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According to
an old legend Japan was founded in 660 year B.C. by Jimmu -
considered to be the heir of the sun god Ninigi.
The legend says Jimmu was the first emperor of Japan and from
his person the official pictorial guide of emperors always begins.
Historicians, however, oppose to this idea. They suspect that
this fact took place in the 1st or 2nd century B.C. |
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The first three centuries of the
present era is the time of forming a new structure of the
society and creating of the great Japanese families and houses.
One of them, who owned the land in the Yamato province had
gradually expanded his lordship and in the V century had most
of the Honsiu island under his ruling. Untill 710 year Yamato
was the official name of Japan. In 538 in the Asuka town,
where the ruler of Yamato stayed, arrived a legation of one
of the Korean countries that brought as a gift a statue of
Buddha, buddhist flags and ornaments and holy books. The gifts
made a lot of impression on the whole court and soon this
religion was accepted in the whole country. During the next
300 years Japan was under a stron influence of China. From
China many different forms of Buddhism, system of governing
and written language were borrowed and implemented. Since
then military generals got more and more powerful. The first
Europeans came to Japan in XVI century and brought not only
new materials and resources but also modern weaponry and Christianity.
During the whoole XVII century Japan was full of all of those
products and so it isolated itdelf from the outside world.
It was only trading with Dutchmen but this was concerning
only one island near Nagasaki. The country remained behind
the steel courtain untill 1853 when American sailor Matthew
Perry arrived with a fleet of warships and forced on the emperor
to bring back the trading with other countries. During the
ruling of Meiji dynasty Japan changed from a backwarded and
less developed country into a very powerful one. The colonial
ambitions of this mountain land had lead to the annexation
of Korea in 1905 and invation on Manjuria in 1930 and finally
to bombing Pearl Harbor on Decmber 7th 1941, which resulted
in United States to enter the World War.
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