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Early Meiji Japan and Public History: Ports, Public Memory, Gateways to Understanding through Photography

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

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Abstract

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The success of the Meiji regime elite in placing Japan on the road to unprecedented rapid economic development is for all to see in the public history displayed within the port districts of Yokohama, Kobe and Nagasaki. Silence marks the history of how important these port-rail-communications developments were to the restoration of Japan's own sovereignty and the simultaneous stripping away of others. This work explores the state and left-unstated reasoning behind Meiji Japan's elevation to become the first non-western power utilising the authors photography of the public history of Japanese ports and their indispensable rail and communications connections.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2022

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