Japan 1900--1937 Imperialism, Party Government, and Fascism

Japan 1900--1937
Imperialism,
Party Government,
and Fascism
February 26, 2013
Review
• Why was Japan better prepared financially
to cope with the demands of the modern
world than other nations in Asia were in the
19th century?
• Were the majority of the people in Japan
nationalistic in 1868?
• How did they become nationalistic?
Japan Becomes an Imperial Power
• after 1868: Began incorporating Hokkaidō into
Japan proper.
• 1879--deposed the king of the Ryūkyūs and
announced it was now the province of Okinawa.
• 1894-95 1st Sino-Japanese War ends with
Taiwan in Japanese hands, and Japan replacing
China as the dominant power in Korea
• 1904-05 Russo-Japanese War allows Japan to
replace Russia as the dominant foreign power in
Manchuria.
• Why did Japan want to have colonies?
Russo-Japanese
War
• Russia
and Japan compete for influence
over
Korea and Manchuria.
• 1902
Japan and Great Britain enter an alliance,
the first between a European power and an Asian
country.
• 1904 Japan attacks the Russian fleet in Port
Arthur
• Japan wins the Russo-Japanese War
• Treaty of Portsmouth formalizes Japan’s victory.
Informal agreement between Japan and US has
the two agree to keep hands off the other’s
colonies.
Barriers to Great Power Status
• 1915 Japan made 21 demands on China, which
China was able to resist. (p. 373)
• 1918 Japan failed to get the League of Nations
to agree to racial equality.
• 1918 Japan sent troops to Siberia to stop the
Communist revolution in Russia but had to
withdraw in 1922
• 1922 and 1930 Japan was forced to accept a
smaller navy than either the UK or the US
• US passed the Oriental Exclusion Act.
Economic
Development
• Japan moved
from a predominantly agrarian
economy to one that was increasingly industrial.
• It also experienced rapid urbanization.
• During the period, the zaibatsu emerged. (p. 373)
Zaibatsu are family-owned conglomerates that
engage in a wide variety of commercial activities,
from mining to manufacturing and trading. They
are held together by a holding company, and a
common bank.
• The Zaibatsu encourage the concentration of
capital without creating a monopoly.
Japan after World
• Barriers to democracy inWar
Japan: I
• No constitutional guarantee of party government (though
there were party governments from 1918 to 1932.) (Party
government means the leader of the party that wins the
most votes becomes prime minister and appoints the
cabinet.) (pp.374-75)
• Universal male suffrage was allowed from 1925, but also
laws were enforced against dissent.
• Racism in the aftermath of the 1923 Tokyo earthquake.
(p.373)
• A cultural and economic gap grew, dividing the modern
urban youth from the people in the villages.
What is democracy?
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a political system in which mechanisms for reconciling competing
interests peacefully are institutionalized. It requires majority rule
together with protection for minority views. It is a political, not an
economic, term.
The term democracy can imply
1) multiparty elections with broad suffrage and no serious fraudcan be called procedural democracy or formal democracy
allowing the possibility of a peaceful transfer of power.
2) + guaranteed freedom of speech, press, assembly, etc.
3)+ military under civilian control
4) + laws to protect citizens from oppression by the state or economic
forces
5)+ broad social and economic equality--real (substantial) democracy
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Japan’s Headless
Government
The chiefs of the army and the navy reported directly
to the emperor and were not under the control of the
prime minister.
Cabinets did not have to reflect the membership of
the Diet
The bureaucracy often acted as though it were a
separate branch of government.
Zaibatsu were rich enough to influence government
decisions.
The genrō and the Privy Council were unelected
“advisors” to the Emperor.
The rise of the right
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military men from poor villages resented the wealth
and “decadence” of urban elites, including capitalists.
(p.442)
the failure of the Western world to grant Japan
equality, along with China’s refusal to accept
Japanese “guidance,”fueled nationalist resentment.
Two groups within the military, the Control Faction
and the Imperial Way Faction, vied for control of the
government. After several episodes of Imperial Way
violence, the control faction won in 1936.
Fascism
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Fascism is a non-democratic and non-communist
political ideology that views society as like a family,
with no real internal conflicts of interest. Fascism is
an attempt to contain the tensions of modernization
by slowing social change so that the traditional social
hierarchy doesn’t undergo a rapid and therefore
destabilizing transformation. It often used traditional
rhetoric to legitimize its heavy-fisted control of society.
Fascism is often racist, militaristic and aggressive,
and extols authoritarian leaders as fatherly figures.
Japan under Fascism
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The end of party government in 1932
the slow creation of a “national defence state” in
which the perceived needs of the military were given
top priority. In 1938, the government gave itself the
power to control “production, transportation,
exports, imports, and the use of important buildings
and land.”
In 1940 the political parties were forced to merge
In 1941, even religious groups were forced to merge.
Was 1930s Japan fascist?
Fascism, Japanese• glorified violence andstyle
engaged in aggressive behavior
overseas. However, no Brown Shirts or ethnic
cleansing.
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promoted a vision of the Japanese community as a
family, with loyalty to the emperor compared to filial
piety toward a parent.
Denied any real conflicts of interest within the
Japanese community--any conflict that emerged was
believed to be caused by outsiders. Saw no need for
democracy
Idealized the perceived traditional values of rural life.
Anti-capitalist and anti-socialist.
Resisting Modernity
• The rise of agrarianism and bushido (p. 385)
• the growing popularity of new religions, such as
Tenri-kyō, Ōmoto-kyō, and Sōka Gakkai. (p.
385)
• In times of rapid modernization, there will
always be some who look back to an idealized
past, and there will also be some who seek to
shelter traditional values from the winds of
change by protecting them with a modern
religious organization.