Japan: From Samurai to Bullet Trains (Entire History)

The entire history of Japan in 30 minutes: an animated Japanese history documentary, from 16,500-year-old Jomon pottery to samurai, shoguns, the Meiji Restoration, World War II and the bullet train. Japan should have been finished three times: the Mongol fleets of 1281, Perry's Black Ships in 1853 and the atomic bombs of 1945. Each time it came back stronger. CHAPTERS 0:00 Three times Japan nearly died 0:50 Pots, myths and the first emperors 4:54 How the samurai took over 6:32 The Mongols and the divine wind 8:37 150 years of civil war 12:01 The country that locked its doors 14:53 The Black Ships arrive 17:31 Swords to battleships in 30 years 19:47 Empire and the road to war 22:24 Hiroshima, Nagasaki and surrender 23:05 The fastest comeback of the century 25:39 The bubble that froze Japan 26:45 Japan today: the empty cradle 27:59 Never bet against Japan What this covers: the Jomon and Yayoi, the first emperors and the Yamato court, Nara and Heian Kyoto, the rise of the samurai and the Kamakura shogunate, the Mongol invasions and the kamikaze typhoons, the Onin War and the Sengoku period, Nobunaga, Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu, Sekigahara, two centuries of sakoku under the Edo shogunate, Commodore Perry and the unequal treaties, the Meiji Restoration, the Russo-Japanese War, empire and militarism, Pearl Harbor, Midway, the firebombing of Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the American occupation, the postwar economic miracle, the 1980s boom and the bubble, the lost decades, and the shrinking population Japan faces today. Which country should I do next? Tell me in the comments. IMAGE CREDITS Maps: Natural Earth relief data (public domain), naturalearthdata.com Archive images via Wikimedia Commons: Jomon deep bowl, Akiruno: photo by Daderot (CC0) Shakoki-dogu figure, Tokyo National Museum: public domain Daisen Kofun aerial photo: Geospatial Information Authority of Japan / MLIT (attribution) Genji Monogatari Emaki: public domain Battle of Dan-no-ura painting (Antoku Tenno Engi): public domain Portrait traditionally of Minamoto no Yoritomo, Jingo-ji: public domain Moko Shurai Ekotoba (Mongol invasion scroll): public domain Kinkaku-ji, Kyoto: photo by Jakub Halun (CC BY 4.0) Battle of Nagashino folding screen: public domain Oda Nobunaga by Kano Soshu: public domain Himeji Castle: public domain Sekigahara Kassen Byobu-zu (Gifu History Museum): public domain Dejima, after Arnoldus Montanus (1669): public domain The Great Wave off Kanagawa, Katsushika Hokusai: public domain The 47 ronin, Utagawa Kuniyoshi (British Museum): public domain Commodore Matthew Perry, Mathew Brady: public domain The Mission of Commodore Perry to Japan in 1854 (British Museum): public domain Emperor Meiji, 1873, Uchida Kuichi: public domain Saigo Takamori, Edoardo Chiossone (1883): public domain Battleship Mikasa: public domain USS Arizona burning, Pearl Harbor: US National Archives / US Navy, public domain USS Yorktown hit at Midway: US Navy, public domain Atomic cloud over Hiroshima, George R. Caron: public domain Emperor Hirohito and General MacArthur, Gaetano Faillace: public domain Shinkansen 0 series: photo by Nadate (CC BY 3.0) Otsuchi after the 2011 tsunami: US Navy, public domain #history #japan #documentary