How Did The Early Meiji Period Affected Japan?

The social patterns of the early Meiji era also affected the Japanese people’s response to the treaty. Before the treaty, Japan had generated substantial national pride through modernization, industrialization, and foreign conquests, especially since it had proven its strength and competence to be regarded as an equal to Western nations to accomplish its ultimate goal of revising the unfair treaty just a decade ago. Therefore, after celebrating success stories for 18 months during the Russo-Japanese War, which only elevated the public’s sense of patriotism and confidence in the outcome of the war, the public was extremely dissatisfied with the terms of the Treaty of Portsmouth. They believed that the victory should be more decisive in terms of land and monetary

Spending about a million dollars per day, Japan quickly faced a financial crisis (Sanborn 1837). However, while Japanese leaders knew that its victories were not purely beneficial, the people’s perspectives of the war differed from the leaders’. The genro consistently manipulated the public’s views, distorting people’s perception of victories, as they heard more of the successes and less of the losses in military resources. They aimed to paint Japan as stronger than it really was to project an image of an eternally powerful nation not only to the West and other Asian countries, but also domestically to its own people. To further national pride and patriotism, a sentiment especially heightened in times of conflict due to the “us versus them” mentality, for promoting Japanese willingness to serve the country, the Meiji leaders amplified Japan’s victories and downplayed its losses in the Russo-Japanese War. Thus, this recurring social theme of deception by the Meiji oligarchy led the public to overestimate its nation’s strength and contributed to the bitter resentment that met the