Japan: Interwar Period

Form of Government

During the 1910s and 1920s, Japan progressed towards democracy movements known as 'Taishō Democracy'

In the 1930s, Japan had many features of a totalitarian state.

The government arrested critics, imposed censorship, and employed a secret police force to hunt down and punish so-called enemies of the state. Extreme nationalists glorified war and empire.

To strengthen Japan, the government was interested in gaining an overseas empire

Such an empire would give Japan much-needed raw materials like coal and oil. So the Japanese military invaded Manchuria.

By 1932, military leaders had set up a military dictatorship in Japan

Unlike Italy and Germany, Japan did not have a single strong leader. Instead, a small group of military leaders dominated the government

• The Japanese Parliament (Diet) Ineffectiveness
• Limited powers:
• 2 houses:
• House of Peers: members of imperial family
• House of Representatives: elected by Japanese people

• Corruption in Japan
• Economic Problems
• Rice framers had little land and had to pay high taxes & rent
• Long hours of working in harsh conditions
• Trade imbalance
• needed to import food to feed growing population

Also a rise in Fascism

After the Meiji Reformation Japan gradually came to be ruled by a semi-feudal and semi-military fascist group.They regarded their emperor as the incarnation of a god and attempted to rule the whole world.

When the world economic crisis started in 1929, Japan was also affected with extra products,low prices and unemployment.

The causes for the rise of militarism and fascism were Japan's quest to get more material resources for their nation.

The economy was in bad condition. Many Japanese wanted the military to take over the government. In the 1930s Japan started expanding its power.

Successes & Failures

Japan was Asia's greatest industrial and trading power, producing and exporting a wide range of manufactured goods

Takahashi, minister of finance, increases government spending by no less than 20% and so provided workers with jobs, and with wages to create new demands for manufactures and food

The decline of international trade and the raising of tariff barriers soon had savage effects due to the great depression

• Exports of manufactured goods dropped by two-thirds and by 1931 half of Japan’s factories were idle

•Civilian government in Tokyo was unable to stop troop movements

• Invasion of Manchuria had 2 important effects:
• Raised the prestige & power of Japanese Army
• Nationalist extremists were now dominant
• Made it possible for the army to begin putting massive pressure on the civilian government to undertake a policy of imperial expansion, backed up by enlarged armed forces

•The economy grew more slowly in the 1920s than at any time since Japan modernized.

•Rural peasants enjoyed none of the wealth of city dwellers.

•Factory workers earning low wages were attracted to the socialist ideas of Marx and Lenin

Members of the younger generation were in revolt against tradition.

Tension between the government and the military rumbled below the surface

Domestic Issues

Showa Depression (1930-1931) causes:

• Showa financial crisis (1926) because of incomplete business restructuring and not disposing of bad loans by financial institutions

Economy was improved in two ways:

Political:

•Influx of foreign ideas

•Emerging labour movement

•Peace Preservation Law (1925)

-Forbade change in political structure

•Unstable coalitions and divisiveness (late 20's early 30's)

-Political realignments (constitutional democracy)

-Assassination of Prime Minister Hamaguchi Osachi (1931)

-Japanese communist party destroyed

Social

Well Being:

Infant mortality rate - 124 (per 1,000)

Life expectancy - 46 (male) 48 (female)

$50 to $100 per capita

Women unable to vote

Japan had sent increasing numbers of troops into Northern China

Part of the “big five” (one of the five powers at the Versailles peace treaty)

Granted a permanent seat at the league of nations

USA Britain and Japan agreed to reduce their navies at the Washington conference

The silk trade with Britain and the US was particularly vulnerable. Collapse of these would leave the industry in confusion

Plunging economy proved the armies case that military expansion was essential for survival.

After the devaluation of their currency, the Japanese economy begins to recover ahead of Western economies. (1932)

The Japanese Kwantung army kills the Manchurian warlord before he can ally with Chiang Kaishek (1928)

Britain, Japan, France, Italy and the USA sign the London Naval Treaty, an agreement to reduce naval warfare (1930)

The Pro war General Araki Sadao is appointed Ministry of War (1931)

Soviet Union declares that the fascist states of Germany and Japan are now enemies (1935)

Japan signs the pact of the “axis” with Italy and Germany (1940)

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Economic:

Great Depression flattened Japanese economy:

• decline of international trade
• Japans economy depended on trade
• Leading Asian power industrially and trading
• relied on exports
• half of factories became idle
• Millions of peasants ruined
• rising food prices & material prices

1

Through military imperialism:

• the invasion of Manchuria

2

Minister of Finance Korekiyo Takahashi:

A) Increased government spending by 20%

i.This provided workers with jobs

ii.Create new demands for manufactures and food

B)After economic boom, Japan desired to expand trading

i.Prosperity would be difficult to maintain if empire was kept within its limits

ii.Needed larger markets

C)By 1938, Japan controlled richest parts of China and depression had ended

Foreign Issues

Political Leadership:

•Japan turned increasingly to authoritarian government and imperialism in the interwar period

•Japan was the only independent Asian power with her own colonial empire

•July 30, 1912 to December 25, 1926, coincide with the reign of the Emperor Taishō

•The era known as the "Taishō democracy" in Japan

•Japanese Communist Party in 1923 was an end to feudalism, abolition of the monarchy, recognition of the Soviet Union and withdrawal of Japanese troops

•1926, the Japan Communist Party had been forced underground. The summer of 1929, the party leadership had been virtually destroyed.

Military Issues

JAPAN: INTERWAR

PERIOD

By: Victoria, Ben, Jordan & Sara

Hideki Tojo was a Japanese general who became a fascist dictator.

He pushed Japan to join the Axis Powers of Germany and Italy.

He also helped Japan plan for war with the United States.

Japan had an Emperor named Hirohito, who was considered a living god.

Failures of Democracy:

Economic:

Manchuria was given to Kuomintang - ruined Japans trade with tariffs because of a depression.

It could not lose its remaining raw materials and markets without risking a total economic collapse.

The depression impacted the rise of militarism

Social:

Political:

•Member of the League of Nations

•Japan introduces universal male suffrage, increasing the number of voters from 3 to 12 million. (1925)

•The US Congress approves the Exclusion Act, which prohibits further immigration from Japan. (1924)

• Japan’s population is 65 million (1928)

Foreign Issues

During the Depression Japan also

became very Militarized

• Economy recovered quickly from the Great Depression

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