#52 1914-1945 The Unforeseen Consequences: The Growth of the Japanese Empire
Japan
Japan is important in this story of transformation, wealth, and power: she was the first and only non-colonised country before 1945 that successfully industrialised her economy. Japan had been able to follow European nations in colonising other countries and settling her people in her new colonies. By the end of 1945, around six and half million Japanese lived as settlers or as government officials in Japanese colonies such as Korea, Taiwan, China, Manchuria and Micronesia. Japanese military might had created an empire in the Asia Pacific region.
Political map of the Asia-Pacific region, 1939, by Emok, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons.
Japan used the 1914 war to extend her imperial goals while Europe was distracted by her own wars. Japan had already started the process of expansion with her victories in the Sino-Japanese war in 1895 and again in the Russian-Japanese war in 1905. Japan had become part of the global story by 1914. As I argued in an earlier blog, Japan had been the only country that was able to adequately respond to the belligerency of western aggression in the 19th century by transforming her economy and polity. The Meiji Revolution in the 1860s had successfully thrown over the old established feudal rule; this was sufficient to allow the country to move towards rapid industrialisation, and - of equal importance - by imitation of the western powers, to move towards becoming an imperial power in her own right. Japan had consciously decided to become a 'great' power.
Inouye Kaoru, the Japanese Foreign Minister, gave a speech in 1887 saying:
"What we must do is to transform our empire and our people, make the empire like the countries of Europe and our people like the peoples of Europe",
He went on to say that the Chinese and Koreans had forfeited their right to be independent by not modernising. Japan had swallowed whole the racist arguments of the time. They had internalized the idea of the 'survival of the fittest'. The Japanese argued the 'backward' peoples - the Koreans and Chinese - were ripe for colonisation as they were then, supposedly ‘inferior’ as they were.
Soldiers from the Un'yō attacking the Yeongjong castle on a Korean island, Artist unknown, 1876.
On 27 February 1876, the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876 was signed. The treaty ended Korea's status as a protectorate of China, forced open three Korean ports to Japanese trade, granted extraterritorial rights to Japanese citizens, and was an unequal treaty signed under duress of the Ganghwa Island incident of 1875.
Japan first decided to colonise Korea, her close neighbour. If Japan left Korea alone, the threat was that a western nation would invade, which would have been a threat to Japanese independence. Korea had coal and iron. But Korea was a tributary state of China. Korea paid tribute to China who in return safeguarded Korea from outside interference. Thus, the first war between Japan and China took place on Korean soil in 1894-1895. Japan was the victor. Korea stopped paying tribute to China thereafter and paid the tribute to Japan instead.
Next Japan colonised Taiwan in 1895, and alongside the western nations’ invaded China and took several cities. Japan, as is well known, defeated the Russian navy in 1905. The Russian fleet was attacked in 1904 at Port Arthur. From this date, Japan was recognised by the western nations as a power to be respected. Japan also obtained substantial rights in Manchuria.
A Military Dictatorship
By 1914, Japan had become an aggressive military power. But she lacked her own raw materials and had considered invading Siberia or further south in the Pacific. After 1914, Japan seized the German-owned Pacific islands and these were recognised as Japanese in the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. They then developed the previously German islands as air bases and refuelling stations for Japanese ships in case of USA invasion. Japan had unintentionally prepared the way for further colonisation in the Pacific.
Japan developed during this period in the first half of the 20th century into a military dictatorship with Emperor Hirohito as the overarching leader. Nobody in key positions in Japan disagreed with the goals of making Japan into a great power, with a strong naval, military and industry, which included the need to defend themselves against a potential attack from the USA. However, there was substantial disagreement on how to achieve these goals. This included disagreement over whether to invade northern China or eastern Russia to obtain control of the raw materials they required. Finally, there was disagreement over whether to return to traditional Japanese values and reject those of the west or to become full-throated capitalists.
These major disagreements led to two factions within the Japanese armed forces: those who advocated a 'Strike North' strategy, and those who preferred a 'Strike South' strategy: to colonise either northern China or eastern Russia. In February 1936 an attempted armed coup was made which included plans to assassinate key players in the government and military. Emperor Hirohito said, "whatever their excuses I am displeased. They have put a blot on the nation. I call on you The War Ministry to suppress them quickly". The plotters were rounded up and executed by firing squad. All the military sympathisers were removed which led to a unified centralised army. Japanese expansionism was henceforth destined for northern China, and the USSR was to be left alone.
Conclusion
The Japanese Nation played a unique role in world history in the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th. Despite the attempts of many ancients empires, such as the Ottomans, Russia, and the Hungarians, to arm themselves against the clear threat posed by the belligerent Western Powers: the USA, UK, France and Germany, only Japan succeeded in defending herself. And not just in fending off the bellicose powers, but she managed to industrialise so transforming her society and people. Japan became in a very short time, a member of the hostile powers, invading and exploiting the resources of her neighbours.
The Japanese occupation of Peiping (Beijing) in China, on August 13, 1937. Japanese troops are shown passing from Peiping into the Tartar City through Zhengyangmen, the main gate leading onward to the palaces in the Forbidden City. Retrieved from Wikipedia Commons.
Japanese ambition was to become the dominant power of Asia. She invaded China in 1937 and the USA in 1941. In both cases, there were complex reasons. Undoubtedly she wished to become the dominant power of the region. Japan had experienced 250 years of peaceful development in the years before Captain Perry of the USA attempted to open her to exploitation by the USA. The following 100 years saw rapid economic growth and incessant wars.
By 1945 and two atomic bombs Japan, had been flattened and humiliated. The story of her revival comes in future blogs.
Nagasaki Temple. Battered religious figures stand watch on a hill above a tattered valley. Nagasaki, Japan. September 24, 1945, 6 weeks after the city was destroyed by the world's second atomic bomb attack. Photo by Cpl. Lynn P. Walker, Jr. (Marine Corps).
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Ideology alone was of course not enough for Hitler to rise to power. The question remains: how was Hitler able to revive the German economy sufficiently to fight a global war in a mere six years? Hitler had taken political power in Germany in 1933. Once this question has been asked, the direction of the answer is obvious: the German economy would have to be supported by the great powers, France, Britain or America; there was no other way.