Meiji Questions

Commodore Matthew Perry is best known for taking which action?

• leading the British East India Company

• rescuing Europeans during the Boxer Rebellion

• justifying European spheres of influence in China

• opening Japan to American and European influences

Base your answer on the quotation below and on your knowledge of social studies.

". . . I am willing to admit my pride in this accomplishment for Japan. The facts are these: It was not until the sixth year of Kaei (1853) that a steamship was seen for the first time; it was only in the second year of Ansei (1855) that we began to study navigation from the Dutch in Nagasaki; by 1860, the science was sufficiently understood to enable us to sail a ship across the Pacific. This means that about seven years after the first sight of a steamship, after only about five years of practice, the Japanese people made a transPacific crossing without help from foreign experts. I think we can without undue pride boast before the world of this courage and skill. As I have shown, the Japanese officers were to receive no aid from Captain Brooke throughout the voyage. Even in taking observations, our officers and the Americans made them independently of each other. Sometimes they compared their results, but we were never in the least dependent on the Americans. . . ."

— Eiichi Kiyooka, trans., The Autobiography of Fukuzawa Yukichi, The Hokuseido Press, 1934

Which set of events is most closely associated with the nation described in this passage?

• end of the Opium War creation of European spheres of influence

• end of the Tokugawa Shogunate beginning of the Meiji Restoration

• fall of the Manchus rise of Sun Yixian (Sun Yat-sen)

• imperialism in China start of World War II

Base your answer on the information below and on your knowledge of social studies.

Edict of 1635 Ordering the Closing of Japan

• Japanese ships are strictly forbidden to leave for foreign countries.

• No Japanese is permitted to go abroad. If there is anyone who attempts to do so secretly, he must be executed. The ship so involved must be impounded and its owner arrested, and the matter must be reported to the higher authority.

• If any Japanese returns from overseas after residing there, he must be put to death. . . .

• Any informer revealing the whereabouts of the followers of padres (Christians) must be rewarded accordingly. If anyone reveals the whereabouts of a high ranking padre, he must be given one hundred pieces of silver. For those of lower ranks, depending on the deed, the reward must be set accordingly. . .

Source: David John Lu, Sources of Japanese History, McGraw-Hill

These rules reflect the Japanese policy of

• totalitarianism

• appeasement

• interdependence

• isolationism

Japan’s increased foreign trade during the Meiji Restoration was closely related to its

• need to maintain a traditional society

• desire for a modern industrialized society

• colonization by Western nations

• encouragement of foreign investment

An immediate result of Commodore Matthew Perry's visit to Japan in 1853 was

• an alliance between Japan and Russia

• the development of trade between Japan and the West

• a war between Japan and the United States

• the continued isolation of Japan

The success of the Meiji Restoration depended on Japan's ability to

• borrow military models from China and Korea

• strengthen the traditional roles of the samurai

• replicate the power and wealth of the industrial West

• eliminate the imperial form of government

Base your answer to the next 2 questions on the treaty articles below and on your knowledge of social studies .

. . .ARTICLE VII

It is agreed that ships of the United States resorting to the ports open to them, shall be permitted to exchange gold and silver coin and articles of goods for other articles of goods under such regulations as shall be temporarily established by the Japanese government for that purpose. It is stipulated [specified], however that the ships of the United States shall be permitted to carry away whatever articles they are unwilling to exchange ....

ARTICLE IX

It is agreed, that if, at any future day, the government of Japan shall grant to any other nation or nations privileges and advantages which are not herein granted to the United States and the citizens thereof, that these same privileges and advantages shall be granted likewise to the United States and to the citizens thereof without any consultation or delay ....

- Treaty of Kanagawa, March 31, 1854

Which event in Japanese history is a direct result of the Japanese government signing this treaty?

• fall of the Tokugawa shogunate

• involvement in the Russo-Japanese War

• annexation of Korea

• establishment of Manchukuo

Base your answer to the next 2 questions on the passage below and on your knowledge of social studies.

...Economic reforms included a unified modern currency based on the yen, banking, commercial and tax laws, stock exchanges, and a communication network. Establishment of a modern institutional framework conducive to an advanced capitalist economy took time but was completed by the 1890s. By this time, the government had largely relinquished direct control of the modernization process, primarily for budgetary reasons. Many of the former daimyo, whose pensions had been paid in a lump sum, benefited greatly through investments they made in emerging industries. Those who had been informally involved in foreign trade before the Meiji Restoration also flourished. Old bakufu-serving firms that clung to their traditional ways failed in the new business environment....

Source: Japan: A Country Study, Library of Congress

Which set of factors directly advanced the modernization process described in this passage?

• isolationist policies, taxation policies, lump sum payments

• capital investments, government influences, economic reforms

• foreign trade, direct governmental control, old bakufu-serving firms

• communication networks, customary practices, revoking pensions