If the Shogunate had stayed in power, it's hard to imagine

>>3135686
Japan's Emperors have always been powerless cucks. Meiji was a fluke.

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On a related note, whats the best literature out there on the Boshin War that won't require me to learn Japanese?

>>3135781
Shinsengumi: The Shogun's last Samurai Corps by Romulus Hillsborough

W.G Beasley's A Modern History of Japan.

Early Modern Japan by Conrad Totman

>>3135686
I could see the shogunate being forced to accept a parliament, but that would have broken their power in the long run. IN fact the shogunate attempted to accept such a compromise but it was rejected by the imperialists

>>3136076
The fact they were willing to cooperate shows they were more open to democracy in general. The legal restraints on the Emporer that the Shogunate imposed in the 1600s looks really progressive in some ways.

Their system (military Republic) is inherently more stable than having all power vested in 1 hereditary lineage, but also has historically been more open to change without war. I'm thinking about Franco's Spain, I'm thinking about Thailand and Burma.

The Meiji Restoration was a mistake.

>>3135686
Meiji was also not super powerful.
The ones in charge were men from samurai families.

Saigo Takamori, Okubo Toshimishi.

>>3137610
Well they were open to a great Briton style parliament, with an upper house and a lower house but they still wanted to do things like maintain their lands and retainers.

Such a system would have lead to either stagnation or destroyed samurai control in the long run.

>>3135705
Meiji was the work of Perfidious Albion.

They wanted more trade access and the Shogun said no.

>>3135779
This guy is without a doubt /fa/ and looks based as fuck.

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>>3139737
Count on the French to try and stop the bullshit.

>>3139706
>destroyed samurai control in the long run

well, i'd rather it was destroyed in the long run instead needing 2 world wars.

>>3135686
Japan would have become another China, become a puppet or outright colonised had the Meiji restoration not happened. And Meiji was great but it's actually debated how much he had to do with the restoration, I recommend the book Emperor of Japan: Meiji and his world to know him a bit better.

>>3135779
I'd suck this guy's dick no homo

>>3135686
The Meiji emperor wasn't an exceptional character, he was a teenager when he "came to power". He was a figurehead for the low-rank Samurai from the Tozama domains like Satsuma and Choshu who later became the Genro.

>>3135887
Thanks.

>>3140050
This is bullshit. The Western Powers had no colonial ambitions on Japan, the amount of resources and money you'd need to control it would be thoroughly unprofitable. Also, there's no natural resources aside from muh woodcarvings.

people have to understand that the Japanese Dynasty has at this point ruled Japan for over 2000 years. They don't need political power, since their spiritual and moral power over japan is absolute. Unlike the Chinese Dynasties, the Japanese weren't big on disposing their Monarchs, and that was in big part due to the emperors not concerning themselves with actual politics. The Meiji restoration and their consecutive involvement in affairs have actually made them vulnerable to the consequences of Japans militarical fortunes, so now they are basically back to the status quo. The Shogunates, the Meiji Restoration and now Western Democratic Values are nothing compared to the bigger picture. No matter how many times governments fall and countries experience revolutions, you can be sure that if the world still stands in 1000 years, so does the Japanese Dynasty.

>>3135686
Maybe, but before the Great Depression Japan had a promising future for democracy, though. Japan back then tended to be jingoists too, so it probably wouldn't be much different (I'm sort of determinist, sorry).

>>3141748
>and money you'd need to control it would be thoroughly unprofitable
That didn't stop them from colonizing Africa.
>Also, there's no natural resources aside from muh woodcarvings.
This is wrong.

>>3141896
Yeah, only hardcore Japanese Communists wanted to assassinate the Emperor. Protip: They were right.

>>3141936
The current Japanese Communist Party actually supports retaining the emperor.

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>>3141936
yeah, just burning the foundations of your culture and national idendity worked out so well for the Chinks, didn't it?

fuck off commies, you should all be exiled to the moon.

>>3141936
>bwah bwah kill the monarchists an burgeusie
>*obeys supreme leader without doubt and established personal cult*

>emperor abolishes shogunate because they're bringing in too much Westerners and modernisation
>proceeds to bring in Westerners and modernise

ah yes so this is the power of MEIJI ISHIN

>>3141945
The current "party" is a cuck and a CCP revisionist plant.

>>3142056
>>3142064
The Emperor did jack shit and will never do anything other than being some indecisive coward, and for a group of coward to hide behind. What's the use of sovereignty if the sovereign defers itself indefinitely, even in crucial times? Indecision is a form of decision itself, something that sometimes decides the fate of the nation. You can't stomach that shit, because it's REAL politics, i.e. a space of possibilities. Something that requires people to do actual thoughts to confront anxiety and terror. No wonder that everyone loves the goody two shoes Emperor, because we are in a world under the liberal regime, where politics has to be 'ironic', a stupid electoral survey governed under the rule of capital and profits. Within this liberal world actual politics is dead, and this form of impotent parliamentary monarchy suits such normativity perfectly. To preserve...and ultimately decline into irrelevance. At least in the worst-case scenario, if you burn everything down, maybe some insane fascist would react and do some meaningful shit afterwards (even if it's turns out to be a political disaster later on).

The Emperor doesn't have a dick. Might as well put him out of misery.

>>3141748
>No Natural Resources
>Huge amounts of gold and silver
>Porcelain
>Tea
>Silk

>>3141932

I dont think you understand how colonisation works. It's not like European power rolled into africa with an invasion force and enslaved the population through force.

Colonisers ingratiate themselves politically and economically with the country, building infrastructure, transport and security presence until they defacto run the country.

This requires the consent/coersion of the ruling political class in the colonised country. Japan wasn't technologically advanced, but they did have a mature political system very good at controlling its population and repelling foreign influence.

>>3142192
just kill yourself you fucking retard.

>>3142192
embarrasing