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Life on the Japanese islands was organized on a tribal or clan basis. Through the centuries, the Daimeo or the clan chieftains, supported by their samurai or professional soldiers, had dominated the country under a feud' alistic structure. In recent years, our own Western historians and interpre' ters of the Japanese have related their political-economic system to the emperor, but as a matter of fact when the Takugawa Clan or Shogunate, the last of the five great clans-, came to power and dominated all of Japan, the emperor was relegated to the position of a nonentity; he was not resurrected until 1868 with the Mejirestoration.
It is only since 1868 that the emperor plays a prominent part, for under the Takugawa Shogunate or the feudal leadership of that clan, he was nothing more than the religious leader of the Shinto cult. It was not until Yoshida rediscovered the old traditions of the Shinto that the power of the emperor was expanded and the doctrine of the Mikado was propounded to make the emperor divine.
There is no evidence in Japanese history that the people accepted the emperor as divine before 1868 A.D. Only since 1935 A.D. has his divinity really been played up. It was a tool
Su/in^ August, 1945
of the militarists and the four clan leaders, for through their dominance of a "divine" emperor they obtained control of the people. Although there is talk today of the emperor's taking over the affairs of the country, that is not in the Japanese manner of government, in which the emperor is a symbol and a figurehead; it would require a revolution against all the traditions of the past.
The American Commodore Perry broke Japanese isolation because the use of the steamship compelled the United States to find a new coaling station between Honolulu and Canton. When this happened, the Takugawa Shogunate which made the concession suffered in loss of prestige. The other clans reduced its power and finally ousted it from the top position.
In 1867, four clans decided to restore the emperor as a symbol of unity. The two most powerful clans, the Satsuma and Choshu, developed the leadership for the army and navy and supplied the generals and admirals. They freed the army and navy from any governmental control and made them directly responsible to the emperor; in other words, the emperor was subjected to army and navy controls. In 1868, when the emperor was restored as the symbol of unity, and the Yamoto clan leader who had been the leader of the Shinto cult was re-enthroned, the young emperor Meji was only sixteen years old. He served until 1912 as an excellent facade for the clan chiefs, but his successor was imbecilic and a regency had to rule in his behalf. The present