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History of China & Japan
1
HISTORY
Subject
:
History
Paper No.
:
Paper - VIII
History of China & Japan
Unit No. & Title
:
Unit- 2
History of Japan
Topic No. & Title
:
Topic - d
Democracy & Militarism
Lecture No. & Title
:
Lecture - 1
Rise of Militarism &
2nd Sino Japanese War
(For under graduate student)
Script
Rise Of Militarism & 2nd Sino-Japanese War
Government
constitutional,
in
Japan
but
between
not
mainly
1890
and
1945
parliamentary.
was
The
constitution gave different powers to different bodies, which
could be termed the elites of the system like the, army,
navy, civil bureaucracy, the Diet and the influential groups
close to the emperor. The political order was anchored by a
modernized imperial institution, which looked to the British
History of China & Japan
2
monarchy as a model. The high-water mark of party
government in pre-war Japan was the cabinet of Kato
Komei (1924-26). It inaugurated an eight-year period in
which the post of Prime Minister went to the president of
one of the two major parties. Government was by party
leaders and majority support in the Diet was recognized as
necessary for rule. The accomplishments of the Kato
cabinet included the passage of a universal manhood
suffrage bill in 1925, the re-establishment of the middlesized election district and the passage of the Peace
Preservation Law. After the death of Kato Komei (1926)
General Tanaka Giichi became the Prime Minister. He was
neither an oligarch nor a real party politician but was astute
and spoke of a ‘positive foreign policy’.
Had Japan not been subject to outside influences after 1929
(world
depression,
emergence
of
strong
Chinese
nationalism and the rise of Hitler), it might have continued
its slow gains in a parliamentary direction within the frame
work of the constitution. But what happened was that there
was a shift in the balance with the advantage passing from
the parties to the military, thereby setting Japan upon the
History of China & Japan
3
course that led to the disaster in World War II. Beginning
with the years from 1929 to 1932, a combination of shocks,
military expansion, assassination of prime ministers and
leading capitalists transformed Japan’s political system. By
the end of the 1930’s independent political parties, business
associations, producers, cooperatives, labour unions and
tenant unions were replaced by a series of state controlled
mass bodies intended to mobilize the nation for its war with
China.
In October 1929 the New York stock market crashed. The
global economic crisis coincided in destructive fashion with
a recent initiative in Japanese financial policy. Japanese
exports dropped fifty per cent from 1929 to 1931. Worker’s
incomes
dropped,
unemployment
rose
to
staggering
proportions, farm families suffered terribly. The ‘bumper
crop famine’ occurred in 1930, prices of food grains
registered a sharp fall and peasants had no alternative but
to resort to begging. In cities, the depression threatened
shop-keepers
and
factory
owners
as
well
as
their
employees. Retail trade faced bankruptcy when wage cuts
and job losses cut the buying power of their customers.
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Small scale manufacturing businesses also failed by the
thousands.
The
Japanese
public
blamed
party
leaders
for
the
depression as they were intimately associated with the
zaibatsu, the bureaucracy and the landlords. The depression
cast doubts on the ability of Japan’s parliamentary system.
The emergence of the Fascists and Nazis contributed to the
rise
of
anti-democratic
forces
in
Japan.
Those
who
advocated a greater role for the army raised questions as to
whether Japan could afford to depend on the world
economy and argued that military expansion abroad could
create an autonomous empire within which Japan could
insulate itself from the vagaries of the world economy.
The Minseito government under Prime Minister Osachi
Hamaguchi that had come to power in 1929 resolved to
implement two policies that had been pursued on and off
throughout the 1920’s to revive the stagnant economy.
First, domestic prices would be forced down and exports
encouraged by tightening the money supply and cutting
government
spending.
Second
international
trade
and
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investment would be stabilized by returning to a fixed
exchange rate. By the second half of 1929 prices fell 6
percent. So, in January 1930, Japan returned to the gold
standard. At a moment of plunging prices worldwide, this
move brought disaster. In addition, Japan’s zaibatsu banks
behaved in a way that was economically smart but
politically damaging. Bankers realized that the government
would have no choice but to abandon the move to the gold
standard and devalue the yen. They sold massive amounts
of yen for dollars. When Japan indeed left the gold standard
in 1931, the value of the yen quickly fell by half against the
dollar.
The
banks
happily
doubled
their
money
by
repurchasing the cheaper Japanese currency with their
dollars. This behaviour reinforced the widespread belief that
capitalist and their allies in the political parties were greedy
and selfish. The economy and political structure seemed
paralysed.
Social
disorder
and
immorality
appeared
rampant. Disgusted with the ineffective response of the
established
political
parties,
thousands
of
small
businessmen joined movements to found new ones. They
lambasted the Seiyukai as well as the ruling Minseito as
“running dogs of big capital’.
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Labour disputes, like agrarian struggles, took place in
unprecedented
numbers
and
with
a
new
intensity.
Organised workers engaged in more prolonged disputes
than in the past and turned violent more frequently. The
behaviour of the university students also contributed to the
wide spread sense of social crisis during the depression.
Hundreds
of
students
suspected
of
Communist
party
membership had been arrested in the 1928 round ups, and
the Ministry of Education dissolved the Tokyo University
‘New Man Society’. None the less a wave of student protests
broke out at leading universities in 1930 and 1931.
Although these protests concerned campus issues as much
as national politics, government authorities feared that an
underground Communists movement and a more general
attraction to Marxism and revolutionary ideas remained
powerful. The Ministry of Education vigorously monitored
and suppressed students’
activism
and
by
1934 the
students’ movement lost its momentum.
During the Taisho period (corresponding to the reign of the
Taisho emperor Yoshihito (1879-1926) Japan saw a short
period of democratic rule, and several diplomatic attempts
History of China & Japan
7
to encourage peace, such as the Washington Naval Treaty
and participation in the League of Nations. However, with
the beginning of the Showa era (1926-89, comprising the
reign of emperor Hirohito), the apparent collapse of the
world economic order, the imposition of trade barriers by
western nations and an increasing radicalism in Japanese
politics including issues of domestic terrorist violence led to
a resurgence of jingoistic patriotism and a weakening of
democratic forces along with the belief that only the military
could solve all threats both domestic and foreign. Patriotic
education also strengthened the sense of a divine mission
to unify Asia under Japanese rule. Those who continued to
resist the ‘military solution’ including nationalists with
unquestionable
patriotism
such
as
generals
Jotaro
Watanabe and Tetsugan Nagata and ex-foreign Minister
Shidehara Kijuro were driven from their offices.
A turning point came with the ratification of the London
Naval Treaty of 1930. Prime Minister Osachi Hamaguchi and
his Minseito party agreed to a treaty which would severely
limit Japanese naval power. This treaty was strongly
opposed by the military, who claimed that it would
History of China & Japan
8
endanger national defence and was portrayed by the
opposition of the Rikken Seiyukai Party as having been
forced upon Japan by a hostile United States, which further
in flamed growing anti-foreign sentiment. The Japanese
system of party government finally met its demise with the
May 15th Incident in 1932, when a group of junior naval
officers and army cadets assassinated Prime Minister Inukai
Tsuyoshi.
The rise of militarism in Japan in the 1930’s was the
outcome of a long historical process. In simple terms, the
roots of militarism lay in the development of the Meiji era
and the fruits blossomed with the failure of party politics by
the end of the 1920s. The rise of militarism in Japan can be
traced back to the old military tradition of the samurai for
hundreds of years. Fundamentally, Japan had a strong
tradition of unquestioned obedience to authority. Moreover
foreign threats emphasized the importance of militarism in
Japan in the 1850s when it had been forced to sign unequal
treaties and its independence was threatened. Even the
Meiji leaders felt the necessity of a strong military force and
carried out important military reforms and created an army
History of China & Japan
9
second only to Germany in the world. Inevitably, the
military services were to have decisive influence in the
nation’s affairs.
Institutional loopholes helped to increase the influence of
the militarists. The Meiji Constitution 1889 gave autonomy
to the armed services. It stated that the services had the
right of direct access to the emperor. A 1900 decree
established
the rule,
that
only
serving
generals and
admirals could become Ministers of War and of the Navy. As
such, the army and the navy could weaken a government,
which was against their interest, by refusing to supply it
with army or navy ministers. These loopholes no doubt
encouraged the growth of military influence and autonomy.
Another factor that strengthened the tradition of militarism
was Japan’s victories in the Sino-Japanese and RussoJapanese wars, which brought great benefits to Japan in
terms of money and territorial gains as well as international
status. This was interpreted by the Japanese as proving
that war was the best instrument to further national
interest or that victories justified militarism and expansion.
History of China & Japan
10
Japan’s overseas expansion became necessary with the
successful
advances
Meiji
were
modernization.
made,
Significant
especially
in
the
economic
field
of
industrialization, which in turn was linked to the search for
living
space,
raw
materials
and
markets.
The
Asian
mainland in particular, China and Korea, became Japan’s
primary target for expansion. Meiji leaders cultivated an
emperor-centric nationalism among Japanese minds. It
placed the Emperor in an unchallenged position. In theory,
the armed forces were the personal army and navy of the
emperor and therefore qualified to speak for the emperor.
By making use of this absolute obedience to the emperor
and the nation, the army started carrying out aggression in
the 1930s, believing that this served the interests of the
emperor and the nation. A ride-effect of this fanatical
devotion to the emperor was the growth of ultra –
nationalism.
A number of extremist societies such as the Black Dragon
Society fanned the sentiment of Japan’s superiority in the
world by the virtue of its divine origins. They strongly
advocated militarism. Party politicians failed disastrously to
History of China & Japan
11
stop the rise of militarist influence in the early 1930’s.The
failure of the party governments derived partly from their
inherent weakness, internal disunity, corruption, lack of
mass support and economic failure.
On the other hand “there was strong reaction among the
army officers against the “weak-kneed” diplomacy of the
party
governments.
The
military
men
resented
the
reduction in the size of the armed forces and regarded
Shidehara’s policy of improving relations with China and the
London Naval Disarmament Conference (1930) as a sign of
weakness. One of the most influential nationalist extremists
was the author Kita Ikki who advocated the conquest of
such areas as Manchuria and Siberia because Japan lacked
natural resources and living space. His ideas provided a
programme of action for the militarists.
The concept of Showa Restoration envisaged the return of
power from the parties and zaibatsu, to the emperor and
militarists. In the late 1920s a number of developments
accelerated the rise of militarism in Japan. In the first place,
China by 1928 was on the verge of being unified by Chiang
History of China & Japan
12
Kai-shek. A unified and strong China could threaten Japan’s
position in Manchuria where the Kwangtung Army was
stationed. Apparently the Nanking government was trying
to bring Manchuria back into China’s control. Japan had to
act fast in order to safeguard her vested interests.
Consequently, in September 1931, the Kwangtung Army
took independent action and seized control over Manchuria.
Another significant factor was the effect of the Great
Depression on Japan’s economy. This world-wide depression
was fatal to Japan’s economy which depended heavily on
export trade.
Rural distress intensified the discontent of the army officers,
many of whom were connected with the rural population.
Consequently
there
was
popular
support
for
military
adventures. The economic crisis made the nation desperate
for
military
expansion.
The
Manchurian
Incident
of
September 1931 set the stage for the Japanese military
takeover of all Manchuria. Kwangtung Army conspirators
blew up a few meters of the South Manchurian Rail way
Company track near Mukden and blamed it on Chinese
History of China & Japan
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saboteurs, and used the event as an excuse to invade and
seize the territory.
In January 1932 the Japanese forces attacked Shanghai
waging a three month undeclared war before a truce was
agreed upon.
The civilian government of Tokyo was
powerless to prevent these military actions.
Military men chosen by Saionji Kinmochi the last surviving
genro, recognized Manchukuo and generally approved the
army’s actions in securing Manchuria as an industrial base,
and as an area for Japanese emigration, and a potential
staging ground for war with Soviet Union.
Until the mid-1920s there had been few civilian patriotic
societies, but then they began to proliferate, all of whom
were committed to the emperor, the national polity and
favoured Japanese expansionism and pan-Asianism. Young
army and navy officers formed another component of the
rightist movement and supported the overthrowing of
corrupt governments of party politicians. In May 1932 a
group of junior army and navy officers along with a rural
History of China & Japan
14
patriotic group murdered the Prime Minister Inukai and
attacked the Seiyukai headquarters, the Bank of Japan, the
Tokyo Police Headquarters and various official residences.
Then was staged the rebellion of the First Division on
February 26 1936 followed by three days of virtual siege of
Tokyo with soldiers occupying the Diet, the Army Ministry
and other government centres. It was at this time that
power came into the hands of officers, including General
Tojo who were later to lead Japan into World War II.
In
November
1936,
the
Anti-Commintern
Pact,
an
agreement to exchange information and collaborate in
preventing communist activities was signed by Japan and
Germany (Italy joined a year later). War was launched
against China with the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 7 July
1937 in which a clash near Beijing between Chinese and
Japanese troops quickly escalated into the full-scale Second
Sino-Japanese war(1937), followed by the Soviet-Japanese
border wars and the Pacific war.
In 1940, all political parties were ordered to dissolve into
the Imperial Rule Assistance Association, forming a single
History of China & Japan
15
party state based on totalitarian values. It was a parafascist organization created by Prime Minister Konoe on
October 12 1940 which aimed at removing sectionalism in
Japanese politics.
In the 1942 general elections for the
Japanese Diet, the military was unable to do away with the
last vestiges of party politics. This was due to the fact that
the military itself was a monolithic structure, but was
divided into its own factions.
Despite efforts to totally militarize Japanese society during
the war including such measures as the National Service
Draft
Ordinance
and
National
Spiritual
Mobilization
Movement, Japanese militarism was totally discredited
during the American occupation by the utter failure of
Japan’s military in 2nd world war.
The invasion of Manchuria coincided with and partly caused
dramatic changes in Japan’s domestic economy. From 1931
to 1934 industrial output rose 82% as Japan recovered
from the depression faster than the Western economies.
The volume of exports outside the empire nearly doubled
from 1930 to 1936. The economy grew by 50% from 1930
History of China & Japan
16
to 1936. In 1937 one of the nation’s most important
economists, Arisawa Hiromi described the 1930s as a time
of economic miracle. The cause of this economic leap
forward
was
twofold.
First
the
Japanese
yen
fell
dramatically in value when the finance minister, Takahashi
Korekiyo took the nation off the gold standard. This allowed
the yen to plummet in value. The second factor behind the
1930s boom was Japan’s Keynesian economic policy. With
the new policies of early 1930s state officials sought to
orchestrate
economic
decisions
more
carefully
and
centrally. In 1937 the army and bureaucracy began the
practice of producing Five Year Plans targeting certain
industries for growth and channeling capital in their
direction. The military also supported several new business
combines in hopes of maturing sympathetic private sector
allies especially in the development of Manchuria. In this
fashion, industrialists old and new, followed the flag and
moved into business in Manchuria in close collaboration with
the military and civilian bureaucracy. As with industrial
policy, the depression was a major catalyst of new
approaches towards agriculture. Parallel to its expanded
role in the economy and society, the state moved to control
History of China & Japan
17
political life more tightly. One sign of this was the
nationwide Election Purification Campaign. The movement
combined
a
public
relations
campaign
for
‘election
purification’ with close police monitoring of elections. The
Home Ministry intervened more directly to make sure those
candidates of all parties mobilized popular sentiment for
state objectives.
Throughout the 1930s the bulk of the people remained with
the two major parties,- Minseito and Seiyukai, who won a
combined total 90% of the votes and seats in national
elections. One new trend of the 1930s was the emergence
of a unified political party that spoke on behalf of the lower
classes.
In 1932 leading socialists such as Abe Isoo
founded the Social Mass Party with its slogan of ‘anticommunism, anti-fascism, anti-capitalism’. By 1936-37 its
candidates were winning considerable support in local and
national elections. When neither mainstream party won a
Diet majority in the 1937 election, the SMP held a
potentially decisive ‘swing bloc’ that it might have used to
build a coalition with one party or the other. Instead, it
moved closer to the ruling military. Despite the military’s
History of China & Japan
18
long tradition of independence from civilian control, its
efforts at staging coup d’état to overthrow the civilian
government
and
its
forcing
Japan
into
war
through
subordination and military adventurism, the military was
unable to force a military dictatorship in Japan.
Despite
efforts
to
totally
militarise
Japanese
society
Japanese militarism was totally discredited during the
American occupation by the utter failure of the Japanese
army in World War II. After the surrender of Japan, many of
its former military leaders were lined for war crimes before
the Tokyo tribunal, its government educational system
revised, and pacifism was written into the post war
constitution of Japan as one of its main tenets.