The ENTIRE History of Japan in 24 Minutes

World history has never seen a country quite like Japan. Three times, a stronger world reached its shores: China with writing, Europe with guns, America with warships. Each time, Japan should have vanished. Instead, it closed the door, studied the stranger, and came back better. Japan doesn't get conquered. It takes notes. But Japan's story is stranger than its samurai. Its first recorded ruler was a queen almost no one was allowed to see. A peasant nicknamed "the Monkey" ended up ruling the entire country. And in 1974, a Japanese soldier walked out of the Philippine jungle, still fighting World War II, twenty-nine years after it ended. This documentary explores the complete history of Japan, from the Jomon pottery makers and the Yayoi rice farmers to Queen Himiko, the Yamato dynasty, Prince Shotoku and the arrival of Buddhism. Discover the Heian court and The Tale of Genji, the rise of the samurai, the Genpei War and the Kamakura shogunate, and how the Mongol invasions of 1274 and 1281 ended in the "kamikaze." Follow Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu through the Sengoku period and the Battle of Sekigahara, the closed country of the Edo period, Commodore Perry's black ships, the Meiji Restoration and the Last Samurai, the Russo-Japanese War, Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the American occupation under General MacArthur, Hiroo Onoda, and Japan's postwar economic miracle, from the Walkman to the Toyota in your driveway. Chapters: 00:00 The Soldier Who Never Surrendered 01:03 Sixteen Thousand Years Ago: The Jomon 01:57 Himiko, the Queen No One Could See 03:21 Buddha Arrives and Japan Copies China 04:52 The Heian Court and The Tale of Genji 05:58 The Rise of the Samurai 07:10 The Mongol Invasions and the Divine Wind 09:19 Civil War and the First Guns 10:18 Oda Nobunaga and the Fire at Honno-ji 12:18 The Monkey, the Shogun and Sekigahara 13:51 The Closed Country 15:20 Perry's Black Ships 16:26 The Meiji Restoration and the Last Samurai 17:36 Japan Builds an Empire 18:40 Pearl Harbor and World War II 19:22 The Night They Tried to Stop the Surrender 20:25 MacArthur and the New Japan 21:11 The Soldier in the Jungle 22:22 From Ruins to the Walkman 23:18 Japan Today This documentary is based on archaeological discoveries, historical sources, and academic research. We help bring history to life while remaining faithful to the historical record. #Japan #JapanHistory #History #Documentary #JapaneseHistory #Samurai #Shogun #FeudalJapan #MeijiRestoration #PearlHarbor #WorldWar2 #MongolInvasion #WorldHistory #HistoryDocumentary #AncientCivilizations #HistoryExplained