Abstract:

“Knowledge shall be sought for worldwide and thus be strengthened the foundation of the imperial polity.” These worlds from Emperor Meiji personify the efforts of the Japanese government to transform their nation from a feudal society to a modern state capable of defending itself and its interests. In it, the armed forces would have, since their inception, a vital role in the development of Early Meiji Japan and its positions abroad, possessing a hold on the halls of power that would give it an opening to take control decades later. This study aims to determine how the military influenced the decisions of the new establishment in this period, generating consequences that would define Japanese international policy toward its goals and neighbors. Among the topics that explain how Japan’s journey through the Meiji Restoration was affected by the armed forces’ involvement were the reasons it was needed and the problems faced at the time, internally and externally, during its modernization process. In the coming years, it would fulfill its purpose, be it as an offensive or defensive force, with potential issues to Japan’s security abroad, allowing the armed forces the momentum to advance its interests, such as how it assisted in the creation of a Western-style government while at the same time preventing it from possessing the capacity of extensive interference in their affairs, creating a situation where the military could in certain times circumnavigate edicts from the civilian government and, which would occur decades later, assume political power to the point of taking total control. After analyzing books and articles of several renowned authors that worked in this area, the hypothesis that answers this debacle is that the reason why the armed forces were able to influence the government’s foreign policy was that the process of the Meiji Restoration created a system under which it could assert its interests and views on what it constituted as of significant importance to the security of Japan