JAP100 History: 3.2 Late Meiji, Korea

This lecture will consist of four distinct parts, arranged only partially in chronological order. The first will consist of a look at some of the less positive reaction to Japan’s rise and its victory over Russia. As we are reaching the end of the Meiji period in this lecture, this is a good time to look back on the imperial personage and institution as it was constructed over that time. That will take up the middle section of this lecture. The third part will return to the kind of more or less chronological narrative we have been following so far, taking us through the so-called “Taisho political crisis” of 1912, the year of Meiji’s death, and into the World War I era. The final section treats the annexation and subsequent treatment of Korea, with some reference, particularly for the purposes of comparison, to Japan’s older colony, Taiwan.