SDHF Newsletter No.179 New History Textbook for Middle School (8)
New History Textbook for Middle School Students
Series No. 8, Chapter 4: Modern Japan and the World (Part 1) – From the Final Years of the Edo Shogunate to the End of the Meiji Period
Sections 3, 4
September 21, 2017
Series No. 8 contains Chapter 4, Sections 3 & 4.
Chapter 4, Section 3: Constitutionalism and the wars with China and Russia
Topic 58– The struggle to revise the unequal treaties
What strategies did Japan employ in order to renegotiate the unequal treaties signed with the Western powers during the final years of the shogunate?
* French Food and Black Mourning Dress
* An Excerpt from Foreign Minister Mutsu Munemitsu’s Speech to the Diet on
Treaty Revision (1893)
* The Long Road to Treaty Revision
Topic 59 – The Freedom and People’s Rights Movement and the birth of political parties
How did the Freedom and People’s Rights Movement start and in what way was it connected to the formation of Japan’s first political parties?
* An Excerpt from Itagaki Taisuke’s 1874 Proposal to Establish a Popularly Elected Assembly
(as recorded in Itagaki’s book The History of the Liberal Party)
* Reading Groups and the Draft Constitutions of the Freedom and People’s Rights Movement
Topic 60 – The Meiji Constitution and the foundation of a constitutional state
What principles were enshrined within the Meiji Constitution?
* A Constitution Praised Inside and Outside Japan
* The Imperial Rescript on Education
* The Major Articles of the Meiji Constitution
* Fukuzawa Yukichi, Author of An Encouragement of Learning and Leaving Asia
Topic 61 – The First Sino-Japanese War and the Triple Intervention
What sort of conflict was the First Sino-Japanese War?
* Kim Ok-kyun and the Kapsin Coup
* Japan’s First Party Cabinet
Topic 62 – The Anglo-Japanese Alliance
Why did Japan favor an alliance with Great Britain to protect its national security?
* The Disadvantages of a Russo-Japanese Treaty
(according to Komura Jutaro’s opinion paper)
* The Advantages of an Anglo-Japanese Alliance
Topic 63 – The Russo-Japanese War: Japan’s riskiest gambit
How was the Russo-Japanese War fought and what impact did Japan’s victory have on the world?
* The Japanese People who Fought the Russo-Japanese War
Topic 64 – Japan takes its place among the great powers
What were the consequences of Japan having joined the ranks of the great powers?
* America’s Gunboat Diplomacy Towards Japan
* Ito Hirobumi, Political Workhorse of the Meiji Government
Chapter 4, Section 4 – The evolution of modern industry and shaping of modern culture
Topic 65 – The development of modern industry and its consequences
How did Japan’s industrial revolution unfold?
* Model Government Factories Sold to Private Citizens
* Shibusawa Eiichi, The Man Who Made Japanese Business What It Is Today
Topic 66 – The formation of a modern culture
How did Japan’s acceptance of Western influence affect traditional Japanese culture?
* Japanese Scientists of the Meiji Period
* How the World Saw the Russo-Japanese War
CHAPTER 4 SUMMARY:
SUMMING UP THE MODERN PERIOD (PART 1)
MINI HISTORICAL DICTIONARY
URL: https://www.sdh-fact.com/book-article/1021/
PDF: https://www.sdh-fact.com/CL02_2/Chapter%204%20Section%203,%204.pdf
Questions are welcome.
MOTEKI Hiromichi, Acting Chairman
for KASE Hideaki, Chairman
Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact