What are the main causes that led to Japanese aggression?
There could be argued that there were many reasons on why Japan as a nation became extensively more
aggression in the foreign policies. One reason could be down to a growing sense of nationalism within the
country, which forced their people, especially politicians and officers, to take actions into their own hands.
Another reason could be down to the Great Depression, as the Japanese government fail to deal with the
consequences, making their own people to actively start conflict with other neighbouring countries. The last
reason why Japan become more aggressive was the war effort with China, as this forced them into needing
more resource from other neighbouring countries.
The first reason in why Japan foreign policy became increasing aggressive was due to the Great Depression,
which hit the world by a storm. The Wall Street Crash 1929, which saw the US economy go into deep
depression due to the banks failing, and recalling their loans that loans worldwide. This caused the whole
world to go into a deep depression, as countries relied on the US for loans to fund their economy. As a result
of this the US imposed tariff on goods and withdrew all their loans worldwide. This sudden recall of loans
meant that the economic woes went worldwide. This affected Japan, as they somewhat relied on the US for
loans, and caused anger between the government and their people. The failure of the Japanese government to
deal with the Great Depression convinced officers that it would need to act quickly to and occupy the whole of
Manchuria. This would allow them to control a valuable region, which was rich in coal and iron, which would
inevitably help their economy. The Great Depression, could be seen as the sole instigator to Japan becoming
more aggressive, as they needed to gain more territory to survive as a country. However they needed a reason
to take intervention in this area, as a bomb exploded on a railway line. Japan immediately blamed China and it
gave Japanese forces with a desire excuse to not only control Mukden but the whole southern Manchuria.
China appealed to the league of nations, but they were slow to intervene, which showed their weakness. This
gave Japan the confidence to expand to other countries, without anyone taking any intervention. This
eventually led to them becoming more aggressive with their foreign policy aims, as they aimed to control the
whole of South Asia, leading to the incident in 1941. Overall, the Great Depression caused Japan to become
more aggressive as they somewhat relied on the US economy, making them need to find other means to
improve their economy. This eventually led to the incident at Pearl Harbour, with Japan thinking they could
take on the US, because of the confidence they had gained from this.
Another reason in which Japan became more aggressive was a lack of resources in their attempts to control
the whole of South Asia. In their attempts, to sustain its effort in China, they need to annex other nations in
order to gain valuable resources that would help them in their war effort. The nearest producer of all of these
valuable resources were in Southeast Asia, which was colonised by British, French and the Dutch. Once WW2
broke out in Europe in 1940, Japan allied itself with Germany, and gave them a reason to seize their enemies
colonies. This was an act of aggression as Japan always actively looked for ways to expand their empire, even if
this took being involved in the World War. The imperial Japanese armed forces seized oil field in Indonesia
and Malaya. Those countries, along with Burma, supplied iron ore, and with Thailand supplied rubber. In other
conquered territories, the Japanese requisitioned rice and other food supplies, sometimes stripping local
farmers of every last grain. However, the vast aggressive expansion left Japan overextended, and
underestimated how quickly the US would react to Pearl Harbour attack. This aggressive expansion in order to
gain resources to support their war effort with China, was their ultimate downfall, as the US was ruthless in
their revenge for Pearl Harbour, leading to their downfall. The lack of resources made them become aggressive
as they had to annex other nation to gain them. However, they messed with the wrong people leading to their
downfall. Overall, a lack of natural resources caused them to be aggressive as they needed to annex countries
for their resources, to carry on the fight against China.
The last reason why Japan was so aggressive was the growing sense of nationalism within the country. Many
politician and army officers were ultra nationalist, which meant that they wanted to become very aggressive in
the foreign policies and control most of South Asia. They often wanted other Asian countries to follow them as
they believed that they had a duty of care to the rest of Asia. They promised to end European colonialism in
Asia, if these countries followed them and were basically controlled by Japan. This could be seen as a facade,
as they promised the world, in order for Japan to gain from this. This was shown as they showed hostile to
China, with the Marco Polo Bridge incident, which started a full-scale invasion of China. However, a lack of
resources from a country that wasn’t rich in mineral resources, forced them to aggressively get it from
neighbouring countries. To make matters worse, the western countries support China with vital supplies.
Overall, it could be argued that Nationalism caused Japan to become aggressive as they greed form more
power in the South Asia, made them invade China, causing them to be aggressive to other countries, due to a
lack of resources. This wouldn’t have took place if they weren’t a growing sense of ultra nationalism from
those that had power in the country.
Overall, these three reason that I have put across was the main reason in which Japan became more aggressive
in the foreign policies. The Great depression, caused them to be aggressive as this instigated them starting
their efforts to invade China. A lack of resources caused them to become aggressive, as they need to invade
other countries to gain these vital resources, to continue their fight against China. But we could see the root
cause of all of this could be Nationalism within the country. Without Nationalism, Japan wouldn’t have had the
urge to invade other countries for their own good. Japan wanted to become the controller of the whole of
South Asia, claiming that they had a duty of care to neighbouring countries.