Hey there.

So I saw that video. I think the stuff it shows is 'alright,' as in what is said isn't flat-out incorrect. But it is by no means a comprehensive look at Japanese history. I suppose it is useful for a quick overview of Japanese history, but I would urge anyone who watched that to read more anyway.

Some things that were missing:

1. The Japanese conquest of the Ryukyu kingdom (now Okinawa)

2. The Japanese conquest of the Ainu in Hokkaido. Shakushain's fight with the Japanese was quite interesting.

3. The proselytizing of Japanese people by the Portuguese to Catholicism and their later persecution.

4. I am uncomfortable just how easily Japan's WW2 war crimes are glossed over. The rape of Nanking, the Bataan march, the use of 'comfort women' etc. are all things Japan ( very much unlike Germany) is not fond of discussing or being held accountable for. I know the video is short, but anyone using that to learn history should know this too, if only so that they don't get a skewed picture of the country from this and anime.

Really my points are just asking for more information, as you can see. It is frustratingly accurate while not giving a holistic enough picture that I can say with confidence: 'This is history.'

Just treat it as pop history, something funny with a skeleton of the truth. There is a lot more to learn.

For example, the video shows the two failed invasions of Japan by the Mongols. This is true. It does not however, mention the changes made in Japan after the war as a direct consequence of it. The samurai armies in Japan were mainly used to fighting domestic armies. Their style of 'fighting' involved calling out the name of their opponent in the midst of battle and having a drawn out 1-on-1, a duel to the death that no one would interfere with. As you can imagine, they were in for a rude awakening when the mongols came with their characteristic brand of violence and bombs. These failed invasions lead to Japan investing in technology such as gunpowder, a belief in their invulnerability due to the kamikaze (divine winds) and the introduction of the katana, a modified form of the Japanese sword prevalent until then.

So you see, a lot remains to be said.

EDIT: For those more interested in the development of the katana, u/MapleLeafEagle has linked an excellent post in the comments here with a lot of good sources. I'm mentioning it here just in case people might miss it. He's much more of an expert in military history than I am. It makes a very interesting read.

/u/sully3333, while asking for 'fact checking' is perfectly fine, it is often very helpful to a potential respondent if you could list a few of the major statements that are made in the video and which you are wondering about. It would be greatly appreciated if you could edit the OP to include a few specific claims you are interested in. Thank you!

I have a question: could anyone comment on the role of the Dutch in the development of Japanese technology/science? The video makes it sound like they kickstarted a technological revolution, but I wonder to what extent that's accurate.

The video makes me very angry because people use it as a reference whenever they are talking to me about Japanese history.

In general, most of the basic points are mentioned. Since Japanese history is in of itself still a work-in-progress (with modern scholarship only really becoming available in the 1950s, and in some areas even the 2000s and 2010s), and since a Youtube video only has so much capacity for content, I can forgive the many simplifications, questionable history, and memes that proliferate the video.

However, if you assume that watching the video will give you an accurate idea of Japanese history, your remarks would probably not even pass a 100 level undergraduate class in college.

As a by-no-means complete breakout of the many glossed over or incorrect points:

• The conflict between the "Yamato people" who migrated from the mainland and the "Emishi" who used to reside in most of Japan, but were eventually kicked out to the Northeast (as illustrated). It is thought some of these Emishi may be related to the Ainu people of Hokkaido (who are also not mentioned much).
• The Transition of the Yamato Kingdoms (or Chiefdoms, really) of the Yayoi period into the imperial structure of the "Yamato Period." Essentially, the Japanese "Emperor" did not appear overnight-the construction of the imperial court and its mythological ancestry that gave it legitimacy is pretty much ignored in the video.
• The Taika Reforms and the legacy of Prince Shotoku: Buddhism's introduction to Japan is essentially constructed as one questionably historical figure single-handedly pushing Buddhism onto the resisting people of Japan, with a then unrelated party imposing legal reforms from China. In actuality, Buddhism (as well as many Chinese practices) and the legal reforms in question were tied to knowledge from China, and both were arguably mostly pushed by the imperial court in general, via several missions sent by the Japanese over to the Tang dynasty during this time, to exchange information and learn about new technologies and schools of thought.
• The Chinese alphabet was stolen by Japan: There is no Chinese alphabet, Chinese script is non-alphabetical although components of the script may be. The Japanese language is composed of both an alphabet (the kana of hiragana and katakana, both of which were derived earlier by the Japanese, which were inspired by Chinese writing) and the kanji that are the Chinese characters. The use of Kanji was a gradual thing, however, and not everybody used it (for instance, the Tale of the Genji was mostly written in kana, and it was already in existence and use before Kukai as the video mentions).
• The entire Genpei War and most of the power struggle between the Shogunate and the Imperial court is completely ignored by the video. This is, to say, damaging to the video's credibility as a source on the history of Japan. It also fails to address the importance of local rulers that facilitated both the destruction of the original (Kamakura Shogunate) and the creation of the newer shogunate (Ashikaga).
• The Kirishitans of Japan and European influence is essentially relegated to "they sold guns." This ignores the fact that not only were most guns made by the Japanese, but that the Europeans struggled with each other for control of interests, and the Christians were both welcomed and persecuted, or sometimes both. It also ignores the later Shimabara rebellion.
• The rise of Tokugawa Ieyasu is depicted as him just being rich and powerful, but if anything it was his political network of alliances and negotiation that made him the strongest power in Japan.
• Overestimation of the influence of rangaku ("Oranje Studies," or Dutch studies). While the Dutch certainly did have a trading port at Nagasaki and the Dutch did have a mission once per year to deliver news to the Shogunate, there was a good amount of informal trade and knowledge that occurred independent of the Dutch (for instance, through the Shimazu conquest of the Ryukyu islands).
• European imperialism and the Boshin War: Mostly glossed over. I would also question the assertion that the Meiji faction were able to win with very little outside help, considering that the reason that were able to do so was in part due to substantial Westernization of their forces.
• Japanese imperialism and World War I: Japan was forced to hand over Qingdao after the war to the Chinese, so I'm not sure why the video highlights it. Also, the entire Siberian Intervention is ignored.
• The Great Depression: Unlike most countries, Japan was relatively unaffected by the Great Depression. Describing their economy as "crappy" in this scenario is a questionable statement. For that matter, the rise of the Japanese military in Japanese politics during this time (to say nothing of the entire Taisho Democracy period) is completely ignored.
• Alliance with the Axis: The impact of a Red Scare in Japan combined with the presence of the Soviet Union is one of the primary factors that guided Japanese strategic and political efforts during this period. Instead the video just says that Japan wanted to take over the world, and that's why they allied with Germany. To paraphrase, :ThinkingEmoji.
• Pacific War: the entire war is basically just turned into a "we nuked Japan" meme, ignoring, among other things, war crimes, political considerations, the war in China, and so forth.

These are just some of the historical inaccuracies I saw when I skimmed through the video. There are probably more that I missed. While I welcome that this video may get more people interested in Japanese history, it is definitely not an accurate source for it, and people should not be citing it as such a source.

I find it hilarious and surprisingly accurate. Most of the problems are things that I don't expect can be covered in 9 minutes. There are a lot of little intricacies that made me go eeeeeeeeh it's not technically wrong but needs closer examination. Here's the badhistory thread of half of the video. It's so condensed that I find it harder to point out factual errors (don't get me wrong, there were quite a few) and often people who try actually get more wrong than the video for the simple reason that the video does not go into detail so it can't get details wrong, while people who try to disprove it often do go into details and get the details wrong.

With that said of course there are mistakes in the video. It's depiction of the extent of Japanese control of the Japanese islands throughout history is outright wrong (the badhistory thread touches on this). And even in the era's I'm not specialized in, it's clear it uses more outdated research, many of which have been overturned.

So just to list out some outright mistakes in my area:

1. As the badhistory thread points out, the people in charge of the Kamakura Shogunate was not the Shogun, but the Hōjō regents. Except for Minamoto Yoritomo, Shoguns in the Kamakura were actually not that powerful. However another big part is that on re-examining the Emperor and his court in the Kamakura, the theory gaining strength is to push "feudal faction" forward until the Muromachi Shogunate. The Kamakura was more of a diarchy, with the court controlling western Japan and the Shogunate controlling eastern Japan.

2. Speaking of the Muromachi, the video says "the Emperor overthrows the Shogun and the Shogun overthrows him back", which is not that accurate. Go-Daigo did overthow the Hōjō and end the Kamakura shogunate, but it was not the Hōjō, as that line implies, that overthrows Go-Daigo, but Ashikaga Takauji. And the resulting conflict lasted nearly 60 years. Which leads me to...

3. The Muromachi Shogunate was not all poetry and art. In fact it was probably the weakest of the three Shogunates. Even after the conclusion of the Nanboku-chō, Shogunate power was weak and rebellions occurred with quite some frequency. The Ōnin War was not the reason for the Sengoku, but just one of the catalysts that showed everyone the Shogunate has finally lost control.

4. In the Sengoku, it was indeed great to control the capital, like the video says. Lots of clans vied for control of the capital. However, contrary to the video, the Imagawa was not one of these. They were no where near "ready to make a run for it". The Oda was small only in terms of geographic area. Owari province was arguably the most agricultural rich province in Japan, giving the Oda on paper near parity strength against the Imagawa. Of course the Oda had been down on its luck so it was indeed weaker at Okehazama. However it wasn't so weak that the Imagawa could have just steamrolled them. The campaign was fought over two Imagawa castles in Oda territory that the Oda had besieged and the Imagawa was trying to relieve.

5. Tokugawa's sakoku policies was incorrectly stated, as the badhistory thread pointed out.

A lot of great comments have been made here with a lot more information than I am about to give, but as an amateur Japan scholar (and junior high school history teacher in Japan) I want to chime in and just say I think the video does what it is trying to do extremely well.

It is a pretty accurate topical survey of some of the more defining and less controversial events and developments in Japanese history. It is not by any means complete or in depth. It politically seems to want to be very social media-friendly, steering clear of controversy. It maybe even leans slightly conservative (as in, Japanese conservative) -- as some people have already pointed out in its not spending much time on Japan's share of the horrors inflicted in WWII.

I disagree with some of the conclusions people are arguing for here that you shouldn't take the video seriously as "real" history. It is a real summary of real history, and it is mostly accurate -- it's just shallow and broad and omits information that there are good cases to be made for including. It also skews a bit to one side through omission -- whether this is due to political bias or just smart marketing for social media virality is unclear, but either way it does skew a bit.

None of this makes it "bad" or "wrong" or "fake" history. It's actually a fantastic starting point, and I think the fact that it spurs conversation and debate about what else should have been included or what should have been dwelled on in more detail is a good thing. It should not be your one and only source of information on Japanese history -- but that is true of literally any other source you will come across.

tl;dr - Approach the video with your critical thinking hat on, understand it is not a complete history, and be ready to investigate further on everything and anything it mentions (which is what you should be doing with all your historical sources anyway) and it's a great jumping-off point for becoming more informed and literate on Japanese history.

Are there good books or freely available journals that one can use to get a reliable understanding of Japanese history over the span of time that the video covers?