Role Reversal & East
Asia’s Climb Back to
Centrality
East Asia in the 20th Century
Prior to WWII
Review
China’s Road
to
1911
Review: China’s Road to 1911
In the centuries prior to 1800:
1. China maintained Middle Kingdom
ideal amidst Europeans’
resistance to tribute system
2.
3.
Opium Wars, unequal treaties,
spheres of influence
Taiping & Boxer Rebellions
1911

End of Dynastic System
in China
In your opinion, what was the
major cause of China’s
decline in the 1800s?
Why?
Wealth & Power
Review: Japan on Opposite Path
China
Japan
1800
1840
1868
1900
Review
Japan’s
Revolutionary
th
19 Century
Review: Japan on Opposite Path
Samurai lose wealth/ importance =
sign of crumbling social structure 
1.
“Meiji Restoration”
Meiji = modernization
2.
• Social reforms, economic reforms, political
reforms
Imperialism = world power?
3.
•
•

1894-1895: Sino-Japanese War = Korea &
Taiwan
1904-1905: Russo-Japanese War =
Manchuria
These victories mark Japan’s arrival as
a world power

1910
Japan’s
emerging
Asian empire
Post-Dynastic China
1911-1937
Decline of Qing dynasty leads to
disorder b/t 1911 & 1949
China
Periodization:
•
1912-1927: the “Phantom Republic”
•
1927-1937: the Guomindang’s China
•
1937-1945: 2nd Sino-Japanese War
•
•
•
1931: Japan invades Manchuria
World War II & intertwined histories
1945-1949: Chinese Civil War resumes
China
1912-1927: the “Phantom Republic”
Early, factions vie for power :
 Landlords (led by Yuan Shikai)
 Nationalists (led by Sun Yat-sen)
 Communists (led by Mao Zedong)
China
1912-1927: the “Phantom Republic”

Nationalists
• Aimed at creating democratic
China
• Supported urban life &
intellectuals
• Focused on government
ideals rather than practical
solutions
China
1912-1927: the “Phantom Republic”

Communists
• Aimed at peasant reform
China
1927-1937: Guomindang’s China
Chiang Kai Shek emerges
• Leads Nationalists (KMT) after Sun

1934
KMT’s brutal
crack down
on
communists
leads to
Long March
China
1927-1937: Guomindang’s China
So…by 1931
•Nationalists “in charge”
•Communists want power
•Violent civil war
Imperial Japan
1905-1937
Japan
1905-1937: Imperial Japan
Japan expands during 20th century
for lots of reasons
• Japanese expansion is an implicit
challenge to Western dominance
• This leads Japan on the road to war
Japan
1905-1937: Imperial Japan
Additional Reasons to Expand:
1. Need
• Island nation, limited resources, limited
farmland, overpopulation
2.
Anti-Western Sentiment
• Racial equality?
• Limiting of navy?
• End of emigration to U.S.?
Japan
1905-1937: Imperial Japan
1930 speech of military leader:
“We are like a great crowd of people packed into a
small narrow room, and there are only three
doors through which we might escape, namely
emigration, advance into world markets, and
expansion of territory. The first door…has been
barred to us by the anti-Japanese immigration
policies of other countries. The second door…is
being pushed shut by tariff barriers…Japan should
rush upon the last door [expansion of territory].”
Japan
1905-1937: Imperial Japan
1930’s American observation:
“In every classroom is a world-map or map of Asia
which shows Japan in red as a very small land
indeed, compared to the mainland nations of
Asia…In a perfectly bland manner some villager,
on looking at such a map, will suggest how nice it
would be to [acquire] a bit more of China.”
Japan
1905-1937: Imperial Japan
1920s & 1930s, mark further industrial
advance of Japan
• Great Depression = sparks coups &
further militarization of Japanese
government
• Example:
 1931 – Manchurian Incident
Japan
1905-1937: Imperial Japan
Histories Intertwined
China & Japan
1937-1945
20th Cent. Japan
1937 – Japan launches invasion of
coastal China
 Imperial spirit led to control of
islands & much of SE Asia as well
• Cultural & economic imperialism

Branded as:
Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
or an
“An Asia for Asians”
WWII – Histories Intertwined
1937 – Japanese invasion of China

Guomingdang & Communists reach
alliance
• Following Communists’ Long March,
Guomingdang left to fight Japanese
alone
 Turning point in Chinese civil war
WWII – Histories Intertwined

Japanese devastate Chinese cities
(Nationalist strongholds)
• Communists win support among
peasants and for guerilla attacks on
Japanese
WWII – Histories Intertwined
A terrified baby after Shanghai is attacked by Japan
WWII – Histories Intertwined

Strategy
•
•
•
Embargo →
Pearl Harbor
Defensive
perimeter →
island
hopping
Fight to the
death,
suicide
missions →
more direct
strikes
WWII – Histories Intertwined
August 6th & 9th, 1945

Hiroshima = 140,000
deaths by the end of 1945
(200,000 total)
•


Buildings leveled for a 1.5
miles radius
Nagasaki = 70,000 deaths
by the end of 1945
(140,000 total)
Explosion had temp
exceeding 7,000 oC (Sun’s
surface temp. = 6,000 oC).
WWII – Histories Intertwined

Japanese defeat in World War II
resumes Chinese civil war with
Communists clearly in control
• 1949 – Communist victory;
Nationalist flee to Taiwan
WWII – Histories Intertwined

Following WWII & atomic bombs,
Japan occupied by U.S. forces until
1952
• Political restructuring – emperor not
divine, but kept in place
• Economic recovery – “The Economic
Miracle”
 Highly educated society
 Already industrialized
 Rebuild with latest technologies
 No military expenses