Japan's oceanic ascendancy: Geopolitics, grand strategy, and oceanic history.

摘要

The ability and resolve to move people, goods, and information across the ocean space separating Japan from the rest of the world has been the single most important sinew of Japanese power in the modern world.;This thesis examined the maritime dimensions of Japanese international relations and national development between 1853 and the onset of the Pacific War in 1941. At issue was the geography and history of Japanese ocean space and the international factors which affected Japan's use of sea lanes as channels of trade, communication, and defense. Particular attention was paid to the early Meiji period in an attempt to discern how and why Japan set about transforming the nation for maritime enterprise and expansion across ocean space. Japan's relations with Great Britain were viewed as essential to the construction of Japanese international maritime interests.;Through sustained national effort, Japan became the first center of maritime power outside of the Atlantic in the modern era. A new international maritime order emerged in East Asia centered on Japan's networks of trade and transport. Paradoxically, the assertion of Japanese control over the oceanic avenues to and from Japan both insulated Japan from incursion by the world maritime powers, while increasing Japan's vulnerability to maritime challenge over a series of ever-expanding oceanic frontiers.;The central concern of the study was how and why Japan adapted to the transformation of the geostrategic context of international relations and world power in the age of ocean steam navigation. Japanese grand strategy and perceptions of world history revealed new insights into the maritime assumptions embedded in Japanese foreign policy and national defense. The interplay between the construction of Japan's national identity during the Meiji period, and its maritime interactions with other people, cultures, and nations suggested a more subtle historical process at work than simply outside stimulus and internal response.;Interwoven in the narrative of Japan's oceanic ascendancy was an interpretation of world history using the ocean as a comprehensive unit of study. This conception of oceanic history was used to study the different dimensions of Japan's exploitation of the ocean for wealth and power. In analyzing the development of Japanese marine transport, I focused most specifically on the use of the ocean as an avenue to and from Japan and the rest of the world.