Japan Between the Wars
Kevin J. Benoy
Japan’s Modernization
• Japan’s tremendous
success in modernizing
itself during the latter
part of the 19th and early
20th centuries, along with
its apparent commitment
to liberal democracy
made many observers
feel Japan was evolving
into a kind of Western
style democracy.
• This was not entirely true.
Japanese Political System
• Japanese institutions
paralleled the British
system, with two legislative
chambers.
• However, Prime Ministers
were not chosen by
Parliamentary majorities,
but by “a few men who
exercised the Imperial
prerogative, and only after
appointment did they hold
elections in which they
usually won parliamentary
majorities.” (Edwin
Reischaer, The Japanese).
Japanese Political System
• Furthermore, there was a
division between the
military and civil branches
of government.
• Army and navy ministers
were military men, not
politicians.
• The Diet (parliament)
voted on both military
and civilian budgets, but
this was the only control
exercised by civilians.
Westernization in Japan
• During the 1920s there was
pressure, at least in the
cities, to emulate the liberal
West.
• The victory of Western
democracies against the
central powers and the
collapse of authoritarian
Russia convinced many
Japanese of the strength of
the democratic model.
Westernization in Japan
• Japanese businessmen wanted Japan to copy the West,
calling for cuts in the high taxes needed to fund big army
and navy establishments.
• Expanded foreign trade would bring prosperity to Japan, not
imperial expansion.
Westernization in Japan
• Westernizers had success in
the 1920s.
– Japan pulled out of Siberia in
1922.
– In the same year, Japan
signed the Washington Naval
Agreement and officially
recognized the territorial
integrity of China.
– In 1925, Japan reduced her
army by 4 of 21 divisions, at a
considerable tax saving.
Westernization in Japan
• An educated elite of
professors, teachers,
writers, doctors, lawyers
and office workers were
quite familiar with Western
liberal thought.
• City workers read
newspapers, which gave
them a range of views.
• Japanese labour unions,
which grew during the war
years, exerted considerable
power.
Westernization in Japan
• Even the great
earthquake and fire of
1923 in the Tokyo area
helped bring
modernization.
• When the 100,000 dead
were buried, a great
rebuilding programme
took place.
Westernization in Japan
• Urban young people were
particularly attracted to the
world-wide revolt of youth.
• They began to question the
traditions of family
solidarity, paternal
authority and male
dominance.
• Some even called for
marriages of love, not
family arranged unions.
Westernization in Japan
• Some middle class
Japanese even treated
their wives as social
equals.
Westernization in Japan
• Familiarity with
American flappers
brought a Japanese
equivalent – the Moga
– “modern girl” and
their male equivalent,
the Mobo – “modern
boy.”
Traditional Values in Japan
• Opposed to liberalism
was a deep-seated
traditionalism – largely
centered in the
conservative
countryside, which had
net experienced the
same modernization as
the cities.
Traditional Values in Japan
• Tradition had strong
support within the
military, where the
ancient code of bushido
was strongly upheld.
• The army and the navy
harboured strong
authoritarian attitudes
– particularly among
junior officers and men.
Traditional Values in Japan
• Liberal politics and the
antics of the moga and
mobo were viewed with
hostility by military
officers, rural
landowners, and the
lower middle class in
small towns.
Traditional Values in Japan
• Even the school system,
which sought to promote
modern ideas, carried
within its curriculum
tendencies that encouraged
authoritarianism.
• Nationalism stressed the
inherent superiority of
Japan.
• Respect for the military was
promoted.
Radical Nationalism
• Unlike in the West, radical
nationalists focussed on
direct action through
private pressure groups,
rather than work through
the political party system
• Ultra-nationalist societies
were, therefore, less
apparent in Japanese
society than in the West.
Terrorist acts, not electoral
results, were the chief
political tools.
Radical Nationalism
• One group led the way. The
Kokuryukai (Black Dragon
Society), an offshoot of Genyosha
(Dark Ocean Society), called for
reconstructing Japanese society
in a fascist-looking pattern.
• It was xenophobic, militarist and
expansionist.
• It wanted authoritarian
government in the name of the
emperor. Voting would occur, but
only after reorganization of the
system guaranteed results.
Radical Nationalism
• Reactionaries in Japan
looked to the military
for leadership against
“corrupting” western
influences – always
saying they were
working for the
emperor, who was
considered divine.
The Military
• Most officers came from
rural landowning families –
and sometimes from the
peasantry.
• These groups did not share
in the benefits of recent
industrialization.
• Most officers began training
at age 14, so were easily
moulded into the desired
image.
The Military
• Junior officers were often
more fervently fascist than
the generals and admirals.
• Rather than reflecting
traditional samurai values, it
reflected the same
frustration of frustrated
national goals, fear of
socialism and resentment of
capitalist excesses that
characterized European
fascist movements.
Economic Trouble
Japanese silk production
• Authoritarianism in Japan grew
slowly during the 1920s, but grew
dramatically in the 1930s.
• It smouldered during the slowgrowth era of 1920s Japan but
burst into full flame when
Depression hit.
• A 1927 bank crisis started bad
times.
• The American stock market crash
reinforced the problem –
especially as US tariffs shut out
Japanees goods in foreign – and
especially the American –
markets.
Economic Trouble
• Rural Japan was
particularly hard hit.
– Rice growers faced
competition from Korea
and Taiwan within the
empire.
– Silk producers lost the
valuable American market.
– Tenant peasant farmers
sometimes had to sell their
daughters into prostitution
to avoid starvation.
Economic Trouble
• Japanese imperialists pointed out
that Great Britain, France and
Holland had large overseas
territories and that the USA and
USSR had vast continental
territories to ensure continuity of
markets and sources of raw
material.
• Japan was late in joining the
game and was deprived of the
benefits of empire by the
satisfied West.
Economic Trouble
• Liberal
businessmen could
no longer argue
that Japan should
use peaceful trade,
rather than
aggressive
imperialist
expansion to
ensure markets and
raw materials.
Hungry rural children
Expansion
The Mukden (Manchurian) Incident
• 1931 proved a turning
point.
• Elements of the Kwantung
army (Japanese forces
guarding the Manchurian
railway), without the
approval or knowledge of
the government, struck
against Chinese Manchuria,
claiming that Chinese
troops tried to blow up the
railway.
Expansion
The Mukden (Manchurian) Incident
• Within a few months all
of Manchuria was in
Japanese hands.
• A puppet government
was installed and the
territory was
supposedly
independent
Manchukuo.
• It was, in fact, a colony
of Japan.
Expansion
Civilians Cowed Into Silence
• Even politicians
opposed to expansion
were forced into silence
by public support for
the action.
• The government even
denied that there had
been a war. The
conquest of Manchuria
was called “the
Manchurian Incident” - the term still used in
Japanese school
textbooks today.
Expansion
Shanghai
• Japanese troops were
also landed at Shanghai.
• The League of Nations
and the United States
protested Japanese
aggression loudly, but
no action was taken.
• Japan simply withdrew
from the League.
Inukai Assassination, May 15, 1932
• Young army cadets and naval
officers killed Premier Inukai,
head of one of the largest
political parties to “free the
emperor from evil advisors.”
• Inukai was one of the figures
associated with the London
Naval Treaty of 1930.
• The plotters also wanted to kill
Inukai’s son and Charlie Chaplin,
a guest, who was visiting Japan
at the time. They were
attending a Sumo competition –
and, luckily, survived.
Inukai Assasintion, May 15, 1932
• A petition of 35,000 signatures
(in blood) supported the
plotters.
• 11 young men from Niigata
offered to be executed in their
place, sending 7 severed
fingers to the court to show
their serious purpose.
• Only light sentences (15 years
was the longest) were given
and the plotters would all be
released in a few years.
Inukai Assassination
• Though the action ended,
the military high command
still took advantage of the
situation to call for a
cabinet consisting of
bureaucrats, politicians and
military people, all
balancing one another.
• The Result was an end to
liberal democracy in Japan.
February 26 Incident (1936)
• More serious still was
the coup attempt of
February 26, 1936.
• Unlike the direct action
of 1932, this involved
soldiers of many units
trying to initiate a
“Showa Restoration“– a
strong government in
the name of the
emperor.
February 26 Incident
• 1500 troops seized control
of Tokyo
• Politicians were hunted
down and killed in cold
blood.
• Many key leaders escaped
only through luck. The
Prime Minister survived
when the plotters killed his
brother-in-law by mistake.
February 26 Incident
• The coup only collapsed when the
Emperor intervened directly –
against the conspirators.
• This time severe sentences,
including capital punishment, was
meted out.
• However, political opposition to
the military and extremists was
silenced completely in fear of the
consequences of not doing so.
• By 1937 all party participation in
cabinet was ended.
• Prime Minister, Konoye Fuminaro,
was unable to control the
military.
Aftermath to the February 26 Incident
General Ugaki, Head of Tosei-Ha
• There was no lessening of
military influence, just a
change in direction.
• Kodo-Ha (Imperial Way),
which favoured expansion
at the cost of the Soviet
Union, was eclipsed by
Tosei-Ha (Control Way),
which sought expansion to
the South – against the
Europeans and Americans.
Both groups saw China as a
target.
Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact
• Tension with the USSR
remained high, and a
border conflict
resulted in a
resounding defeat of
the Japanese at
Khalkin Gol.
• However, in 1941 the
Soviets and Japanese
came to an agreement
and a neutrality Pact
was signed on April
13, 1941.
War With China
• On July 7, 1937, fighting
broke out between the
Japanese and Chinese
near Beijing – at the
Marco Polo Bridge.
• World War II really
began in Asia at this
time.
• Japan launched an allout offensive against
China.
War With China
• Soon all of China’s coastal
areas were in Japanese
hands.
• In December, 1937, Nanking
– the capital of China at the
time – was attacked.
• In the 6 weeks following the
December 13 capture,
300,000 civilians were
slaughtered.
These two Japanese officers claimed
to have killed more than a hundred
people each -- with their swords.
War With China
• European powers
and the USA had
considerable
interest in China,
holding trade
concessions that
dated back to the
19th century.
• Japan’s actions put
them on a collision
course with the
White Powers.
Xenophobia in Japan
• Hatred of foreign powers
was fanned to strengthen
militarist goals.
• American racial exclusion of
Japanese emigration to the
US was continually brought
up.
• Talk of a future naval war
with the US for control of
the Pacific was common.
Xenophobia in Japan
– Bilingual street and railway
signs were made unilingual.
– Schools had to give up
progressive educational
practices & employ rote
learning.
– Women were excluded from
intellectual life.
– Political rationalism was
replaced by nationalist and
mystical slogans.
– Political witch hunts took
place, with educators and
statesmen hounded out of
office or assassinated.
Xenophobia in Japan
• Japanese leaders began to speak
of “freeing“ the Asian colonies of
the European countries, bringing
them into a Japanese-controlled
Asian community – what would
come to be known as “the
Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity
Sphere.“
• The Japanese saw themselves as
champions of the downtrodden
people of Asia – however, most
Asians who were under their
control did not think them so.
Xenophobia in Japan
• Anti-Western sentiment
brought vast changes to
Japan.
– Ballroom dancing was
condemned and dance
halls closed.
– Golf and luxury sports
were frowned upon.
– An attempt was made to
stop the use of English
scientific and technical
terms.
Xenophobia in Japan
• Even the great Zaibatsu, the
huge monopolistic business
conglomerates – like
Mitsubishi and Mitsui –
were cowed into
acceptance of the
reactionary trend, despite
the disruptions that
impending war would bring.
• Though some looked
forward to profits from the
growing armaments
industries.
Conclusion
• As in Europe, economic
dislocation helped to
strengthen existing
authoritarian tendencies
within a society.
• It was not inevitable that a
“fascist” approach be
adopted – but it vastly
increased the likelihood of
such an occurrence.
• Simple answers were posed
to complex problems and a
troubled population
accepted them.
finis