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People who live in Japan are ancient descendants of those who lived on
the continent of Asia - human history did not begin on the Island of Japan -
most likely people arrived into Japan through Korea, Siberia and/or
Taiwan/China.
However, traditional Japanese legend maintains that Japan was founded
in the 7th century BC by the ancestral Emperor Jimmu. During the 5th and 6th
centuries, the Chinese writing system and Buddhism were introduced with
other Chinese cultures by way of the Korean peninsula. The emperors were the
nominal rulers, but actual power was usually held by powerful court nobles,
regents, or shoguns (military governors).
During the 16th century, traders from Portugal, the Netherlands,
England, and Spain arrived, as did Christian missionaries. During the early
part of the 17th century, Japan's Shogunate suspected that they were
actually forerunners of a military conquest by European powers and
ultimately barred all relations with the outside world except for severely
restricted contacts with Dutch and Chinese merchants at Nagasaki (Dejima).
This isolation lasted for 251 years, until Commodore Matthew Perry forced
the opening of Japan to the West with the Convention of Kanagawa in 1854.
 Within several years, renewed contact with the West profoundly altered
Japanese society. The Shogunate was forced to resign, and the emperor was
restored to power. The Meiji Restoration of 1868 initiated many reforms. The
feudal system was abolished, and numerous Western institutions were adopted,
including a Western legal system and government, along with other economic,
social and military reforms that transformed Japan into a world power.
Japan's new ambitions led to invasion wars that exploited and killed
thousands of people in mainland China (1895) and Russia (1905) and led to
the annexation by Japan of Korea, Taiwan and other territories.
The early 20th century saw Japan come under increasing influence of an
expansionist military, leading to the invasion of Manchuria, a second
Sino-Japanese War (1937), and an attack on the US naval base in Pearl Harbor
(1941) that brought the United States into World War II. After a long and
brutal Pacific campaign, Japan lost Okinawa and was pushed back to the four
main islands. Reluctant to launch a full-scale invasion of Japan, the United
States obliterated Hiroshima and Nagasaki with two atomic bombs. They killed
approximately 130,000 people instantly and with Hirohito's unconditional
surrender to the United States on August 15, 1945, sovereignty and
independence was restored in Southeastern and Eastern Asia.
A divested post-war Japan remained under US occupation until 1952,
thereafter it embarked on a remarkable economic recovery that returned
prosperity to the islands. Okinawa remained under US occupation until 1972
to stabilize East Asia, and a major military presence remains there to this
day.
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