Legend attributes the creation of Japan to a sun goddess from whom the original emperors are said to be descended beginning in 660 BC. Japan was, for the next one thousand years, a largely heterogeneous culture with diverse regional social patterns. Contact with Korea and China during this time brought aspects of both cultures to Japan, including rules of rank and etiquette, the Chinese calendar, astronomy, and a healing system based on traditional Chinese medicine. Military dictators, or shoguns, ruled for roughly the next seven hundred years, culminating in military reunification, and widespread implementation of civil order consistent with the ethos of the samurai class, e.g. rules of loyalty, social hierarchy, and filial piety.[1]
Western attempts at trade with Japan were largely unsuccessful until 1853 when an American fleet led by Comadore Perry arrived in Japanese waters and forced Japan into unfavorable trading agreements. This event coincided with the fall of the shoguns and the subsequent Meiji restoration that ended a system of feudal landholders, and helped unify the nation.[2] Japan quickly transitioned to a modern power with an imperial army. Japan then began to extend its empire and seize various Pacific islands and parts of Russia. This militarism carried over to the 1920s when Japan invaded China, to the 1930s when Japan joined the Axis powers, and finally into the 1940s when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.[2] In 1945, the historic drop of two atomic bombs by the US on Hiroshima and Nagasaki resulted in the disastrous outcomes that ultimately forced retreat.
The US then occupied Japan from 1945 to 1952 under General Douglas MacArthur. A new constitution took effect in 1947 according to which the emperor became largely a symbolic head of state. Japan regained its sovereignty in 1952, and in 1972 the US gave back some islands, the Ryuku, that included Okinawa. Japan's economic growth was swift, relying on new technologies, manufacturing and a protectionist attitude. In 1998, Japan – like much of the region – suffered the worst recession since World War II, which led eventually to the resignation of the prime minister.[2] Since then the economy has improved, but is still plagued by stagnation, a fact that the recent 23-foot tsunami and the largest earthquake in Japanese history that struck on March 11, 2011 did not help.