First, it guarantees the integrity of Japan's sovereignty. If there is no "closed door" against the west since the17th century, Japan will probably become an out-and-out colony like Southeast Asia and India. Why does Japan abandon the West and just want to keep in touch with China? Because China is not as aggressive as westerners, China is a reassuring country compared with western powers. Secondly, Japan has cultivated its own feudal system in the past 200 years, laying the foundation for the development of capitalist economy. Why the feudal system can breed capitalism will be discussed later. Third, it protects Japanese tradition and culture from the destruction of the West. To put it simply, both Chinese and Japanese scholars and western scholars agree that the advantages of Japan's "closed door" to the West for more than 200 years obviously outweigh the disadvantages.
Then, why did Japan suddenly start the Meiji Restoration Movement after more than 200 years of "closed door"? The main reason is that the Japanese saw the end of China in the Opium War. China's experience in the Opium War was a great shock to Japan. Japan realized that even China was no match for the western powers, and it would be even less if it didn't change itself. So in 1860, American warships arrived in Japan, and Japan only resisted a little and gave up. The Meiji Restoration Movement began.
We should explore the reasons why the Meiji Restoration Movement can proceed smoothly.
First of all, before the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese king was a puppet for a long time and had no real power. American warships opened the door to Japan, and the shogunate, which had long controlled the Japanese regime, assumed the responsibility of failure. The Japanese king was promoted to the highest position in history, and the Meiji Restoration was carried out nationwide from top to bottom under the centralization of the Japanese king. Comparatively speaking, it was difficult for the Qing government at that time to blame the emperor for the failure of the Opium War. Therefore, it is impossible to form a large-scale transformation of power and policy, and its huge body is slowly adjusted. Originally, Guangxu's personal rule may become an opportunity, but due to the superposition of domestic and foreign factors, this opportunity has also been lost.
Secondly, because the Opium War savagely opened the door to China, considering the limited energy of the Japanese, the attention of western powers almost turned to the richest China.
Third, Japan's island consciousness gave them ready-made nationalism, which was just used by the Meiji Restoration Movement of the Japanese emperor. For example, 1860 Japanese officials who signed a contract with the United States were quickly assassinated by hot-blooded young people in China. 1862, 2 1 year-old Ito Bowen conspired to burn down the British Embassy in Tokyo. His behavior was the same as that of the Boxer Rebellion in China decades later, except that the nationalist enthusiasm of China people came late in the Qing Dynasty, and the reformists did not guide and use it in time. The Qing government has always been ambivalent about the rising public sentiment (suppose the Qing government accepted the advice of the young Sun Yat-sen? ) In the Boxer Movement, due to the lack of correct guidance, this patriotic enthusiasm failed to play a positive role. The Qing government was timid about public opinion and patriotic enthusiasm, worried too much about the continuation of the royal family, and finally turned the enthusiasm that should have been worked hard into anger to vent its dissatisfaction; The anger that should have been directed at the western powers eventually burned on the Qing government itself, which made China lose a lot of time.
However, in addition to discussing the reasons why the Meiji Restoration in Japan can be realized, we should also discuss the essence of the Meiji Restoration. The first is nationalism, even fanatical nationalism, and the last is extreme racism, which has played a very important role in the rise of western powers. There is hardly any big country that does not believe in fanatical nationalism and takes part in plundering territory. After the Meiji Restoration in Japan, the original nationalist enthusiasm turned into racist fanaticism, which was the evil result brought by the Meiji Restoration and eventually harmed the whole of Asia.
Secondly, in the face of the inherent power of the old powers, most of the new powers adopt militaristic policies. In Europe, the typical representative is Prussia, which created Germany. In the heyday of Prussia, 80% of national income was spent on armaments, and the number of troops accounted for 4% of the total population. What kind of concept is this? The population of China today is equivalent to an army of 50 million people. In addition, the whole state bureaucracy is filled by the official system. After the Meiji Restoration in Japan, there was no essential difference between the results and those of Germany. The Japanese king put on a show in front of the people all over the country, eating only one meal a day, saying that he had to scrimp and save money to buy warships. Before the Sino-Japanese War, Japan faced bankruptcy in order to expand its armaments. Only because we won the bet in the Sino-Japanese War, can we be saved. After the Japanese occupation of northeast China, local administration was controlled by the Kwantung Army, and the domestic cabinet was increasingly controlled by the military. Such a huge military expenditure has no regard for the living standards of its own people, and its ultimate goal is only war and plunder. That's exactly what Japan did. At that time, the war of the great powers was investment, crazy adventure and gambling. In China, war has always been just to defend the country. China people can't understand the war logic of the great powers in those days, and they still can't accept their war ideas.
Third, the history of Japan after the Meiji Restoration should not be separated. At present, some people only see the determination and measures of Meiji Restoration reform, but have no connection with its results. It seems that the decision of Meiji Restoration was correct, but there was a deviation in operation, which led to the subsequent consequences. In my opinion, in the world environment of19th century, the only way to become a powerful country is to use violent means. The world politics of that era was the reality that bandits were rampant and everywhere. In such an environment, if you want to become a powerful country, you can only turn yourself into a more ruthless robber than other robbers. After the Meiji Restoration, Japan became the only powerful country among non-western countries, and became a special case of the weak country becoming stronger in that era. Its criminal history just proves this point. It was an era of forced prostitution, and the western powers created an animal world of the jungle, which led to two world wars.
For Japan, the choice of self-improvement in Meiji Restoration happened in the ugly environment of world politics at that time, which finally changed the temperament of the whole Japanese nation. In just a few decades, he has become a vicious villain, trampling on other countries and nations for his own interests. Therefore, China's real failure is that our national character can't completely take the road of fighting violence with violence, and we have unrealistic expectations for the conscience of big countries. It was a sinful era, and any kind nation would only be enslaved if it didn't want to be a robber. In other words, in the19th century, it is impossible for China to embark on the road of peaceful development, and for thousands of years, one of the outstanding qualities of China people is their love for peace.
In today's world, after two world wars, some changes have taken place in world politics. However, on many fundamental issues, the change is not great, but it is covered up. Therefore, even today when it is finally possible for China to embark on the road of peaceful development, we should always remind ourselves not to turn ourselves into unscrupulous robbers. At the same time, we should have the means to deal with all kinds of open and hidden modern robbers. The topic of closing the door to the outside world is almost over. Let's talk about the last paragraph tomorrow.