2025-07-26
1 小时 55 分钟So I'm going to talk to you today about one of the two great generations in modern Japanese history and they are the Meiji generation named after the Meiji emperor here.
And that generation transformed Japan into the only and the first and the only non-western modern power in that period.
And the second great generation of modern Japanese is of course the post-war generation that transformed their country into a global powerhouse.
And I'm going to ask a question.
or try to both ask and answer it,
is what caused the reversal of the balance of power in Asia in the period that I'm going to talk to you about it?
And it's a really consequential question about why these tectonic changes take place in the international system,
because historically, China had always been the dominant.
a civilization in Asia from time immemorial.
And then Upstart Japan winds up doing things or China winds up doing things and it reverses and has profound effects.
And it's a very relevant question in our own day when there is an ongoing reversal of the reversal when China is on the comeback and threatening to put Japan back in its box.
So it's really interesting to ask, why how do these things happen?
So that's the background of what I'm talking about.
But if you think about China back in the day before Japan trounced China in the First Sino-Japanese War,
Chinese believe that there's only one civilization.
theirs, naturally.
And they believed that, of course, it's the best, because there's only one.
That makes it easier to do the best.
But in addition, if you think about all levels of human endeavor,
Chinese institutions were imitated throughout the East.