Japanese Beautiful Model

While the Japanese scrambled to emulate European models of industrialism and imperialism, the Chinese were ?

slower to mobilize against threats from the West. How would you anaylize that?

Public Comments

1. It isn't that the Japanese scrambled to emulate the West, but rather that the Japanese governmental system was more centralized and mobilized more quickly to deal with the new information from the West. The Tokugawa Shogunate was minutely structured, a well-functioning bureaucracy for the most part, and the system of sankin-kotai (alternate attendance, where daimyo of distant han (provinces) were required to spend time in Edo for a portion of the year) ensured a quick diffusion of information and material throughout the country. China, on the other hand, was much less centralized (also a MUCH larger area), and therefore could not act as one unit in the face of the Western influx. By the time the Chinese got it together and realized the British were trying to take over, the Opium Wars were underway and the country was largely subjugated before some parts realized there was trouble. Japan took this lesson to heart and first reacted with the various Sonno Joi movements (Revere the Emperor, Expel the Foreigners), which then became Sonno-Tobaku (Revere the Emperor, Overthrow the Bakufu (Tokugawa Shogunate)) when it became clear that the Western threat wasn't being handled properly by the Shogun's forces. Once the strife was mostly settled, it became clear that, in order to face the West, Japan had to adopt their technological and learning advances. Thus, they decided to model their restored state (Meiji Restoration of 1868) on the model of a strong military and central government led by the only figure they would all rally around--the Emperor. By the end of the Russo-Japanese war, Western nations were scrambling to learn from the methods of the Japanese military, who had so perfectly adapted Western industry and military methods.