Japan was somewhat unique in that regard, since they're one of the rare instances where Westernization was completed successfully, because the Japanese didn't just copy the "fancy" stuff, but were also willing to make necessary and fundamental changes to their society to achieve this.rusty_shackleford wrote: ↑ March 27th, 2025, 02:13If anything, there's a lack of appreciation for how much the west transformed Japanese society. Situations like this, where if they made the game more realistic it would make weebs more upset, is a good example.
It's interesting to read about the delegations of their best and brightest that they sent to the US and Europe, and how they "shopped" around for what they perceived to be the best or most fitting aspect from each country to copy - as an example, they initially decided copy the French army, but eventually settled on the German model. Their education system is also largely based on the Prussian one.
They were so successful in their endeavors that within a century of their ports being blown open they had managed to successfully challenge and defeat a European power.
Many other cultures also attempted to Westernize, like the Turks or the Chinese, but their efforts largely failed because they refused to understand that it's not enough to simply copy the factories, weapons, uniforms, machines, or bring advisors over - Westernization requires radical changes to society, which the powers-that-be usually are unwilling to undertake because they perceive it could threaten their grip on power.
Interestingly enough, this wasn't even the first time Japan had gone through something like this. Oda Nobunaga, the first of the three unifiers of Japan, was notorious for his disregard for customs and his willingness to try new ideas, which eventually led to Japan being the place with the most firearms in the 15th century, and them adopting a style of warfare uncannily similar to Europe's pike and shot. His two successors were far less radical in their approach, so Japan's early Westernization was aborted and put on hold for another 4 centuries.
To make humbaba mad, I recommend anyone interested in the topic of (failed) Westernization to read The Muslim Discovery of Europe by Bernard Lewis and The Search for Modern China
by Jonathan D. Spence.
