Japan (Lonely Planet, 11th Edition) - Chris Rowthorn [20]
Return to beginning of chapter
GROWING DISSATISFACTION WITH THE WEST
Mutsuhito was succeeded by his son Yoshihito (Taishō), who suffered mental deterioration that led to his own son Hirohito (1901–89) becoming regent in 1921.
On the one hand, the Taishō period (Great Righteousness; 1912–26) saw continued democratisation, with a more liberal line, the extension of the right to vote and a stress on diplomacy. Through WWI Japan was able to benefit economically from the reduced presence of the Western powers, and also politically, for it was allied with Britain (though with little actual involvement) and was able to occupy German possessions in East Asia and the Pacific. On the other hand, using that same reduced Western presence, Japan aggressively sought in 1915 to gain effective control of China with its notorious ‘Twenty-One Demands’, which were eventually modified.
In Japan at this time there was a growing sense of dissatisfaction towards the West, and a sense of unfair treatment. The Washington Conference of 1921–22 set naval ratios of three capital ships for Japan to five US and five British, which upset the Japanese despite being well ahead of France’s 1.75. Around the same time a racial equality clause that Japan proposed to the newly formed League of Nations was rejected. And in 1924 the USA introduced race-based immigration policies that effectively targeted Japanese.
This dissatisfaction was to intensify in the Shōwa period (Illustrious Peace), which started in 1926 with the death of Yoshihito and the formal accession of Hirohito. He was not a strong emperor, and was unable to curb the rising power of the military, who pointed to the growing gap between urban and rural living standards and accused politicians and big businessmen of corruption. The situation was not helped by repercussions from the Great Depression in the late 1920s. For many Japanese it would seem that the ultimate cause of these troubles was the West, with its excessive individualism and liberalism. According to the militarists, Japan needed to look after its own interests, which in extended form meant a resource-rich, Japan-controlled Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere that even included Australia and New Zealand.
* * *
Until it was occupied by the USA and other Allies following WWII, Japan (as a nation) had never been conquered or occupied by a foreign power.
* * *
In 1931 Japan invaded Manchuria on a pretext, and presently set up a puppet government. When the League of Nations objected, Japan promptly left the league. It soon turned its attention to China, and in 1937 launched a brutal invasion that saw atrocities such as the notorious Nanjing Massacre of December that year. Casualty figures for Chinese civilians at Nanjing vary between 20,000 (some Japanese sources) and 340,000 (some Chinese sources). Many of the tortures, rapes and murders were filmed and are undeniable, but persistent (though not universal) Japanese attempts to downplay this and other massacres in Asia remain a stumbling block in Japan’s relations with many Asian nations, even today.
Japan did not reject all Western nations, however, for it admired the new regimes in Germany and Italy, and in 1940 entered into a tripartite pact with them. This gave it confidence to expand further in Southeast Asia, principally seeking oil, for which it was heavily dependent on US exports. However, the alliance was not to lead to much cooperation, and since Hitler was openly talking of the Japanese as untermenschen (lesser beings) and the ‘Yellow Peril’, Japan was never sure of Germany’s commitment. The USA was increasingly concerned about Japan’s aggression and applied sanctions. Diplomacy failed, and war seemed inevitable. The USA planned to make the first strike, covertly, through the China-based Flying Tigers (Plan JB355), but there was a delay in assembling an appropriate strike force.
So it was that the Japanese struck