During the Jomon Period (13000 BC to 300 BC), the inhabitants of the Japanese islands were gatherers, fishers and hunters. Jomon is the name of the era's pottery.
During the Yayoi Period (300 BC to 300 AD), the rice culture was imported into Japan around 100 BC. With the introduction of agriculture, social classes started to evolve, and parts of the country began to unite under powerful land owners. Chinese travellers during the Han and Wei dynasties reported that a queen called Himiko (or Pimiku) reigned over Japan at that time. The Yayoi period brought also the introduction of iron and other modern ideas from Korea into Japan. Again, its pottery gave the period its name.
By the beginning of the Kofun Period (300 - 538), a center of power had developed in the fertile Kinai plain, and by about 400 AD the country was united as Yamato Japan with its political center in and around the province of Yamato (about today's Nara Prefecture). The period's name comes from the large tombs (kofun) that were built for the political leaders of that era. Yamato Japan extended from Kyushu to the Kinai plain, but did not yet include the Kanto, Tohoku and Hokkaido.
The emperor was ruler of Yamato Japan and resided in a capital that was moved frequently from one city to another. However, the Soga clan soon took over the actual political power, resulting in the fact that most of the emperors only acted as the symbol of the state and performed Shinto rituals.
Due to friendly relations to the kingdom of Kudara (or Paikche) on the Korean peninsula, the influence from the mainland increased strongly. Buddhism was introduced to Japan in the year 538 or 552 and was promoted by the ruling class. Prince Shotoku is said to have played an especially important role in promoting Chinese ideas. He also wrote the Constitution of Seventeen Articles about moral and political principles. Also the theories of Confucianism and Taoism, as well as the Chinese writing system were introduced to Japan during the Yamato period.
In 645, Nakatomi no Kamatari started the era of the Fujiwara clan that was to last until the rise of the military class (samurai) in the 11th century. In the same year, the Taika reforms were realized: A new government and administrative system was established after the Chinese model. All land was bought by the state and redistributed equally among the farmers in a large land reform in order to introduce the new tax system that was also adopted from China.
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Samurai HISTORYSamurai Armour / The samurai (or bushi) were the members of the military class, the Japanese warriors.
Samurai employed a range of weapons such as bows and arrows, spears and guns; but their most famous weapon and their symbol was the sword.
Samurai were supposed to lead their lives according to the ethic code of bushido ("the way of the warrior"). Strongly Confucian in nature, Bushido stressed concepts such as loyalty to one's master, self discipline and respectful, ethical behavior.
After a defeat, some samurai chose to commit ritual suicide (seppuku) by cutting their abdomen rather than being captured or dying a dishonorable death.
Heian Period (794-1185) The samurai's importance and influence grew during the Heian Period, when powerful landowners hired private warriors for the protection of their properties. Towards the end of the Heian Period, two military clans, the Minamoto and Taira, had grown so powerful that they seized control over the country and fought wars for supremacy against each other.
Kamakura Period (1192-1333) In 1185, the Minamoto defeated the Taira, and Minamoto Yoritomo established a new military government in Kamakura in 1192. As shogun, the highest military officer, he became the ruler of Japan.
Muromachi Period (1333 - 1573) During the chaotic Era of Warring States (sengoku jidai, 1467-1573), Japan consisted of dozens of independent states which fought each other constantly. Consequently, the demand for samurai was very high. Between the wars, many samurai worked on farms. Many of the famous samurai movies by Kurosawa take place during this era.
Azuchi-Momoyama Period (1573 - 1603) When Toyotomi Hideyoshi reunited Japan, he started to introduce a rigid social caste system which was later completed by Tokugawa Ieyasu and his successors. Hideyoshi forced all samurai to decide between a life on the farm and a warrior life in castle towns. Furthermore, he forbade anyone but the samurai from arming themselves with a sword.
Edo Period (1603 - 1868) According to the Edo Period's official hierarchy of social castes, the samurai stood at the top, followed by the farmers, artisans and merchants. Furthermore, there were hierarchies within each caste. All samurai were forced to live in castle towns and received income from their lords in form of rice. Masterless samurai were called ronin and caused minor troubles during the early Edo Period.
With the fall of Osaka Castle in 1615, the Tokugawa's last potential rival was eliminated, and relative peace prevailed in Japan for about 250 years. As a result, the importance of martial skills declined, and most samurai became bureaucrats, teachers or artists.
In 1868, Japan's feudal era came to an end, and the samurai class was abolished.
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Pearl Harbor - Japan Attacks - America Enters WWII HISTORY /On the morning of December 7, 1941, planes of the Japanese Navy carried out a surprise assault on the American Navy base and Army air field at Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii. Eighteen ships were sunk or damaged, and around 2400 Americans lost their lives. The Japanese suffered minimal casualties. This attack has been called the Bombing of Pearl Harbor and the Battle of Pearl Harbor but, most commonly, the Attack on Pearl Harbor or simply Pearl Harbor.
Overview
On March 27, 1941 Japanese spy Takeo Yoshikawa arrived in Honolulu, Hawaii and began to study the United States Naval fleet stationed at Pearl.
The Japanese deployed six aircraft carriers for the attack, Akagi, Hiryu, Kaga, Shokaku, Soryu, Zuikaku, with a total of 441 planes, including fighters, torpedo-bombers, dive-bombers, and fighter-bombers. Of these, 55 were lost during the battle.
The Japanese planes bombed the US Army air base at Hickam Field and the ships anchored in Battleship Row. The American battleship USS Arizona blew up and sank with a loss of over 1100 men, nearly half of the American dead. Seven other battleships and twelve other ships were sunk or damaged.
Historical significance
This battle, like the Battle of Lexington and Concord had history-altering consequences. It only had a small military impact due to the failure of the Japanese Navy to sink any U.S. carriers, but it firmly drew the United States into World War II and led to the demise of the Japanese Empire and aided in the defeat of Nazi Germany as well. America's ultimate victory in this war and its emergence as a world power has shaped international politics ever since.
Strategic appraisal
The purpose of the attack on Pearl Harbor was to neutralize American naval power in the Pacific. The Japanese wanted license to do as they pleased in the Pacific and Asia, and thought they could get this by eliminating American influence. Specifically, Japan had been embroiled in a war with China which had come to a stalemate after many years of fighting. Japan thought by cutting China off from American (as well as British) aid, China would be weakened, and the stalemate could be broken. Japan also knew that American naval power could not be neutralized indefinitely, but thought that by dealing it a heavy blow at Pearl Harbor, the American Navy could be neutralized long enough for Japan to achieve its objectives in Asia and the Pacific.
In terms of its strategic objectives the attack on Pearl Harbor was, in the short to medium term, a unique and spectacular success which eclipsed the wildest dreams of its planners and has few parallels in the military history of any era. For the next six months, the United States Navy was unable to play any significant role in the Pacific War; with the US Pacific Fleet out of the picture, Japan was free to to conquer South-East Asia, the entire South West Pacific and extend its reach far into the Indian Ocean.
In the longer term, however, the Pearl Harbor attack was an unmitigated strategic disaster for Japan. In the first place, the main Japanese target was the three American aircraft carriers stationed in the Pacific, but these had been dispatched from Pearl Harbor a few days before the attack and escaped unharmed. With most of the USN battleships out of commission, the Navy had no choice but to put its faith in aircraft carriers and submarines, and these would prove to be the tools with which the USN first stopped and then reversed the Japanese advance.
Furthermore, although the Japanese forces inexplicably did not consider them an important target, the base also had large fuel oil storage facilities - a successful bombing of them would not only have resulted in massive fires that could have devastated the base, but it would have also have crippled much of the Pacific Fleet by robbing them of a major fuel supply and fueling center thousands of miles from the mainland.
Most significantly of all, the Pearl Harbor attack galvanised a divided and half-hearted nation into action as nothing else could have done: overnight, it made the whole of America utterly determined to defeat Japan, and it forever removed any question of a negotiated settlement short of unconditional surrender.
A related question is why Nazi Germany declared war on the United States December 11, 1941 immediately following the Japanese attack. This doubly outraged the American public and allowed the United States to greatly step up its support of the United Kingdom while recovering from the setback in the Pacific.
Aftermath
Despite the perception of this battle as a devastating blow to America, only five ships were permanently lost to the Navy. These were the battleships USS Arizona, USS Oklahoma, the old target ship USS Utah, and the destroyers USS Cassin and USS Downes; much usable material was salvaged from them, including the two aft main turrets from the USS Arizona. Four ships that were sunk during the attack were later raised and returned to duty, including the battleships USS California, USS West Virginia and USS Nevada. Of the 22 Japanese ships that took part in the attack, only one was to survive the war.
In addition, despite the debacle, there were American personnel who served with distinction in the incident. The most famous is Doris Miller, an African-American sailor who went above and beyond the call of duty during the attack when he took control of an unattended machine gun and used it in defense of the base. For that, he was awarded the Navy Cross.
The attack has been depicted numerous times on film with the best known examples being:
· From Here to Eternity
· Tora! Tora! Tora!
· Pearl Harbor
The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and the resulting state of war between Japan and the United States were factors in the later Japanese internment in the western United States.
In 1991, it was rumored that Japan was going to release an official apology to the United States for the attack. The apology did not come in the form many expected, however. The Japanese Foreign Ministry released a statement that said Japan had intended to release a formal declaration of war to the US at 1 P.M., twenty-five minutes before the attacks at Pearl Harbor were scheduled to begin. However, due to various delays, the Japanese ambassador was unable to release the declaration until well after the attacks had begun. For this, the Japanese government apologized.
http://www.japan-101.com/history/pearl_harbor_ww2.htm
Little Boy was the codename given to the nuclear weapon dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on Monday, August 6, 1945. Little Boy was dropped from a B-29 Superfortress, the Enola Gay piloted by Lt. Col. Paul Tibbets, from about 31,000 feet (9450 m). The device exploded at approximately 8:15 a.m. (JST) when it reached an altitude of 1,800 ft (550 m).
It was the first of the two nuclear weapons that were ever used in warfare.
The Mk I "Little Boy" was 10 feet (3 m) in length, 28 inches (71 cm) wide and weighed 8,900 lb (4000 kg). The design used a gun arrangement to explosively force a sub-critical mass of uranium-235 and three U-235 target rings together into a super-critical mass, initiating a nuclear chain reaction. The yield of "Little Boy" was about 13 kilotons of TNT equivalent in explosive force, i.e. 5.5�1013 joule = 55 TJ (terajoule). Approximately 75,000 people were killed as a direct result of the blast, though more died later as a result of fallout and cancer.
At the time there had never been a test explosion with this type of weapon. The only test explosion of a nuclear weapon was with the plutonium-type, on July 16, 1945 at the Trinity site. This was because tests of controlled nuclear reactions with U-235 (as opposed to the uncontrolled reaction that occurs in a bomb) had already been done, and the principles involved were so simple that it was taken to be unnecessary to test the weapon in advance. The military were also anxious to drop the bomb, and testing the device would have delayed its use until more uranium was ready.
Although used occasionally in later experimental devices, the design was used only once as a weapon because of the extreme danger of a misfire. A simple crash could drive the "bullet" into the "target" and release lethal radiation doses or even a full nuclear detonation.
http://www.japan-101.com/history/little_boy.htm
CULTURE