GUNKANJIMA’S ROLE DURING THE MEIJI ERA
BEFORE THE MEIJI RESTORATION
Japan was famously isolated from the rest of the world from 1603 to 1867, closed to western technology under the Tokugawa Shogunate, and where the only contact with the outside world was a small colony of Dutch traders who operated from Dejima, a small island in Nagasaki. Great Britain, and other European superpowers, thrived during and after the Industrial Revolution, exporting their technology all over the world while Japan remained closed. In 1852, before Japan opened its doors to the world, Shimazu Nariakira, Prince of Satsuma (currently Kagoshima Prefecture), based in the southern tip of Kyushu, built Japan’s first industrial complex. Its shipbuilding was hidden from the Tokugawa government and developed without the support of foreign engineers in order to defend Satsuma from Western Superpowers. Japan’s first small step towards industrialization was made on the basis of just one book from Europe, a drive to industrialize by themselves, and on the basis of the Japanese sprit of craftsmanship for iron and pottery which had attained pre-eminence in the pre-industrial era.
MEIJI JAPAN
The Meiji Restoration accelerated industrialization in Japan, which led to its rise as a military power by the year 1905, under the slogan of “Enrich the country, strengthen the military” (富国強兵 fukoku kyōhei). The rapid industrialization and modernization of Japan both allowed and required a massive increase in production and infrastructure. Japan built industries such as shipyards, iron smelters, and spinning mills, which were then sold to well-connected entrepreneurs. Consequently, domestic companies became consumers of Western technology and applied it to produce items that would be sold cheaply in the international market. With this, industrial zones grew enormously, and there was massive migration to industrializing centers from the countryside. Industrialization additionally went hand in hand with the development of a national railway system and modern communications.
With industrialization came the demand for coal. There was dramatic rise in production, as shown in the table below.