The ENTIRE history of japan in 20 minutes

Japan shut out the world for more than 200 years. Fifty years after the door was forced open, it sank a European navy. How? Because Japan had done this before: open the door, learn fast, close it again, and make something new. This is the whole story — Queen Himiko, the letter that annoyed the emperor of China, the samurai, two Mongol invasions, three warlords and a cuckoo, 214 closed years, the black ships, Meiji, empire, war, the bubble, and a country that is now shrinking — with one gauge on screen the whole time: Japan's door. CHAPTERS 0:00 How did a closed country beat an empire? 0:19 Borrowing from China 2:00 The court and the samurai 3:44 The Mongols, twice 5:19 A country at war 7:36 The closed country 10:05 The black ships and Meiji 12:53 Empire 15:07 War 17:42 From ashes to today A NOTE ON ACCURACY This is a 20-minute summary of 2,000 years, so a lot is left out. Most spoken lines given to historical figures are jokes, not quotations. The real quotations are: the Chinese chronicle on Queen Himiko (Wei Zhi), the letter of 607 (Book of Sui), an abridged line from Kublai Khan's letter of 1266, the cuckoo poem about the three unifiers (a later Edo-period verse), Admiral Togo's signal at Tsushima, Admiral Yamamoto's "run wild for six months" (as reported by Prime Minister Konoe), the emperor's broadcast of 15 August 1945, "a gift from the gods" (Prime Minister Yoshida), the Charter Oath and Article 9. Death tolls are given as the ranges historians use. "More guns than any country in Europe" and "worth more than all of California" are claims, and are worded as claims. Map borders are approximate. Figures for today are for 2025. IMAGES All archive images are in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons: Mōko Shūrai Ekotoba (c. 1293); Genji Monogatari Emaki (c. 1130); Yan Liben, Thirteen Emperors Scroll; portraits of Yoritomo (Jingo-ji), Kublai Khan (Araniko), Nobunaga (Kanō Sōshū), Hideyoshi (Kanō Mitsunobu), Ieyasu (Kanō Tan'yū), Murasaki (Tosa Mitsuoki), Francis Xavier (Kobe City Museum), Saigō Takamori; the Nagashino and Sekigahara screens; Isaac Titsingh's plan of Dejima; Hokusai, The Great Wave; Kaitai Shinsho (1774); Japanese prints of Perry and his ships (Library of Congress); Mathew Brady's photograph of Perry; Uchida Kuichi's photographs of Emperor Meiji (1872, 1873); the Iwakura Mission (1872); Tōjō Shōtarō's painting of Admiral Tōgō (1906); photographs of Yokohama 1923, Pearl Harbor 1941, Tokyo and Hiroshima 1945, the surrender broadcast, and General MacArthur with Emperor Hirohito (U.S. Army). FURTHER READING Marius B. Jansen, The Making of Modern Japan Andrew Gordon, A Modern History of Japan Ivan Morris, The World of the Shining Prince Thomas D. Conlan, In Little Need of Divine Intervention (the Mongol invasion scrolls) John W. Dower, Embracing Defeat Maps: Natural Earth (public domain). Animation, script and edit: DBL-History. #Japan #History #Samurai