Since the morning of January 3, 1868, Japan has struggled to answer one question: What does it mean to be modern and Japanese? It was on that date that a group of mid-level samurai and imperial courtiers announced the formation of a new government to be ruled by the 16-year old Meiji emperor, thus ending […]
For those seeking to understand the perilous politics of the region today, there is no better place to start than the First Sino-Japanese War, which pitted China’s fading Qing Dynasty against an ascendant Meiji Japan in a contest for regional supremacy. Read Here – National Interest
A question about historical precedents for China’s rise landed in my reader mailbag last week. “What,” my correspondent asked, “is the better optic for looking at China today — Bismarckian/Wilhelmine Germany, or post-Meiji Japan? Or both?” Both! Forced to choose, though, I think Imperial Germany supplies more useful indices for plotting China’s trajectory. Someone should really […]
looking beyond borders 