked.

Commodore Perry sailed into the forbidden Tokyo (Edo) Harbour with the Black Fleet — big steel ships that moved silently without sails. They had onboard artillery. The effect was the same as aliens from outer space arriving in Washington, DC, today. Commodore Perry presented a list of trade “proposals”. He made an offer that the Shogun could not refuse. Japanese businessmen saw an opportunity to hit the big time. They launched a civil war to overthrow the Shogun. They won. The civil war today is celebrated as the “Meiji Restoration”. The Emperor was restored to a status similar to the British constitutional monarch. The businessmen got rich and created the Empire of Japan modelled after the British Empire. Japan borrowed the best from the best. They copied the Royal Navy and the British rail system. They copied German education and the Prussian military. They kept what they imagined were the traditions of the Samurai. Both the forces loyal to the Shogun and the insurgents used rifles, Gatling guns, and artillery but the Shogun was history. While the Shogun didn’t wake up to find a horse’s head in bed with him, he could have. The new rulers of Japan were America’s best friends. They gave the cherry blossom trees you admire in the spring today in Washington, DC. Japan was an American ally in WWI. Japan was an enemy in WWII. How that happened is another story. On Sunday 20 September 2020 at noon, Toyota won the 24HOURS of Le Mans for the third consecutive time after years of trying and failing. Whining and quitting is not a part of the Japanese character. Japanese strive for excellence and success. Japanese expect a lot of themselves. That is the Samurai tradition.