A Restoration that Never Became a Revolution: The Meiji Restoration as a Rebuilder of Japanese Conservative Nationalism

Abstract

The Meiji Restoration has traditionally been described as an event that ushered in great economic and technological progress, accompanied by rapid governmental bureaucratization and industrialization. Contrary to this view, the fact that progressive development served as a means to restore Japanese nationalism critically explains why the Restoration cannot be called a revolution. In this study, I will argue that the Restoration was no more than a restoration because beneath the veneer of pursuing rapid industrialization to keep up with the West, it had the deeper aim to restore Japanese conservative nationalism. More specifically, the restoration of the authority of the imperial throne as the core of nationalism or kokutai was aimed at the restoration of national pride after Commodore Matthew Perry’s gunboat diplomacy, an ideal cherished by politicians and citizens alike. Economic and technological advancements and the recuperation of imperial authority were means through which the rebuilding of a conservative spiritual nationalism was to be accomplished as the ultimate goal. In other words, the Meiji Restoration was a societal reconstruction program initiated from above and supported by the Japanese public to re-establish Japanese conservative nationalism through rapid material advancement and the return of the monarch as a symbolic figurehead.