Japan and the World
Ties That Bind
In 1854, U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry used the
threat of force to convince Japanese officials to sign a treaty which
effectively ended the long running regime of sakoku, or isolation, that
Japan's shoguns had established throughout most of the country for some 200
years.
Fog of War
An emboldened, modernizing Japan marks its preeminence
in Asia in 1895 by battering the armies of China's Qing dynasty in Korea and
Manchuria. Taiwan becomes Japan's first colonial possession.
Russians Stop Here
A decade later, Japan resoundingly overthrew
Russia's interests in the Far East, crushing the "Occidental" power in a war
that catapulted the island nation onto the world stage.
As the City Burns
The people of Shanghai watch smoke rise as
Japanese shells rain down over their homes in November 1937. Japan's invasion of
China had already begun and the coastal cosmopolis would soon fall; Japan turned
its expansionist gaze to other corners of Asia as well.
Bully's Turf
Tank commanders stop for a break as the Japanese war
machine advances into Siberia and Mongolia in July 1939.
Ground Zero
A mushroom cloud rises 20,000 feet after the U.S.
drops its second atomic bomb on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. The nuclear drops
kill over 200,000 people and Japan surrenders its fight in the Second World War
soon thereafter, its catastrophic imperial ambitions ended.
A New Day
A couple walks on a crowded Tokyo street in 1955. After
the war, Japan agreed not to keep its own military as it slowly rebuilt its
shattered reputation.
Victory Lap
A decade of economic revitalization sees Tokyo host
the Summer Olympics in 1964 and a new, peaceful Japan announces itself to the
world with wonders like the shinkansen, its network of high-speed, bullet
trains.
Attack of the Clones
Cars awaiting shipment line Yokohama's docks
as Japan's auto industry soars. By 1980, Japan rivals the U.S. in automobile
production.
Angry Men
Traders panic during a currency crisis in 1995. After a
spectacular boom in the 1980s, an assets price bubble burst in 1990 and the
world's second-largest economy slumped into a financial funk that would be
dubbed the "Lost Decade."
The Maverick
Charismatic, brash Junichiro Koizumi is elected Prime
Minister in 2001 ? his six years in power are generally seen as having
revitalized Japan, though his frequent visits to the Yasukuni shrine honoring
Japan's war dead prompted mass protests in China and Korea.
The Light Brigade
In 2004, Japan deployed around 1,000 personnel
of the nation's Self-Defense Forces in US-occupied Iraq, its first military
engagement overseas since the Second World War.
A Friend in Need
Spreading its largesse to allies in Asia, Japan's
PM Taro Aso grandstands with India's Manmohan Singh after offering New Delhi a
record $4.5 billion in loans.
타임지
제공(2008.12.3) | 
