A Synopsis of Japanese Military History

Under the Tokugawa Shogunate (1603-1868), travel to and trade with other countries was severely restricted by the policies of sakoku [closed country]. While a very limited amount of trade was allowed, namely with China and Holland through the port of Nagasaki, outside influences of religion and politics were kept away by the strict policies of the shogunate. The Portuguese and the Spanish had been very active in East Asia, and the shogunate was resolutely determined to thwart any impact they could have on the Japanese population. This xenophobic control over the country's social structure was also part of the shogun's struggle to maintain supremacy over the other powerful lords [daimyō] within the country. The strength of each feudal domain was contingent on the samurai, who were the warriors protecting the daimyō and his domain. The samurai ranked high on the echelon of the social structure of feudal Japan, and during the Edo Period (1600-1878), the Way of the Samurai [bushidō] became the backbone of this class. The re-created mores of the samurai were to become a strong influence on the national polity of Imperial Japan.

One legacy of feudalism was, of course, the threat of unrest between different feudal domains. Reducing the daimyō's ability to trade with the outside world also ensured that they were limited in their capacity to increase their military strength. For 220 years, the shogunate was successful in repelling attempts to end this policy of seclusion, until the arrival of American Naval Commodore Matthew Perry in July 1853. Perry sailed into Edo Bay (now Tokyo) with four warships – the Mississippi, the Plymouth, the Saratoga, and the Susquehanna, which were thereafter known as the Kurofune [Black Ships]. Backed by the threat of his ships’ guns, Perry demanded that Japan open its doors to the West.

Perry's gunboat diplomacy resulted in various treaties being signed with other Western countries in the ensuing five years. Opening up the country did not happen without resistance from within. Some sought to reinstate the Emperor (direct imperial rule had effectively ended in 1185), and this faction also wished to tighten control of foreign interaction even further.