Peasants, Rebels, and Outcasts

Hane writes that the process of modernization which began, roughly, in 1868, was specifically designed to dramatically alter the lives of peasants who had served as the core of the old way of life:

The year 1868, when the imperial court regained political power from the "feudal" Tokugawa government, is customarily regarded as the beginning of the modern age in Japan. The new rulers then launched Japan on a path of militarization and industrialization, effecting a revolution rather than a simple transference of power or a gradual transition from the "feudal" to the "modern" age (4).

The new rulers wanted to do away with the old way of life, based in large part on the feudal relationship between the peasant and the ruling class, but the peasants proved remarkably resistant to the planned transformation. The urban centers responded more favorably to such change, but the rural areas, dominated by peasants, h

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d. Silk factories, for instance, required more workers, who were often young females recruited from the peasant class because "they could be paid little and easily controlled, being normally docile and obedient. Sometimes girls as young as eight and nine were employed in these plants' (175). These circumstances can hardly be seen as an improvement in the lives of the peasants under modernization. In general, then, the thrust of Hane's argument is that modernization asked more of the peasants than they had been asked even in the feudal era which supposedly was brought to an end in 1868. In return for their harder work and greater sacrifice, the peasants were granted superficial rewards, such as freedom of dress and travel. However, as Hane portrays the situation, the attitude of the rulers of modern Japan from 1868 to the end of world war II remained constant: The peasants were seen primarily as resources to be exploited to achieve its national goals. if a modicum of benefits from the process of building a rich and powerful nation spilled over into the countryside, it was only incidental to the objectives pursued by the builders of "modern" Japan. the leaders' aim was the same as that of the Tokugawa rulers: Squeeze sesame seeds
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Approximate Word count = 2510
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)