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? • • • • • • • • • 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 • • • • • 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 • • • 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 • • 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 • • • • • 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. • • • • 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.