Essay
ጃፓን እንደምን ሰለጠነች
Not translated into English
Kebede Mikael · 1954
Synopsis
The essay traces how the Japanese aristocracy, in the Meiji era, built a strong state mastering modern techniques, then draws lessons from it for Ethiopia. It lists the resemblances between the two countries: two non-European peoples that defeated a white power, two ancient resistances to invaders, two Portuguese missions driven out in the seventeenth century, two feudal societies long closed to the world. It makes education the key to Japanese independence and also marks the differences, Japan already building ships and weapons before any contact with Europe.
Context
The essay appeared in Addis Ababa in 1954, thirteen years after the liberation. It revived a current of ideas from the interwar period, that of the Japanizers, which had inspired the Ethiopian constitution of 1931, modelled on that of Meiji, and which the Italian invasion had silenced. The book takes it up in a country where these reformers' fear, losing independence for lack of modernisation, had already come true. The historian Bahru Zewde has contested the parallel: the Japanese victory over Russia would answer less to Adwa than to the Ethiopian defeat against Italy.
Who it is for
An essay in Amharic, with no known translation, written in a simple language. Some background on the Meiji era and on the Italian occupation helps in following it.
Prizes and reception
No prize attested for this title. A reference text of the Ethiopian Japanist current, it is still invoked when the country looks for models in East Asia.