Page 10 - Marutas of Unit 731

Treaty of Kanagawa on March 31, 1854, which opened two Japanes e ports,
Shimoda and Hakodate. e treaty also granted the U.S. rights, thus leading

to the start of Japan’s era of industrialization during which Japan quickly

learned about and adapted wester n ways.

Kaneko Kentaro was born a year aer Matthew Per r y’s rst arrival in

Japanese waters and became one of the most in uential politicians in Japan’s

modern histor y. Born into a samurai family of the Fukuoka Clan, the Japan
that Kaneko’s birth was ver y different from that of his parents’ era, the

Tokugawa era where shoguns were considered the most power ful class and

Japan was under feudalism. Matthew Perr y’s arrival had shown the people

the Tokugawa’s policy’s weakness and, given the famine at the time, led to an

uprising of the peasant class.
By the time Kaneko was a teenager, two power ful clans, Choshu and

Satsuma combined forces to topple the Tokugawa’s power structure and the

Meiji Restoration era began. In that new era, Japan ended its feudalistic rule,

brought about social, political, and economic changes, and opened up to

Western trade and in uence in order to build up its technolog y for stronger
militar y power. It was the quickest moder nization any East Asian countr y

[3]
had ever seen in that time period.
Japan had sent many of its young minds to the west. From 1871 to 1873,

the best mission was the Iwakura Embassy comprised of 48 scholars and

administrators, including Kaneko. ey toured the U.S., the United
Kingdom, France, and Germany. As a result, Kaneko studied at Har vard

[4]
University. Following his Har vard education, he returned to Japan and was
appointed a secretar y in the Genroin (National Assembly). Ultimately, it was

his diplomatic skill that helped Japan to win the Russo-Japanese War and

secure Japan’s place as a modern imper ial power. Eventually Kaneko became
the right-hand man of Prince Ito, the founding father of moder n Japan.