Conclusion: Competing Narratives, Ottoman Successor States, and “Non-Western” Modernity

Abstract

As the previous chapters have demonstrated, tropes of modern Japan, dissected in this study in all their variegated forms, represented a kind of “non-Western modernity” that was deeply captivating and instructive at the turn of the twentieth century. For many Eastern peoples, the Ottomans included, Japan engendered the highest state of moral evolution possible, according to a set of standards defining national behavior that were predicated upon Western intellectual thought. The Japanese, in the eyes of Asian (and non-Asian) onlookers, had seemingly preserved their samurai ethical code, the Bushidō, and their Shintō ancestral rites, transforming these into a contemporary national morality that successfully guided Japan in all its endeavors. They were believed to have retained their cultural essence as they joined the ranks of the European powers in employing the most modern technological, social, and political means to succeed as a nation-state on the world stage.