Y217: Japan 1853-1937 | OCR A-Level History A (H505)

Y217: Japan 1853-1937

80 questions
8 subtopics
Non-British period study, one of twenty-four
Y201 to Y224

Japan 1853–1937 is unit Y217 of OCR History A, one of the twenty-four options in unit group 2, the non-British period study; a student sits one of them.

Its four key topics are the impact of foreign intrusion on Tokugawa Japan 1853–1868, westernisation and nationalism in Meiji Japan 1868–1912, foreign relations and overseas expansion 1868–1920, the growth of nationalism in Japan 1920–1937. 80 recall questions across 8 subtopics.

Sample questions from Y217: Japan 1853-1937

Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.

The impact of foreign intrusion on Tokugawa Japan 1853–1868: Tokugawa society, Perry and the unequal treaties

Give two causes of peasant unrest in the last Tokugawa decades.

Show the answer
Heavy rice taxes combined with poor harvests and famine, and sharp price inflation that made food unaffordable, both provoked repeated village protests and urban rice riots.
The impact of foreign intrusion on Tokugawa Japan 1853–1868: resistance to the Shogunate and civil war

What did the bombardments of Kagoshima in 1863 and Shimonoseki in 1864 teach the domains that suffered them?

Show the answer
Satsuma and Chōshū learned that expelling the foreigners by force was impossible, so both switched to adopting Western weapons and methods in order to overthrow the shogunate instead.
Westernisation and nationalism in Meiji Japan 1868–1912: the end of samurai power and early Meiji reforms

Who led the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877 and what did its defeat prove?

Show the answer
Saigō Takamori led it, and the destruction of his samurai army by the conscript force proved that peasant soldiers with modern weapons had made the samurai militarily obsolete.
Westernisation and nationalism in Meiji Japan 1868–1912: the 1889 Constitution, industrialisation and education

Name two things the government built or ran directly in the 1870s to start industrialisation.

Show the answer
It built model factories such as the state silk-reeling mill at Tomioka, and it opened the first railway, between Tokyo and Yokohama, in 1872.
Foreign relations and overseas expansion 1868–1920: population pressure, early expansion and the Sino-Japanese War

How did Japan strengthen its hold on its northern territories?

Show the answer
It set up a colonisation office to settle Hokkaido and develop its farming and mining, and in an 1875 exchange with Russia it gave up its claim to Sakhalin in return for the whole Kurile chain.
Foreign relations and overseas expansion 1868–1920: the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, war with Russia and the First World War

What did Japan gain and fail to gain at the Treaty of Portsmouth in 1905?

Show the answer
After the defeats at Mukden and Tsushima Russia recognised Japan's paramount interest in Korea and handed over the lease of Port Arthur and southern Sakhalin, but paid no indemnity, which caused rioting in Tokyo by a public expecting more.
The growth of nationalism in Japan 1920–1937: Radicalism and repression in post-war Japan

What did the electoral reform of 1925 do?

Show the answer
It gave the vote to all men over twenty-five regardless of what tax they paid, roughly quadrupling the electorate.
The growth of nationalism in Japan 1920–1937: the Depression, Manchuria and the rise of the army

What is meant by pan-Asianism as the militarists used it?

Show the answer
The claim that Japan should lead Asia in freeing itself from Western imperialism, which supplied a moral cover for Japanese domination of its neighbours.

The 8 subtopics

One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.

Subtopic	What it covers	Questions
The impact of foreign intrusion on Tokugawa Japan 1853–1868: Tokugawa society, Perry and the unequal treaties	Recall questions on shogun and emperor, the social hierarchy and samurai discontent, sakoku, peasant unrest, epidemic disease and the currency crisis, Perry, Kanagawa and the treaties of 1858.	12
The impact of foreign intrusion on Tokugawa Japan 1853–1868: resistance to the Shogunate and civil war	Recall questions on resistance to the Shogunate, civil war, the end of the Shogunate and the restoration of the Emperor Meiji in 1868.	8
Westernisation and nationalism in Meiji Japan 1868–1912: the end of samurai power and early Meiji reforms	Recall questions on the abolition of the domains, the dismantling of the samurai and the Satsuma Rebellion, conscription, land tax reform, the Iwakura Mission and the model for the constitution.	8
Westernisation and nationalism in Meiji Japan 1868–1912: the 1889 Constitution, industrialisation and education	Recall questions on the 1889 Constitution and franchise, the genro, the leading export industry, state enterprises and coal, the business combines, Matsukata’s finance, the navy, education reform and the Rescript on Education.	12
Foreign relations and overseas expansion 1868–1920: population pressure, early expansion and the Sino-Japanese War	Recall questions on population pressure, the Ryukyu Islands and northern territories, Korea and the treaty of 1876, and the causes, course and Treaty of Shimonoseki of the Sino-Japanese War.	8
Foreign relations and overseas expansion 1868–1920: the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, war with Russia and the First World War	Recall questions on the Triple Intervention, action in China in 1900, the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, the Russo-Japanese War and Portsmouth, tension with the United States, the 21 Demands, Siberia, Versailles and the Washington Conference.	12
The growth of nationalism in Japan 1920–1937: Radicalism and repression in post-war Japan	Recall questions on radicalism and repression in post-war Japan, the 1923 earthquake, social change and electoral reform 1925 and growing police powers, resentment about western influences.	9
The growth of nationalism in Japan 1920–1937: the Depression, Manchuria and the rise of the army	Recall questions on the Depression in Japan and the countryside, pan-Asianism, the Manchuria incident and its effects, the assassination of 1932, the coup attempt of 1936, military control of policy and war with China in 1937.	11

Y217: Japan 1853-1937 is 80 of the 6,240 questions in the guide.Get the guide, £8

How the guide is worked

Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.

Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.

Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.