Next time you hear someone rabbit on about living in an age of unparalleled change; of the information revolution; about the pace of life; tell them to go have a look at Japan at the beginning of the Meiji. Overnight much of the population of Japan were told to cut their hair and change their clothes. Then learn a new language; learn a new system of time keeping; learn new systems of measurement; master new machinery, new science, new technology, new philosophies, a new way seeing the world and how to live in it.
Japan is unique among the countries of the world faced with European expansion and empire building begun in the renaissance in having a literate and curious society and sophisticated publishing industry. And in scrupulously putting the whole business into word and picture. Admittedly it was an iffy proposition until the Meiji restoration but publish they did and when that made the authorities unhappy ways were found to keep information circulating.
Come Perry and his Black Ships the whole thing became a balancing act with a nation on the wire pulling in different directions. Japan must finally come to terms with the outside world and this was done with wild enthusiasm by some and black fury by others. The only thing agreed upon was that it should be on their own terms.
Who wins in the end, Japan or the west? This list should convince you that one or both sides maybe won or not.