In August 1892, Ito Hirobumi became the Prime Minister of Japan. Nearly twenty-five years had passed since the end of the Meiji Restoration. Under the new Prime Minister, some changes began to occur. They were:

1. In 1894, Great Britain promised to remove the provision of extraterritoriality. Other countries followed Britain’s example and by 1899 all foreigners in Japan were required to abide by Japanese law.

2. “A rich nation, a strong army” became the motto for Japan. Japan’s islands were limited in the amount of natural resources it could provide. The Japanese had to trade with other nations to purchase resources for production. In addition, wages were so low in factories that many workers could not afford to purchase domestically made items. Thus, Japan’s economy relied on their products being sold in foreign markets.

3. To increase their profits, Japan decided to look for raw materials and markets outside of their nation. They specifically focused their efforts on:

o Manchuria- the northeast corner of China consisting of 200,000 square miles that had large deposits of coal and iron.

o Korea- had one of the largest untapped markets in Asia.

In 1876, Japan requested trading rights in Korea, a mountainous peninsula lying between China and Japan. Korea had an allegiance to the Chinese emperor which dated back for centuries. China, which was not pleased with Japan’s adoption of western ways, encouraged Korea to reject the proposal. Out of loyalty to China, Korea refused to grant trading rights to Japan. In response, Japan sent some warships down to the coast of Korea. Out of fear, Korea granted trading rights to Japan and declared their nation free of China.

After a revolt broke out in Korea against their king, China intervened on behalf of the Korean government. Japan felt that this was a violation of Korean independence and consequently, declared war on China. In April 1895, the war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki. This was a great victory for Japan and increased their prestige in the world.

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Japan’s reputation increased in 1902 when they signed an alliance with Great Britain in response to Russia’s claims in Manchuria. Fearing Russia’s domination of the Asian market, Great Britain agreed to work with Japan. The two nations agreed to:

1. Remain neutral if the other became involved in a war with another nation in East Asia.

2. If two or more nations attacked Japan or Great Britain, each would come to the aid of the other.

In response to the Japanese-Britain alliance, Russia announced that they would pull their troops out of Manchuria. However, one year later, the Russian troops were still stationed there. After breaking off diplomatic talks, both sides prepared for war. On February 10, 1904, Japan declared war on Russia. The Russo-Japanese War lasted for a year and a half. This was the first war in modern times between an Eastern and Western nation. The war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth in September 1905 which was negotiated by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt.

The Treaty of Portsmouth did the following:

1. Russia recognized Japan’s right to trade with Korea.

2. Russia agreed to transfer to Japan its lease of the South Manchurian Railway (SMR) which linked Port Arthur with Mukden, the capital of Manchuria. This gave Japan the right to maintain 15,000 troops in the railway zone to guard the lines.

3. Japan was given the southern half of Sakhalin Island, located between Siberia and Japan.

Japan thought that by controlling the economic development of Korea, they would be able to stimulate the Korean economy. Prime Minister Ito wanted to do this peacefully while some members of his Cabinet of Ministers wanted a complete takeover of Korea. In 1909, Ito was assassinated by a Korean which resulted in Japan annexing all of Korea. From Korea, Japanese forces were well positioned for an eventual attack on Manchuria, which was the home of nearly 30 million Chinese.

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In 1912, Emperor Meiji died. His son took over and had a difficult time maintaining control of the Cabinet. The military forced the overthrow of the Cabinet of Ministers and replaced it with a new cabinet, with a prime minister who would cooperate with the military. From that time on, the military often named the members of the cabinet.

During World War I, Japan’s major contribution was supplying munitions to Great Britain and her allies. When the war ended, Japan joined the League of Nations and was one of nine nations involved in the Disarmament Conference held in Washington, D.C. As part of the Washington Conference of 1921, Japan found two treaties to be of special importance.

1. Japan agreed with Great Britain and the United States on future naval strength. They decided to reduce the number of battleships and aircraft carriers to a 5:5:3 ratio. For every five battleships Britain kept, the United States would also keep five, and Japan would keep three.

2. In addition, Japan agreed to withdraw its troops from Shandong.

Britain, France, Japan and the United States wanted to maintain the status quo in the Far East. For this reason, these countries supported Japan's attempt to stop Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Kuomintang Party (also called the Chinese Nationalist Party), from overthrowing the Qing Dynasty and taking over the Chinese government. However, by 1911, the Kuomintang prevailed and took control of China.

In the 1920s, prices in Japan rose but wages did not. This led to much dissatisfaction and riots against the government. In response, the government declared that:

1. Elementary schools were responsible for teaching proper thoughts about their nation.

2. Military service was compulsory for boys.

In 1923, Kita Ikki published, A General Outline for the Reconstruction of Japan, which was banned by the government. The book supported the idea that Japan should be reconstructed as a socialist state. The great corporations should turn their factories and ships over to the government. Because the corporations would most likely not agree to this, a takeover of the nation by the military would have to happen. Japan would then be put under martial law. When Japan became strong enough, then they could take over Manchuria and Siberia. Overall, most Japanese rejected Kita’s ideas.

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However, there were two groups that did agree with Kita’s plans.

1. Superpatriots- these were people who wanted Japan to be the absolute “master of Asia.” They wanted to kick all foreign influences out of Asia.

2. Young military officers who were frustrated by the inaction of the army. They wanted to give the emperor more power at home and abroad.

In 1927, a new emperor, Hirohito, ascended to the throne. However, the Japanese government was really being run by a few political parties which were supported by the biggest Japanese corporations known as the zaibatsu. The parties would bribe officials to get their candidate elected to the House of Representatives. In addition, they told the emperor who he should name as the prime minister to watch over the cabinet. Thus, General Tanaka Giichi was selected as the new prime minister of Japan.

Two years earlier (1925), Sun Yat-sen died in China and Chiang Kai-shek took over. Like Tanaka, Chiang was a military man.

Tensions escalated once again between China and Japan over Manchuria. In an attempt to avoid war, Chiang proposed to the Japanese government that if Japan would recognize Chiang’s government as the legal government of China, then China would recognize Japan’s special rights and interests in Manchuria. Japan refused the deal and sent more troops to Manchuria. Fighting broke out in the province of Shandong and three thousand Chinese were killed. From this, China concluded that:

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In 1928, a Chinese official, Chang Tso-lin, was returning home from Beijing by train. Some Japanese soldiers planted a bomb on the train killing Chang. The soldiers thought that during the time that China needed to find a replacement for Chang, the Japanese military could seize complete control of Manchuria. The army had been interested in Manchuria for a long time. The generals believed that by controlling Korea and Manchuria, it would create new opportunities for Japan to take over China. For this to happen, the Japanese military needed the support of the prime minister to attack Manchuria.

Tanaka said the Japanese government had no part in the assassination of Chang and vowed to punish the soldiers who committed the act. However, the Japanese military refused to punish the soldiers. It was now clear that the military was not under the control of the Cabinet of Ministers. Seeing that he had lost control of the military, Tanaka resigned as prime minister. His successor, Prime Minister Hamaguchi Yuko, who also favored diplomacy over military action, was assassinated.

The immediate reaction to the Japanese invasion only proved the weakness of the League.

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When the League of Nations was created, the framers of the Covenant had the First World War in their minds. The World War was a conventional war with a formal declaration, fought by national armed forces across established borders. The war ended with an internationally accepted legal agreement. Thus, when the framers used the phrase, "should any Member of the League resort to war" in Article 16 of the Covenant, they meant a war that resembled World War One.

The Manchurian crisis did not resemble World War One. The Japanese patrol forces took over Mukden after the Chinese set off an explosion on the South Manchuria railway line (according to the Japanese). There was never a declaration of war and there was hardly any hostilities. Most of the Chinese forces left the area without firing back. Thus, in the eyes of some members of the League, Article 16 of the Covenant did not apply to this situation.

Looking for other means to get international help, China (a League member) brought forth Article 11 of the Covenant which stated that, "Any war or threat of war, whether immediately affecting any of the Members of the League or not, is hereby declared a matter of concern to the whole League, and the League shall take any action that may be deemed wise and effectual to safeguard the peace of nations..."

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Eventually, China agreed to protect the millions of Japanese and Koreans living in Manchuria as long as Japan agreed to remove their troops and did not seek to acquire more land.

However, in October 1931, Japanese planes began to bomb Mukden, the capital of Manchuria. Immediately, the United States told the League that they would support any actions taken against Japan. The League thought that the United States would provide financial and military aid but the U.S. only meant moral support. Thus, without U.S. intervention, the League decided not to get involved.

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Once again, the Chinese went to the League for help explaining that the Japanese were threatening Chinese territory far outside the railway zone. The Japanese delegate defended his country's actions by stating that, "...as soon as the territory is cleared of undesirable elements and the safety of the lives and property of Japanese nationals is adequately safeguarded, as soon as the railway is no longer exposed to Chinese attacks, we shall be able to withdraw our troops within the railway zone."

The League's delegates finally agreed to the following resolution to the Manchurian crisis:

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3. A new committee was created to report on the ending of hostilities between the two nations.

When the Lytton Report was finally released, it strongly supported the Chinese. The report found that Japan had economic and strategic interests in Manchuria and provoked the crisis. Even with this finding, League and China both refused to call Japan's actions an act of war.

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In May 1932, the new prime minister of Japan was assassinated during an attack on the government by a nationalistic, patriotic society. This was the second prime minister killed in a year and a half.

When Emperor Hirohito asked his council who he should select to be the next prime minister, they told him that there was no one capable of handling the position. They suggested that he promote “national unity” by selecting a prime minister who has no allegiance to a political party and should be from the military. In May 1932, Admiral Saito Makoto was sworn in as the prime minister.

Throughout the 1930s, an increasing number of cabinet positions were held by military men. The new leaders began to issue “emergency measures” to deal with the Japanese depression. The government kept wages low and reduced the value of the yen relative to other nations. This made Japanese products cheap in world markets and resulted in an increase in exports. Japan became the first major power to recover from the depression.

In 1935 Germany proposed that Japan join an “Anti-Comintern Pact” to stop the spread of communism. Realizing that the communist party in China might takeover, Japan quickly agreed to the pact. The next year Italy also joined. By 1940, this alliance became known as the “Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis” or the Tripartite Pact.

On July 7, 1937 the commander of the Japanese rail guards asked a Chinese officer in charge of a village near Beijing for permission to search the village for one of his men who was missing. The Chinese officer refused. Fighting broke out and within a week, the Japanese army was invading China. Within a month, Japan had control of Tianjin.

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The Imperial Japanese Army Air Force began to attack Shanghai by dropping bombs on the city. Civilians and soldiers were the targets of these attacks. When Shanghai fell under the control of Japan, the Japanese thought the war was over but fighting continued in Nanking. The fighting became the most horrific in Nanking where the Japanese killed 300,000 out of 600,000 civilians and soldiers. This became known as the “Rape of Nanking.”

By October 1938, every major city in China was under Japanese control.

When World War II broke out in Europe, Japan saw this as an opportunity to improve the status of their nation. This could be done by:

Selling products in the markets in Asia that were traditionally supplied by Europeans.

Japan could acquire new territories to be used for natural resources.While most military officers supported the idea of acquiring new lands, Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku was opposed to it. Knowing that the Japanese only had the world’s third largest navy,

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Yamamoto was afraid that the U.S. might intervene if the Japanese decided to take over islands in the Pacific Rim. Most Japanese leaders dismissed Yamamoto’s theory because:

1. They thought that the Westerners loved their comfort too much to make sacrifices to fight in a war.

2. The U.S. did not intervene when Japan took over Korea and Manchuria.

3. The U.S. Congress was dominated by isolationists.

In November 1940, Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected for his third term. A strong opponent to the Axis powers, Roosevelt ordered Congress to stop selling iron and steel to Japan. The Japanese were now afraid that the U.S. would cut off their oil supply to them. In response, Japan contacted the Dutch to see if their East Indies Company would sell them oil but the Dutch refused.

After being rejected by the Dutch, Japan moved their troops into southern Vietnam in an attempt to capture the islands of the Dutch East Indies. When the U.S. heard about this, Congress decided to cut off all trade with Japan.

In October 1941, the prime minister of Japan and the remaining civilian cabinet members all resigned from their positions. The Minister of War, General Tojo Hideki, became the new prime minister.

Realizing that the only way Japan could get the oil that they needed was to wipe the U.S. Navy out of the Pacific, Tojo began to prepare for a surprise attack on the United States. By December 1, 1941, Japan told Washington that they were breaking off all negotiations with the United States. The Japanese leaders also gave the orders to carry out an attack on Malaya, Hong Kong, the Dutch East Indies, the Philippines, Guam, Midway, Wake Island, and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

On December 7, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Eight American battleships, three cruisers, and three destroyers were damaged. The battleships Arizona and Oklahoma were destroyed. The navy suffered the heaviest loss of men, 2,008 killed and 710 wounded. Japan lost no ships, and only 29 out of 353 planes. President Roosevelt called this “a day that will live in infamy” and quickly declared war on Japan. Acknowledging their alliance with Japan, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States.

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