Japan - A 12-episode large-scale television documentary series, The Rise of a Great Nation

Author: Ren Xue'an
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-11-01
Features: Over 150 years ago, under the coercion of four American black ships, the island nation of Japan, which had long been isolated, chose to open up without fighting. External pressure became the driving force for internal reform. Fifteen years after the arrival of the black ships, the Meiji Restoration officially began in 1868. Guided by the reformist slogan "Seek knowledge from the world," Japan sent the Iwakura Mission, composed of high-ranking government officials, to observe Western and Eastern countries. After that, Japan began its national industrialization: Okiura Komei promoted industrial development and enlightenment through a policy of borrowing, establishing numerous state-owned factories and vigorously supporting private enterprises; the legendary experience of, the father of modern Japanese enterprises, abandoning his official career to engage in business, became a footnote to that era; his successor, Itō Hirobumi, responded to the calls of the domestic freedom and rights movement and formulated the Japanese Ministry Constitution to consolidate the achievements of the Meiji Restoration. However, the introduction of the Emperor system into the "Great Japan Empire Constitution" sowed the seeds for the rise of Japanese militarism. ... Like all countries that, the mushroom cloud of the atomic bomb ended Japan's militaristic dream. After World War II, Japan, based on the "Peace Constitution" and with the support of the United States, rapidly developed its economy. In 1968, the centennial of the Meiji Restoration, it became the world's second-largest economic power after the United States and the Soviet Union.