The
Empire of Japan (
{{otheruses4|the former absolute monarchyAbsolute monarchy is a monarchical form of government where the king or queen has absolute power over all aspects of his/her subjects' lives. Although some religious authorities may be able to discourage the monarch from some acts and the sovereign is expected to act according to custom, in an...
|the current
constitutional monarchyA constitutional monarchy is a form of government in which a monarch acts as head of state within the parameters of a written , unwritten or blended constitution...
|Japan}}
The
Empire of Japan (
{{otheruses4|the former absolute monarchyAbsolute monarchy is a monarchical form of government where the king or queen has absolute power over all aspects of his/her subjects' lives. Although some religious authorities may be able to discourage the monarch from some acts and the sovereign is expected to act according to custom, in an...
|the current
constitutional monarchyA constitutional monarchy is a form of government in which a monarch acts as head of state within the parameters of a written , unwritten or blended constitution...
|Japan}}
The
Empire of Japan (
{{unicodeKyūjitai, literally "old character forms" , are the traditional forms of the Japanese kanji. Their simplified counterparts are shinjitai, "new character forms". The simplified characters arose centuries ago and were in everyday use in both China and Japan, but they were considered inelegant, even...
: {{lang|ja|大日本帝國}};
ShinjitaiShinjitai are the forms of kanji used in Japan since the promulgation of the Tōyō Kanji List in 1946. Some of the new forms found in shinjitai are also found in simplified Chinese, but shinjitai is generally not as extensive in the scope of its modification...
: {{lang|ja|大日本帝国}}; pronounced
Dai Nippon Teikoku; literally
Great Imperial Japan or
Great Imperial Japanese Nation , officially
Great Japan,
Empire of Greater Japan or
Great Japanese Empire; more widely known as
Imperial Japan or the
Japanese Empire) was a Japanese political entity that existed during the period from the
Meiji RestorationThe , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution or Renewal, was a chain of events that led to enormous changes in Japan's political and social structure...
in 1868 until its defeat in
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
in 1945.
The country's rapid industrialization and
militarizationMilitarization, or militarisation, is the process by which a society organizes itself for military conflict and violence. It is related to militarism, which is an ideology that reflects the level of militarization of a state...
under the slogan {{nihongo|
Fukoku KyōheiFukoku kyōhei , originally a phrase from the ancient Chinese historical work on the Warring States Period, Zhan Guo Ce , was Japan's national slogan during the Meiji Era, replacing sonnō jōi .The slogan was the central objective of the Meiji leaders...
|富国強兵||"Enrich the Country, Strengthen the Army"}}, led to its emergence as a
world powerA great power is a nation or state that has the ability to exert its influence on a global scale. Great powers characteristically possess economic, military, diplomatic, and cultural strength, which may cause other smaller nations to consider the opinions of great powers before taking actions of...
eventually culminating with its membership in the Axis alliance and the conquest of a large part of the
Asia-PacificAsia-Pacific or Apac is that part of the world in or near the Western Pacific Ocean. The area includes much of East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australasia and Oceania)....
region.
After several large scale military successes during the first half of the
Pacific WarThe Pacific War was the part of World War II—and preceding conflicts—that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in East Asia. The war began as a conflict with the Empire of Japan and the Republic of China on July 7, 1937, but by December 1941, became part of the greater World War II,...
, the Empire of Japan also gained enormous notoriety for its war crimes against the conquered inhabitants of people within their Empire. After suffering numerous defeats and the
atomic bombings of Hiroshima and NagasakiThe atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were nuclear attacks near the end of World War II against the Empire of Japan by the United States at the executive order of U.S. President Harry S. Truman on August 6 and August 9, 1945, respectively...
, the Empire of Japan surrendered to the
AlliesThe Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . The involvement of the Allies in World War II was either natural and inevitable they were invaded or under the direct threat of invasion by the Axis or compelled by concerns that the Axis powers...
on September 2, 1945. A
period of occupationAt the end of World War II, Japan was occupied by the Allied Powers, led by the United States with contributions also from Australia, India, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. This foreign presence marked the first time in its history that the island nation had been occupied by a foreign power...
by the Allies followed the surrender and dissolution of the Empire, and a
new constitutionThe has been the founding legal document of Japan since 1947. The constitution provides for a parliamentary system of government and guarantees certain fundamental rights. Under its terms the Emperor of Japan is "the symbol of the State and of the unity of the people" and exercises a purely...
was created with American involvement. American occupation and reconstruction of the country continued well into the 1950s eventually forming the current modern Japan.
The
EmperorsThe of Japan is the symbol of the state and of the unity of the Japanese people. He is the head of the Japanese Imperial Family. He is also the highest authority of the Shinto religion...
during this time, which spanned the
MeijiThe , or Meiji era denotes the period in Japanese history during the 45-year reign of the Meiji Emperor . During this time, Japan began its modernization and rose to world power status...
,
TaishōThe , or Taishō era, is a period in the history of Japan dating from July 30, 1912 to December 25, 1926, coinciding with the reign of the Taishō Emperor. The health of the new emperor was weak, which prompted the shift in political power from the old oligarchic group of elder statesmen to the Diet...
and
ShōwaThe , or Shōwa era, is the period of Japanese history corresponding to the reign of Emperor Shōwa , from December 25, 1926 to January 7, 1989. In his coronation message which was read to the people and to the army, the newly enthroned emperor referenced this Japanese era name or nengō: "I have...
eras, are now known by their
posthumous nameA posthumous name is an honorary name given to royalty, nobles, and sometimes others, in some cultures after the person's death. The posthumous name is commonly used when naming royalty of China, Korea, Vietnam, and Japan....
s which coincide with those era names:
Emperor MeijiThe or Meiji the Great was the 122
nd emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, reigning from 3 February 1867 until his death....
(Mutsuhito),
Emperor TaishōThe was the 123rd Emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession, reigning from 30 July 1912, until his death in 1926.The Emperor’s personal name was . According to Japanese customs, the emperor has no name during his reign and is only called the Emperor...
(Yoshihito), and Emperor Shōwa (
Hirohito, also known as , was the 124th Emperor of Japan according to the traditional order, reigning from December 25, 1926 until his death in 1989....
).
Outline
The country's rapid industrialization and
militarizationMilitarization, or militarisation, is the process by which a society organizes itself for military conflict and violence. It is related to militarism, which is an ideology that reflects the level of militarization of a state...
under the slogan {{nihongo|
Fukoku KyōheiFukoku kyōhei , originally a phrase from the ancient Chinese historical work on the Warring States Period, Zhan Guo Ce , was Japan's national slogan during the Meiji Era, replacing sonnō jōi .The slogan was the central objective of the Meiji leaders...
|富国強兵||"Enrich the Country, Strengthen the Army"}}, led to its emergence as a
world powerA great power is a nation or state that has the ability to exert its influence on a global scale. Great powers characteristically possess economic, military, diplomatic, and cultural strength, which may cause other smaller nations to consider the opinions of great powers before taking actions of...
eventually culminating with its membership in the Axis alliance and the conquest of a large part of the
Asia-PacificAsia-Pacific or Apac is that part of the world in or near the Western Pacific Ocean. The area includes much of East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australasia and Oceania)....
region.
Despite several large scale military successes during the first half of the
Pacific WarThe Pacific War was the part of World War II—and preceding conflicts—that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in East Asia. The war began as a conflict with the Empire of Japan and the Republic of China on July 7, 1937, but by December 1941, became part of the greater World War II,...
, the Empire of Japan gained enormous notoriety for its war crimes against the conquered inhabitants of people within their Empire. After suffering numerous defeats and facing a potential dual invasion by the United States and the Soviet Union, the Empire of Japan surrendered to the
AlliesThe Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . The involvement of the Allies in World War II was either natural and inevitable they were invaded or under the direct threat of invasion by the Axis or compelled by concerns that the Axis powers...
on September 2, 1945. A
period of occupationAt the end of World War II, Japan was occupied by the Allied Powers, led by the United States with contributions also from Australia, India, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. This foreign presence marked the first time in its history that the island nation had been occupied by a foreign power...
by the Allies followed the surrender and dissolution of the Empire, and a
new constitutionThe has been the founding legal document of Japan since 1947. The constitution provides for a parliamentary system of government and guarantees certain fundamental rights. Under its terms the Emperor of Japan is "the symbol of the State and of the unity of the people" and exercises a purely...
was created with American involvement. American occupation and reconstruction of the country continued well into the 1950s eventually forming the current modern Japan.
The
EmperorsThe of Japan is the symbol of the state and of the unity of the Japanese people. He is the head of the Japanese Imperial Family. He is also the highest authority of the Shinto religion...
during this time, which spanned the
MeijiThe , or Meiji era denotes the period in Japanese history during the 45-year reign of the Meiji Emperor . During this time, Japan began its modernization and rose to world power status...
,
TaishōThe , or Taishō era, is a period in the history of Japan dating from July 30, 1912 to December 25, 1926, coinciding with the reign of the Taishō Emperor. The health of the new emperor was weak, which prompted the shift in political power from the old oligarchic group of elder statesmen to the Diet...
and
ShōwaThe , or Shōwa era, is the period of Japanese history corresponding to the reign of Emperor Shōwa , from December 25, 1926 to January 7, 1989. In his coronation message which was read to the people and to the army, the newly enthroned emperor referenced this Japanese era name or nengō: "I have...
eras, are now known by their
posthumous nameA posthumous name is an honorary name given to royalty, nobles, and sometimes others, in some cultures after the person's death. The posthumous name is commonly used when naming royalty of China, Korea, Vietnam, and Japan....
s which coincide with those era names:
Emperor MeijiThe or Meiji the Great was the 122
nd emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, reigning from 3 February 1867 until his death....
(Mutsuhito),
Emperor TaishōThe was the 123rd Emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession, reigning from 30 July 1912, until his death in 1926.The Emperor’s personal name was . According to Japanese customs, the emperor has no name during his reign and is only called the Emperor...
(Yoshihito), and Emperor Shōwa (
Hirohito, also known as , was the 124th Emperor of Japan according to the traditional order, reigning from December 25, 1926 until his death in 1989....
).
Terminology
{{History of Japan}}
Although the empire is commonly referred to as "the Japanese Empire" or "Imperial Japan" in English, the
literal translationLiteral translation, also known as direct translation, is the rendering of text from one language to another "word-for-word" rather than conveying the sense of the original. Literal translations thus commonly mis-translate idioms...
from Kanji is
Great Japanese Empire (Dai Nippon Teikoku), meaning in terms of geography: Japan and its surrounding areas. The nomenclature
Empire of Japan had existed since the feudal anti-shogunate domains,
Satsumawas an old province of Japan that is now the western half of Kagoshima Prefecture on the island of Kyūshū. Its abbreviation is Sasshū .During the Sengoku Period, Satsuma was a fief of the Shimazu daimyo, who ruled much of southern Kyūshū from their castle at Kagoshima city.In 1871, with the...
and Chōshū, which founded their new government during the Meiji Restoration, with the intention of forming a modern state to resist western domination.
Meiji Restoration
{{main|Late Tokugawa shogunate}}
After two centuries, the seclusion policy, or Sakoku, under the shoguns of the Edo period came to an end when the country was forced open to trade by the
Convention of KanagawaOn March 31, 1854, the or was concluded between Commodore Matthew C. Perry of the U.S. Navy and the Empire of Japan. The treaty opened the Japanese ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to United States trade, guaranteed the safety of shipwrecked U.S. sailors; however, the treaty did not create a basis...
in 1854.
The following years had seen increased foreign trade and interaction, commercial treaties between the Tokugawa Shogunate and Western countries were signed. In large part due to the humiliating terms of these
Unequal TreatiesUnequal Treaties is a term used in reference to the type of treaties signed by several East Asian states, including Qing Dynasty China, late Tokugawa Japan, and late Joseon Korea, with Western powers and the post-Meiji Restoration Empire of Japan, during the 19th and early 20th centuries...
, the Shogunate soon faced internal hostility, which materialized into a radical, xenophobic movement, the
sonnō jōiis a Japanese political philosophy and a social movement derived from Neo-Confucianism; it became a political slogan in the 1850s and 1860s in the movement to overthrow the Tokugawa bakufu, during what is called the Bakumatsu period....
(literally "Revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians").
In March 1863 the "
Order to expel barbariansThe was an edict issued by the Japanese Emperor Kōmei in 1863 against the Westernization of Japan following the opening of the country by Commodore Perry in 1854.-The order:...
" was issued. Although the Shogunate had no intention of enforcing the order, it nevertheless inspired attacks against the Shogunate itself and against foreigners in Japan. The
Namamugi IncidentThe was a samurai assault on foreign nationals in Japan on September 14, 1862, which resulted in the August 1863 bombardment of Kagoshima, during the Late Tokugawa shogunate...
during 1862 led to the murder of an Englishman,
Charles Lennox RichardsonCharles Lennox Richardson was an English merchant based in Shanghai who was killed in Japan during the Namamugi Incident. His name is properly spelled as “Charles Lenox Richardson” according to the census and family documents.Richardson was born in London in 1834. He relocated to Shanghai in 1853...
by a party of samurai from
Satsumawas an old province of Japan that is now the western half of Kagoshima Prefecture on the island of Kyūshū. Its abbreviation is Sasshū .During the Sengoku Period, Satsuma was a fief of the Shimazu daimyo, who ruled much of southern Kyūshū from their castle at Kagoshima city.In 1871, with the...
. The British demanded reparations and responded by
bombarding the port of KagoshimaThe Bombardment of Kagoshima, also known as the , took place on 15-17 August 1863 during the Late Tokugawa shogunate. The British Royal Navy was fired on from the town of Kagoshima and in retaliation bombarded Kagoshima...
in 1863, for his death the Tokugawa government agreed to pay an indemnity. Shelling of foreign shipping in Shimonoseki and attacks against foreign property led to the
Bombardment of ShimonosekiThe Bombardments of Shimonoseki refers to a series of military engagements fought in 1863-64 , by joint naval forces from Great Britain, France, the Netherlands and the United States, against the Japanese feudal domain of Chōshū, which took place along the banks of Kanmon Straits off the coast...
by a multinational force in 1864. The Chōshū clan also carried out the failed
Hamaguri RebellionThe rebellion at the Hamaguri Gate of the Imperial Palace in Kyōto took place on August 20, 1864 and reflected the discontent of pro-imperial and anti-alien groups...
. The
Satsuma-Chōshū allianceThe ', or Satchō Alliance was a military alliance between the feudal domains of Satsuma and Chōshū formed in 1866 to combine their efforts to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan....
was established in 1866 to combine their efforts to overthrow the Tokugawa bakufu. In early 1867, Emperor Komei died of smallpox and was replaced by his son Mutsuhito
(Meiji).
On November 9, 1867
Tokugawa YoshinobuPrince Tokugawa Yoshinobu was the 15th and last shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan. He was part of a movement which aimed to reform the aging shogunate, but was ultimately unsuccessful...
resigned his post and authorities to the emperor, agreeing to "be the instrument for carrying out" imperial orders. The Tokugawa Shogunate had ended. However, while Yoshinobu's resignation had created a nominal void at the highest level of government, his apparatus of state continued to exist. Moreover, the shogunal government, the Tokugawa family in particular, would remain a prominent force in the evolving political order and would retain many executive powers, a prospect hard-liners from Satsuma and Chōshū found intolerable.
On January 3, 1868, Satsuma-Chōshū forces seized the imperial palace in
Kyotois a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area....
, and the following day had the fifteen-year-old Emperor Meiji declare his own restoration to full power. Although the majority of the imperial consultative assembly was happy with the formal declaration of direct rule by the court and tended to support a continued collaboration with the Tokugawa, Saigō Takamori threatened the assembly into abolishing the title "shogun" and order the confiscation of Yoshinobu's lands.
On January 17, 1868, Yoshinobu declared "that he would not be bound by the proclamation of the Restoration and called on the court to rescind it." On January 24, Yoshinobu decided to prepare an attack on Kyoto, occupied by Satsuma and Chōshū forces. This decision was prompted by his learning of a series of arsons in Edo, starting with the burning of the outworks of Edo Castle, the main Tokugawa residence.
Boshin War
{{main|Boshin War}}
The {{nihongo|
Boshin War|戊辰戦争|Boshin Sensō}} was fought between January 1868 and May 1869. The alliance of samurai from southern and western domains and court officials had now secured the cooperation of the young Emperor Meiji who ordered the dissolution of the two-hundred-year-old Tokugawa Shogunate. Tokugawa Yoshinobu launched a military campaign to seize the emperor's court at Kyoto. However, the tide rapidly turned in favor of the smaller but relatively modernized imperial faction and resulted in defections of many daimyo to the Imperial side; the
Battle of Toba-FushimiThe occurred between pro-Imperial and Tokugawa shogunate forces during the Boshin War in Japan. The battle started on 27 January 1868 , when the forces of the Tokugawa shogunate and the allied forces of Chōshū, Satsuma and Tosa domains clashed near Fushimi...
being a decisive victory in which a combined army from Chōshū, Tosa and Satsuma domains defeated the Tokugawa army. A series of battles were then fought in pursuit of supporters of Shogunate; Edo surrendered to the Imperial forces and afterwards Yoshinobu personally surrendered. Yoshinobu was stripped of all his power by Emperor Meiji and most of Japan accepted the emperor's rule.
Pro-Tokugawa remnants, however, then retreated to northern Honshū (
Ouetsu Reppan DomeiThe Ōuetsu Reppan Dōmei or was a Japanese military-political coalition established and disestablished over the course of several months in early to mid-1868 during the Boshin War...
) and later to Ezo (present day
Hokkaidō, formerly known as Ezo, Yezo, Yeso, or Yesso, is Japan's second largest island and the largest, northernmost of its 47 prefectural-level subdivisions. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshū, although the two islands are connected by the underwater Seikan Tunnel...
), where they established the breakaway
Republic of EzoThe ' was a short-lived state formed by former Tokugawa retainers in what is now known as Hokkaidō, the northernmost - large but sparsely populated - island in modern Japan.-Background:...
. An expeditionary force was despatched by the new government and the Ezo Republic forces were overwhelmed. The
siege of HakodateThe was fought in Japan from 1868-10-20 to 1869-05-17, between the remnants of the Tokugawa shogunate army, consolidated into the armed forces of the rebel Ezo Republic, and the armies of the newly formed Imperial government...
came to an end in May 1869 and the remaining forces surrendered.
Five Charter Oath
{{Main|Charter Oath}}
The Charter Oath was made public at the enthronement of Emperor Meiji of Japan on April 7, 1868. The Oath outlined the main aims and the course of action to be followed during Emperor Meiji's reign, setting the legal stage for Japan's modernization.
The aims of the
Meiji leadersThe Meiji oligarchy, was the name used to describe the new ruling class of Meiji period Japan. The members of this class were adherents of kokugaku and believed they were the creators of a new order as grand as that established by Japan's original founders...
were also to boost morale and win financial support for the
new governmentThe Government of Meiji period Japan from 1868-1911 was an evolution of institutions and structures from the feudal order of the Tokugawa bakufu towards a constitutional monarchy encompassing pro-forma representative democracy.-Early developments:...
. Its five provisions consisted of:
- Establishment of deliberative assemblies.
- Involvement of all classes in carrying out state affairs.
- The revocation of sumptuary laws and class restrictions on employment.
- Replacement of "evil customs" with the "just laws of nature".
- An international search for knowledge to strengthen the foundations of imperial rule.
Meiji era (1868-1912)
{{main|Meiji period}}
Several prominent writers under the constant threat of assassination from their political foes, such as
Fukuzawa Yukichiwas a Japanese author, writer, teacher, translator, entrepreneur and political theorist who founded Keio University. His ideas about government and social institutions made a lasting impression on a rapidly changing Japan during the Meiji Era...
were influential in convincing Japanese people for
westernizationWesternisation or occidentalisation is a process whereby societies come under or adopt the Western culture in such matters as industry, technology, law, politics, economics, lifestyle, diet, language, alphabet, religion, philosophy, valuesindustry, technology, law, politics, economics, lifestyle,...
. For instance some of his works that were well known were "Conditions in the West", "
Leaving AsiaDatsu-A Ron was an editorial which was first published in the Japanese newspaper Jiji Shimpo on March 16 1885. The writer is thought to be Japanese author and educator Fukuzawa Yukichi, but the original editorial was written anonymously. The editorial was contained in the second volume of...
", and "An Outline of a Theory of Civilization" that detailed Western society and his own philosophies. In the
Meiji RestorationThe , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution or Renewal, was a chain of events that led to enormous changes in Japan's political and social structure...
period, military and economic power was well emphasized. Military strength became the means for national development and stability. Imperial Japan became the only non-Western
world powerWorld Power is the first studio album by the electronic band Snap!. It contains the hit single, "The Power".-Track listing:# "The Power" – 5:44# "Ooops Up" – 6:42# "Cult of Snap!" – 5:21# "Believe the Hype" – 4:50...
and a major force in east and southeast Asia in less than 30–50 years as a result of industrialization and economic development.
As one writer
Albrecht Fürst von UrachPrince Albrecht of Urach was a German nobleman, artist and wartime author, journalist, linguist and diplomat.-Background:...
comments in his booklet "The Secret of Japan's Strength," which was written during the
Axis powersThe Axis powers comprised the countries that were opposed to the Allies during World War II. The three major Axis powers—Germany, Italy, and Japan—were part of a military alliance on the signing of the Tripartite Pact in September 1940, which officially founded the Axis powers...
period:
{{cquote|The rise of Japan to a world power during the past 80 years is the greatest miracle in world history. The mighty empires of antiquity, the major political institutions of the Middle Ages and the early modern era, the Spanish Empire, the British Empire, all needed centuries to achieve their full strength. Japan's rise has been meteoric. After only 80 years, it is one of the few great powers that determine the fate of the world.}}
The sudden westernization, once it was adopted, changed almost all arenas of Japanese society ranging from language, etiquette, clothes, judicial and political system, armaments, arts, etc. Japanese government sent students to Western countries to observe and learn their practices as well as paying foreign scholars to come to Japan to educate the populace, the so called "foreign advisors" coming in from variety of studies. For instance the judicial system and constitution were largely modeled on that of Germany. It also outlawed customs linked to Japan's feudal past, such as displaying and wearing
katanaA Japanese sword, or , is one of the traditional bladed weapons of Japan. These are categorised in several types according to size and method of manufacture...
in public and the
top knotThe chonmage is a form of Japanese traditional haircut worn by men. It is most commonly associated with the Edo Period and samurai, and in recent times with sumo wrestlers...
both of which were characteristic of the
samuraiis the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
class, which was abolished together with the caste system. This would later bring the Meiji government into
conflict with the SamuraiThe , was a revolt of Satsuma ex-samurai against the Meiji government from January 29, 1877 to September 24,1877, 9 years into the Meiji Era. It was the last, and the most serious, of a series of armed uprisings against the new government.-Background:...
.
Constitution
{{main|Constitution of the Empire of Japan}}
The constitution also recognized the aforementioned acknowledgment of a need for change and modernization after removal of the shogunate:
{{Cquote|We, the Successor to the prosperous Throne of Our Predecessors, do humbly and solemnly swear to the Imperial Founder of Our House and to Our other Imperial Ancestors that, in pursuance of a great policy co-extensive with the Heavens and with the Earth, We shall maintain and secure from decline the ancient form of government...In consideration of the progressive tendency of the course of human affairs and in parallel with the advance of civilization, We deem it expedient, in order to give clearness and distinctness to the instructions bequeathed by the Imperial Founder of Our House and by Our other Imperial Ancestors, to establish fundamental laws....}}
Imperial Japan was founded,
de jureDe jure is an expression that means "concerning law", as contrasted with de facto, which means "concerning fact"....
, after the 1889 signing of Constitution of the Empire of Japan. The constitution formalized much of its political structure and gave many responsibilities and powers to the Emperor.
Article 4. The Emperor is the head of the Empire, combining in Himself the rights of sovereignty, and exercises them, according to the provisions of the present Constitution.
Article 6. The Emperor gives sanction to laws, and orders them to be promulgated and executed.
Article 11. The Emperor has the supreme command of the Army and Navy.
Although it was in this constitution that the title Empire of Japan was officially used for the first time, it was not until 1936 that this title was legalized. Until then, the names "
Nippon" (日本; Japan), "
Dai-Nippon" (大日本; Greater Japan), "
Dai-Nippon/-Nihon Koku" (日本國; State of Japan), "
Nihon Teikoku" (日本帝國; Empire of Japan) were all used.
Economic development
{{main|Economic history of Japan#From the Meiji Restoration to World War II}}
The process of modernization was closely monitored and heavily subsidized by the Meiji government, enhancing the power of the great
zaibatsuis a Japanese term referring to industrial and financial business conglomerates in the Empire of Japan, whose influence and size allowed for control over significant parts of the Japanese economy from the Meiji period until the end of the Pacific War.-Terminology:...
firms such as
Mitsuiis one of the largest corporate conglomerates in Japan and one of the largest publicly traded companies in the world.-History:Founded by Mitsui Takatoshi , who was born a fourth son of a shopkeeper in Matsusaka, called Echigoya in today's Mie prefecture. His father originally sold miso, a...
and
MitsubishiThe , Mitsubishi Group of Companies, or Mitsubishi Companies is a Japanese conglomerate consisting of a range of autonomous businesses which share the Mitsubishi brand, trademark and legacy...
. Hand in hand, the zaibatsu and government guided the nation, borrowing technology from the West. Japan gradually took control of much of Asia's market for manufactured goods, beginning with textiles. The economic structure became very mercantilistic, importing raw materials and exporting finished products — a reflection of Japan's relative scarcity of raw materials.
Economic reforms included a unified modern currency based on the yen, banking, commercial and tax laws, stock exchanges, and a communications network. Establishment of a modern institutional framework conducive to an advanced capitalist economy took time but was completed by the 1890s. By this time, the government had largely relinquished direct control of the modernization process, primarily for budgetary reasons. Many of the former
daimyois a generic term referring to the powerful territorial lords in premodern Japan who ruled most of the country from their vast, hereditary land holdings...
, whose pensions had been paid in a lump sum, benefited greatly through investments they made in emerging industries.
The government was initially involved in economic modernization, providing a number of "model factories" to facilitate the transition to the modern period. After the first twenty years of the Meiji period, the industrial economy expanded rapidly until about 1920 with inputs of advanced Western technology and large private investments.
Japan emerged from the Tokugawa-Meiji transition as the first Asian industrialized nation. From the onset, the Meiji rulers embraced the concept of a market economy and adopted British and North American forms of free enterprise capitalism. Rapid growth and structural change characterized Japan's two periods of economic development after 1868. Initially, the economy grew only moderately and relied heavily on traditional Japanese agriculture to finance modern industrial infrastructure. By the time the
Russo-Japanese WarThe Russo-Japanese War or the Manchurian Campaign in some English sources, was a conflict that grew out of the rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea...
began in 1904, 65% of employment and 38% of the
gross domestic productThe gross domestic product or gross domestic income is a basic measure of a country's economic performance and is the market value of all final goods and services made within the borders of a country in a year...
(GDP) was still based on agriculture, but modern industry had begun to expand substantially. By the late 1920s, manufacturing and mining contributed to 23% of GDP, compared with the 21% for all of agriculture. Transportation and communications developed to sustain heavy industrial development.
From 1894, Japan built an extensive empire that included
TaiwanTaiwan , also known as Formosa , is the largest island of the Republic of China in East Asia. Taiwan is located east of the Taiwan Strait, off the southeastern coast of mainland China...
, Korea,
ManchuriaManchuria is a historical name given to a vast geographic region in northeast Asia. Depending on the definition of its extent, Manchuria either falls entirely within China, or is divided between China and Russia...
, and parts of
northern ChinaNorthern China or North China may mean:* North China* North China Plain* Northern and southern China - rough geographic regions in China* North China * Northeast China * Northeast China Plain* Northwest China...
. The Japanese regarded this
sphere of influenceIn the field of international relations, a sphere of influence is an area or region over which a state or organization has significant cultural, economic, military or political influence....
as a political and economic necessity, preventing foreign states from strangling Japan by blocking its access to raw materials and crucial sea-lanes. Japan's large military force was regarded as essential to the empire's defense and prosperity through obtaining natural resources, which the Japanese islands were lacking in.
First Sino-Japanese War
{{main|First Sino-Japanese War}}
Prior to its engagement in
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
, the Empire of Japan fought in two significant wars after its establishment following the Meiji Revolution. The first was the
First Sino-Japanese WarThe First Sino-Japanese War was a war fought between Qing Dynasty China and Meiji Japan, primarily over the control of Korea...
, fought between 1894 and 1895. The war revolved around the issue of control and influence over Korea under the rule of the
Joseon DynastyJoseon , was a Korean sovereign state founded by Taejo Yi Seong-gye that lasted for approximately five centuries. It was founded in the aftermath of the overthrow of the Goryeo Kingdom at what is today the city of Kaesong...
. A peasant rebellion led to a request by the Korean government for China to send troops in to stabilize the region. The Empire of Japan responded by sending their own force to Korea and installing a puppet government in
SeoulSeoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest city of South Korea. With a population of over 10 million, it is one of the world's largest cities. The Seoul National Capital Area, which includes the major port city of Incheon and most of Gyeonggi-do, has 24.5 million...
. China objected and war ensued. In a brief affair with Japanese ground troops routing Chinese forces on the
Liaodong PeninsulaThe Liáodōng Peninsula is a peninsula in the Liáoníng province of northeastern China, historically known in the west as southern east-Manchuria. Liaodong means "East of the Liáo"...
, and the near destruction of the Chinese navy in the Battle of the Yalu River, China was forced to sign the
Treaty of ShimonosekiThe Treaty of Shimonoseki , known as the Treaty of Maguan in China, was signed at the Shunpanrō hall on April 17, 1895 between the Empire of Japan and Qing Empire of China, ending the First Sino-Japanese War...
, which ceded parts of
ManchuriaManchuria is a historical name given to a vast geographic region in northeast Asia. Depending on the definition of its extent, Manchuria either falls entirely within China, or is divided between China and Russia...
and the island of
FormosaTaiwan , also known as Formosa , is the largest island of the Republic of China in East Asia. Taiwan is located east of the Taiwan Strait, off the southeastern coast of mainland China...
to Japan (see
Taiwan under Japanese ruleThe Japanese colonial period, Japanese rule in the context of Taiwan's history, refers to the period between 1895 and 1945 during which Taiwan was a Japanese colony...
and
Japanese Invasion of Taiwan (1895)The Japanese invasion of Taiwan was a conflict between the Empire of Japan and the armed forces of the short-lived Republic of Formosa following the Qing Dynasty's cession of Taiwan to Japan in April 1895 at the end of the First Sino-Japanese War...
). After this war, regional dominance shifted from China to Japan.
Russo-Japanese War
{{main|Russo-Japanese War}}
The
Russo-Japanese WarThe Russo-Japanese War or the Manchurian Campaign in some English sources, was a conflict that grew out of the rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea...
was a conflict for control of Korea and parts of Manchuria by the
Russian EmpireThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia, and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
and Empire of Japan that took place from 1904 to 1905. The war is significant as the first modern war where an Asian country defeated a European power. The victory greatly raised Japan's measure in the world of global politics. The war is marked by the Japanese rebuff of Russian interests in Korea, Manchuria, and China, notably, the Liaodong Peninsula, controlled by the city of
Port ArthurLüshunkou is a district in the municipality of Dalian, Liaoning province, China. Also called Lüshun City or Lüshun Port, it was formerly known as both Port Arthur and Ryojun....
.
Originally, in the Treaty of Shimonoseki, Port Arthur had been given to Japan. This part of the treaty was overruled by Western powers, which gave the port to the Russian Empire, furthering Russian interests in the region. These interests came into conflict with Japanese interests. The war began with a surprise attack on the Russian Eastern fleet stationed at Port Arthur, which was followed by the
Battle of Port ArthurThe Battle of Port Arthur was the starting battle of the Russo-Japanese War. It began with a surprise night attack by a squadron of Japanese destroyers on the Russian fleet anchored at Port Arthur, Manchuria, and continued with an engagement of major surface combatants the following morning...
. Those elements that attempted escape were defeated by the Japanese navy under Admiral Togo Heihachiro at the
Battle of the Yellow SeaThe Battle of the Yellow Sea , a major naval engagement of the Russo-Japanese War, was fought on 10 August 1904. In the Russian Navy, it was referred to as the Battle of 10 August.-Background:...
. A year later, the Russian Baltic fleet arrived only to be annihilated in the
Battle of TsushimaThe Battle of Tsushima , commonly known as the “Sea of Japan Naval Battle” in Japan and the “Battle of Tsushima Strait”, was naval history's only decisive sea battle fought by modern steel battleship fleets...
. While the ground war did not fare as poorly for the Russians, the Japanese army was significantly more aggressive than their Russian counterparts and gained a political advantage that accumulated with the
Treaty of PortsmouthThe Treaty of Portsmouth formally ended the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War.It was signed on 5 September 1905 after negotiations at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard near Portsmouth, New Hampshire in the United States.-Negotiations:...
negotiated in the United States by the
American presidentThe President of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States and is the highest political official in the United States by influence and recognition...
Theodore RooseveltTheodore Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States. He is well remembered for his energetic persona, his range of interests and achievements, his model of masculinity, and his "cowboy" image. He was a leader of the Republican Party and founder of the short-lived Bull Moose Party...
. As a result, Russia lost the part of
SakhalinSakhalin , also Saghalien, is a large elongated island in the North Pacific, lying between 45°50' and 54°24' N. It is part of Russia and is its largest island, administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast. The indigenous peoples of the island are the Sakhalin Ainu, Oroks, and Nivkhs...
Island south of
50 degrees NorthThe 50th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 50 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane.Starting at the Prime Meridian and heading eastwards, the parallel 50° north passes through:-Karafuto:...
latitude (which became the
Karafuto Prefecturewas the Japanese administrative division corresponding to Japanese territory on Sakhalin from 1905 –1945. Through the Treaty of Portsmouth, the portion of Sakhalin south of 50°N became a colony of Japan in 1905. In 1907 the prefecture of Karafuto was established, with its capital at Ōtomari and...
), as well as many mineral rights in Manchuria. In addition, Russia's defeat cleared the way for Japan to
annex Korea outrightThe Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty was signed on August 22, 1910 by the representatives of the Korean and Japanese Imperial Governments, and was proclaimed to the public on August 29, officially starting the period of Japanese rule in Korea...
in 1910.
Annexation of Korea
{{Main|Korea under Japanese rule}}
| Korea, 1910–1945 |
|
| Korea in the Japanese Empire, 1939 |
| Timeline |
Eulsa TreatyThe Eulsa Treaty or Japan-Korea Protectorate Treaty was made between the Empire of Japan and the Korean Empire on 17 November 1905, influenced by the result of the Russo-Japanese War. The treaty in effect made Korea a protectorate of Japan. This treaty deprived Korea of its diplomatic sovereignty...
|
November 18, 1905 |
Annexation by JapanThe Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty was signed on August 22, 1910 by the representatives of the Korean and Japanese Imperial Governments, and was proclaimed to the public on August 29, officially starting the period of Japanese rule in Korea...
|
August 22, 1910 |
March 1st MovementThe March First Movement, or Samil Movement, was one of the earliest displays of Korean independence movements during the Japanese rule of Korea. The name refers to an event that occurred on 1 March 1919, hence the movement's name, literally meaning "Three-One Movement" in Korean. It is also...
|
March 1, 1919 |
| Battle of Chingshanli The Battle of Cheongsanri was fought between the Imperial Japanese Army and Korean armed groups in a densely-wooded region of eastern Manchuria called Qingshanli in October 1920...
|
September 11, 1920 |
Sakuradamon IncidentThe Sakuradamon Incident or Patriotic Deed of Lee Bong-chang was an assassination attempt against Emperor Hirohito of the Empire of Japan by a Korean independence activist, Lee Bong-chang in Tokyo on 9 January 1932....
|
January 9, 1932 |
| Shanghai bombing attack Yoon Bong-Gil was a Korean independence activist and assassin who worked against Japan during Japan's rule over Korea...
|
April 29, 1932 |
| Sōshi-kaimei Sōshi-kaimei was a policy created by Jiro Minami, Governor-General of Korea under the Empire of Japan, implemented upon Japanese subjects from Korea . As defined by Ordinance No...
|
1940–1945 |
| End of World War II The surrender of Japan in August 1945 brought World War II to a close. By August 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy effectively ceased to exist, and an Allied invasion of Japan was imminent...
|
August 15, 1945 |
| Victory over Japan Day Victory over Japan Day is a name chosen for the day on which the surrender of Japan occurred, effectively ending World War II, and subsequent anniversaries of that event....
|
September 2, 1945 |
| Division of Korea The division of Korea into North Korea and South Korea stems from the 1945 Allied victory in World War II, ending Japan's 35-year colonial rule of Korea. In a proposal opposed by nearly all Koreans, the United States and the Soviet Union agreed to temporarily occupy the country as a trusteeship...
|
1945 |
In January 1876, following the
Meiji RestorationThe , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution or Renewal, was a chain of events that led to enormous changes in Japan's political and social structure...
, Japan employed
gunboat diplomacyIn international politics, gunboat diplomacy refers to the pursuit of foreign policy objectives with the aid of conspicuous displays of military power — implying or constituting a direct threat of warfare, should terms not be agreeable to the superior force....
to pressure
KoreaKorea is a civilization and formerly unified nation currently divided into two states. Located on the Korean Peninsula, it borders China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the east by the Korea Strait....
to sign the
Treaty of GanghwaThe Treaty of Ganghwa, also known in Japan as Japanese-Korea Treaty of Amity , signed on February 27th, 1876, was written by Kuroda Kiyotaka, Governor of Hokkaidō, and Shin Heon, General/Minister of Joseon Dynasty Korea, also designed to open up Korea to Japanese trade...
, regarded as an unequal treaty, which granted
extraterritorial rightsExtraterritoriality is the state of being exempt from the jurisdiction of local law, usually as the result of diplomatic negotiations. Extraterritoriality can also be applied to physical places, such as military bases of foreign countries, or offices of the United Nations. Bureau of Consular...
to Japanese citizens and opened three Korean ports to Japanese trade. The rights granted to Japan under the treaty were similar to those granted western powers in Japan following the visit of Commodore Perry.
Korea was occupied and declared a Japanese
protectorateA protectorate, in international law, is an autonomous territory that is protected diplomatically or militarily against third parties by a stronger state or entity. In exchange for this, the protectorate usually accepts specified obligations, which may vary greatly, depending on the real nature of...
following the 1905
Eulsa TreatyThe Eulsa Treaty or Japan-Korea Protectorate Treaty was made between the Empire of Japan and the Korean Empire on 17 November 1905, influenced by the result of the Russo-Japanese War. The treaty in effect made Korea a protectorate of Japan. This treaty deprived Korea of its diplomatic sovereignty...
, and officially
annexedAnnexation is the legal incorporation of some territory into another geo-political entity . Usually, it is implied that the territory and population being annexed is the smaller, more peripheral, and weaker of the two merging entities...
in 1910 through the
annexation treatyThe Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty was signed on August 22, 1910 by the representatives of the Korean and Japanese Imperial Governments, and was proclaimed to the public on August 29, officially starting the period of Japanese rule in Korea...
. Japan's involvement in the region began with the 1876
Treaty of GanghwaThe Treaty of Ganghwa, also known in Japan as Japanese-Korea Treaty of Amity , signed on February 27th, 1876, was written by Kuroda Kiyotaka, Governor of Hokkaidō, and Shin Heon, General/Minister of Joseon Dynasty Korea, also designed to open up Korea to Japanese trade...
during the
Joseon DynastyJoseon , was a Korean sovereign state founded by Taejo Yi Seong-gye that lasted for approximately five centuries. It was founded in the aftermath of the overthrow of the Goryeo Kingdom at what is today the city of Kaesong...
and increased with the subsequent
assassinationAn Assassination is the targeted killing of a public figure.Assassinations may be prompted by ideological, political, or military reasons. Additionally, assassins may be motivated by financial gain, revenge, personal public recognition, or mental illness....
of
Empress MyeongseongEmpress Myeongseong , also known as Queen Min, was the first official wife of King Gojong, the twenty-sixth king of the Joseon dynasty of Korea...
(also known as "Queen Min") in 1895. The 1905 and 1910 treaties were eventually declared "null and void" by both Japan and South Korea in 1965.
In Korea, the period is usually described as a time of Japanese "forced occupation" (
HangulHangul is the native alphabet of the Korean language, as distinguished from the logographic Sino-Korean hanja system...
: {{lang|ko|일제 강점기}};
Ilje gangjeomgi,
HanjaHanja is the Korean name for Chinese characters. More specifically, it refers to those Chinese characters borrowed from Chinese and incorporated into the Korean language with Korean pronunciation...
: 日帝强占期). Other terms used for it include "Japanese Imperial Period" (
HangulHangul is the native alphabet of the Korean language, as distinguished from the logographic Sino-Korean hanja system...
: {{lang|ko|일제시대}},
Ilje sidae,
HanjaHanja is the Korean name for Chinese characters. More specifically, it refers to those Chinese characters borrowed from Chinese and incorporated into the Korean language with Korean pronunciation...
: 日帝時代) or "Japanese administration" (
HangulHangul is the native alphabet of the Korean language, as distinguished from the logographic Sino-Korean hanja system...
: {{lang|ko|왜정}},
Wae jeong, {{lang|ko|
HanjaHanja is the Korean name for Chinese characters. More specifically, it refers to those Chinese characters borrowed from Chinese and incorporated into the Korean language with Korean pronunciation...
: 倭政}}).
In Japan, a more common description is {{nihongo|"Japanese rule"|日本統治時代の朝鮮|Nippon Tōchi-jidai no Chōsen}}.
In the late 19th and early 20th century, various Western countries actively competed for influence, trade, and territory in
East AsiaEast Asia or Eastern Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms. Geographically and geo-politically, it covers about , or about 28 percent of the Asian continent, about 15 percent bigger than the area of Europe, though some categorize Tibet, Xinjiang,...
, and Japan sought to join these modern colonial powers. The newly modernised Meiji government of Japan turned to Korea, then in the
sphere of influenceIn the field of international relations, a sphere of influence is an area or region over which a state or organization has significant cultural, economic, military or political influence....
of
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
's
Qing DynastyThe Qing Dynasty , also known as the Manchu Dynasty, was the last ruling dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912...
. The Japanese government initially sought to separate Korea from Qing and make Korea a
Japanese satelliteThe term puppet state describes a nominal sovereignty controlled effectively by a foreign power. The term refers to a government controlled by the government of another country like a puppeteer controls the strings of a marionette...
in order to further their security and national interests.
KoreaKorea is a civilization and formerly unified nation currently divided into two states. Located on the Korean Peninsula, it borders China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the east by the Korea Strait....
would be officially part of the Empire of Japan for 35-years from August 22, 1910 until the formal Japanese rule ended on September 2, 1945 upon the
Japanese defeat in World War IIThe surrender of Japan in August 1945 brought World War II to a close. By August 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy effectively ceased to exist, and an Allied invasion of Japan was imminent...
in 1945.
World War I
{{main|Japan during World War I|World War I}}
Japan entered
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
in 1914, seizing the opportunity of Germany's distraction with the European War and wanting to expand its sphere of influence in China. Japan declared war on Germany in August 23, 1914 and quickly occupied German-leased territories in China's Shandong Province as well as the Marianas,
CarolineThe Caroline Islands form a large archipelago of widely scattered islands in the western Pacific Ocean, northeast of New Guinea. Politically they are divided between the Federated States of Micronesia in the eastern part of the group, and Palau at the extreme western end...
, and
Marshall IslandsThe Marshall Islands , officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands , is a Micronesian nation of atolls and islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, just west of the International Date Line and just north of the Equator. This nation of roughly 62,000 people is located north of Nauru and...
in the Pacific which were part of
German New GuineaGerman New Guinea was a former German protectorate from 1884 to 1914, consisting of the northeastern part of New Guinea and several nearby island groups. German New Guinea is now entirely part of Papua New Guinea....
. The
siege of TsingtaoThe Siege of Tsingtao was the attack on the German-controlled port of Tsingtao in China during World War I by Imperial Japan and the United Kingdom....
, a swift invasion in the German territory of Jiaozhou (Kiautschou) proved successful and the colonial troops surrendered on 7 November 1914.
With its Western allies, notably the United Kingdom, heavily involved in the war in Europe, Japan sought further to consolidate its position in China by presenting the
Twenty-One DemandsThe ' were a set of demands made by the Empire of Japan under Prime Minister Ōkuma Shigenobu sent to the nominal government of the Republic of China on January 18, 1915, resulting in two treaties with Japan on May 25, 1915.- Background :...
to China in January 1915. Besides expanding its control over the German holdings, Manchuria, and Inner Mongolia, Japan also sought joint ownership of a major mining and metallurgical complex in central China, prohibitions on China's ceding or leasing any coastal areas to a third power, and miscellaneous other political, economic, and military controls, which, if achieved, would have reduced China to a Japanese protectorate. In the face of slow negotiations with the Chinese government, widespread
anti-Japanese sentiment in ChinaAnti-Japanese sentiment in China is an issue with modern roots . Modern anti-Japanese sentiment in China is often rooted in nationalist or historical conflict, particularly in Japan's Japanese history textbook controversies....
, and international condemnation, Japan withdrew the final group of demands, and treaties were signed in May 1915.
Siberian Intervention
{{main|Siberian Intervention|Japan during the Siberian Intervention}}
After the fall of the Tsarist regime and the later provisional regime in 1917, the new
BolshevikThe Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903...
government signed a separate peace treaty with
GermanyKaiserreich is the German term for a monarchical empire. Literally a Kaiser's Reich, an emperor's domain or realm. When the proper term is used without disambiguation, it is assumed in Germany to refer to the German Empire of 1871-1918, during which the large majority of historically-independent...
. After this the Russians fought against themselves in
a multi-sided civil warThe Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed and the Soviets under the domination of the Bolshevik party assumed power, first in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a multi-party war that...
.
In July 1918, President Wilson asked the Japanese government to supply 7000 troops as part of an international coalition of 25,000 troops planned to support the
American Expeditionary Force SiberiaThe American Expeditionary Force Siberia was a United States Army force that was involved in the Russian Civil War in Vladivostok, Russia, during the tail end of World War I after the October Revolution, from 1918 to 1920....
. Prime Minister
Terauchi MasatakeField Marshal Count , GCB was Field Marshal in the Imperial Japanese Army and the 18th Prime Minister of Japan from 9 October 1916 to 29 September 1918.-Early period:...
agreed to send 12,000 troops, but under the Japanese command rather than as part of an international coalition. The Japanese had several hidden motives for the venture; one was an intense hostility and fear of communism, second a determination to recoup historical losses to Russia and lastly the perceived opportunity to settle the
"northern problem" in Japan's security by either creating a buffer state or through outright territorial acquisition.
By November 1918, more than 70,000
Japanese troopsThe Imperial Japanese Army , or literally Army of the Empire of Greater Japan was the official ground based armed force of Imperial Japan from 1867 to 1945...
under Chief of Staff Yui Mitsue had occupied all ports and major towns in the
Russian Maritime ProvincesPrimorsky Krai also known as Primorye , is a federal subject of Russia . Primorsky means "maritime" in Russian, hence the region is sometimes referred to as Maritime Province.-Geography:...
and eastern
SiberiaSiberia , is the vast region constituting almost all of Northern Asia and for the most part currently serving as the massive central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, having served in the same capacity previously for the USSR from its beginning, and the Russian Empire beginning in the...
.
In June 1920, the United States and its allied coalition partners withdrew from Vladivostok after the capture and execution of White Army leader Admiral
Aleksandr KolchakAleksandr Vasiliyevich Kolchak was a Russian naval commander, polar explorer and later head of part of the anti-Bolshevik White forces during the Russian Civil War...
by the Red Army. However, the Japanese decided to stay, primarily due to fears of the spread of communism so close to Japan and Japanese controlled Korea and Manchuria. The Japanese army provided military support to the Japanese-backed Provisional Priamur Government based in Vladivostok against the Moscow-backed
Far Eastern RepublicThe Far Eastern Republic , sometimes called the Chita Republic, was a nominally independent state established at Blagoveshchensk, covering the former Russian Far East and Siberia east of Lake Baikal on April 6, 1920...
.
The continued Japanese presence concerned the United States, which suspected that Japan had territorial designs on Siberia and the Russian Far East. Subjected to intense diplomatic pressure by the United States and Great Britain, and facing increasing domestic opposition due to the economic and human cost, the administration of Prime Minister
Kato TomosaburoViscount was a career officer in the Imperial Japanese Navy and the 21st Prime Minister of Japan from 12 June 1922 to 24 August 1923.-Biography:Born in Hiroshima, Aki Province to a samurai family, Katō enrolled in the 7th class Imperial Japanese Naval Academy and graduated second out of a class...
withdrew the Japanese forces in October 1922. Japanese casualties from the expedition were 5000 dead from combat or illness, with the expedition costing over 900 million yen.
"Taishō Democracy"
The election of
Kato KomeiCount ' was a Japanese politician and the 24th Prime Minister of Japan from 11 June 1924 to 28 January 1926...
as Prime Minister of Japan continued democratic reforms that had been advocated by influential individuals on the left. This culminated in the passage of universal male suffrage in March 1925. This bill gave all male subjects over the age of 25 the right to vote, provided they had lived in their electoral districts for at least one year and were not homeless. The electorate thereby increased from 3.3 million to 12.5 million.
Prewar Shōwa (1926-1937) - Militarization and imperialist ambitions
{{main|Shōwa era}}
In 1932, Park Chun-kum was elected a member of the
House of RepresentativesThe is the lower house of the Diet of Japan. The House of Councillors of Japan is the upper house.The House of Representatives has 480 members, elected for four-year terms. Of these, 180 are elected from 11 multi-member constituencies by a party-list system of proportional representation, and 300...
in the Japanese general election as a first colonial people. In 1935, democracy was introduced in Taiwan in response to Taiwanese public opinion, Local assemblies were established. In 1942, 38 colonial people were elected as the member of Local assemblies of Japanese homeland.
Military and social organizations
{{main|Tokkou keisatsu|Kempeitai|Tokeitai}}
{{Expand-section|date=June 2008}}
Important institutional links existed between the Party in Government (Kodoha) and Military and Political Organizations like the Imperial Young Federation, and the "Political Department" of the
KempeitaiThe was the military police arm of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1881 to 1945. It was not an English-style military police, but was a French-style gendarmerie...
; Amongst the himitsu kessha (secret societies), the Kokuryu-kai (Black Dragon Society), and Kokka Shakai Shugi Gakumei (the National Socialist League) also had close ties to the government. The
TonarigumiThe was the smallest unit of the national mobilization program established by the Japanese government in World War II. It consisted of units consisting of 10-15 households organized for fire fighting, civil defense and internal security. -History & Development:...
(residents committee) groups, the Nation Service Society (national government trade union) and Imperial Farmers Association were all allied as well. Other organizations and groups related with the government in wartime were:
Double Leaf SocietyThe was a Japanese military secret society of the 1920s.The Futabakai was one of many ultranationalist secret societies which had arisen within the Japanese military, from the Meiji period through World War II...
,
KokuhonshaThe was a nationalist political society in late 1920s and early 1930s Japan.-History:The Kokuhonsha was founded in 1924 by conservative Minister of Justice and President of the House of Peers, Kiichirō Hiranuma....
,
Taisei YokusankaiThe was created by Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe on October 12, 1940 to promote the goals of his Shintaisei movement. It evolved into a "statist" political party which aimed at removing the sectionalism in the politics and economics in the Empire of Japan to create a totalitarian single-party...
,
Imperial Youth CorpsThe Yokusan Sonendan was an elite para-military organization of Japan established in January 1942, based on the model of the German Sturmabteilung ....
,
Tokko', often shortened to ' was a police force established in 1911 in Japan, specifically to investigate and control political groups and ideologies deemed to be a threat to public order....
,
TokeitaiThe was the Imperial Japanese Navy's military police, they were equivalent to the Imperial Japanese Army's Kempeitai. They were also the smallest military police service....
, Keishicho (to 1945), Shintoist Rites Research Council,
Treaty FactionThe was an unofficial and informal political faction within the Imperial Japanese Navy in the 1920s-1930s of officers supporting the Washington Naval Treaty.-Background:...
,
Fleet FactionThe was an unofficial and informal political faction within the Imperial Japanese Navy in the 1920s-1930s of officers opposed to the conditions imposed by the Washington Naval Treaty.-Background:...
and
Imperial Volunteer Corpswere armed civil defense units planned in 1945 in the Empire of Japan as a last desperate measure to defend the Japanese home islands against the projected Allied invasion during Operation Downfall in the final stages of World War II....
Nationalistic factors
{{main|Militarism-Socialism in Showa Japan|Imperial Way Faction|Japanese nationalism}}
Sadao ArakiBaron was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army before World War II. A charismatic leader and one of the principal nationalist right-wing political theorists in the late Japanese Empire, he was regarded as the leader of the radical faction within the politicized Japanese Army...
was an important figurehead and founder of the Army party and the most important right-wing thinker in his time. His first ideological works date from his leadership of the Kodaha (Imperial Benevolent Rule or Action Group), opposed by the
Toseiha' was a political faction in the Imperial Japanese Army, active in the 1920s and 1930s.Led by General Kazushige Ugaki, along with Hajime Sugiyama, Koiso Kuniaki, Yoshijiro Umezu, Tetsuzan Nagata and Hideki Tojo, the Tōseiha was a grouping of officers united primarily by their opposition to the...
(Control Group) led by General
Kazushige Ugakiwas a general in the Imperial Japanese Army, and twice Governor-General of Korea.- Early career :Ugaki was born to a samurai family in Seto-town, Bizen Province . He graduated from the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1891, and the Army Staff College in 1900.Ugaki was sent as military attaché to...
. He linked the ancient (
bushido, meaning "Way of the Warrior", is a Japanese code of conduct and a way of the samurai life, loosely analogous to the concept of chivalry. It originates from the samurai moral code and stresses frugality, loyalty, martial arts mastery, and honor unto death. Born of two main influences, the violent...
code) and contemporary local and European fascist ideals (see
Japanese fascismStatism in Shōwa Japan sometimes also referred to as Right "Japanese right socialism", "Shōwa Nationalism" or Japanese fascism, refers to a political syncretism of Japanese right-wing political ideologies, developed over a period of time from the Meiji Restoration, and dominating Japanese politics...
), to form the ideological basis of the movement (Shōwa nationalism).
From September 1932, the Japanese were becoming more locked into the course that would lead them into the Second World War, with Araki leading the way.
TotalitarianismTotalitarianism is a political system where the state, usually under the control of a single party or faction, recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible...
,
militarismMilitarism is the belief or desire of a government or people that a country should maintain a strong military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests....
and
expansionismIn general, expansionism consists of expansionist policies of governments and states. While some have linked the term to promoting economic growth , more commonly expansionism refers to the doctrine of a nation's expanding its territorial base usually by means of military aggression...
were to become the rule, with fewer voices able to speak against it. In a September 23 news conference, Araki first mentioned the philosophy of "Kodoha" (The
Imperial Way FactionThe was a political faction in the Imperial Japanese Army, active in the 1920s and 1930s and largely supported by junior officers aiming to establish a military government, that promoted totalitarian, militarist, and expansionist ideals...
). The concept of Kodo linked the Emperor, the people, land and morality as indivisible. This led to the creation of a "new"
Shintoor kami-no-michi is the natural spirituality of Japan and the Japanese people. The word Shinto was adopted from the written Chinese , combining two kanji: , meaning gods or spirits ; and , or "do" meaning a philosophical path or study...
and increased Emperor worship.
The state was being transformed to serve the Army and the Emperor. Symbolic
katanaA Japanese sword, or , is one of the traditional bladed weapons of Japan. These are categorised in several types according to size and method of manufacture...
swords came back into fashion as the martial embodiment of these beliefs, and the
Nambu pistolwas a semi-automatic pistol used by the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy during the First and Second World Wars. The pistol had two variants, the Type A , and the Type 14 .-History:...
became its contemporary equivalent, with the implicit message that the Army doctrine of close combat would prevail. The final objective, as envisioned by Army thinkers and right-wing line followers, was a return to the old Shogunate system, but in the form of a contemporary Military Shogunate. In such a government the Emperor would once more be a figurehead (as in the
Edo periodThe , or , is a division of Japanese history running from 1603 to 1868 and is the premodern era. The period marks the governance of the Edo or Tokugawa shogunate, which was officially established in 1603 by the first Edo shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu. The period ended with the Meiji Restoration, the...
). Real power would fall to a leader very similar to a Führer or Duce, though with the power less nakedly held. On the other hand, the traditionalist Navy militarists defended the Emperor and a constitutional monarchy with a significant religious aspect.
A third point of view was supported by
Prince Chichibu, also known as Prince Yasuhito, was the second son of Emperor Taishō and a younger brother of the Emperor Shōwa. As a member of the Japanese imperial family, he was the patron of several sporting, medical, and international exchange organizations...
, a brother of Emperor Shōwa, who repeatedly counseled him to implement a
direct imperial rule, even if that meant suspending the constitution.
With the lauching of the
Imperial Rule Assistance AssociationThe was created by Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe on October 12, 1940 to promote the goals of his Shintaisei movement. It evolved into a "statist" political party which aimed at removing the sectionalism in the politics and economics in the Empire of Japan to create a totalitarian single-party...
in 1940 by Prime minister
Fumimaro KonoePrince Fumimaro Konoe was a Japanese politician who served as the 34th, 38th and 39th Prime Minister of Japan.- Early life :...
, Japan would turn to a form of government that resembled
totalitarianismTotalitarianism is a political system where the state, usually under the control of a single party or faction, recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible...
. However, although this unique style of government was very similar to
FascismFascism, , comprises a radical and authoritarian nationalist political ideology and a corporatist economic ideology developed in Italy. Fascists believe that nations and/or races are in perpetual conflict whereby only the strong can survive by being healthy, vital, and by asserting themselves in...
there were many significant differences between the two and therefore could be termed
Japanese nationalismencompasses a broad range of ideas and sentiments harbored by the Japanese people over the last two centuries regarding their native country, its cultural nature, political form and historical destiny. It is useful to distinguish Japanese cultural nationalism from political or state-directed...
.
Economic factors
At same time, the
zaibatsuis a Japanese term referring to industrial and financial business conglomerates in the Empire of Japan, whose influence and size allowed for control over significant parts of the Japanese economy from the Meiji period until the end of the Pacific War.-Terminology:...
trading groups (principally
MitsubishiThe , Mitsubishi Group of Companies, or Mitsubishi Companies is a Japanese conglomerate consisting of a range of autonomous businesses which share the Mitsubishi brand, trademark and legacy...
,
Mitsuiis one of the largest corporate conglomerates in Japan and one of the largest publicly traded companies in the world.-History:Founded by Mitsui Takatoshi , who was born a fourth son of a shopkeeper in Matsusaka, called Echigoya in today's Mie prefecture. His father originally sold miso, a...
, Sumitomo, and Yasuda) looked toward great future expansion. Their main concern was a shortage of raw materials. Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoye combined social concerns with the needs of capital, and planned for expansion.
The main goals of Japan's expansionism were acquisition and protection of spheres of influence, maintenance of territorial integrity, acquisition of raw materials, and access to Asian markets. Western nations, notably Great Britain, France, and the United States, had for long exhibited great interest in the commercial opportunities in China and other parts of Asia. These opportunities had attracted Western investment because of the availability of raw materials for both domestic production and re-export to Asia. Japan desired these opportunities in planning the development of the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere.
The
Great DepressionThe Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, just as in many other countries, had hindered Japan's economic growth. The Japanese Empire's main problem lay in that rapid industrial expansion had turned the country into a major manufacturing and industrial power that required raw materials; however, these could only be obtained overseas as there was a critical lack of natural resources on the home islands.
In the 1920s and 1930s Japan needed to import raw materials such as iron, rubber and oil to maintain strong economic growth. Most of these resources however came from the United States. The Japanese felt that acquiring resource-rich territories would establish economic self-sufficiency and independence, and they also hoped to jump-start the nation's economy in the midst of the depression. As a result Japan set its sights on
East AsiaEast Asia or Eastern Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms. Geographically and geo-politically, it covers about , or about 28 percent of the Asian continent, about 15 percent bigger than the area of Europe, though some categorize Tibet, Xinjiang,...
, specifically
ManchuriaManchuria is a historical name given to a vast geographic region in northeast Asia. Depending on the definition of its extent, Manchuria either falls entirely within China, or is divided between China and Russia...
with its many resources; Japan needed these resources to continue its economic development and maintain national integrity.
Prewar Shōwa (1937-1945) - Expansionism
{{main|Hakko ichiu|National Spiritual Mobilization Movement|League of Diet Members Believing the Objectives of the Holy War|World War II}}
Manchuria
{{main|Japanese invasion of Manchuria}}
{{main|Pacification of Manchukuo}}
With little resistance, Japan invaded and conquered Manchuria in 1931. Japan claimed that this invasion was a liberation of the Manchus from the Chinese, although the majority of the population were Han Chinese. Japan then established a puppet regime called
ManchukuoManchukuo was a puppet state in Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia. The region was the historical homeland of the Manchus, who founded the Qing Dynasty of China...
, and installed the former
Emperor of ChinaThe Emperor of China refers to any sovereign of Imperial China reigning since the founding of China, united by Fu Xi in 2852 BCE until the fall of Yuan Shikai's Empire of China in 1916. When referred to as the Son of Heaven , a title created no later than Shang Dynasty, the Emperor was recognized...
,
PuyiPuyi , of the Manchu Aisin-Gioro ruling family, was the last Emperor of China. He ruled in two periods between 1908 and 1924, firstly as the Xuantong Emperor from 1908 to 1912, and nominally as a non-ruling puppet emperor for twelve days in 1917...
, as the official
head of stateHead of state is the generic term for the individual or collective office that serves as the chief public representative of a monarchy, republic, federation, commonwealth or other kind of state...
. Jehol, a Chinese territory bordering Manchuria, was also taken in 1933. This puppet regime had to carry on a protracted pacification campaign against the
Anti-Japanese Volunteer ArmiesAfter the Invasion of Manchuria, and until 1933, large volunteer armies waged war against Japanese and Manchukuo forces over much of Northeast China....
in Manchuria. In 1936, Japan created a similar Mongolian puppet state in Inner Mongolia named
MengjiangMengjiang , also known in English as Mongol Border Land, was an autonomous area in Inner Mongolia, operating under nominal Chinese sovereignty and Japanese control. It consisted of the then-Chinese provinces of Chahar and Suiyuan, corresponding to the central part of modern Inner Mongolia...
(Chinese: 蒙疆) which was again predominantly Chinese.
Second Sino-Japanese War
{{main|Second Sino-Japanese War}}
Japan invaded China in 1937, creating what was essentially a three-way war between Japan,
Mao ZedongMao Zedong was a Chinese revolutionary, political theorist and Communist leader. He led the People's Republic of China from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976...
's communists, and
Chiang Kai-shekChiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He was an influential member of the Kuomintang and Sun Yat-sen's close ally. He became the commandant of Kuomintang's Whampoa Military Academy and took Sun's place in the party when the latter died in 1925...
's nationalists. On 13 December that same year, the Nationalist capital of Nanking surrendered to Japanese troops. In the event known as the
Rape of NankingThe Nanking Massacre or Nanjing Massacre, also known as the Rape of Nanking, refers to a six-week period following the Japanese capture of Nanking, then capital of the Republic of China, on December 9, 1937. During this period, hundreds of thousands of civilians were murdered and 20,000-80,000...
, Japanese troops massacred a large number of the defending garrison. It is estimated that as many as 300,000 people, including civilians, may have been killed, although the actual numbers are uncertain and the government of the
People's Republic of ChinaThe People's Republic of China , commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the most populous in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately one-fifth of the world's population...
has never undertaken a full accounting of the massacres. In total, an estimated 20 million Chinese, mostly civilians, would be killed during World War II. A
puppet stateThe Wang Jingwei Regime , or Wang Jingwei Government, are informal names commonly given to a government led by Wang Jingwei in the Republic of China, and set up by the Empire of Japan in March 1940. The regime officially called itself the Republic of China...
was also set up in China quickly afterwards, headed by
Wang JingweiWang Jingwei , alternate name Wang Zhaoming , was a Chinese politician...
. The second Sino-Japanese war would continue into World War II with the Communists and Nationalists in a temporary and uneasy nominal alliance against the Japanese.
Clashes with the Soviet Union
{{main|Battle of Lake Khasan}}
{{main|Battle of Khalkhin Gol}}
The Battle of Lake Khasan was an attempted military incursion of the Japanese 19th Division into the territory claimed by the Soviet Union. This incursion was founded in the belief of the Japanese that the Soviet Union misinterpreted the demarcation of the boundary based on the Treaty of Peking between Imperial Russia and Manchu China (and subsequent supplementary agreements on demarcation), and furthermore, that the demarcation markers were tampered with.
The following year, Nomonhan Incident
(Battle of Khalkhin Gol) occurred on 11 May 1939, when a Mongolian cavalry unit of some 70 to 90 men entered the disputed area in search of grazing for their horses, and encountered Manchukuoan cavalry who drove them out of the disputed territory. Two days later the Mongolian force returned and the Manchukoans were unable to evict them.
The Japanese IJA 23rd Division and other units of the
Kwantung ArmyThe , also known as the Guandong Army , was an army group of the Imperial Japanese Army in the early twentieth century. It became the largest and most prestigious command in the IJA...
then became involved.
Joseph StalinJoseph Stalin was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee from 1922 until his death in 1953...
ordered
STAVKAStavka was the term used to refer to command element of armed forces from the time of the Kievan Rus′, more formally during the history of Imperial Russia as administrative staff and General Headquarters during late 19th Century Imperial Russian armed forces and those of the Soviet Union...
, the
Red ArmyThe Red Army The Red Army The Red Army was the Soviet government’s revolutionary militia beginning in the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the USSR. Since 1946, after the Second World War, it was called the Soviet Army.The 'Red...
's high command, to develop a plan for a counterstrike against the Japanese.
Georgy ZhukovMarshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov, honorary GCB was a Russian career officer in the Red Army who, in the course of World War II, played an important role in leading the Red Army through much of Eastern Europe to liberate the Soviet Union and other nations from the Axis...
led a devastating offensive employing encircling tactics making skillful use of their superior artillery, armor and air forces in late August that nearly annihilated the 23rd Division and decimated the IJA 7th Division. On September 15 an armistice was arranged. Nearly two years later, on April 13, 1941, the parties signed a Neutrality Pact, in which they agreed to abide by the existing border.
Tripartite Pact
{{main|Tripartite Pact|Axis Powers}}
The
Second Sino-Japanese WarThe Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. From 1937 to 1941, China fought Japan with some economic help from Germany and the Soviet Union...
had seen tensions rise between Imperial Japan and the United States; events such as the
Panay incidentThe Panay incident was a Japanese attack on the United States Navy gunboat Panay while she was anchored in the Yangtze River outside of Nanjing on December 12, 1937....
and the
'Rape of Nanking'The Nanking Massacre or Nanjing Massacre, also known as the Rape of Nanking, refers to a six-week period following the Japanese capture of Nanking, then capital of the Republic of China, on December 9, 1937. During this period, hundreds of thousands of civilians were murdered and 20,000-80,000...
turned American public opinion against Japan. With the occupation of
French Indochina||-|French Indochina was part of the French colonial empire in southeast Asia. A federation of the three Vietnamese regions, Tonkin , Annam , and Cochinchina , as well as Cambodia, was formed in 1887. Laos was added in 1893 and Kouang-Tchéou-Wan in 1900...
in the years of 1940/41 and the continuing war in China, the United States embargoed strategic materials such as scrap metal and oil to Japan, which were vitally needed for their war effort. The Japanese were faced with the option of either withdrawing from China and losing face or seizing and securing new sources of raw materials in the resource rich, European controlled colonies of South East Asia — specifically
British MalayaBritish Malaya loosely described a set of states on the Malay Peninsula that were colonized by the British from the 18th and the 19th until the 20th century. Before the formation of Malayan Union in 1946, the colonies were not placed under a single unified administration...
and the
Dutch East IndiesThe Dutch East Indies, or Netherlands East Indies, was the Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II.It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the former Dutch East India Company that came under the administration of the Netherlands in 1800...
(modern-day
IndonesiaThe Republic of Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia comprises 17,508 islands. With an estimated population of around 237 million people, it is the world's fourth most populous country, with the world's largest population of Muslims.Indonesia is a republic, with an...
).
On September 27, 1940, Imperial Japan signed the
Tripartite PactThe Tripartite Pact, also called the Three-Power Pact, Axis Pact, Three-way Pact or Tripartite Treaty was a pact signed in Berlin, Germany on September 27, 1940, which established the Axis Powers of World War II...
with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, their objectives to "establish and maintain a new order of things" in their respective world regions and spheres of influence; with Nazi Germany in Europe, Imperial Japan in Asia and Fascist Italy in North Africa. The signatories of this alliance become known as the
Axis PowersThe Axis powers comprised the countries that were opposed to the Allies during World War II. The three major Axis powers—Germany, Italy, and Japan—were part of a military alliance on the signing of the Tripartite Pact in September 1940, which officially founded the Axis powers...
. The pact also called for mutual protection—if any one of the member powers was attacked by a country not already at war, excluding the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
, and for technological and economic cooperation between the signatories.
Pacific War
{{main|Pacific War}}
In the Pacific War, many of the islands became dominions of the Empire.
Attack on Pearl Harbor
{{main|Attack on Pearl Harbor}}
After facing an oil embargo by the United States and its own reserve oil supply about to run short, the Japanese government decided to take action and execute a plan developed by the military branch largely lead by
Osami NaganoFleet Admiral was a career naval officer in the Imperial Japanese Navy from 1934. More of an administrative officer than a sea commander, he was Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff for the majority of World War II, from April 1941 to February 1944....
and
Isoroku YamamotoNaval Marshal General was the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet during World War II, a graduate of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy and a student of the U.S...
to bomb the United States naval base in Hawaii, thereby bringing the United States to World War II on the side of the
AlliesThe Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . The involvement of the Allies in World War II was either natural and inevitable they were invaded or under the direct threat of invasion by the Axis or compelled by concerns that the Axis powers...
. On 4 September 1941, the Japanese
CabinetA Cabinet is a body of high-ranking members of government, typically representing the executive branch. It can also sometimes be referred to as the Council of Ministers, an Executive Council, or Executive Committee.- Overview :...
met to consider the war plans prepared by
Imperial General HeadquartersThe as part of the Supreme War Council was established in 1893 to coordinate efforts between the Imperial Japanese Army and Imperial Japanese Navy during wartime...
, and decided:
Our Empire, for the purpose of self-defense and self-preservation, will complete preparations for war ... [and is] ... resolved to go to war with the United States, Great Britain and the Netherlands if necessary. Our Empire will concurrently take all possible diplomatic measures vis-a-vis the United States and Great Britain, and thereby endeavor to obtain our objectives ... In the event that there is no prospect of our demands being met by the first ten days of October through the diplomatic negotiations mentioned above, we will immediately decide to commence hostilities against the United States, Britain and the Netherlands.
The Imperial Japanese Navy made its surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii, on the Sunday morning of December 7, 1941. The Pacific Fleet of the United States Navy and its defending Army Air Forces and Marine air forces sustained significant losses. The primary objective of the attack was to incapacitate the United States long enough for Japan to establish its long-planned Southeast Asian empire and defensible buffer zones. The U.S. public saw the attack as a treacherous act and rallied against the Empire of Japan. The United States entered the European Theatre and
Pacific TheaterThe Pacific War was the part of World War II—and preceding conflicts—that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in East Asia. The war began as a conflict with the Empire of Japan and the Republic of China on July 7, 1937, but by December 1941, became part of the greater World War II,...
in full force. Four days later,
Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , popularly known as the Nazi Party...
of Nazi Germany declared war on the United States, bringing the separate conflicts into a cohesive conflict.
Japanese offensives (1941-42)
{{main|South-East Asian theatre of World War II|South West Pacific theatre of World War II}}
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese launched offensives against Allied forces in South East Asia, with simultaneous attacks on Hong Kong,
British MalayaBritish Malaya loosely described a set of states on the Malay Peninsula that were colonized by the British from the 18th and the 19th until the 20th century. Before the formation of Malayan Union in 1946, the colonies were not placed under a single unified administration...
and the
PhilippinesThe Philippines officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
.
In
MalayaThe Battle of Malaya was a campaign fought by Allied and Japanese forces in Malaya, from December 8 1941 to January 31 1942 during the Second World War. The campaign was dominated by land battles between British Commonwealth army units, and the Imperial Japanese Army...
the Japanese overwhelmed a
CommonwealthThe Commonwealth of Nations, often referred to as the Commonwealth and previously as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-three independent member states. Most of them were formerly part of the British Empire. They co-operate within a framework of common values...
army composed of British, Indian, Australian and Malay forces. The Japanese were quickly able to advance down the Malayan peninsula, forcing the Commonwealth forces to retreat towards Singapore. The British lacked aircover and tanks; the Japanese had total air superiority. The
sinking of HMS Prince of Wales and HMS RepulseThe sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse was a World War II naval engagement which illustrated the effectiveness of aerial attacks against naval forces that were not protected by air cover and the resulting importance of including an aircraft carrier in any major fleet action.The action took...
on December 10, 1941 led to the east coast of Malaya being exposed to Japanese landings and the elimination of British naval power in the area. By the end of January 1942, the last Allied forces crossed the strait of Johore and into Singapore.
Hong Kong surrenderedThe Battle of Hong Kong took place during the Pacific campaign of World War II. It began on 8 December 1941 and ended on Christmas Day with Hong Kong, then a Crown colony, surrendering to Empire of Japan.-Background:...
to the Japanese on Christmas Day.
In
the PhilippinesThe Battle of the Philippines was the invasion of the Philippines by Japan in 1941–1942 and the defense of the islands by Filipino and United States forces....
the Japanese pushed the combined Filipino-American force towards the
Bataan peninsulaThe Battle of Bataan represented the most intense phase of Imperial Japan's invasion of the Philippines during World War II. The capture of the Philippine Islands was crucial to Japan's effort to control the Southwest Pacific, seize the resource-rich Dutch East Indies, and protect its Southeast...
and later the
island of CorregidorThe Battle for Corregidor was the culmination of the Japanese campaign for the conquest of the Philippines. The fall of Bataan on April 9, 1942 ended all organized opposition by the U.S. Army Forces Far East to the invading Japanese forces on Luzon in the northern Philippines...
. By January 1942 General Douglas MacArthur and President
Manuel L. QuezonManuel Luis Quezon y Molina was the first Filipino president of the Commonwealth of the Philippines under U.S. colonial rule in the first half of the 20th century. He is considered by most Filipinos to have been the second President of the Philippines, after Emilio Aguinaldo...
were forced to flee in the face of Japanese advance. This marked among one of the worst defeats suffered by the Americans, leaving over 70,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war in the custody of the Japanese.
On February 15, 1942
SingaporeSingapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island city-state located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, lying north of the equator, south of the Malaysian state of Johor and north of Indonesia's Riau Islands. At , Singapore is a microstate and the smallest nation in Southeast...
due to the overwhelming superiority of Japanese forces and encirclement tactics fell to the Japanese, caused about the largest
surrenderSurrender is when soldiers, nations or other combatants stop fighting and eventually become prisoners of war, either as individuals or when ordered to by their officers. A white flag is a common symbol of surrender, as is the gesture of raising one's hands empty and open above one's head.When the...
of British-led military personnel in history. An estimated 80,000 Indian, Australian and British troops were prisoners of war, joining 50,000 taken in the
Japanese invasion of MalayaThe Battle of Malaya was a campaign fought by Allied and Japanese forces in Malaya, from December 8 1941 to January 31 1942 during the Second World War. The campaign was dominated by land battles between British Commonwealth army units, and the Imperial Japanese Army...
(modern day
MalaysiaMalaysia is a country in Southeast Asia that consists of thirteen states and three Federal Territories, with a total landmass of . The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government. The population stands at over 28 million inhabitants...
), many later used as forced labour constructing the Burma Railway, the site of the infamous Bridge on the River Kwai.
Due to the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
blockade and embargo of raw material, the Japanese military industrial complex sought raw materials elsewhere and turned their attention to the vast steel, (latex) rubber, coal and oil riches of South-East Asia. The Japanese swept into relatively lightly guarded Burma (modern-day
MyanmarBurma, officially the Union of Myanmar, is the largest country by geographical area in mainland Southeast Asia or Indochina. The country is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest and the Bay of Bengal to the...
), the well-defended
British MalayaBritish Malaya loosely described a set of states on the Malay Peninsula that were colonized by the British from the 18th and the 19th until the 20th century. Before the formation of Malayan Union in 1946, the colonies were not placed under a single unified administration...
states and the heavily fortified
Fortress Singapore SingaporeSingapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island city-state located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, lying north of the equator, south of the Malaysian state of Johor and north of Indonesia's Riau Islands. At , Singapore is a microstate and the smallest nation in Southeast...
for highly strategic control of major trans-Pacific shipping routes.
The Japanese then seized the key oil production zones of
BorneoBorneo is the third largest island in the world and is located at the centre of Maritime Southeast Asia. Administratively, this island is divided among Indonesia , Malaysia and Brunei . Indonesians refer to the island as Kalimantan...
(modern day
BruneiBrunei , officially the State of Brunei Darussalam or the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace , is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia...
),
Central JavaCentral Java is a province of Indonesia. The administrative capital is Semarang. It is one of six provinces on the island of Java. The province of Central Java is 32,548.20 km2 in area; approximately a quarter of the total land area of Java...
,
MalangMalang is the second largest city in East Java province, Indonesia and will be established as the fourth largest city in Indonesia in 2008. It has an ancient history dating back to the Mataram Kingdom. The city population at the present time is around 1.5 million, and the population of the urban...
, Cepu,
SumatraSumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world .-Etymology:Sumatra was known in ancient times by the Sanskrit...
, and Dutch New Guinea (modern day Indonesian province of Irian Jaya, also conveniently abundant in highly valuable
copperCopper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is rather soft and malleable and a freshly-exposed surface has a pinkish or peachy color...
) of the late Dutch East Indies, defeating the Dutch forces and welcomed ecstatically as liberating heroes by the oppressed Indonesian natives pursuant to their
indigenous legendsRatu Joyoboyo, also Sri Mapanji Jayabaya or Jayabhaya, reigned over the Indianized kingdom of Kediri in East Java from AD1135 to 1157. He reunified the kingdom after a split that occurred with the death of his predecessor Airlangga. He is also remembered for his just and prosperous rule, and...
. The Japanese then consolidated their lines of supply through capturing key islands of the Pacific, including
GuadalcanalGuadalcanal is a 2,510-square mile island in the Pacific Ocean and a province of the Solomon Islands. The World War II Guadalcanal Campaign took place on and around the island...
.
Path to defeat (1942-45)
Japanese military strategists were keenly aware of the unfavorable discrepancy between the industrial potential of the Japanese Empire and that of the United States. Because of this they reasoned that Japanese success hinged on their ability to extend the strategic advantage gained at
Pearl HarborPearl Harbor is a harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...
with additional rapid strategic victories.
The Japanese Command reasoned that only decisive destruction of the United States' Pacific Fleet and conquest of its remote outposts would ensure that the Japanese Empire would not be overwhelmed by America's industrial might. In May 1942, failure to decisively defeat the Allies at the Battle of Coral Sea in spite of Japanese numerical superiority equated to a strategic defeat for Imperial Japan. This setback was followed in June 1942 by the catastrophic loss of a four carrier task force at the
Battle of MidwayThe Battle of Midway is widely regarded as the most important naval battle of the Pacific Campaign of World War II. Between 4 and 7 June 1942, approximately one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea and seven months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States Navy decisively defeated...
. Midway was a decisive defeat for the Imperial Japanese Navy, and proved the turning point for the war. Further defeats by the Allies at
GuadalcanalThe Guadalcanal Campaign, also known as the Battle of Guadalcanal, was fought between August 7, 1942 and February 9, 1943 on and around the island of Guadalcanal in the Pacific theater of World War II...
in September 1942, and
New GuineaNew Guinea, located north of Australia, is the world's second largest island. It became separated from the Australian mainland when the area now known as the Torres Strait flooded after the last glacial period. The name Papua has long been associated with the island...
in 1943 put the Empire of Japan on the defensive for the remainder of the war. By 1943 and 1944, Allied forces, backed by the industrial might and vast raw material resources of the United States, were advancing steadily towards Japan. The US
Sixth ArmyA number of nations have had a Sixth Army:* Sixth Army * Sixth Army * Sixth Army * 6th Army * Sixth United States Army...
led by General MacArthur landed on
LeyteLeyte is a province of the Philippines located in the Eastern Visayas region. Its capital is Tacloban City and occupies the northern three-quarters of the island of Leyte. Leyte is located west of Samar, north of Southern Leyte and south of Biliran...
on 19 October 1944, in the subsequent months (Philippines campaign of 1944–1945) of the combined United States and the Philippine Commonwealth troops together with the recognized guerrilla units liberated much of the Philippines. By 1944 the Allies had seized or bypassed and neutralized many of Japan's strategic bases through amphibious landings and bombardment. This, coupled with the
losses inflicted by Allied submarinesAllied submarines were a key contributor to the Empire of Japan's defeat during the Pacific War. During the war submarines were responsible for fifty-five percent of Japan's merchant marine losses. The war against shipping was the single most decisive factor in the collapse of the Japanese economy...
on Japanese shipping routes began to strangle Japan's economy and undermine its ability to supply its army. By early 1945 the US Marines had wrested control of the Ogasawa Islands in several hard-fought battles such as the
Battle of Iwo JimaThe Battle of Iwo Jima , or Operation Detachment, was a battle in which the United States fought for and captured Iwo Jima from Japan...
, marking the beginning of the fall of the islands of Japan.
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
{{main|Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki}}
After securing airfields in
SaipanSaipan is the largest island and capital of the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands , a chain of 15 tropical islands belonging to the Marianas archipelago in the western Pacific Ocean with a total area of...
and
GuamGuam is an island in the western Pacific Ocean and is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. The island's capital is Hagåtña...
in the summer of 1944, the
United States Army Air ForcesThe United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II. It was a component of the United States Army, divided functionally by executive order in 1942 into three autonomous forces: the Army Ground Forces, the...
undertook an intense bombing campaign, using incendiary bombs, burning Japanese cities in an effort to pulverize Japan's industry and shatter its morale. While these campaigns led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians they did not succeed in persuading the Japanese military to surrender. In mid August 1945, the United States dropped two
nuclear weaponA nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion...
s on Japan. These atomic bombings were the first, and so far only, use against another nation. These two bombs killed approximately 100,000 to 200,000 people in a matter of minutes, and many more people died as a result of nuclear radiation in the following weeks, months, and years. The bombs killed as many as 140,000 people in Hiroshima and 80,000 in Nagasaki by the end of 1945.
Defeat and surrender
{{main|Surrender of Japan|Potsdam Declaration|VJ Day}}
Having ignored (
mokusatsuis a Japanese word meaning "to ignore" or "to treat with silent contempt". It is composed of two kanji: and...
) the
Potsdam DeclarationThe Potsdam Declaration or the Proclamation Defining Terms for Japanese Surrender is a statement calling for the Surrender of Japan in World War II. On July 26 1945, United States President Harry S...
, the Empire of Japan surrendered and ended
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, after the
atomic bombings of Hiroshima and NagasakiThe atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were nuclear attacks near the end of World War II against the Empire of Japan by the United States at the executive order of U.S. President Harry S. Truman on August 6 and August 9, 1945, respectively...
and a declaration of war by the Soviet Union. In a national radio address of 15 August, Emperor Showa announced the surrender to the Japanese people.
War crimes
{{main|Japanese war crimes|International Military Tribunal for the Far East}}
Many political and military Japanese leaders were convicted for war crimes before the Tokyo tribunal and other Allied tribunals in Asia. However, all members of the imperial
family implicated in the war, such as emperor Showa and his brothers, cousins and uncles such as
Prince Chichibu, also known as Prince Yasuhito, was the second son of Emperor Taishō and a younger brother of the Emperor Shōwa. As a member of the Japanese imperial family, he was the patron of several sporting, medical, and international exchange organizations...
, Prince Hiroyasu Fushimi and
Prince Asakaof Japan, was the founder of a collateral branch of the Japanese imperial family and a career officer in the Imperial Japanese Army. A son-in-law of Emperor Meiji and an uncle-in-law of Emperor Shōwa , Prince Asaka was commander of Japanese forces in the final assault on Nanjing, then the capital...
, were exonerated from criminal prosecutions by
Douglas MacArthurGeneral of the Army Douglas MacArthur was an American general, United Nations general, and Field Marshal of the Philippine Army. He was a Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and later played a prominent role in the Pacific theater of World War II...
.
The Japanese military before and during World War II committed numerous atrocities against civilian and military personnel. Large scale massacres, rapes and looting against civilians were committed most notably the
Sook ChingThe Sook Ching massacre was a systematic extermination of perceived hostile elements among the Chinese in Singapore by the Japanese military during the Japanese Occupation of Singapore, after the British colony surrendered on 15 February 1942 during the Second World War. Sook Ching was later...
and
Nanking massacreThe Nanking Massacre or Nanjing Massacre, also known as the Rape of Nanking, refers to a six-week period following the Japanese capture of Nanking, then capital of the Republic of China, on December 9, 1937. During this period, hundreds of thousands of civilians were murdered and 20,000-80,000...
, and the use of around 200,000 "
comfort womenComfort women is a euphemism for women working in military brothels, especially those women who were forced into prostitution as a form of sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II....
", who were forced to serve as prostitutes for the Japanese military..
The
Imperial Japanese ArmyThe Imperial Japanese Army , or literally Army of the Empire of Greater Japan was the official ground based armed force of Imperial Japan from 1867 to 1945...
also engaged in the execution and harsh treatment of Allied military personnel and POWs and
biologicalBiological warfare , also known as germ warfare, is the use of pathogens such as viruses, bacteria, other disease-causing biological agents, or the toxins produced by them as biological weapons ....
experiments were conducted by
Unit 731was a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that undertook lethal human experimentation during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II...
on civilians and prisoners of war; this included the use of biological and chemical weapons authorized by emperor Shōwa himself. According to the 2002
International Symposium on the Crimes of Bacteriological Warfare, the number of people killed in
Far EastThe Far East is a term used in English mostly equivalent to East Asia and Southeast Asia, sometimes to the inclusion of South Asia for economic and cultural reasons."Far East" came into use in European geopolitical discourse in...
Asia by the
Imperial Japanese ArmyThe Imperial Japanese Army , or literally Army of the Empire of Greater Japan was the official ground based armed force of Imperial Japan from 1867 to 1945...
germ warfare and human experiments was estimated to be around 580,000.
Shirō Ishiiwas a Japanese microbiologist and the lieutenant general of Unit 731, a biological warfare unit of the Imperial Japanese Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War and accused War Criminal.- Early years :...
and all Unit 731 members received immunity from US
GeneralA general officer is an officer of high military rank. The term or equivalent is used by nearly every country in the world. General can be used as a generic term for all grades of general officer, or it can specifically refer to a single rank that is simply called general.-All general officer...
Douglas MacArthurGeneral of the Army Douglas MacArthur was an American general, United Nations general, and Field Marshal of the Philippine Army. He was a Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and later played a prominent role in the Pacific theater of World War II...
in exchange for germ warfare data based on
human experimentationHuman subject research includes experiments and observational studies. Human subjects are commonly participants in research on basic biology, clinical medicine, psychology, and all other social sciences. Humans have been participants in research since the earliest studies...
.
End of Imperial reign
{{Expand-section|date=June 2008}}
{{main|Occupation of Japan}}
A period known as
Occupied JapanAt the end of World War II, Japan was occupied by the Allied Powers, led by the United States with contributions also from Australia, India, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. This foreign presence marked the first time in its history that the island nation had been occupied by a foreign power...
followed after the war largely spearheaded by United States General of the Army Douglas McArthur to revise the Japanese constitution and de-militarize Japan. The American occupation, with economic and political assistance, continued well into the 1950s. After the dissolution of the Empire of Japan, Japan adopted a parliamentary-based political system, while the Emperor changed to symbolic status.
American
General of the ArmyGeneral of the Army is a military rank used in some countries to denote a senior military leader, usually a General in command of a nation's Army. It may also be the title given to a General who commands an Army in the field....
Douglas MacArthurGeneral of the Army Douglas MacArthur was an American general, United Nations general, and Field Marshal of the Philippine Army. He was a Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and later played a prominent role in the Pacific theater of World War II...
later commended the new Japanese government that he helped established and the new Japanese period when he was about to send the American forces to the
Korean WarThe Korean War is a war that started between North Korea and South Korea on 25 June 1950 and paused with an armistice signed 27 July, 1953...
:
{{quotation|The Japanese people, since the war, have undergone the greatest reformation recorded in modern history. With a commendable will, eagerness to learn, and marked capacity to understand, they have, from the ashes left in war's wake, erected in Japan an edifice dedicated to the supremacy of individual liberty and personal dignity; and in the ensuing process there has been created a truly representative government committed to the advance of political morality, freedom of economic enterprise, and social justice. Politically, economically, and socially Japan is now abreast of many free nations of the earth and will not again fail the universal trust... I sent all four of our occupation divisions to the Korean battlefront without the slightest qualms as to the effect of the resulting power vacuum upon Japan. The results fully justified my faith. I know of no nation more serene, orderly, and industrious, nor in which higher hopes can be entertained for future constructive service in the advance of the human race.}}
For historian
John W. DowerJohn W . Dower is an American author, professor, and historian; his primary focus is modern Japan and U.S.-Japan relations. He is perhaps best known for his book, Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II, which won the Pulitzer Prize in Letters for General Nonfiction, the National Book...
, however, {{quotation|"In retrospect, apart from the military officer corps, the purge of alleged militarists and ultranationalists that was conducted under the Occupation had relatively small impact on the long-term composition of men of influence in the public and private sectors. The purge initially brought new blood into the political parties, but this was offset by the return of huge numbers of formerly purged conservative politicians to national as well as local politics in the early 1950s. In the bureaucracy, the purge was negligible from the outset (...) In the economic sector, the purge similarly was only mildly disruptive, affecting less than sixteen hundred individuals spread among some four hundred companies. Everywhere one looks, the corridors of power in postwar Japan are crowded with men whose talents had already been recognized during the war years, and who found the same talents highly prized in the "new" Japan."}}
Repatriation
There was a significant level of emigration to the overseas territories of the Japanese Empire during the Japanese colonial period, including
KoreaKorea was under Japanese rule as part of Japan's 35-year imperialist expansion . Formally, Japanese rule ended on September 2, 1945 upon the Japanese defeat in World War II in 1945....
,
TaiwanThe Japanese colonial period, Japanese rule in the context of Taiwan's history, refers to the period between 1895 and 1945 during which Taiwan was a Japanese colony...
,
ManchuriaManchukuo was a puppet state in Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia. The region was the historical homeland of the Manchus, who founded the Qing Dynasty of China...
, and Karafuto. Unlike emigrants to the Americas,
JapaneseThe are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries are referred to as...
going to the colonies occupied a higher rather than lower social niche upon their arrival.
In 1938 there were 309,000 Japanese in
TaiwanTaiwan , also known as Formosa , is the largest island of the Republic of China in East Asia. Taiwan is located east of the Taiwan Strait, off the southeastern coast of mainland China...
. By the end of
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, there were over 850,000 Japanese in
KoreaKorea is a civilization and formerly unified nation currently divided into two states. Located on the Korean Peninsula, it borders China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the east by the Korea Strait....
and more than 2 million in
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
, most of whom were farmers in
ManchukuoManchukuo was a puppet state in Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia. The region was the historical homeland of the Manchus, who founded the Qing Dynasty of China...
(the Japanese had a plan to bring in 5 million Japanese settlers into
Manchukuo).
In the census of December 1939, the total population of the
South Pacific MandateThe was the Japanese League of Nations Mandate consisting of several groups of islands in the Pacific Ocean which came under the administration of Japan after the defeat of the German Empire in World War I.-Early history:...
was 129,104, of which 77,257 were Japanese. By December 1941,
SaipanSaipan is the largest island and capital of the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands , a chain of 15 tropical islands belonging to the Marianas archipelago in the western Pacific Ocean with a total area of...
had a population of more than 30,000 people, including 25,000 Japanese. There were over 400,000 people living on Karafuto (southern
SakhalinSakhalin , also Saghalien, is a large elongated island in the North Pacific, lying between 45°50' and 54°24' N. It is part of Russia and is its largest island, administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast. The indigenous peoples of the island are the Sakhalin Ainu, Oroks, and Nivkhs...
) when the Soviet offensive began in early August 1945. Most were of Japanese or
KoreanSakhalin Koreans are Russian or residents of Korean descent living on Sakhalin Island who trace their roots to the immigrants from the Gyeongsang and Jeolla provinces of Korea during the late 1930s and early 1940s, the latter half of the Japanese...
extraction. When Japan lost the
Kuril IslandsThe Kuril Islands or Kurile Islands in Russia's Sakhalin Oblast region, is a volcanic archipelago that stretches approximately northeast from Hokkaidō, Japan, to Kamchatka, Russia, separating the Sea of Okhotsk from the North Pacific Ocean...
, 17,000 Japanese were expelled, most from the
southern islands.
After World War II, most of these overseas Japanese
repatriated to JapanForced deportation, mass evacuation and displacement of peoples took place in many of the countries involved in World War II. These were caused both by the direct hostilities between Axis and Allied powers, and the border changes enacted in the pre-war settlement...
. The Allied powers repatriated over 6 million Japanese nationals from colonies and battlefields throughout Asia. Only a few remained overseas, often involuntarily, as in the case of
orphans in ChinaJapanese orphans in China consist primarily of children left behind by Japanese families repatriating to Japan in the aftermath of World War II. According to Chinese government figures, roughly 2,800 Japanese children were left behind in China after the war, 90% in Inner Mongolia and northeast...
or
prisoners of war captured by the Red ArmyBy the end of World War II there were from 560,000 to 760,000 Japanese POWs in the Soviet Union and Mongolia interned to work in labor camps. Of them, about 10% died , mostly during the winter of 1945-1946....
and forced to work in
SiberiaSiberia , is the vast region constituting almost all of Northern Asia and for the most part currently serving as the massive central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, having served in the same capacity previously for the USSR from its beginning, and the Russian Empire beginning in the...
.
Influential personnel
{{main|List of Japanese government and military commanders of World War II}}
Political
In the administration of Japan dominated by the military political movement during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the civil central government was under the management of military men and their right-wing civilian allies, along with members of the nobility and Imperial Family. The Emperor was in the center of this power structure as supreme
Commander-in-ChiefA commander-in-chief is the commander of a nation's military forces or significant element of those forces. In the latter case, the force element may be defined as those forces within a particular region or those forces which are associated by function. As a practical term it refers to the...
of the Imperial Armed Forces and
head of stateHead of state is the generic term for the individual or collective office that serves as the chief public representative of a monarchy, republic, federation, commonwealth or other kind of state...
.
Military
The military of Imperial Japan was divided into two main branches under
Imperial General HeadquartersThe as part of the Supreme War Council was established in 1893 to coordinate efforts between the Imperial Japanese Army and Imperial Japanese Navy during wartime...
responsible for the overall conduct of operations including prominent military leaders and commanders:
- Prominent generals and leaders:
-
- Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy , literally Navy of the Empire of Greater Japan was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1869 until 1947, when it was dissolved following Japan's constitutional renunciation of the use of force as a means of settling international disputes...
: Navy of Japan
- Admiral
Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above Vice Admiral and below Admiral of the Fleet/Fleet Admiral. It is usually abbreviated to "Adm." or "ADM"...
CountA count is a nobleman in European countries; his wife is a countess. The word count came into English from the French comte, itself from Latin comes—in its accusative comitem—meaning "companion", and later "companion of the emperor, delegate of the emperor". The British equivalent is an earl...
Itoh SukeyukiFleet Admiral Count was a career officer in the Imperial Japanese Navy in the Meiji-period.-Biography:Born in what is now part of Kagoshima city as the son of a samurai of the Satsuma domain, Itoh studied naval engineering and gunnery and participated in the Anglo-Satsuma War as a member of the...
(1843–1914)
- Admiral Viscount
A viscount is a member of the European nobility whose comital title ranks usually, as in the British peerage, above a baron, below an earl or a count .-Etymology:...
Inoue YoshikaFleet Admiral Viscount was a career naval officer in the Imperial Japanese Navy during Meiji-period.-Biography:Born in what is now part of Kagoshima city, as the son of a samurai retainer of the Satsuma domain, Inoue took part in the Anglo-Satsuma War as a youth...
(1845–1929)
- Admiral Marquis
Marquis is a French title of nobility. The English equivalent is Marquess, while in German, it is Markgraf.It may also refer to:Persons:* André Marquis, Vichy French admiral responsible for the scuttling of the French fleet in Toulon in 1942...
Tōgō HeihachirōFleet Admiral Marquis , was a Fleet Admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy and one of Japan's greatest naval heroes...
(1847–1934) Battle of TsushimaThe Battle of Tsushima , commonly known as the “Sea of Japan Naval Battle” in Japan and the “Battle of Tsushima Strait”, was naval history's only decisive sea battle fought by modern steel battleship fleets...
- Admiral Prince
Prince, from French "Prince" , is a general term for a monarch, for a member of a monarchs' or former monarch's family, and is a hereditary title in some members of Europe's highest nobility...
Arisugawa Takahitowas the 10th head of a cadet branch of the Japanese imperial family and a career officer in the Imperial Japanese Navy.-Early life:thumb|left|Prince Takehiko was born in Kyoto as a scion of the house, one of the shinnōke branches of the Imperial Family of Japan, which were eligible to succeed to...
(1862–1913)
- Admiral Baron
Baron is a title of nobility. The word baron comes from Old French baron, itself from Old High German and Latin baro meaning " man, warrior"; it merged with cognate Old English beorn meaning "nobleman."...
Ijuin GorōFleet Admiral Baron was a Meiji-period career officer in the Imperial Japanese Navy.-Biography:Born in what is now part of Kagoshima city, as the son of a samurai retainer of Satsuma domain, he fought as a Satsuma samurai and foot soldier during major actions in the Boshin War against the forces...
(1852–1921)
- Admiral Prince Higashifushimi Yorihito
was the second head of the Higashifushimi-no-miya, an ōke cadet branch of the Japanese imperial family.-Early life:Born on September 19, 1867, as seventeenth son of Prince Fushimi Kuniye, head of the Fushimi-no-miya, one of the shinnōke branches of the Imperial Family of Japan, which were...
(1867–1922)
- Admiral Baron Shimamura Hayao
Baron was a Japanese admiral during the First Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese Wars as well as one of the first prominent staff officers and naval strategists of the early Imperial Japanese Navy.-Biography:...
(1858–1923)
- Admiral Baron Katō Tomosaburō
Viscount was a career officer in the Imperial Japanese Navy and the 21st Prime Minister of Japan from 12 June 1922 to 24 August 1923.-Biography:Born in Hiroshima, Aki Province to a samurai family, Katō enrolled in the 7th class Imperial Japanese Naval Academy and graduated second out of a class...
(1861–1923)
- Admiral Prince Fushimi Hiroyasu
was a scion of the Japanese imperial family and was a career naval officer who served as chief of staff of the Imperial Japanese Navy from 1932 to 1941.-Early life:...
(1876–1946)
- Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto
Naval Marshal General was the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet during World War II, a graduate of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy and a student of the U.S...
(1884–1943) Battle of MidwayThe Battle of Midway is widely regarded as the most important naval battle of the Pacific Campaign of World War II. Between 4 and 7 June 1942, approximately one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea and seven months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States Navy decisively defeated...
, Attack on Pearl HarborThe attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Japanese navy against the United States' naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of Sunday, December 7, 1941 , later resulting in the United...
- Admiral Osami Nagano
Fleet Admiral was a career naval officer in the Imperial Japanese Navy from 1934. More of an administrative officer than a sea commander, he was Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff for the majority of World War II, from April 1941 to February 1944....
(1880–1947)
- Admiral Mineichi Koga
was a Japanese fleet admiral and commander-in-chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy's Combined Fleet.-Biography:Koga was born in the famous ceramics center of Arita in Nishimatsuura County of Saga Prefecture in 1885...
(1885–1944)
- Vice Admiral
Vice Admiral is a naval rank equivalent to Lieutenant General in seniority. A Vice Admiral is typically senior to a Rear Admiral and junior to an Admiral. In many navies, Vice Admiral is a three star rank.-Rank Insignia:...
Chūichi Nagumowas an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II and one time commander of the Kido Butai .He committed suicide while defending Saipan.-Early life:...
: Battle of MidwayThe Battle of Midway is widely regarded as the most important naval battle of the Pacific Campaign of World War II. Between 4 and 7 June 1942, approximately one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea and seven months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States Navy decisively defeated...
, Attack on Pearl HarborThe attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Japanese navy against the United States' naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of Sunday, December 7, 1941 , later resulting in the United...
-
- Imperial Japanese Army
The Imperial Japanese Army , or literally Army of the Empire of Greater Japan was the official ground based armed force of Imperial Japan from 1867 to 1945...
: Army of Japan
- Prince Kotohito Kan'in
, wasthe sixth head of a cadet branch the Japanese imperial family, and a career army officer who served as Chief of the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff from 1931 to 1940.-Early years:...
: Chief of staff of the Army
- Hajime Sugiyama
was a field marshal who served as successively as chief of the Army General Staff, and minister of war in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II between 1937 and 1944. As War Minister in 1937, he was one of the principal architects of the China Incident or second Sino-Japanese War...
: Chief of staff of the Army
- Iwane Matsui
was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army and the commander of the expeditionary forces sent to China in World War II. He was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to death by hanging by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East for being responsible for the Nanking Massacre.-Early...
: Second Sino-Japanese WarThe Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. From 1937 to 1941, China fought Japan with some economic help from Germany and the Soviet Union...
- Shunroku Hata
Field Marshal , was a field marshal in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. He was the last surviving Japanese military officer with a marshal's rank.- Early years :...
: Commander of the expeditionary army in China
- Yasuji Okamura
was a general of the Imperial Japanese Army, war criminal, and commander-in-chief of the China Expeditionary Army from November 1944 to the end of World War II.- Early life :...
: Commander of the Sanko sakusen
- Tadamichi Kuribayashi
Lieutenant General was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army, best known for his role as overall commander of the Japanese garrison during most of the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II....
: Battle of Iwo JimaThe Battle of Iwo Jima , or Operation Detachment, was a battle in which the United States fought for and captured Iwo Jima from Japan...
- Kuniaki Koiso
was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army, Governor-General of Korea and 41st Prime Minister of Japan from 22 July 1944 to 7 April 1945.Koiso was born in Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture as the son of an ex-samurai family...
: Prime Minister of JapanThe is the usual English-language term used for the head of government of Japan, although the literal translation of the Japanese name for the office is Minister for the general administration of the Cabinet...
- Hideki Tōjō
Hideki Tōjō was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army and the 40th Prime Minister of Japan during much of World War II, from 18 October 1941 to 22 July 1944...
: Prime Minister of Japan
- Mitsuru Ushijima
was the Japanese general at the Battle of Okinawa, during the final stages of World War II.-Biography:Ushijima was a native of Kagoshima city in Kagoshima prefecture on the island of Kyūshū in southern Japan. He graduated from the 20th class of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1908 and of the...
: Battle of OkinawaThe Battle of Okinawa, also known as Operation Iceberg, was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific Theater of World War II. Nearly 60,000 troops stormed ashore on the initial invasion...
Timeline
- 1926: Emperor Taishō
The was the 123rd Emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession, reigning from 30 July 1912, until his death in 1926.The Emperor’s personal name was . According to Japanese customs, the emperor has no name during his reign and is only called the Emperor...
dies (December 25).
- 1927: Tanaka Giichi
Baron was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army, politician, and the 26th Prime Minister of Japan from 20 April 1927 to 2 July 1929.-Early life and military career:...
becomes prime minister (April 20).
- 1928: Emperor Shōwa
, also known as , was the 124th Emperor of Japan according to the traditional order, reigning from December 25, 1926 until his death in 1989....
is formally installed as emperor (November 10).
- 1929: Hamaguchi Osachi
was a Japanese politician and the 27th Prime Minister of Japan from 2 July 1929 to 14 April 1931. He was called the "Lion prime minister" due to his physical features.- Early life :...
becomes prime minister (July 2).
- 1930: Hamaguchi is wounded in an assassination attempt (November 14).
- 1931: Hamaguchi dies and Wakatsuki Reijiro
Baron , was a Japanese politician and the 25th and 28th Prime Minister of Japan. Opposition politicians of the time derogatorily labeled him Usotsuki Reijirō, or "Reijirō the Liar". The official representation of his name in Chinese characters is 禮次郎.- Early life :Wakatsuki was born in Matsue,...
becomes prime minister (April 14). Japan occupies Manchuria after the Mukden IncidentThe Mukden Incident represented an early event in the Second Sino-Japanese War, although full-scale war would not start until 1937. On September 18, 1931, near Mukden in southern Manchuria, a section of railroad owned by Japan's South Manchuria Railway was dynamited...
(September 18). Inukai Tsuyoshi, was a Japanese politician and the 29th Prime Minister of Japan from 13 December 1931 to 15 May 1932.- Early life :Inukai was born to a former samurai family of the Niwase Domain, in Niwase village, Bizen Province , and was a graduate of Keio Gijuku in Tokyo...
becomes prime minister (December 13) and increases funding for the military in China.
- 1932: After an attack on Japanese monks in Shanghai (January 18), Japanese forces shell the city (January 29). Manchukuo
Manchukuo was a puppet state in Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia. The region was the historical homeland of the Manchus, who founded the Qing Dynasty of China...
is established with Henry Pu Yi as emperor (February 29). Inukai is assassinated during a coup attempt and Saito MakotoViscount was an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy, two-time Governor-General of Korea from 1919 to 1927 and from 1929 to 1931, and the 30th Prime Minister of Japan from May 26, 1932 to 8 July 8, 1934.-Early life:...
becomes prime minister (May 15). Japan is censured by the League of NationsThe League of Nations was an inter-governmental organization founded as a result of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919–1920. At its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members...
(December 7).
- 1933: Japan leaves the League of Nations (March 27).
- 1934: Okada Keisuke becomes prime minister (July 8). Japan withdraws from the Washington Naval Treaty
The Washington Naval Treaty, also known as the Five-Power Treaty, limited the naval armaments of its five signatories: the United States of America, the British Empire, the Empire of Japan, the French Third Republic, and the Kingdom of Italy. The treaty was agreed at the Washington Naval...
(December 29).
- 1936: Coup attempt (February 26 Incident
The ', or "2-2-6 incident" , was an attempted coup d'état in Japan, from February 26–29, 1936, launched by the radical ultranationalist Kōdō-ha faction of the Imperial Japanese Army...
). Hirota Koki becomes prime minister (March 9). Japan signs its first pact with Germany (November 25) and occupies Tsingtao' , best known in the West by its postal map spelling Tsingtao, is a major city in eastern Shandong province, People's Republic of China. It borders Yantai to the northeast, Weifang to the west and Rizhao to the southwest. Lying across the Shandong Peninsula while looking out to the Yellow Sea,...
(December 3). Mengchiang established in Inner MongoliaInner Mongolia is a Mongol autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in the country's north....
.
- 1937: Hayashi Senjuro becomes prime minister (February 2). Prince Konoe Fumimaro becomes prime minister (June 4). Battle of Lugou Bridge (July 7). Japan captures Beijing (July 31). Japanese troops occupy Nanjing
' , abbreviated in Chinese as Ning , is the capital of China's Jiangsu Province, and a city with a prominent place in Chinese history and culture...
(December 13), beginning the Nanjing massacre.
- 1938: Battle of Taierzhuang
The Battle of Tai'erzhuang was a battle of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1938, between armies of Chinese Kuomintang and Japan, and is sometimes considered as a part of Battle of Xuzhou....
(March 24). CantonCanton in China may refer to:* Canton City : Guangzhou, traditional English name used in most documents.* Canton Province : Guangdong, of which Guangzhou is the capital and the largest city. This usage is rare and was not documented in major lexica of the English language. When used, it must be...
falls to Japanese forces (October 21).
- 1939: Hiranuma Kiichiro becomes prime minister (January 5). Abe Nobuyuki becomes prime minister (August 30).
- 1940: Yonai Mitsumasa becomes prime minister (January 16). Konoe becomes prime minister for a second term (July 22). Hundred Regiments Offensive
The Hundred Regiments Offensive was a major campaign of the Communist Party of China's Red Army commanded by Peng Dehuai against the Imperial Japanese Army in Central China.- Background :...
(August–September). Japan occupies Indochina in the wake of the fall of Paris, and signs the Tripartite PactThe Tripartite Pact, also called the Three-Power Pact, Axis Pact, Three-way Pact or Tripartite Treaty was a pact signed in Berlin, Germany on September 27, 1940, which established the Axis Powers of World War II...
(September 27).
- 1941: General Tojo Hideki becomes prime minister (October 18). Japanese naval forces attack Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Japanese navy against the United States' naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of Sunday, December 7, 1941 , later resulting in the United...
, Hawaii (December 7), prompting the United States to declare war on Japan (December 8). Japan conquers Hong Kong (December 25).
- 1942: Singapore surrenders to Japan (February 15). Japan bombs Australia (February 19). Doolittle Raid
The Doolittle Raid, 18 April 1942, was the first air raid by the United States to strike a Japanese home island during World War II. It demonstrated that Japan itself was vulnerable to Allied air attack and provided an expedient means for U.S. retaliation for Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor on 7...
on Tokyo (April 18). Battle of the Coral SeaThe Battle of the Coral Sea, fought during May 4–8, 1942, was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II between the Imperial Japanese Navy and Allied naval and air forces from the United States and Australia. The battle was the first fleet action in which aircraft carriers...
(May 4–May 8). U.S. and FilipinoThe Philippines officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
forces in the Battle of the Philippines (1942) surrender (May 8). Japan defeated at the Battle of MidwayThe Battle of Midway is widely regarded as the most important naval battle of the Pacific Campaign of World War II. Between 4 and 7 June 1942, approximately one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea and seven months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States Navy decisively defeated...
(June 6). Allied victory in the Battle of Milne BayThe Battle of Milne Bay was a battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II. Japanese marines attacked the Australian base at Milne Bay on the eastern tip of New Guinea on 25 August 1942, and fighting continued until the Japanese retreated on 5 September 1942, however armed resistance ended on 7...
(September 5).
- 1943: Allied victory in Battle of Guadalcanal (February 9). Japan defeated at Battle of Tarawa
The Battle of Tarawa was a battle in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, largely fought from November 20 to November 23, 1943. It was the second time the United States was on the offensive , and the first offensive in the critical central Pacific region.It was also the first time in the war that...
(November 23).
- 1944: Tojo resigns and Koiso Kuniaki becomes prime minister (July 22).
- 1945: U.S. bombers begin firebombing of major Japanese cities. Japan defeated at Battle of Iwo Jima
The Battle of Iwo Jima , or Operation Detachment, was a battle in which the United States fought for and captured Iwo Jima from Japan...
(March 26). Admiral Suzuki Kantaro becomes prime minister (April 7). Japan defeated at Battle of OkinawaThe Battle of Okinawa, also known as Operation Iceberg, was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific Theater of World War II. Nearly 60,000 troops stormed ashore on the initial invasion...
(June 21). U.S. drops atomic bombs on Hiroshimais the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshū, the largest island of Japan. It became the first city in history assaulted by nuclear armament when the United States of America dropped an atomic bomb on it on August 6, 1945, near the culmination...
(August 6) and Nagasaki (August 9). Japan surrenders (September 2): Allied occupation begins.
Emperors of the Empire of Japan
Posthumous name A posthumous name is an honorary name given to royalty, nobles, and sometimes others, in some cultures after the person's death. The posthumous name is commonly used when naming royalty of China, Korea, Vietnam, and Japan....
1 |
Given name² |
Childhood name³ |
Period of Reigns |
Era name4 |
|---|
Meiji TennōThe or Meiji the Great was the 122 nd emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, reigning from 3 February 1867 until his death....
(明治天皇) |
Mutsuhito
(睦仁) |
Sachi-no-miya
(祐宮) |
1868–1912
(1890-1912)5 |
Meiji |
Taishō Tennō The was the 123rd Emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession, reigning from 30 July 1912, until his death in 1926.The Emperor’s personal name was . According to Japanese customs, the emperor has no name during his reign and is only called the Emperor...
(大正天皇) |
Yoshihito
(嘉仁) |
Haru-no-miya
(明宮) |
1912–1926 |
Taishō |
Shōwa Tennō
(昭和天皇) |
Hirohito, also known as , was the 124th Emperor of Japan according to the traditional order, reigning from December 25, 1926 until his death in 1989....
(裕仁) |
Michi-no-miya
(迪宮) |
1926–19476 |
Shōwa |
1 Each posthumous name was given after the respective era names as MingThe Ming Dynasty , or Empire of the Great Ming , was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history," was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...
and Qing Dynasties of China. |
2 The Japanese imperial family name has no surname or dynastic name. |
3 The Meiji Emperor was known only by the appellation Sachi-no-miya from his birth until 11 November 1860, when he was proclaimed heir apparent to Emperor Kōmeiwas the 121st emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. He reigned from 10 March 1846 to 30 January 1867. His personal name was and his pre-accession title was .-Genealogy:...
and received the personal name Mutsuhito . |
4 No multiple era names were given for each reign after Meiji Emperor. |
5 Constitutionally. |
6 Shōwa Emperor was deprived of ruling power on May 3, 1947. Because, Constitution of the Empire of Japan was abolished, and Constitution of JapanThe has been the founding legal document of Japan since 1947. The constitution provides for a parliamentary system of government and guarantees certain fundamental rights. Under its terms the Emperor of Japan is "the symbol of the State and of the unity of the people" and exercises a purely...
was established. Since May 3, 1947, he became nominal monarch under the Constitution of Japan until his death. |
See also
- Empire of Japan (foreign commerce and shipping)
During the Empire of Japan and up to 1945, Japan was dependent on imported foods and raw materials for industry. At the time, Japan had one of the largest merchant fleets in the world with a total of approximately 6 million tonnes of displacement before December 1941...
- Agriculture in the Empire of Japan
- Demographics of Imperial Japan
- Japanese heavy industry (1930–1945)
- Japanese mining and energy resources (WWII)
Japan possesses very few mining resources. There are coal deposits in Hokkaidō and Kyūshū . Oil wells have been drilled off the west coast of Honshū and Japan has oil concessions in North Sakhalin. Iron is scarce outside of Hokkaidō and northwest Honshū, and iron pyrite has been discovered in...
- Japanese-German pre-WWII industrial co-operation
In the years leading up to the outbreak of World War II in Europe in 1939, there were some significant collaborative development in heavy industry between German companies and their Japanese counterparts...
- Japanese nuclear weapons program
Preceded by:
Edo periodThe , or , is a division of Japanese history running from 1603 to 1868 and is the premodern era. The period marks the governance of the Edo or Tokugawa shogunate, which was officially established in 1603 by the first Edo shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu. The period ended with the Meiji Restoration, the...
1603 - 1868
|
History of JapanThe written history of Japan begins with brief information of Twenty-Four Histories, a collection of Chinese historical texts, in the 1st century AD. However, there is evidence that suggests people were living on the islands of Japan since the upper paleolithic period...
Empire of Japan
1868 - 1945
|
Succeeded by:
Postwar Japan
1945 - present
Occupation of Japan
1945 - 1952
|
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Empire Of Japan}}