East anD SOUTHEAST ASIA JAPAN

Yes, Chinese Zen Buddhism and other elements of Chinese culture spread to Japan, but for almost two whole millennia, first through a series of dynastic empires and then throughout a long feudal era during which a class of warriors known as samurai dominated the nation, waging war at the behest of emperors or wealthy land owners (1185-1868), Japan stayed more or less out of the global fray. With so little interaction beyond its borders, Japan became remarkably homogeneous; even today almost 99% of Japan's permanent residents are ethnically Japanese.    

The era of Japanese isolation started to come to a close with the 1854 arrival of U.S. Naval Commodore Matthew Perry who was determined to "open" the nation to the outside world. Japan's newfound connection with the West helped spur the 1868 Meiji Restoration, during which imperial rule returned, and inspired the subsequent Meiji period during which Japan industrialized and militarized. Within two generations the once-isolated Empire of Japan had spread beyond its island borders to conquer Taiwan and Korea and had waged wars against both China and Russia. When Emperor Yoshihito passed away in 1926 his son, Hirohito, assumed the throne. Emperor Hirohito  expanded Japanese influence as a global power by invading Manchuria, a region in northeast China, in 1931, signing a pact in 1936 with Hitler's Germany to work together in case of an attack on either by the Soviet Union, invading other parts of China in 1937, occupying French Indochina (Vietnam) in 1940 and then, on December 7, 1941, by attacking the United States at the Pearl Harbor naval base.

The Japanese military fought fervently throughout World War II to support Hirohito, who many Japanese, especially believers in the Shinto religion, believed was a descendant of the sun goddess Amaterasu and therefore divine. After four years of vicious battle Japan fell to the Allied forces. (The nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, resulting in an estimated 200,000 casualties, played a substantial, though forever-controversial role, in Hirohito's decision to surrender.)

After the War ended the United States occupied Japan and decided, on the whole, not to punish but to rebuild. Japan's modernization and eventual rise to become the world's second largest economy after the U.S. is truly extraordinary. In 1945 much of Japan lay in ruins. In 1947 Japan adopted a liberal democratic constitution which included a provision that allows Japan to field an army, but only for the purpose of defense. After the Allied occupation ended in 1952 Japan's economy took off like a shot, modernizing rapidly (featuring electronics and auto companies such as Sony and Toyta) and didn't stop expanding until it faced a deep recession in mid-'90, an era known in Japan as "the Lost Decade." Japan eventually found itself, and today its economy--the world's third largest now, after the U.S. and China--is relatively stable despite the after-effects of "the Great Recession" of 2008-2009. Politically, though the roayal family still receives respect, real power in Japan lies in the hands of the Prime Minister and other members of the nation's parliament.