In 1800, Japan was still in many respects a feudal state. It is a country that has had the historical experience of being under a succession of Shoguns (military rulers). Under the Shoguns, Japan underwent an isolationist phase in order to preserve the integrity of the social and political institutions in the face of a perceived threat from foreign powers.
2. Rise of Japan as a Military Power
2.1 Meiji Restoration and the Winds of Change:
Japan's long isolation was forcibly ended by outside intervention in 1853. After a phase of political confusion, a short but bloody civil war destroyed the shogunate and installed a new regime. This resulted in the Meiji Restoration. The Meiji Restoration effectively removed feudalism from the politics of Japan. The new government of Japan undertook a programme of rapid modernization to equip the nation with the armed forces and economic strength to resist the imperialist ambitions of western powers and bolster their position as a military force. By the turn of the century, the Japanese military defeated their Chinese counterpart in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95 and wrested control of Taiwan for the next 40-odd years. By the first decade of the 20th century, Japan emerged as the first Asian victor in a war with a western power in the modern era. Japan defeated Russia in the Russo-Japanese War of 1905. The impressive victory resulted in the following: it entrenched Japan as a major naval power and established Japan as a major threat to the United States and Britain.
3. International Relations prior to World War II
3.1 Japan's Relations with the United States and Britain
During World War I (1914-1918), Japan and Britain fought as allies. This alliance however, ended when Britain and the United States attempted to limit Japan's naval strength. The five principal naval powers of the post-World War I period (United States, Great Britain, Italy, France and Japan) convened in Washington D.C. , to discuss naval disarmament. This meeting was known as the Washington Conference (1922). At the Washington Conference, the naval strength of Britain, the United States and Japan was fixed at a ratio of shipping tonnage of 5:5:3 respectively. This meant that Japan was not allowed to build as many ships as Britain or the United States. Japan complained about the unfairness of the decision and relations between Japan and the two countries were strained.
4. International Events that Shaped the Rize of Japanese Militarism
4.1 The Great Depression and the Appearance of a Nationalist Government In China
In Japan, the right-wing politicians and military were very unhappy at the concessions gained at the Washington Conference. They saw the imposition of a ceiling on Japan's naval expansion as a result of bureaucratic blunders even though the Washington Conference virtually guaranteed Japanese supremacy in the Far East. For the civilian politicians who were moderate, their woes continued. Three other events led to their downfall and the rise and subsequent consolidation of a militarist Japanese government: Firstly, the appearance of a nationalist government in China in 1928. Secondly, the onset of the Great Depression the following year. These two factors intermingled to fuel Japanese imperialistic inclinations. The new nationalist Chinese government threatened Japan's imperialistic interests on the Asian mainland by being a stumbling block to Japan's desires of maintaining a paramount position in Manchuria and its intentions of extending into the borders of northern China. The depression intensified Japan's need to be self-sufficient and in wanting to do so, it had to take control of territories that were rich in raw materials and gain a foothold in external markets. Finally, in 1936 Japan joined Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy in an "Anti-Comintern Pact", which was explicitly an anti-communist alliance and a pledge of mutual assistance in the event of a war involving the USA .
5. The Beginning of the Pacific War
5.1 The China Campaign
In 1931, the Mukden Incident was an excuse to overrun Manchuria. Japanese soldiers stationed along the South Manchurian Railway claimed that shots were fired at them and the Japanese Army responded by overrunning Manchuria and installing the puppet state of Manchukou in 1932. In July 1937 a fabricated incident at the Marco Polo Bridge on the Chinese border served as a pretext for an army-initiated invasion of China proper. The Rape of Nanking happened in December 1937. This event incensed overseas Chinese everywhere with its brutality. Over 150,000 mainly civilian Chinese were massacred in 6 weeks. The overseas Chinese rallied to China's pleas for help.
5.2 The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
The Japanese cabinet announced its intention to create a "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere," a regional bloc centering on Japan that would include French Indochina, the Dutch East Indies and other European colonial territories as well as Manchukuo and China. The Co-Prosperity Sphere was described as a self-sufficient economic bloc linking the industrial economy of Japan with the semi-developed areas like Manchukuo and north China and the colonial economies in Southeast Asia. The Co-Prosperity Sphere ensured that Japan had total control of rich resources ultimately. The Japanese navy launched the attack on Pearl Harbor on 8 December 1941. Emperor Hirohito issued an Imperial Rescript declaring war against the United States and Great Britain. Simultaneously, the Malayan campaign began on the same calendar date with the landing of the Japanese Imperial Army at Singora and Patani on the night of 8 December 1942.^^^
