How Japan’s Plan to Become a Dominant Power Ended Badly

Emperor Hirohito visits Hiroshima in 1947, two years after the atomic bomb was dropped on the city. Public Domain

Commentary

For over 200 years from 1630, Japan followed a policy of strict national exclusion. Japanese citizens were not allowed to leave the country and foreigners were, with the exception of Dutch ships at a single port, forbidden to land. A rigid social structure enforced a feudal system and political power was in the hands of the shogun, a title reserved for the head of the Tokugawa clan. The emperors, though accorded sacred reverence, were kept in isolation.