In short, Shintoism had three elements: a religious devotion to the throne, a belief in divine mission and a concept of superiority of the Japanese race. These concepts were exploited by the Meiji oligarchs to fan up Japanese nationalism in the late 19ty century. They made Shintoism, the state religion, and they wrote in Article One of the Meiji Constitution that Japan ‘should be over and governed by a line of Emperor unbroken for ages eternal’. By using in their service the symbol of the Emperor, they were able to push forward their reforms, to appeal to the people’s emotions and to emphasize the imperial loyalty. This emperor-centred nationalism was so successfully implanted that all ruling classes in Japan made use of it to further their interests. First was the Meiji oligarchs, then were the party leaders as well as the militarists.
In the field of education, the Imperial Rescript on Education in 1890 urged the people not to give up their native tradition, such as ancestor-worship, loyalty to superiors and to the state. It is clear that education was to be subordinate to the source of the state. In brief, the educational system was used as a means of arousing a greater sense of nationalism.
At the same time, Meiji government also imposed reform on military field which encouraged the rise of nationalism. The conscription law and military training made sure that Japanese adults were imparted with the sentiments of Bushido, loyalty and patriotism. Public interest was considered first.
Besides, during the Meiji Restoration, legal reforms were carried out with an intention to achieve respectability and equality with the West. Much foreign guidance brought to appear of a series of new laws, including the abolition of torture, the creation of trained judiciary, and the setting up of rules of evidences and procedure for the courts. These achievement, with the aim of judicial reforms was to abolish the extraterritoriality of the unequal treaties, with other factors, Japan went to war with China in 1894. The outcome was a Japanese victory. This victory brought immense benefits to Japan. The upsurge of Japanese nationalism reached a climax.
A second victory in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905 further strengthened Japanese nationalism.
Japanese nationalism had its own characteristics. It originated in the late Tokugawa periods, but was nursed and fanned up during the Meiji reforms and victorious wars were to remove the feelings of inferiority and contributed to the beginning of a period of nationalism characterized by ‘confidence’ rather than ‘fear’.
