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On 4 June 1615, Tokugawa Ieyasu's forces stormed Osaka Castle and killed the last Toyotomi heir, ending 150 years of Japanese civil war. The real genius wasn't the battle — it was the political cage Ieyasu built in the ruins.
On 17 April 1895, China signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki and surrendered Korea, Taiwan, and 200 million taels of silver to Japan. Eight months of unbroken defeats confirmed what the Self-Strengthening Movement had spent thirty years denying: Japan had transformed itself. China had not.
On 31 March 1854, Commodore Matthew Perry forced the Tokugawa Shogunate to sign the Convention of Kanagawa, ending 220 years of Japanese isolation. The treaty was designed to keep Japan dependent. Japan had other ideas.