The Move to Global War: Japanese Expansion in East Asia

BUILD-UP TO 20TH CENTURY

Feudal Military Dictatorship

The Barufu consisted of the Fuedal triangle. At the top of Japanese society was the Emperor, but he had little real power. The Shogun was the actual ruler of Japan. The Daimyo were wealthy landowners, the Samurai Japan’s warriors, and following this, the peasants, artisans, and the merchants. 

Arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry

In 1853, despite Japan’s isolation from the rest of the world, an American Naval officer, Matthew Perry, arrived on the shores of Japan with steamships, determined to open up international trade. These ship swerve called the Kurofune, or the black ships of evil appearance, making for a menacing American arrival. The shogunate sent a squadron of Japanese ships to surround the Americans, but they refused. The Commodore provided an ultimatum: Either Japan comply with the American push for open trade or risk invasion. The shogunate remained indecisive for 23 days of constant talks and negotiate, making inadequate attempts at coastal defense. Eventually, the shogun signed the Treaty of Kanagawa in 1854 to prevent humiliation and because of intimidation. 

Meiji Restoration

The period of time where Japan began to modernise, sending off delegations around the world and embracing change. They became fascinated with technological advances, wanting to form alliances, renovate their style of government, develop their military and navy, and establish a democratic system of government. Political power was returned to the Meiji, or the Emperor. The feudal system was dismantled and the Diet was introduced, which was the new parliament, providing limited democracy. Japan exuded nationalism and strength, began adopting German military tactics and investing in industry, hence building up their economy. 

First Sino-Japanese War (1894-94)

The Treaty of Shimonoseki was signed, giving the Pescadores Islands, Formosa and the Liaodong Peninsula to Japan, gave Korea independence and obliged China to pay a sum of money and form a treaty that would benefit trade for Japan. However, the Triple Intervention by Germany, Russia, and France meant that Japan became frustrated at having to give up some of their gained territory to Western Powers. 

Alliances and Wars

The Anglo-Japanese alliance was signed in 1902, which effectively ended Japanese diplomatic isolation. The Russo-Japanese War from 1903-5 was due to a clash over interests in Korea. Its military might was hugely impressive and the battles at sea, including the naval races, were what led to the victory of the Japanese. The Treaty of Portsmouth was disappointing but Japn gained Korea and some of Manchuria. 

World War 1

Japan seized Qing Dao in 1914, which was a German naval base in China. They also occupied German-held territories, and alongside China, joined the Allied Side. Japan issued the Twenty One Demands, seeking to extend Japanese control over Chinese territories and to limit foreign influence. The Paris Peace Conference in 1919 angered China as Japan gained their territory. However, Japan failed to get a racial equality clause passed, increasing their resentment of the Westerners. 

JAPAN IN THE 1920s

Foreign Policy

Japan shifted to a policy of internationalism to develop their economy through trade and through interests in China. The Anglo-Japanese alliance was replaced with the Four-Powers Treaty between Britain, Japan, the USA, and France, who were to convene on threats in the Pacific region. The Nine-Powers Treaty of China, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Japan, Britain, the USA and France was signed to respect China’s independence, and Japan returned Shandon. The Five-Power Naval Treaty restricted naval competition, but was strongly opposed by Japan’s naval leaders as they were forced to postpone expansion plans. All three treaties formed the Washington Treaty System. 

Japanese Economy

There was an increase in income inequality as it became increasingly difficult to bridge the gap between the wealthy and the poor. Unemployment increased, worker unrest developed, strikes began, dissatisfaction witht the political ‘democracy’ was widespread due to percieved bias on big companies and landlords, and incomes were decreased significantly for farmers and the peasantry. 

JAPANESE DOMESTIC ISSUES IN THE 1930s

Military & Political Problems

The Japanese had backed the warlord in Manchuria - Zhang Zuolin, whom had become extremely powerful. If Zhang was defeated by Jiang, this would pose a problem. Japan wanted to use the Kwantung Army to force Zhang to retreat, and let Jiang have the rest of China - but the Kwantung disagreed, halting the Northern Expedition and assassinating Zhang. The Emperor and Prime Minister were furious by the interference with government policy, and therefore PM Tanaka resigned after not being able to sign up to the army. The new PM Hamaguchi Yuko was assassinated after his government faltered in the aftermath of economic criss and he agreed to terms set out by the London Naval Disarmament Conference to limit naval growth. 

Kwantung Factionalism

There were two main factions in the Japanese military. The Koda-ha (the Imperial Way faction) were more radical, wanted a military dictatorship and felt war with the Soviet Union was inevitable. The Tosei-ha (the Control faction) planned to use legal means to build military influence in in the Japanese government. They wanted good relations with the USSR and felt war with China was inevitable. They used slightly more moderate persuasion methods. The Tosei-ha emerged triumphant. 

Major Assassination Attempts

On May 15th, 1932, Military officers attacked banks, police headquarters and party offices in Tokyo. Prime Minister Inukai was shot and killed. In July of 1934, Prime Minister Admiral Okada sacked a Koda-ha minister. A Koda-ha officer then assassinated the leader of Tosei-ha, General Nagata. In February of 1936, Koda-ha officers attempted to seize power but failed in a futile military coup. Prime Minister Admiral Okada was short but not killed. From then on, Koda-ha were discredited and the Tosei-ha became the dominant force.

Economic Chaos

Japan, dependent on international trade, collapsed after the 1929 Wall Street Crash in October. Japanese exports fell significantly as foreign tarrifs increased in foreign countries’ attempts installing protectionist measures. Farmers suffered horribly as silk prices plummeted, unemployment skyrocketed and so did poverty levels. Manchuria’s abundance of important resources grew enticing for Japan, a country suffering the deprivations of the Great Depression. 

POLITICAL INSTABILITY IN CHINA

Between the years 1900 and 1937, the Chinese government had underwent various changes. The falling of the Qing Dynasty in 1911 resulted in the abdication of the last emperor and the establishment of the Republic of China, which struggled to maintain control over a fragmented nation. The subsequent warlord era saw various military leaders exerting power over regions of China, leading to civil strife and further political fragmentation. Jiang Jieshi of the KMT then managed to reunify parts of China during the Northern Expedition but due to clashes between the CCP and their existing United Front, the 1927 Shanghai Massacres and the 1931-35 Extermination Campaigns took place, and so Jieshi was focused on the eradication of Communism, an internal conflict, rather than fending off the Japanese.

JAPAN/CHINA - INEVITABLE?

Manifest Destiny

The ideology of the Manifest Destiny drove Japan’s expansionist policies and ambitions in East Asia. Japanese leaders framed their policies as a mission to liberate Asia from Western imperialism while asserting their own dominance. The ideology was rooted in nationalism and militarism, with a belief in Japanese racial superiority. 

Ideological Justifications

Japan’s limited natural resources made it increasingly reliant on external sources for raw materials. The Great Depression excaberated these economic pressures, leading to calls for expansion into resource-rich areas such as that of Manchuria. The idea of the manifest destiny was thus intertwined with economic survival and national safety. 

THE MANCHURIAN CRISIS, 1931

The Mukden Incident of September 18, 1931, aka the Manchurian Incident, occurred when Japanese troops used the pretext of a supposed ‘Chinese’ explosion on the Manchurian railways, which they had some control over, to occupy Mukden and invade Manchuria in an attempt to increase their territorial empire. In retaliation to this ‘Chinese attack’, the Japanese army, or the Kwantung, began a massive artillery attack, and when reinforcements began to arrive from Korea, the Kwantung expanded throughout northern Manchuria. It is widely recognized as a false flag operation carried out by the Kwantung Army. 

The faction of the Japanese imperial army were met with little resistance because Chiang Kai-shek, or Jiang Jieshi (as stated in the IB curriculum), ordered Zhang Zuolin, the warlord of Manchuria, to pursue a policy of nonresistance and withdrawal. Manchuria remained under Japanese control from the years 1932 to 1945, when the Second World War ended. The Mukden Incident marked the beginning of Japan’s aggressive expansionist policy in East Asia and set the stage for the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. 

The International Response

The Lytton Report included the findings from the Lytton Commission, entrusted in 1931 by the League of Nations, the peace-keeping force introduced after the First World War. It encouraged a peaceful solution, insisting that Japan should withdraw back to its railway entitlement. Despite this passive response, Japan left the League of Nations soon after. The League of Nations did nothing except ‘moral condemnation’ because they did not want to start a war, China was seen as a more urgent problem, and all countries were distracted by the Great Depression. 

China’s Response

China appealed to the League of Nations but Jiang Jieshi, the leader of the GMD, ordered for efforts to be directed to fending off the Communists rather than the Japanese, who he believed were the bigger threat, despite the looming potential of cross-border conflict. 

USA’s Response

President Hoover took minimal action but the US government did issue the Stimson Doctrine on the 7th of January, 1932, the US’s official declaration that it would not recognize any agreement which violated China’s integrity or that went against the open-door policy or the Kellogg-Briand Pact. Apart from this, there was little action because the USA had adopted an isolationist approach to foreign policy and their attention was diverted to the adverse consequences of the Great Depression. 

FROM MANCHURIA TO MARCO POLO (1932-1937)

Japanese civilians were encouraged to settle in the puppet state of Manchukuo. They endured horrible living conditions with sour and salty food, most malnourished as the food was not nutritious in the slightest. The Japanese soldiers viewed themselves as a superior race, and they despised the Chinese and the Korean, considering them to be of a lower class. They were prejudiced and racist. 

Under the Meiji Restoration (the 1868 political revolution that brought the demise of the Tokugawa shogunate - military government and a policy of rapid development), there was political chaos. The military became increasingly bellicose (aggressive). As ultra-nationalists, they demanded colonial expansion and war. 

February 26 1936 Incident

There was a full-scale military coup event where politicials were assassinated, where a group of young Imperial Japanese Army officers had the goal of purging the government and military leadership of their factional rivals and ideological opponents. They tried to force the government to increase control over foreign policy and improve their policy of nationalism and expansionism. 

Emperor Hirohito

Regarded as Arahitogami, a human and a God, Hirohito was respected by the Japanese people. He was slight and timid, but everyone owed him their allegiance and obeyed his commands. He was intelligent and humane. 

Anti-Comintern Pact 1936

Signed between Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, with Italy joining in 1937, the Anti-Comintern Pact was aimed primarily at countering the influence of Communism. The pact included key provisions, including mutual defense, information sharing and repressive measures (a supplementary protocol allowing for strong actions against individuals supporting Comintern.) 

MARCO POLO INCIDENT

July 7th, 1937 is widely regarded as the catalyst for the Second World War. It was a confrontation between the Imperial Japanese Army and the National Revolutionary Army of China. Japanese soldiers had been conducting military exercizes near the Marco Polo Bridge, and on the night of the 7th, a Japanese soldier went missing, prompting his unit to request permission to search the nearby town. The Chinese Commander denied this request, leading to Japanese soldiers opening fire, marking the beginning of the full-scale Second Sino-Japanese War. 

Following the incident, Chinese leaders declared armed resistance against Japan, including collaboration between the KMT and the CCP (forming the Second United Front) to unify against Japanese aggression. The conflict quickly escalated with subsequent battles in Shanghai and other cities located on the coastline of China, leading to widespread devastation and loss of life. 

SECOND SINO-JAPANESE WAR

The Japanese attack on China was brutal. Devastating air raids and the massacre of defenseless Chinese civilians lead to a staggering death count of 20 million Chinese civilians during the war. The Sino-Japanese War was a pivotal event that reshaped East Asian geopolitics and had lasting implications for both China and Japan. 

Rape of Nanking, 1937

Nanking fell to the Japanese on the night of the 13th of December, and during the days that followed, Chinese civilians and soldiers were subject to appaling atrocities. The Japanese policy in China was the ‘Burn to Ash’ policy that meant ‘kill all, burn all, loot all.” The tstimated death count ranges from 200,000 to 300,000, and it became known that being captured by the Japanese was a fate worse than death. The streets became known as the ‘streets of blood’ as a result of the two day annihilation of Chinese civilians. With dead bodies stacked in piles left to rot or burned alive, machine guns hitting anyone attempting to flee the city, and Japanese soldiers turning murder into sport and competition, Nanking was a horrible nightmare. 

New Order in East Asia

The ideological framework sought to create a regional bloc including Japan, China and the puppet state of Manchuko, promoting ideals of cooperation and mutual benefit among Asian nations. Japan positioned itself as a leader against Western imperialism and communism. Jiang Jieshi, however, rejected this, and continued with the war. 

JAPAN IN THE 1940s

Tripartite Pact

Signed in September 1940, the Pact agreed that Germany and Italy would dominate Europe and leave Japan to dominate East Asia. Japan pressured France into allowing Japanese troops into French Indo-China after the defeat of France in Europe. In its entirety, the agreement stood for cooperation and aimed to promote mutual prosperity, recognizing respective leaderships, and allowing each of the three countries to assist each other politically, economically and militarily. From the Japanese perspective, the Tripartite Pact was to deter the United States from intervening to prevent Japan’s southern advance. The international community responded with alarm, as this was a rather concerning geopolitical agreement of extreme right-wing countries with expansionist aims. The Pact confirmed American views that Japan was a belligerent, bullying, imperialist force in East Asia, an Asian equivalent of Nazi Germany. 

Neutrality Pact

Signed in April 1941, the Pact was signed between Japan and the Soviet Union and was mutually beneficial to continue progress. It was a non-aggression pact that includes a promise by the signatories not to engage in military action against each other. 

French Indo-China

After France’s surrender to Germany in June 1940, the establishment of the Vichy government (seen as a collaboration with the Axis powers) offered Japan the potential to expand its influence in Indochina. Japan also sought to secure vital resources, such as rice, rubber and oil from Indochina to support the war effort, and to establish a strategic base for military operations. Japanese troops began entering French Indochina on the 23rd of September, 1940. In July, they moved into southern French Indochina. The response of the US and Britain was one of alarm.

BUILD-UP OF US/JAPAN TENSIONS

Sinking of US Ship ‘Panay’

The sinking of the US gunboat USS Panay on December 12th, 1937, by the Japanese aircraft in the Yangtze river escalated tensions. Despite displaying clear identification as an American vessel, the attack resulted in the deaths of three Americans and injured several others. It provoked outrage in the United States and led to a diplomatic crisis. In response to international pressure, Japan formally apologised for the incident and agreed to pay reparations. 

Economic Sanctions

In November of 1941, the US implemented a larger trade embargo against Japan, including freezing all assets in the US. The embargo particularly targeted vital resources such as that of oil, which was crucial for Japan’s military and industrial operations. Japan viewed this as a direct threat to national security and imperial ambitions. Concurrently, the US began sending fighter planes and military support to China, bolstering Chinese resistance against Japanese aggression. Despite ongoing negotiations between the US and Japan, both sides remained entrenched in their positions. Japan began exploring the potential of alternate locations for resources, including that of the Dutch East Indies. 

PEARL HARBOUR

On the 7th of December, Japanese bombers attacked US ships and installations at Pearl Harbour in an attempt to destroy the US Pacific fleet. The attack was meticulously planned by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. The first wave consisted of 183 planes targeting American battleships and airfields. Within two hours, eight battleships had been sunk or damaged, 200 aircraft were destroyed and 2403 Americans had been killed. The US knew an attack was coming but believed it would be in the Phillipines. So, the Japanese had the element of surprise.  

Americans underestimated the technological prowess of the Japanese, and Pearl harbour was a national catastrophe. Although Admiral Kimmel recieved a call that an enemy submarine had been spotted, he chose to ignore it, making a huge failure. Because ammunition was locked up in one location, the Japanese aircrafts were able to bomb that as well. The US lost significant resources in one swoop. Planes were left on the tarmac, which meant that they were vulnerable to Japanese forces.

However, the Japanese attack missed important targets. Aicraft carriers were left untouched, meaning that the Americans still had a fleet. Yamamoto recognized the significance of this immediately. Moreover, Pearl Harbour did not truly weaken the USA. The US public did not react as expected, with fear and terror. Instead, there was widespread outrage, and military enlistments skyrocketed. 

The day after the attack, the US declared war on Japan.