Deng Xiaoping And The Transformation Of China - Plot & Excerpts
From December 1871 to September 1873, fifty-one Meiji government leaders traveled by ship and rail to fifteen different countries. The mission was composed of officials from all major sectors—industry, agriculture, mining, finance, culture, education, the military, and the police—and was led by Iwakura Tomomi, a court noble who had become one of the top leaders of the Meiji government. When the group left home, Japan was essentially a closed country; the Japanese knew little about the outside world. But as the members of the mission visited other countries' factories, mines, museums, parks, stock exchanges, railways, farms, and shipyards, their eyes were opened to ways that Japan could remake itself, not only with new technologies, but also with new organizational strategies and ways of thinking. The trip created a shared awareness among the mission members of just how far behind Japan was from the advanced countries and a common perspective about how to introduce change. Rather than becoming discouraged by what they saw, the officials returned home energized, excited by future prospects for Japan and eager to send additional teams abroad to study in more detail. In China no single group of officials traveled together for such a long period as the Iwakura Mission, but from 1977 to 1980 many separate study tours by senior officials had a similar influence on Chinese thinking.
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