Empire of Japan

Greater Japanese Empire
大日本帝國
*Dai Nippon Teikoku*
Greater Japanese Empire 大日本帝國 ; Dai Nippon Teikoku
1868–1945
	Flag of Japan Flag Imperial Seal
	Anthem: "Kimi ga Yo"; "Imperial Reign";
	File:Empire of Japan.PNG
Capital	Tokyo
Government	Constitutional monarchy
Emperor
• 1868–1912	Emperor Meiji
• 1912–1926	Emperor Taishō
• 1926–1989	Emperor Shōwa
Prime Minister
• 1885-1888, 1892-1896, 1898, 1900-1901	Itō Hirobumi
• 1888-1889	Kuroda Kiyotaka
• 1889-1891	Yamagata Aritomo
• 1906-1908, 1911-1912	Saionji Kinmochi
• 1901-1906, 1908-1911	Katsura Tarō
• 1913-1914, 1923-1924	Yamamoto Gonnohyōe
• 1898, 1914-1916	Ōkuma Shigenobu
• 1916–1918	Count Masatake Terauchi
• 1937-1939, 1940-1941	Prince Fumimaro Konoe
• 1941–1944	Hideki Tōjō
• 1944–1945	Kuniaki Koiso
• 1945	Count Kantaro Suzuki
History
• Meiji Restoration	January 3 1868
• Prefecture reform	August 29, 1871
• Constitution	November 29, 1890
• Surrender	September 2 1945
Area
	675,000 km2 (261,000 sq mi)
Population
•	97,770,000
Currency	Yen
ISO 3166 code	JP
Preceded by	Succeeded by
	Tokugawa shogunate
	Ryūkyū Kingdom
File:EzoFlag.jpg	Republic of Ezo
Occupation of Japan
	Population estimate at 1935

The Empire of Japan (Kyūjitai: 大日本帝國; Shinjitai: 大日本帝国; pronounced Dai Nippon Teikoku; officially Empire of Greater Japan or Greater Japanese Empire; more widely known as Imperial Japan or the Japanese Empire) was a political entity that existed during the period from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 to its defeat in World War II in 1945.

The country's rapid industrialization and militarization under the slogan Fukoku Kyohei富国強兵 (Enrich the Country, Strengthen the Military), led to its emergence as a world power eventually culminating with its membership in the Axis alliance and the conquest of a large part of the Asia-Pacific region.

The Empire of Japan, after suffering numerous defeats during the Pacific War and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, surrendered to the Allies on September 2, 1945. A period of occupation by the Allies followed the surrender and dissolution of the Empire and a new constitution was created with American involvement. American occupation and reconstruction of the country continued well into the 1950s eventually forming the current modern Japan.

The Emperors during this time, which spanned the Meiji, Taishō and Shōwa eras, are now known by their posthumous names which coincide with those era names: Emperor Meiji (Mutsuhito), Emperor Taishō (Yoshihito) and Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito).

Terminology

Although the empire is commonly referred to as "the Japanese Empire" or "Imperial Japan" in English, the literal translation from Japanese is Greater Japanese Empire (Dai Nippon Teikoku). The nomenclature Empire of Japan had existed since the feudal anti-shogunate domains, Satsuma and Chōshū, which founded their new government during the Meiji Restoration, with the intention of forming a modern state to resist western domination.

Meiji Restoration

After two centuries, the seclusion policy, or Sakoku, under the shoguns of the Edo period came to an end when the country was forced open to trade by the Convention of Kanagawa in 1854. The following years had seen increased foreign trade and interaction, commercial treaties between the Tokugawa Shogunate and Western countries were signed. In large part due to the humiliating terms of these Unequal Treaties, the Shogunate soon faced internal hostility, which materialized into a radical, xenophobic movement, the sonnō jōi (literally "Revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians").^[1]

In March 1863 the "Order to expel barbarians" issued. Although the Shogunate had no intention of enforcing the order, it nevertheless inspired attacks against the Shogunate itself and against foreigners in Japan. The Namamugi Incident during 1862 led to the murder of an Englishman, Charles Lennox Richardson by a party of samurai from Satsuma. The British demanded reparations and responded by bombarding the port of Kagoshima in 1863, for his death the Tokugawa government agreed to pay an indemnity.^[2] Shelling of foreign shipping in Shimonoseki and attacks against foreign propery led to the Bombardment of Shimonoseki by a multinational force in 1864.^[3] The Chōshū clan also carried out the failed Hamaguri Rebellion. The Satsuma-Chōshū alliance was established in 1866 to combine their efforts to overthrow the Tokugawa bakufu. In early 1867, Emperor Komei died of smallpox and was replaced by his son Mutsuhito(Meiji).

On November 9, 1867 Tokugawa Yoshinobu resigned his post and authorities to the emperor, agreeing to "be the instrument for carrying out" imperial orders.^[4]The Tokugawa Shogunate had ended.^[5] However, while Yoshinobu's resignation had created a nominal void at the highest level of government, his apparatus of state continued to exist. Moreover, the shogunal government, the Tokugawa family in particular, would remain a prominent force in the evolving political order and would retain many executive powers,^[6]a prospect hard-liners from Satsuma and Chōshū found intolerable.^[7]

On January 3, 1868, Satsuma-Chōshū forces seized the imperial palace in Kyoto, and the following day had the fifteen-year-old Emperor Meiji declare his own restoration to full power. Although the majority of the imperial consultative assembly was happy with the formal declaration of direct rule by the court and tended to support a continued collaboration with the Tokugawa, Saigō Takamori threatened the assembly into abolishing the title "shogun" and order the confiscation of Yoshinobu's lands.^[8]

On January 17, 1868, Yoshinobu declared "that he would not be bound by the proclamation of the Restoration and called on the court to rescind it." ^[9] On January 24, Yoshinobu decided to prepare an attack on Kyoto, occupied by Satsuma and Chōshū forces. This decision was prompted by his learning of a series of arsons in Edo, starting with the burning of the outworks of Edo Castle, the main Tokugawa residence.

Boshin War

The Boshin War (戊辰戦争, Boshin Sensō, "War of the Year of the Dragon") fought between January 1868 and May 1869. The alliance of southern samurai and court officials had now secured the cooperation of the young Emperor Meiji who dissolved the two-hundred-year-old Shogunate. Violence committed by pro-imperial forces in Edo led Tokugawa Yoshinobu to launch a military campaign to seize the emperor's court at Kyoto. However, the tide rapidly turned in favor of the smaller but relatively modernized imperial faction and resulted in defections of Daimyos to the Imperial side; the Battle of Toba-Fushimi being a decisive victory — in which a combined army from Chōshū, Tosa and Satsuma defeated Yoshinobu's army. A series of battles were then fought in pursuit of supporters of Yoshinobu; Edo surrendered to the Imperial forces and afterwards Yoshinobu personally surrendered. Yoshinobu was stripped of all his power by new Emperor Meiji, most of Japan now accepted the emperor's rule.

The remnants pro-Tokugawa forces(led by Hijikata Toshizo), however, then retreated to northern Honshū and later to Ezo(present day Hokkaidō), where they established the breakaway Republic of Ezo. An Expeditionary force was despatched by the new government and the Ezo forces were overwhelmed. The siege of Hakodate came to an early end in May 1869 and the remaining forces surrendered. Imperial rule was supreme throughout the whole of Japan; all defiance to the emperor and his rule ended.

Five Charter Oath

The Charter Oath was made public at the enthronement of Emperor Meiji of Japan on 7 April 1868. The Oath outlined the main aims and the course of action to be followed during Emperor Meiji's reign, setting the legal stage for Japan's modernization and can also be considered the first constitution of modern Japan.^[10]

The aims of the Meiji leaders were also to boost morale and win financial support for the new government. Its five provisions consisted of

Establishment of deliberative assemblies
Involvement of all classes in carrying out state affairs
The revocation of sumptuary laws and class restrictions on employment
Replacement of "evil customs" with the "just laws of nature"
An international search for knowledge to strengthen the foundations of imperial rule.

Meiji period

Several prominent writers under the constant threat of assassination from their political foes, such as Fukuzawa Yukichi were influential in convincing Japanese people for westernization. For instance some of his works that were well known were "Conditions in the West", "Leaving Asia", and "An Outline of a Theory of Civilization" that detailed Western society and his own philosophies. In the Meiji Restoration period, military and economic power was well emphasized. Military strength became the means for national development and stability. Imperial Japan became the only non-Western world power and a major force in east and southeast Asia in less than 30-50 years as a result of industrialization and economic development.

As one writer Albrecht Furst von Urach comments in his booklet "The Secret of Japan's Strength,"

The rise of Japan to a world power during the past 80 years is the greatest miracle in world history. The mighty empires of antiquity, the major political institutions of the Middle Ages and the early modern era, the Spanish Empire, the British Empire, all needed centuries to achieve their full strength. Japan's rise has been meteoric. After only 80 years, it is one of the few great powers that determine the fate of the world.

^[11]

The sudden and fast westernization once adopted changed almost all arenas of Japanese society ranging from language, etiquette, judicial and political system, armaments, arts, etc. Japanese government sent students to Western countries to observe and learn their practices as well as paying foreign scholars to Japan to educate the populace, the so called "foreign advisors" coming in from variety of studies. For instance the judicial system and constitution were largely modeled on that of Germany. It also outlawed customs linked to Japan's feudal such as displaying and wearing katana in the public and top knot both of which were characteristic of the samurai class, which were abolished all together with the caste system. This would later bring the Meiji government into conflict with the Samurai.(Satsuma Rebellion)

Moreover the Meiji government brought numerous armaments, ships and such that to build their conscription based national army (Imperial Japanese Army) and navy (Imperial Japanese Navy).

Constitution

The constitution also recognized the aforementioned acknowledgment of a need for change and modernization after removal of the shogunate:

We, the Successor to the prosperous Throne of Our Predecessors, do humbly and solemnly swear to the Imperial Founder of Our House and to Our other Imperial Ancestors that, in pursuance of a great policy co-extensive with the Heavens and with the Earth, We shall maintain and secure from decline the ancient form of government...In consideration of the progressive tendency of the course of human affairs and in parallel with the advance of civilization, We deem it expedient, in order to give clearness and distinctness to the instructions bequeathed by the Imperial Founder of Our House and by Our other Imperial Ancestors, to establish fundamental laws....

Imperial Japan was founded, de jure, after the 1889 signing of Constitution of the Empire of Japan. The constitution formalized much of its political structure and gave many responsibilities and powers to the Emperor.

Article 4. The Emperor is the head of the Empire, combining in Himself the rights of sovereignty, and exercises them, according to the provisions of the present Constitution.

Article 6. The Emperor gives sanction to laws, and orders them to be promulgated and executed.

Article 11. The Emperor has the supreme command of the Army and Navy.^[12]

Although it was in this constitution that the title Empire of Japan was officially used for the first time, it was not until 1936 that this title was legalized. Until then, the names "Nippon" (日本; Japan), "Dai-Nippon" (大日本; Greater Japan), "Dai-Nippon/-Nihon Koku" (日本國; State of Japan), "Nihon Teikoku" (日本帝國; Empire of Japan) were all used.

Economic development

File:Old1Yen silver certificate Bank of Japnan note.jpg

1 yen convertible silver note issued in 1885

The process of modernization was closely monitored and heavily subsidized by the Meiji government, enhancing the power of the great zaibatsu firms such as Mitsui and Mitsubishi. Hand in hand, the zaibatsu and government guided the nation, borrowing technology from the West. Japan gradually took control of much of Asia's market for manufactured goods, beginning with textiles. The economic structure became very mercantilistic, importing raw materials and exporting finished products — a reflection of Japan's relative scarcity of raw materials.

Economic reforms included a unified modern currency based on the yen, banking, commercial and tax laws, stock exchanges, and a communications network. Establishment of a modern institutional framework conducive to an advanced capitalist economy took time but was completed by the 1890s. By this time, the government had largely relinquished direct control of the modernization process, primarily for budgetary reasons. Many of the former daimyo, whose pensions had been paid in a lump sum, benefited greatly through investments they made in emerging industries.

The government was initially involved in economic modernization, providing a number of "model factories" to facilitate the transition to the modern period. After the first twenty years of the Meiji period, the industrial economy expanded rapidly until about 1920 with inputs of advanced Western technology and large private investments.

Japan emerged from the Tokugawa-Meiji transition as the first Asian industrialized nation. From the onset, the Meiji rulers embraced the concept of a market economy and adopted British and North American forms of free enterprise capitalism. Rapid growth and structural change characterized Japan's two periods of economic development after 1868. Initially, the economy grew only moderately and relied heavily on traditional Japanese agriculture to finance modern industrial infrastructure. By the time the Russo-Japanese War began in 1904, 65% of employment and 38% of the gross domestic product (GDP) was still based on agriculture, but modern industry had begun to expand substantially. By the late 1920s, manufacturing and mining contributed to 23% of GDP, compared with the 21% for all of agriculture. Transportation and communications developed to sustain heavy industrial development.

From 1894, Japan built an extensive empire that included Taiwan, Korea, Manchuria, and parts of northern China. The Japanese regarded this sphere of influence as a political and economic necessity, preventing foreign states from strangling Japan by blocking its access to raw materials and crucial sea-lanes. Japan's large military force was regarded as essential to the empire's defense and prosperity through obtaining natural resources, which the Japanese islands were lacking in.

Pre-World War I wars

First Sino-Japanese War

Prior to its engagement in the First World War, the Empire of Japan fought in two significant wars after its establishment following the Meiji Revolution. The first was the First Sino-Japanese War, fought between 1894 and 1895. The war revolved around the issue of control and influence over Korea under the rule of the Joseon Dynasty. A peasant rebellion led to a request by the Korean government for China to send troops in to stabilize the region. The Empire of Japan responded by sending their own force to Korea and installing a puppet government in Seoul. China objected and war ensued. In a brief affair with Japanese ground troops routing Chinese forces on the Liaodong Peninsula, and the near destruction of the Chinese navy in the Battle of the Yalu River. China was forced to sign the Treaty of Shimonoseki, which ceded parts of Manchuria and the island of Formosa to Japan (see Taiwan under Japanese rule and Japanese Invasion of Taiwan (1895)). After this war, regional dominance shifted from China to Japan.

Russo-Japanese War

Greater Manchuria, Russian (outer) Manchuria is region to upper right in lighter Red; Liaodong Peninsula is the wedge extending into the Yellow Sea.

The Russo-Japanese War was a conflict for control of Korea and parts of Manchuria by the Russian Empire and Empire of Japan that took place from 1904 to 1905. The war is significant as the first modern war where an Asian country defeated a European power. The victory greatly raised Japan's measure in the world of global politics. The war is marked by the Japanese rebuff of Russian interests in Korea, Manchuria, and China, notably, the Liaodong Peninsula, controlled by the city of Port Arthur.

Originally, in the Treaty of Shimonoseki, Port Arthur had been given to Japan. This part of the treaty was overruled by Western powers, which gave the port to the Russian Empire, furthering Russian interests in the region. These interests came into conflict with Japanese interests. The war began with a surprise attack on the Russian Eastern fleet stationed at Port Arthur, which was followed by the Battle of Port Arthur. Those elements that attempted escape were defeated by the Japanese navy under Admiral Togo Heihachiro at the Battle of the Yellow Sea. A year later, the Russian Baltic fleet arrived only to be annihilated in the Battle of Tsushima. While the ground war did not fare as poorly for the Russians, the Japanese army was significantly more aggressive than their Russian counterparts and gained a political advantage that accumulated with the Treaty of Portsmouth negotiated in the United States by the American president Theodore Roosevelt. As a result, Russia lost the part of Sakhalin Island south of 50 degrees North latitude (which became the Karafuto Prefecture), as well as many mineral rights in Manchuria. In addition, Russia's defeat cleared the way for Japan to annex Korea outright in 1910.

World War I

Japan entered World War I in 1914, seizing the opportunity of Germany's distraction with the European War and wanting to expand its sphere of influence in China. Japan declared war on Germany in August 23, 1914 and quickly occupied German-leased territories in China's Shandong Province and the Mariana, Caroline, and Marshall Islands in the Pacific, including German New Guinea. The Battle of Tsingtao, a swift invasion in the German colony of Jiaozhou (Kiautschou) proved successful and the colonial troops surrendered on 7 November 1914.

With Japan's Western allies, notably the United Kingdom, heavily involved in the war in Europe, it sought further to consolidate its position in China by presenting the Twenty-One Demands to China in January 1915. Besides expanding its control over the German holdings, Manchuria, and Inner Mongolia, Japan also sought joint ownership of a major mining and metallurgical complex in central China, prohibitions on China's ceding or leasing any coastal areas to a third power, and miscellaneous other political, economic, and military controls, which, if achieved, would have reduced China to a Japanese protectorate. In the face of slow negotiations with the Chinese government, widespread anti-Japanese sentiment in China, and international condemnation, Japan withdrew the final group of demands, and treaties were signed in May 1915.

Militarization and imperialist ambitions

Military and social organizations

Important institutional links existed between the Party in Government (Kodoha) and Military and Political Organizations like the Imperial Young Federation, and the "Political Department" of the Kempeitai;Amongst the himitsu kessha (secret societies), the Kokuryu-kai (Black Dragon Society), and Kokka Shakai Shugi Gakumei (the National Socialist League) also had close ties to the government. The Tonarigumi (residents committee) groups, the Nation Service Society (national government trade union) and Imperial Farmers Association were all allied as well. See more:List of Japanese institutions (1930 - 1945)

Other organizations and groups related with the government in wartime were: Double Leaf Society, Toseiha, Kodaha, Kokuhonsha, Taisei Yokusankai, Imperial Youth Corps, League of Diet Members Believing the Objectives of the Holy War, Tokko,Tokeitai, Keishicho (to 1945), Shintoist Rites Research Council, Treaty Faction, Fleet Faction and Imperial Volunteer Corps

Nationalistic factors

Sadao Araki was an important figurehead and founder of the Army party and the most important right-wing thinker in that time; his first ideological works date from his leadership of the Kodaha (Imperial Benevolent Rule or Action Group), opposed by the Toseiha (Control Group) led by General Kazushige Ugaki. He linked the ancient (bushido code) and contemporary local and European fascist ideals (see Japanese fascism), to form the ideological basis of the movement (Shōwa nationalism).

From September 1932, the Japanese were becoming more locked into the course that would lead them into the Second World War, with Araki leading the way. Totalitarianism, militarism and expansionism were to become the rule, with fewer voices able to speak against it. In a September 23 news conference, Araki first mentioned the philosophy of "Kodoha" (The Imperial Way Faction). The concept of Kodo linked the Emperor, the people, land and morality as indivisible. This led to the creation of a "new" Shinto and increased Emperor worship.

The state was being transformed to serve the Army and the Emperor. Symbolic katana swords came back into fashion as the martial embodiment of these beliefs, and the Nambu pistol became its contemporary equivalent, with the implicit message that the Army doctrine of close combat would prevail. The final objective, as envisioned by Army thinkers and right-wing line followers, was a return to the old Shogunate system, but in the form of a contemporary Military Shogunate. In such a government the Emperor would once more be a figurehead (as in the Edo period). Real power would fall to a leader very similar to a Führer or Duce, though with the power less nakedly held. On the other hand, the traditionalist Navy militarists defended the Emperor and a constitutional monarchy with a significant religious aspect.

A third point of view was supported by Prince Chichibu, a brother of Emperor Shōwa, who repeatedly counseled him to implement a direct imperial rule, even if that meant suspending the constitution. ^[13] In time Japan would turn to a form of government that resembled Totalitarism. However, although this unique style of government was very similar to Fascism there were many significant differences between the two and therefore could be termed Japanese nationalism.

Economic factors

At same time, the zaibatsu capitalist groups (principally Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Sumitomo, and Yasuda) looked toward great future expansion. Their main concern was a shortage of raw materials. Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoye combined social concerns with the needs of capital, and planned for expansion.

Poster of Manchukuo promoting harmony between Japanese, Han Chinese and Manchu. The caption says: "With the help of Japan, China, and Manchukuo, the world can be in peace."

The economic seeds of World War II were planted in the mid 19th century. The main goals of this expansionism were acquisition and protection of spheres of influence, maintenance of territorial integrity, acquisition of raw materials, and access to Asian markets. Western nations, notably Great Britain, France, and the United States, had for long exhibited great interest in the commercial opportunities in China and other parts of Asia. These opportunities had attracted Western investment because of the availability of raw materials for both domestic production and re-export to Asia. Japan desired these opportunities in planning the development of the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere.

The Great Depression, just in many other countries, had hindered Japan's economic growth. The Japanese Empire's main problem lay in that rapid industrial expansion had turned the country into a major manufacturing and industrial power that required raw materials, however these could only be obtained overseas as there was a critical lack of natural resources on its home islands.

In the 1920s and 1930s Japan needed to import raw materials such as iron, rubber and oil to maintain strong economic growth. Most of these resources, however came from the United States. The Japanese felt that acquiring resource-rich territories would establish economic self-sufficiency and independence, they also hoped to jump-start the nation's economy in the midst of the depression. As a result Japan set its sights on East Asia, specifically Manchuria with its many resources, Japan needed these resources to continue its economic development and maintain national integrity.

Once outright war began, the Domei Tsushin Press Agency celebrated the quality of Japan's armaments, stating that Mitsubishi and the others had taken the measure of the "white barbarians".

World War II

Pre-War Expansionism

Manchuria

With little resistance, Japan invaded and conquered Manchuria in 1931. Japan claimed that this invasion was a liberation of the Manchus from the Chinese, although the majority of the population were Han Chinese. Japan then established a puppet regime called Manchukuo, and installed the former Emperor of China, Puyi, as the official head of state. Jehol, a Chinese territory bordering Manchuria, was also taken in 1933. This puppet regime had to carry on a protracted pacification campaign against the Anti-Japanese Volunteer Armies in Manchuria. In 1936, Japan created a similar Mongolian puppet state in Inner Mongolia named Mengjiang (Chinese:yup) which was again predominantly Chinese.

Second Sino-Japanese War

Japan invaded China in 1937, creating what was essentially a three-way war between Japan, Mao Zedong's communists, and Chiang Kai-shek's nationalists. On 13 December that same year, the Nationalist capital of Nanking fell to Japanese troops. In the event known as the Rape of Nanking, Japanese troops massacred a large number of city's population. It is estimated that nearly 300,000 people, almost entirely civilians, were killed. In total, 20 million Chinese, mostly civilians, would be killed during World War II. A puppet state was also set up in China quickly afterwards, headed by Wang Jingwei. The second Sino-Japanese war would continue into World War II with the Communists and Nationalists in a temporary and uneasy alliance against the Japanese.

Clashes with the Soviet Union

The Battle of Lake Khasan was an attempted military incursion of the Japanese 19th Division into the territory claimed by the Soviet Union. This incursion was founded in the belief of the Japanese that the Soviet Union misinterpreted the demarcation of the boundary based on the Treaty of Peking between Imperial Russia and Manchu China (and subsequent supplementary agreements on demarcation), and furthermore, that the demarcation markers were tampered with.

The following year, Nomonhan Incident(Battle of Halhin-Gol) occurred on 11 May 1939, when a Mongolian cavalry unit of some 70 to 90 men entered the disputed area in search of grazing for their horses, and encountered Manchukuoan cavalry who drove them out of the disputed territory. Two days later the Mongolian force returned and the Manchukoans were unable to evict them.

The Japanese IJA 23rd Division and other units of the Kwantung Army then became involved. Joseph Stalin ordered STAVKA, the Red Army's high command, to develop a plan for a counterstrike against the Japanese. Georgy Zhukov, led a devastating offensive employing encircling tactics making skillful use of their superior artillery, armor and air forces in late August that nearly annihilated the 23rd Division and decimated the IJA 7th Division. On September 15 an armistice was arranged. Nearly two years later, on April 13, 1941, the parties signed a Neutrality Pact, in which they agreed to abide by the existing border.

Tripartite Pact

The Second Sino-Japanese War had seen tensions rise between Imperial Japan and the United States, events such as Panay incident and the 'Rape of Nanking' turned American public opinion against Japan. With the occupation of French Indochina in the years of 1940/41 and the continuing war in China, the United States embargoed strategic materials such as scrap metal and oil to Japan, which were vitally needed for their war effort. The Japanese were faced with the option of either withdrawing from China and losing face or seizing and securing new sources of raw materials in the resource rich, European controlled colonies of South East Asia — specifically British Malaya and the Dutch East Indies

On September 27, 1940, Imperial Japan signed the Tripartite Pact with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, their objectives to "establish and maintain a new order of things" in their respective world regions and spheres of influence. With Nazi Germany in Europe, Imperial Japan in Asia and Fascist Italy in North Africa. The signatories of this alliance become known as the Axis Powers. The pact also called for mutual protection—if any one of the member powers were attacked by a country not already at war, excluding the Soviet Union, and for technological and economic cooperation between the signatories.

On 31 December 1940, Matsuoka Yosuke told a group of Jewish businessmen that he was "the man responsible for the alliance with Hitler, but nowhere have I promised that we would carry out his anti-Semitic policies in Japan. This is not simply my personal opinion, it is the opinion of Japan, and I have no compunction about announcing it to the world."

Pacific War

Attack on Pearl Harbor

After facing an oil embargo by the United States and its own reserve oil supply about to run short, the Japanese government decided to take action and execute a plan developed by the military branch largely lead by Osami Nagano and Isoroku Yamamoto to bomb the United States naval base in Hawaii, thereby bringing the United States to World War II on the side of Allies. On 4 September 1941, the Japanese Cabinet met to consider the war plans prepared by Imperial General Headquarters, and decided:

Our Empire, for the purpose of self-defence and self-preservation, will complete preparations for war ... [and is] ... resolved to go to war with the United States, Great Britain and the Netherlands if necessary. Our Empire will concurrently take all possible diplomatic measures vis-a-vis the United States and Great Britain, and thereby endeavor to obtain our objectives ... In the event that there is no prospect of our demands being met by the first ten days of October through the diplomatic negotiations mentioned above, we will immediately decide to commence hostilities against the United States, Britain and the Netherlands.

The Imperial Japanese Navy made its surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii, on the Sunday morning of December 7, 1941. The Pacific Fleet of the United States Navy and its defending Army Air Forces and Marine air forces sustained significant losses. The primary objective of the attack was to incapacitate the United States long enough for Japan to establish its long-planned Southeast Asian empire and defensible buffer zones. The U.S. public saw the attack as a treacherous act and rallied against the Empire of Japan. Four days later Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany declared war on the United States bringing the separate conflicts into a cohesive conflict.

British Malaya and Singapore

Victorious Army troops march through Singapore (Photo from Imperial War Museum)

On December 8, 1941 British Malaya was invaded by Japanese 25th Army under general Tomoyuki Yamashita. Defending Malalya was a Commonwealth army comprised of British, Indian, and Australian forces plus Malays from the Federated Malay States. Imperial Japanese Army was able to quickly advance down the Malayan peninsula, forcing the Commonwealth forces to retreat towards Singapore. The British lacked aircover and tanks, the Japanese had total air superiority. The sinking of H.M.S Prince of Wales and H.M.S Repulse on December 10, 1941 led to the east coast of Malaya being exposed to Japanese landings and the elimination of British naval power in the area. On January 31 1942, the last Allied forces crossed the straight of Johore and into Singapore.

On February 7, 1942 the Japanese invaded the island of Singapore, despite determined resistance and fierce fighting they were able to push back the Commonwealth forces. On February 15, 1942 Singapore fell to the Japanese, resulting in the largest surrender of British-led military personnel in history. About 80,000 Indian, Australian and British troops became prisoners of war, joining 50,000 taken in the Japanese invasion of Malaya.

Burma Campaign

Netherlands East Indies

The Philippines

Japan launched air raids on US military positions in the Philippines following the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 8 1941, and Japanese troops landed in the Philippines on December 10, initiating the invasion of the Philippines. During this Campaign, the Japanese pushed the combined Filipino-American force towards the Bataan peninsula and later the island of Corregidor. By January of 1942 General Douglas MacArthur and President Manuel Quezon were forced to flee in the face of Japanese advances.

This marked among one of the worst defeats suffered by the Americans, leaving over 70,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war in the custody of the Japanese. Ten thousand of these prisoners later died on the Bataan Death March, known as Batān Shi no Kōshin by the Japanese. Japanese military rule lasted for over two years, the result being the resistance of several guerrilla armies and the incredible sufferings endured by the Philippine population.

Australia

The two Japanese air raids on Darwin, on February 19 1942 were by far the biggest ever attack by a foreign power against the Australian mainland. They were also a significant action in the Pacific campaign of World War II and represented a major psychological blow to the Australian population, several weeks after hostilities with Japan had begun. The raids were the first of about 100 air raids against Australia during 1942 and 1943.

War crimes during World War II

Many political and military Japanese leaders were convicted for war crimes before the Tokyo tribunal and other allies tribunals in Asia. However, all members of the imperial family implicated in the war, such as emperor Showa and his brothers, cousins and uncles such as Prince Chichibu, Prince Hiroyasu Fushimi and Prince Asaka, were exonerated from criminal prosecutions by Douglas MacArthur.

Unit 731

Unit 731 was a covert medical experiment unit of the Imperial Japanese Army, researching biological warfare through human experiments during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937 to 1945) and World War II. Disguised as a water purification unit, it was based in the Pingfang district of the northeast Chinese city of Harbin, part of the puppet state of Manchukuo. Unit 731 was officially known as the "Kempeitai Political Department and Epidemic Prevention Research Laboratory".

As many as ten thousand people, both civilian and military, of Chinese, Mongol, and Soviet origin were subjects of experimentation by Unit 731. Some Allied prisoners of war also died at the hands of Unit 731. In addition, Unit 731's biological weapons research resulted in tens of thousands of deaths in China – possibly as many as 200,000 casualties by some estimates.

Unit 731 was one of many units used by the Japanese to research biological warfare; other units include Unit 516 (Qiqihar), Unit 543 (Hailar), Unit 773 (Songo unit), Unit 100 (Changchun), Unit 1644 (Nanjing), Unit 1855 (Beijing), Unit 8604 (Guangzhou), Unit 200 (Manchuria) and Unit 9420 (Singapore).

Many of the scientists involved in Unit 731 went on to prominent careers in politics, academia and business. Some were arrested by Soviet forces and tried at the Khabarovsk War Crime Trials; those who surrendered to the Americans, were granted amnesty in exchange for the data collected.

Because of the nature of their experiments and practices, Unit 731's actions are considered war crimes.

Nanking Massacre

The Nanking Massacre, commonly known as "The Rape of Nanking", refers to the most infamous of the war crimes committed by the Japanese military during World War II—acts carried out by Japanese troops in and around Nanjing (then known in English as Nanking), China, after it fell to the Imperial Japanese Army on December 13, 1937. The duration of the massacre is not clearly defined, although the period of carnage lasted well into the next six weeks, until early February 1938.

The extent of the atrocities is debated, with numbers ranging from the claim of the Japanese army at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East that the death toll was military in nature and that "no such atrocities ever occurred", to the Chinese claim of a non-combatant death toll of 300,000. The West has generally tended to adopt the Chinese point-of-view, with many Western sources now quoting 300,000 dead. This is partly due to the commercial success of Iris Chang's "The Rape of Nanking", which set the stage for the debate of the issue in the West; and the existence of extensive photographic records of the mutilated bodies of women and children.

Sook Ching massacre

When the Japanese occupied Singapore, the Japanese military authorities became concerned about the local Chinese population. The Japanese Imperial Army had become aware that the ethnic Chinese had strong loyalties to either the United Kingdom or China, with wealthy Chinese financing Chiang Kai-Shek's effort in the Second Sino-Japanese War, after Japan had invaded China on July 1937, with other charity drives. The military authorities, led by General Tomoyuki Yamashita, decided on a policy of "eliminating" the anti-Japanese elements.

Soon after the fall of Singapore, Lieutenant-Colonel Masayuki Oishi, commander of No. 2 Field Kempeitai, took over the offices of the Supreme Court building. Singapore was broken up into sectors, each placed under the control of a Kempeitai officer. The Japanese set up designated "screening centers" all over the colony. The blueprint was to gather and screen all Chinese males between 18 to 50 years old, and eliminate those thought to be anti-Japanese. The ones who passed the "screening" would receive a piece of paper with "Examined" written on it, or have a square ink mark on their arms and shirts. Those who did not pass the "screening" would be stamped with triangular marks. There were trucks near these screening centers to send those anti-Japanese elements to their deaths. The Japanese Army chose remote sites such as Changi, Punggol, Blakang Mati and Bedok to perform the executions, with the victims thrown overboard off boats or machine-gunned to death off the harbour.

Comfort Women

Japanese: 慰安婦 The term "comfort women" pertains to women and girls who served as prostitutes during the Imperial Era of Japan. Many historians believe that an estimated 200,000 women were taken as comfort women during the reign.^[14] Most of the women were believed to be from Korea, with the a good percentage also from China and also other populations in the Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere. Some Japanese historians debated the fact that Japan had actually forced or kidnapped women from other nations into sexual slavery. Evidence that disputes that comes in forms of personal testimonies of living former sex slaves, witnesses, and actual former Imperial Soldiers. While historians and politicians such as Abe dispute that there was an actual coercion of foreign women into slavery, Japanese documents in 1992 and 2007 were found supporting the coercion of women into sexual slavery.^[15]

Path to defeat

Significant defeats

Japanese military strategists were keenly aware of the unfavorable discrepancy between the industrial potential of the Japanese Empire and that of the United States. Because of this they reasoned that Japanese success hinged on their ability to extend the strategic advantage gained at Pearl Harbor with additional strategic victories. Only decisive destruction of the United States' Pacific Fleet and conquest of its remote outposts would insure that the Japanese Empire was not overwhelmed by America's industrial might. In May of 1942, failure to decisively defeat the Allies at the Battle of Coral Sea in spite of Japanese numerical superiority equated to a strategic defeat for Imperial Japan. This setback was followed in June of 1942 by the catastrophic loss of a four carrier task force at the Battle of Midway. Midway was a decisive defeat for the Imperial Japanese Navy, and proved the turning point for the war. Further defeats by the Allies at Guadalcanal in September 1942, and New Guinea in 1943 put the Empire of Japan on the defensive for the remainder of the war. The US Sixth Army led by General MacArthur landed on Leyte on 19 October 1944, in the subsequent months(Philippines campaign of 1944–1945) American troops together with guerrilla forces liberated much of the Philipines. By 1944 the Allies had seized or bypassed and neutralized many of Japan's strategic bases through amphibious landings and bombardment. This, coupled with the losses inflicted by allied submarines on Japanese shipping routes began to strangle Japan's economy and undermine its ability to supply its army. By early 1945 the US Marines had wrested control of the Ogasawa Islands in several hard-fought battles such as the Battle of Iwo Jima, marking the beginning of the fall of the islands of Japan.

Kamikaze attacks

During 1943 and 1944, Allied forces, backed by the industrial might and rich resources of the United States, were advancing steadily towards Japan. Commander Asaiki Tamai asked a group of 23 talented student pilots, whom he had personally trained, to volunteer for the special attack force. All of the pilots raised both of their hands, thereby volunteering to join the operation. Later, Tamai asked Lieutenant Yukio Seki to command the special attack force. Seki is said to have closed his eyes, lowered his head and thought for ten seconds, before asking Tamai: "please let me do that". Seki thereby became the 24th kamikaze or suicide pilot to be chosen.

Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Nuclear weapon attack by the US is commonly cited as ending the war sooner against the Empire of Japan.

After securing airfields in Saipan and Guam in the summer of 1944, the United States undertook an aggressive campaign of carpet bombing Japanese cities in an effort to pulverize Japan's industry and shatter its morale. While these campaigns led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians they did not succeed in persuading the Japanese to surrender. In the summer of 1945, the United States dropped two nuclear weapons on Japan. The atomic bombing was the first and last used against another nation. These bombs killed around 100,000 to 200,000 people in a matter of minutes, and many more people died as a result of nuclear radiation in the following weeks, months, and years.

Defeat and surrender

Having ignored (mokusatsu) the Potsdam Declaration, the Empire of Japan surrendered and ended World War 2, after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and a declaration of war by the Soviet Union. In a national radio address of 15th August, emperor Showa announced the surrender to the Japanese people.

Regime change

A period known as Occupied Japan followed after the war largely spearheaded by United States General of the Army Douglas McArthur to revize the Japanese constitution and de-militarize Japan. The American occupation, with economic and political assistance, continued well into the 1950s. After the dissolution of the Empire of Japan, Japan adopted a parliamentary-based political system, with the Emperor changed to symbolic status.

American General of the Army Douglas MacArthur later commended the new Japanese government that he helped established and the new Japanese period when he was about to send the American forces to the Korean War:

The Japanese people, since the war, have undergone the greatest reformation recorded in modern history. With a commendable will, eagerness to learn, and marked capacity to understand, they have, from the ashes left in war's wake, erected in Japan an edifice dedicated to the supremacy of individual liberty and personal dignity; and in the ensuing process there has been created a truly representative government committed to the advance of political morality, freedom of economic enterprise, and social justice. Politically, economically, and socially Japan is now abreast of many free nations of the earth and will not again fail the universal trust... I sent all four of our occupation divisions to the Korean battlefront without the slightest qualms as to the effect of the resulting power vacuum upon Japan. The results fully justified my faith. I know of no nation more serene, orderly, and industrious, nor in which higher hopes can be entertained for future constructive service in the advance of the human race.

For historian John W. Dower, however, «In retrospect, apart from the military officer corps, the purge of alleged militarists and ultranationalists that was conducted under the Occupation had relatively small impact on the long-term composition of men of influence in the public and private sectors. The purge initially brought new blood into the political parties, but this was offset by the return of huge numbers of formaly purged conservative politicians to national as well as local politics in the early 1950s. In the bureaucracy, the purge was negligible from the outset (...) In the economic sector, the purge similarly was only mildly disruptive, affecting less than sixteen hundred individuals spread among some four hundred companies. Everywhere one looks, the corridors of power in postwar Japan are crowded with men whose talents had already been recognized during the war years, and who found the same talents highly prized in the "new" Japan.» ^[16]

Influential personnel

In the administration of Japan dominated by the Army political movement during World War II, the civil central government was under the management of military men and their right-wing civilian allies, along with members of the nobility and Imperial Family.

The Emperor was in the center of this power structure as supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Armed Forces, head of state, representative of the "Imperial Sun Lineage" for State Shinto, and chief of the Imperial Household.

Other important institutions linking to the government were the National Youth Association and the "political sections" of the Kempeitai and Tokeitai. These secret societies were a source of loyalists. Other allied groups included residents' committees, the government trade union, local farmers associations, and the state religious and educational systems. Imperial Armed Forces political sections supported the formation of similar right-wing movements in all the occupied lands of the early Pacific War.

The rivalties between the Army and Navy became the principal right-wing political movement in the Empire of Japan in the 1930s, the two factions emerged as leaders among many similar groups and secret societies.

Timeline

1926: Emperor Taishō dies (December 25).
1927: Tanaka Giichi becomes prime minister (April 20).
1928: Emperor Shōwa is formally installed as emperor (November 10).
1929: Hamaguchi Osachi becomes prime minister (July 2).
1930: Hamaguchi is wounded in an assassination attempt (November 14).
1931: Hamaguchi dies and Wakatsuki Reijiro becomes prime minister (April 14). Japan occupies Manchuria after the Mukden Incident (September 18). Inukai Tsuyoshi becomes prime minister (December 13) and increases funding for the military in China.
1932: After an attack on Japanese monks in Shanghai (January 18), Japanese forces shell the city (January 29). Manchukuo is established with Henry Pu Yi as emperor (February 29). Inukai is assassinated during a coup attempt and Saito Makoto becomes prime minister (May 15). Japan is censured by the League of Nations (December 7).
1933: Japan leaves the League of Nations (March 27).
1934: Okada Keisuke becomes prime minister (July 8). Japan withdraws from the Washington Naval Treaty (December 29).
1936: Coup attempt (February 26 Incident). Hirota Koki becomes prime minister (March 9). Japan signs its first pact with Germany (November 25) and occupies Tsingtao (December 3). Mengchiang established in Inner Mongolia.
1937: Hayashi Senjuro becomes prime minister (February 2). Prince Konoe Fumimaro becomes prime minister (June 4). Battle of Lugou Bridge (July 7). Japan captures Beijing (July 31). Japanese troops occupy Nanjing (December 13), beginning the Nanjing massacre.
1938: Battle of Taierzhuang (March 24). Canton falls to Japanese forces (October 21).
1939: Hiranuma Kiichiro becomes prime minister (January 5). Abe Nobuyuki becomes prime minister (August 30).
1940: Yonai Mitsumasa becomes prime minister (January 16). Konoe becomes prime minister for a second term (July 22). Hundred Regiments Offensive (August–September). Japan occupies Indochina in the wake of the fall of Paris, and signs the Tripartite Pact (September 27).
1941: General Tojo Hideki becomes prime minister (October 18). Japanese naval forces attack Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (December 7), prompting the United States to declare war on Japan (December 8). Japan conquers Hong Kong (December 25).
1942: Singapore surrenders to Japan (February 15). Japan bombs Australia (February 19). Doolittle Raid on Tokyo (April 18). Battle of the Coral Sea (May 4–May 8). U.S. and Filipino forces in the Battle of the Philippines (1942) surrender (May 8). Japan defeated at the Battle of Midway (June 6). Allied victory in the Battle of Milne Bay (September 5).
1943: Allied victory in Battle of Guadalcanal (February 9). Japan defeated at Battle of Tarawa (November 23).
1944: Tojo resigns and Koiso Kuniaki becomes prime minister (July 22).
1945: U.S. bombers begin firebombing of major Japanese cities. Japan defeated at Battle of Iwo Jima (March 26). Admiral Suzuki Kantaro becomes prime minister (April 7). Japan defeated at Battle of Okinawa (June 21). U.S. drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki (August 9). Japan surrenders (August 14): Allied occupation begins.

Emperors of the Empire of Japan

Posthumous name¹	Given name²	Childhood name³	Period of Reigns	Era name⁴
Meiji Tennō (明治天皇)	Mutsuhito (睦仁)	Sachi-no-miya (祐宮)	1867–1912 (1890-1912)⁵	Meiji
Taishō Tennō (大正天皇)	Yoshihito (嘉仁)	Haru-no-miya (明宮)	1912–1926	Taishō
Shōwa Tennō (昭和天皇)	Hirohito (裕仁)	Michi-no-miya (迪宮)	1926–1989 (1926–1947)⁶	Shōwa
1 Each posthumous name was given after the respective era names as Ming and Qing Dynasties of China.
2 The Japanese imperial family name has no surname or dynastic name.
3 The Meiji Emperor was known only by the appellation Sachi-no-miya from his birth until 11 November 1860, when he was proclaimed heir apparent to Emperor Kōmei and received the personal name Mutsuhito .
4 No multiple era names were given for each reign after Meiji Emperor.
5 Constitutionally.
6 Constitutionally. The reign of the Shōwa Emperor in fact continued until 1989 since he did not abdicate after World War II.

This period includes the Meiji Era, the Taishō Era, and a part of the Shōwa Era.
< Edo period | History of Japan | Post-Occupation Japan >

References

Notes

^ Hagiwara, p. 34.
^ Jansen, pp. 314–5.
^ Hagiwara, p. 35.
^ Satow, p. 282.
^ Keene, p. 116. See also Jansen, pp. 310–1.
^ Keene, pp. 120–1, and Satow, p. 283. Moreover, Satow (p. 285) speculates that Yoshinobu had agreed to an assembly of daimyos on the hope that such a body would restore him to reinstate him.
^ Satow, p. 286.
^ During a recess, Saigō, who had his troops outside, "remarked that it would take only one short sword to settle the discussion" (Keene, p. 122). Original quotation (Japanese): "短刀一本あればかたづくことだ." in Hagiwara, p. 42. The specific word used for "dagger" was "tantō".
^ Keene, p. 124.
^ Keene, p. 340, notes that one might "describe the Oath in Five Articles as a constitution for all ages."
^ http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/japan.htm
^ - The Constitution of the Empire of Japan(1889)
^ Herbert Bix, Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, 2001, p.284
^ [1]
^ [2]
^ J. W. Dower, Japan in War & Peace, New press, 1993, p.11

Books

Jansen, Marius B. (2002). The Making of Modern Japan. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-00991-6. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
Jansen, Marius B. (1989). The Cambridge History of Japan. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521223563. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
Porter, Robert P. (2001). Japan: The Rise of a Modern Power. Adamant Media Corporation. ISBN 1402196903. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
Keene, Donald (2005). Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852–1912. New York: Columbia. ISBN 0-231-12340-X.
Satow, Ernest. A Diplomat in Japan. ISBN 4-925080-28-8. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

External links

[1] Hagiwara, p. 34.

[2] Jansen, pp. 314–5.

[3] Hagiwara, p. 35.

[4] Satow, p. 282.

[5] Keene, p. 116. See also Jansen, pp. 310–1.

[6] Keene, pp. 120–1, and Satow, p. 283. Moreover, Satow (p. 285) speculates that Yoshinobu had agreed to an assembly of daimyos on the hope that such a body would restore him to reinstate him.

[7] Satow, p. 286.

[8] During a recess, Saigō, who had his troops outside, "remarked that it would take only one short sword to settle the discussion" (Keene, p. 122). Original quotation (Japanese): "短刀一本あればかたづくことだ." in Hagiwara, p. 42. The specific word used for "dagger" was "tantō".

[9] Keene, p. 124.

[10] Keene, p. 340, notes that one might "describe the Oath in Five Articles as a constitution for all ages."

[11] ttp://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/japan.htm

[12] - The Constitution of the Empire of Japan(1889)

[13] Herbert Bix, Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, 2001, p.284

[14] [1]

[15] [2]

[16] J. W. Dower, Japan in War & Peace, New press, 1993, p.11

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