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Between 1880 and the 1930s, both Japan and India experienced mechanization of their cotton industries. This mechanization was alike in regards to the poor working conditions but differed based on the sex of the workers and the output of the mechanization.

Similarly to the rest of the industrialized world, India and Japan’s mechanization led to poor working conditions. In document three , two women remember working in the textile factories of Japan in the early 20th century. One of the girls says that “after work, [the workers] hardly had the strength to stand on [their] feet. Both girls highlight the dangerous conditions and rigorous work schedule including working for over 12 hours a day, meager meals, no heat in the winter, no formal housing, and a contagious environment that fostered diseases such as tuberculosis (Document 3). In the same time, a buddhist priest in rural Japan in document four describes the girls sent to the factories as “the peasants’ only salvation.” He explains that the a single factory girl could usually earn more than a farmer would earn in a year. In addition, landlords often required poor farmers to give them sixty percent of their crops, so “for these rural families. the girls were an invaluable source of income. The Buddhist priest’s point of view, while kind and concerned, can be seen as influenced by the teachings of his religion. Buddhism stresses helping others and individual responsibility, so the priest most likely saw these girls and embodying these principles (Document 4).While the religion of the source biases document 4, the vocation of the source of document 5 biases it. Tsurumi Shunsuke, a Japanese industrialist of the same era, believe factory workers to simply be surplus workers from r...

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...tton industries of India. Mukerjee stresses that “for the last few decades there has been a rapid decline of the handwoven cloth industry throughout the country on account of the competition of machine manufacturers” (Document 6). Overall, while both Japan and India saw success spurning from their mechanization of the cotton industry, in India was more successful, especially initially, because it was tied to Britain and industrialized during a time of economic growth.

The period between 1880 and the 1930s saw an increase in mechanization all around the world due to the industrial revolution and the new technological innovations that allowed mechanization to occur and thrive. Japan and China mechanized their cotton industries and were similar because of the poor working conditions but contrasted because of the sex of the workers and the output of the mechanization.