Within this historical context the Meiji leaders realized that they needed
to harness the concept of the Imperial Will in order to govern effectively.
During the Age of Imperialism, members of the Satsuma and Choshu, two of
the very powerful clans in Japan, were parts of the opposition to foreign
imperialism. This opposition believed that the only way that Japan could
survive the encroachment of the foreigners was to rally around the Emperor.
The supporters of the imperial government, known as imperialists, claimed
that the Tokugawa Shogunate had lost its imperial mandate to carry out the
Imperial Will because it had capitulated to Western powers by allowing them
to open up Japan to trade. During this time the ideas of the imperialists
gained increasing support among Japanese citizens and intellectuals who
taught at newly established schools and wrote revisionist history books
that claimed that historically the Emperor had been the ruler of Japan.
The fact that the......

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Title: The Role Of The Emperor In Meiji Japan
Approximate Word Count: 3581
Approximate Pages: 15 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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