Paper 1 - Japan

Background

• up to 1850s it was a relatively inward looking country and only traded with the dutch

• 1853: comodore Perry + US navy turned up with an ultimatum demanding trade with the consequence of bombing

• 1840s": britain had forced china to open up similarly

• this encourgages Japan to militarise and “catch-up” with the west to not become a “plaything”

• bring in western advisors to militarise and industrialise

• 1868: the Meiji Restoration - move to modernisation

• comparably equal to the west by 1890 and mirror america’s Manifest Destiny doctrine believing they were destined to

  lead the asian sphere

Meiji Restoration

• 1868

• emperor restored above government

• german based constituition and education system focused on militarism

• civillian government called

• armed forces were answerable only to the emperor (not government) - leads to problems later down the line

Treaty of Shimonoseki

• 1894: Sino-Japanese war = japan had a terratorial interest in Korea and manchuria which came under their economic

  influence with the railways

• 1895: treaty signed with Quing Empire = china must trade with japan and korea falls under japanese influence,

  china must give 7,500,000kg silver to japan

• port arthur and manchuria contested, falls initially under japanses influence but forced to give it back by the west,

  russia also has interest in it as a “warm water” port

Boxer Rebellion + Anglo-Japanese alliance

• 1900 boxer rebellion of young people in china against western and japanese power and influence

• japan sends the most troops out of the western powers to crush the rebellion

• britain recognises japan is a rising superpower and choose to ally with them instead of becoming enemies

• 1902: Anglo-Japanese Alliance stating:

  • if a single third party country attacked they would remain neutral

  • if two third party coutnries attacked they would support eachother and declare war

  • ensures britain doesnt have concerns over french russo pacts

  • shows japan has been accepted to “the club”

Japansese-Russo war

• 1904

• didnt declare war on russia - not the done thing

• both want manchuria

• russian forces in port arthur

• russian navy (sent all the way from the baltic) annihilated in battle of Tsushima 1905

• racist Tzar Nicholas is proven wrong and humiliated

• Japan re-annexes port arthur and futher establises status as a super power

Treaty of Portsmouth

• 1905

• chaired by theodore roosevelt

• stating:

  • japan could colonise korea

  • russia had to stop all plans for eastern expansion

  • japan officialy gains port arthur + the right to run a railway in south manchuria

  • russia doesnt need to pay reparation - japanese public very upset

Japan during WW1

• allied with britain

• overan german islands in the pacific

• 1915: 21 demands of China

  • china had to confirm railway and mining rights and trade in Manchuria

  • japanese control of chinese finacial, political and police affairs through advisors (never truly enforced)

• founding member of the league

• signed ToV at Paris Peace conference 1919-1920

• appeasement of Japan by giving them Shantung peninsula leads to may 4th event in China

  • intelectual and sociopolitical reform movement by young people

territories

• japan: taiwan, korea, port arthur

• china: having a warlord era - no clear central government to control the army

• british empire: india, malaysia, borneo, australia

• france: indo china, laos, vietnam, cambodia

• america: midway wake island, philipines, guam

• dutch: east indies

• japan is the largest military force

1920s

• japan seeks to work with western powers

• Shidehara Kitsuro signs washington treaties in 1921-2 and naval treaty 1922 with britain, france, us, italy

• 5:5:3:1-75:1-75

• uk:us:japan:france:italy

• lasts til early 1930s

London Naval Treaty

• 1930

• lasts till 1935

• 10:10:6.975

• uk:us:japan

• japan doesnt stick much after 1931

• nine power treaty 1922 to respect China’s open-door trade

• four power treaty 1922 to talk if east territories are ever threatened (us,uk,france,japan)

• leaves japan as major asian naval power and avoids arms races or Anglo-American war

china pre-manchuria crisis

• Kuomintang (gmd/kmt) led by Chiang Kai Shek/Jiang Jieshi - facist

• Chinese communist party Mao Zedong/Tse-Tung

• 1921-7: period of party cooperation and a united front

• 1927: GMD kill members of the CCP in Shanghai

• april 1927 - dec 1936: period of White Terror

• Chiang Kai Shek saw japanese as inferior threat to communism

  • focused on battling communist party over japanese forces and expansion

• he was seen as the recognised leader

japan and the manchuria crisis

• 1930 Manchurian War Lord - Zhang Zuolin (Chang Tzo-Lin) - murdered by Kwandung army stationed in Manchuria

  without approval from tokyo

• many ultra-right secret socieites in japan: kwandung army called the “cherry blossom” society and would murder

  any politician who tried to reign in the army’s power and independence

• democracy is shaky - the army answers only to the emperor not the government

• japan’s econonmy relies on exports

• depression hits and alot of rural japan suffers from the collapse of the silk industry

  • many officers in the kwandung army had family in rural japan and are angered by the poor conditions

• spike in unemployment + smoot-hawley tariff 1930 in US hit silk industry further

• kwandung army lose faith in the government

Mudken Incident

• 18 September 1931.

• Itagaki Sushiro + Ishiwara Kanji plot to overrun manchuria in order to achieve autarky and recover from depression

• blow up a japanese railway to frame the chinese as precedent for taking over manchuria

• PuYi is instated as a puppet emperor

• Manchuria is renamed Manchukwo

• by early 1932 Manchuria is entirely under japanese control

• manchuria is ceded to Japan in Tanghu Treaty of May 1933

Manchurian Crisis

• Henry Stimpson wanted to make a declaration against Japan’s actions with britain but Simon disagreed

• led to stimpson-simon row and poisoned relations between uk and us

• china takes the manchuria crisis to the league

• japan is a major power in the league and france and britain want to protect their imperial self interests in the east

  which could be threatened by japan

• victor bulwer-lyton, former viceroy of india, leads lyton commision to investigate mudken incident and draws up the

  lyton report for the league in 1932

  • the report found that japan was the agressor and wrongfully invaded manchuria which was not independent

    from china but a japanese puppet state

  • recommened self-government under chinese influence

• japan walks out led by Matsuoka Yosuke and quits the league in 1933 to pursue “a greater east-asia co-prosperity sphere”

• stimpson doctrine stated any areas gained by force would not be recognised - the only international consequence

• kwandung army inflitrates more of China

• chinsese civil war comes to a head

the dark valley

• years of military and political split

• army wants to strike north at the USSR and expand into Siberia - the imperial way faction

• navy wants to strike south to expand into Malaya - the control faction

• feb 1936: General Hideki Tojo leads a failed military coup on Tokyo with 1500 officers

second sino-japanse war

• Marco-Pollo Bridge incident 7th july 1937 starts the conflict between china’s national revolutionary army

  and the japanese imperial army

• Rape of Nanjing - GMD government had moved to nanjing - 100 thousands were murdered and the japanese army

  commited horrific attrocities

• Mao + Chiang Kai Shek formed an alliance and backed the conventional army, using guerilla tactics to undermine

  Japan’s military

• ends 1945

• western powers did nothing but morally condemn the actions of japan to ensure the safety of their eastern colonies

• ultimately china was too big for japan to conquer fully

Russo-Japanese conflicts

• 1938 Changkufen Battle: 29th july - 11th august, peak of the Czech crisis

  • conquest from Manchukwo

  • ussr had 23,000 soldiers - 792 killed

  • japan had 7,000 soldiers - 526 killed

• ultimately led to a japanese defeat

• 1939 Nomohan Battle: aims to invade siberia

• ultimate japanese defeat again and discredicts Imperial Way Faction

• 1941: japan and ussr sign a neutrality pact in april enabling stalin to pull forces out of siberia and focus on the german front

japan’s involvement in WW2

• navy uses failed attempts at invading ussr as reason to focus efforts south

• summer 1940 france has surrendered - their colonies are unprotected

• Matsuoka Yosuke is the foreign minister - pursuing a “great co-prosperity sphere” in east-asia

• septmeber 1940: japan’s forces move into nothern Indo-China where the french authorities can’t stop them

  and then southern Indo-China in 1941

  • 1941: as retaliation the US places an embargo on all fuels and scrap metals to japan with the aims of

    forcing Japan into negotiations

  • instead Japan sees this as a threat and begins to expand further

  • britain, france and canada also introduce embargos but Indo-China is rich in raw materials and

    Japan has two years worth of oil reserves

• Tripartite Axis Pact of September 1940: a defensive military pact with Italy and Germany to deter US

  from joining the war (doesnt work)

Pearl Harbour

• Nov 1940: Britain launches attack on the Italian navy stationed in medditeranean port and knocks out 3 battleships

• japan is very impressed and begins to plan a similar attack on the US - especially after the emabargos placed

  on trade and threat to expansion

• Tojo Hideki is prime minister from october 1941 and greenlights the attack (faced execution for war crimes after the war)

• December 7th 1941: Sunday Morning attack on Pearl Harbour

  • US radars did pick up the japanese forces but dismissed them as Japan had not declared war against the US

  • 4/8 US battleships sunk

  • 353 japanese aircrafts deployed from from 6 carriers - lost 29 aircrafts and 64 soldiers

  • 2403 american soldiers were killed

  • harbour didnt close and aircraft carriers were out at sea on training drills

  • US declares war on Japan the next day and Germany and Italy declare war the day after thinking the US wouldn’t

    be able to fight a war on 2 fronts - this was a severe underestimation

International Responses to Manhcurian Crisis

Manchuria

• 1931: the US and USSR were not league members and ignored sanctions

• the league had no army to enforce any legislations

• british army was teeny

• no one wants to fight a war after recovering from the depression

• no one wants to risk their eastern colonies by angering japan

• japan continually vetoed santions as a member of the league

• lytton report took a year

• Chang Kai Shek was following a policy of non-resitance until 1937, instead focusing on fighting the CCP

• the US was pursuing an isolationist approach, they also did more trade with Japan than China and didnt want to lose that

• Stimpson Doctrine witheld diplomatic recognition of Manchukwo

Neutrality Acts

• 1935 and 1937

• US banks couldnt lend oney to countries at war

• dissaded British and French action against Italy, Germany and Japan

• Roosevelt bypasses these acts with the Lend Lease Act