Contrarily to the common
supposition, Japan knew democracy in the pre-war years. The two-party political
system that had been developing in Japan since the turn of the century finally
came of age after World War I. This period has sometimes been called that of
"Taisho Democracy", after the reign title of the emperor. In 1918
Hara Takashi (1856-1921), a major influence in the prewar cabinets, had become
the first commoner to serve as prime minister. He took advantage of long-standing
relationships he had throughout the government, won the support of the House of
Peers, and brought into his cabinet as army minister Tanaka Giichi (1864-1929),
who had a greater appreciation of favorable civil-military relations than his
predecessors. Nevertheless, major problems confronted Hara: inflation, the need
to adjust the Japanese economy to postwar circumstances, the influx of foreign
ideas, and an emerging labor movement. Prewar solutions were applied by the
cabinet to these postwar problems, and little was done to reform the
government. Hara worked to ensure a Seiyokai majority through time-tested
methods, such as new election laws and electoral redistricting, and embarked on
major government-funded public works programs.
The public grew
disillusioned with the growing national debt and the new election laws, which
retained the old minimum tax qualifications for voters. Calls were raised for
universal suffrage and the dismantling of the old political party network.
Students, university professors, and journalists, bolstered by labor unions and
inspired by a variety of democratic, socialist, communist, anarchist, and other
Western schools of thought, mounted large but orderly public demonstrations in
favor of universal male suffrage in 1919 and 1920. New elections brought still
another Seiyokai Party (conservative) majority, but barely so. In the political
milieu of the day, there was a proliferation of new parties, including
socialist and communist parties.
In the midst of this
political ferment, Hara was assassinated by a disenchanted railroad worker in
1921. Hara was followed by a succession of nonparty prime ministers and
coalition cabinets. Fear of a broader electorate, left-wing power, and the
growing social change engendered by the influx of Western popular culture
together led to the passage of the Peace Preservation Law (1925), which forbade
any change in the political structure or the abolition of private property.
Unstable coalitions and divisiveness in the Diet led the Kenseikai
(Constitutional Government Association) and the Seiyo Honto (True Seiyokai) to
merge as the Rikken Minseito (Constitutional Democratic Party) in 1927. The
Rikken Minseito platform was committed to the parliamentary system, democratic
politics, and world peace. Thereafter, until 1932, the Seiyokai and the Rikken
Minseito alternated in power.
Despite the political
realignments and hope for more orderly government, domestic economic crises
plagued whichever party held power. Fiscal austerity programs and appeals for
public support of such conservative government policies as the Peace
Preservation Law--including reminders of the moral obligation to make
sacrifices for the emperor and the state--were attempted as solutions. Although
the world depression of the late 1920s and early 1930s had minimal effects on
Japan--indeed, Japanese exports grew substantially during this period--there
was a sense of rising discontent that was heightened with the assassination of
Rikken Minseito prime minister Hamaguchi Osachi (1870-1931) in 1931.
The events flowing from the
Meiji Restoration in 1868 had seen not only the fulfillment of many domestic
and foreign economic and political objectives--without Japan's first suffering
the colonial fate of other Asian nations--but also a new intellectual ferment,
in a time when there was interest worldwide in socialism and an urban
proletariat was developing. Universal male suffrage, social welfare, workers'
rights, and nonviolent protest were ideals of the early leftist movement.
Government suppression of leftist activities, however, led to more radical
leftist action and even more suppression, resulting in the dissolution of the
Japan Socialist Party (Nihon Shakaito), only a year after its 1906 founding,
and in the general failure of the socialist movement.
The victory of the
Bolsheviks in Russia in 1917 and their hopes for a world revolution led to the
establishment of the Comintern (a contraction of Communist International, the
organization founded in Moscow in 1919 to coordinate the world communist
movement). The Comintern realized the importance of Japan in achieving
successful revolution in East Asia and actively worked to form the Japan
Communist Party (Nihon Kyosanto), which was founded in July 1922. The announced
goals of the Japan Communist Party in 1923 were an end to feudalism, abolition
of the monarchy, recognition of the Soviet Union, and withdrawal of Japanese
troops from Siberia, Sakhalin, China, Korea, and Taiwan. A brutal suppression
of the party followed. Radicals responded with an assassination attempt on
Prince Regent Hirohito. The 1925 Peace Preservation Law was a direct response
to the "dangerous thoughts" perpetrated by communist elements in
Japan.
The liberalization of
election laws, also in 1925, benefited communist candidates even though the
Japan Communist Party itself was banned. A new Peace Preservation Law in 1928,
however, further impeded communist efforts by banning the parties they had
infiltrated. The police apparatus of the day was ubiquitous and quite thorough
in attempting to control the socialist movement. By 1926 the Japan Communist
Party had been forced underground, by the summer of 1929 the party leadership
had been virtually destroyed, and by 1933 the party had largely disintegrated.
Emerging Chinese
nationalism, the victory of the communists in Russia, and the growing presence
of the United States in East Asia all worked against Japan's postwar foreign
policy interests. The four-year Siberian expedition and activities in China,
combined with big domestic spending programs, had depleted Japan's wartime
earnings. Only through more competitive business practices, supported by
further economic development and industrial modernization, all accommodated by
the growth of the zaibatsu (wealth groups), could Japan hope to become
predominant in Asia. The United States, long a source of many imported goods
and loans needed for development, was seen as becoming a major impediment to
this goal because of its policies of containing Japanese imperialism.
An international turning
point in military diplomacy was the Washington Conference of 1921-22, which
produced a series of agreements that effected a new order in the Pacific
region. Japan's economic problems made a naval buildup nearly impossible and,
realizing the need to compete with the United States on an economic rather than
a military basis, rapprochement became inevitable. Japan adopted a more neutral
attitude toward the civil war in China, dropped efforts to expand its hegemony
into China proper, and joined the United States, Britain, and France in
encouraging Chinese self-development.
In the Four Power Treaty on
Insular Possessions (December 13, 1921), Japan, the United States, Britain, and
France agreed to recognize the status quo in the Pacific, and Japan and Britain
agreed to terminate formally their Treaty of Alliance. The Five Power Naval
Disarmament Treaty (February 6, 1922) established an international capital ship
ratio (5, 5, 3, 1.75, and 1.75, respectively, for the United States, Britain,
Japan, France, and Italy) and limited the size and armaments of capital ships
already built or under construction. In a move that gave the Japanese Imperial
Navy greater freedom in the Pacific, Washington and London agreed not to build
any new military bases between Singapore and Hawaii. The goal of the Nine Power
Treaty (February 6, 1922), signed by Belgium, China, the Netherlands, and
Portugal, along with the original five powers, was the prevention of war in the
Pacific. The signatories agreed to respect China's independence and integrity,
not to interfere in Chinese attempts to establish a stable government, to
refrain from seeking special privileges in China or threatening the positions
of other nations there, to support a policy of equal opportunity for commerce
and industry of all nations in China, and to reexamine extraterritoriality and
tariff autonomy policies. Japan also agreed to withdraw its troops from
Shandong, relinquishing all but purely economic rights there, and to evacuate
its troops from Siberia.
In 1928 Japan joined
fourteen other nations in signing the Kellogg-Briand Pact, which denounced
"recourse to war for the solution of international controversies."
Thus, when Japan invaded Manchuria only three years later, its pretext was the
defense of its nationals and economic interests there. The London Naval
Conference in 1930 came at a time of economic recession in Japan, and the
Japanese government was amenable to further, cost-saving naval reductions.
Although Prime Minister Hamaguchi Osachi had civilian support, he bypassed the
Naval General Staff and approved the signing of the London Naval Treaty.
Hamaguchi's success was pyrrhic: ultranationalists called the treaty a national
surrender, and navy and army officials girded themselves for defense of their
budgets. Hamaguchi himself died from wounds suffered in an assassination
attempt in November 1930, and the treaty, with its complex formula for ship
tonnage and numbers aimed at restricting the naval arms race, had loopholes
that made it ineffective by 1938.
Ultranationalism was
characteristic of right-wing politicians and conservative military men since
the inception of the Meiji Restoration, contributing greatly to the prowar
politics of the 1870s. Disenchanted former samurai had established patriotic
societies and intelligence-gathering organizations, such as the Gen'yosha
(Black Ocean Society, founded in 1881) and its later offshoot, the Kokuryukai
(Black Dragon Society, or Amur River Society, founded in 1901). These groups
became active in domestic and foreign politics, helped foment prowar
sentiments, and supported ultranationalist causes through the end of World War
II. After Japan's victories over China and Russia, the ultranationalists
concentrated on domestic issues and perceived domestic threats, such as
socialism and communism.
After World War I and the
intellectual ferment of the period, nationalist societies became numerous but
had a minority voice during the era of two-party democratic politics. Diverse
and angry groups called for nationalization of all wealth above a fixed minimal
amount and for armed overseas expansion. The emperor was highly revered by
these groups, and when Hirohito was enthroned in 1927, initiating the Showa
period (Bright Harmony, 1926-89), there were calls for a "Showa
Restoration" and a revival of Shinto. Emperor-centered neo-Shintoism, or
State Shinto, which had long been developing, came to fruition in the 1930s and
1940s. It glorified the emperor and traditional Japanese virtues to the
exclusion of Western influences, which were perceived as greedy,
individualistic, bourgeois, and assertive. The ideals of the Japanese
family-state and self-sacrifice in service of the nation were given a missionary
interpretation and were thought by their ultranationalist proponents to be
applicable to the modern world.
The 1930s were a decade of
fear in Japan, characterized by the resurgence of right-wing patriotism, the
weakening of democratic forces, domestic terrorist violence (including an
assassination attempt on the emperor in 1932), and stepped-up military
aggression abroad. A prelude to this state of affairs was Tanaka Giichi's term
as prime minister from 1927 to 1929. Twice he sent troops to China to obstruct
Chiang Kai-shek's unification campaign. In June 1928, adventurist officers of
the Kwangtung Army, the Imperial Japanese Army unit stationed in Manchuria,
embarked an unauthorized initiatives to protect Japanese interests, including
the assassination of a former ally, Manchurian warlord Chang Huolin. The
perpetrators hoped the Chinese would be prompted to take military action,
forcing the Kwangtung Army to retaliate. The Japanese high command and the
Chinese, however, both refused to mobilize. The incident turned out to be a
striking example of unchecked terrorism. Even though press censorship kept the
Japanese public from knowing about these events, they led to the downfall of
Tanaka and set the stage for a similar plot, the Manchurian Incident, in 1931.
A secret society founded by
army officers seeking to establish a military dictatorship--the Sakurakai
(Cherry Society, the cherry blossom being emblematic of
self-sacrifice)--plotted to attack the Diet and political party headquarters,
assassinate the prime minister, and declare martial law under a "Showa
Restoration" government led by the army minister. Although the army
canceled its coup plans (to have been carried out in March 1931), no reprisals
were taken and terrorist activity was again tacitly condoned.
In 1929, under the pretext of curtailing illegal Soviet political
activities, the Republic of China under Chiang Kai-shek attempted to use force
to sieze control of Soviet railway assets in north Manchuria; the Soviets
quickly responded with overwhelming force, and a short but decisive Sino-Soviet
war resulted in Chinese defeat. Fearing that their hard-won though often
disputed position in south Manchuria would be threatened by an increasingly
assertive Chinese nationalism and Soviet military adventurism, the Japanese
Kwangtung Army conspirators blew up a few meters of South Manchurian Railway
Company track near Mukden (now Shenyang), blamed it on Chinese saboteurs, and
used the event as an excuse to seize Mukden.
This effectively drove the resident Manchurian warlord from power, and
established the Kwantung Army as the de-facto administrative organ in most of
Manchuria; setting the stage for the eventual military takeover of the Japanese
government. One month later, in Tokyo, military figures plotted the October
Incident, which was aimed at setting up a national socialist state. The plot
failed, but again the news was suppressed and the military perpetrators were
not punished. Japanese forces attacked Shanghai in January 1932 on the pretext
of Chinese resistance in Manchuria. Finding stiff Chinese resistance in
Shanghai, the Japanese waged a three-month undeclared war there before a truce
was reached in March 1932.
In 1932, the Kwantung Army initiated the formation of a new
administration in Manchuria, and the Empire of Manchukuo was born, headed by
the last Chinese emperor, Puyi, as chief executive and later emperor. This new
state served and was supported by the Japanese in much the same way Mongolian
People's Republic served and was supported by the Soviet Union: behind every
native authority stood a foreign "advisor" who frequently was the one
who had the real power. The civilian government in Tokyo was powerless to
prevent these military happenings. Instead of being condemned, the Kwangtung
Army's actions enjoyed popular support back home. International reactions were
extremely negative, however.
The Japanese system of party
government finally met its demise with the May 15th Incident in 1932, when a
group of junior naval officers and army cadets assassinated Prime Minister
Inukai Tsuyoshi (1855-1932). Although the assassins were put on trial and
sentenced to fifteen years' imprisonment, they were seen popularly as having
acted out of patriotism. Inukai's successors, military men chosen by Saionji,
the last surviving genro, recognized Manchukuo and generally approved the
army's actions in securing Manchuria as an industrial base, an area for
Japanese emigration, and a staging ground for war with the Soviet Union. Various
army factions contended for power amid increasing suppression of dissent and
more assassinations. In the February 26th Incident of 1936, about 1,500 troops
went on a rampage of assassination against the current and former prime
ministers and other cabinet members, and even Saionji and members of the
imperial court. The revolt was put down by other military units, and its
leaders were executed after secret trials. Despite public dismay over these
events and the discredit they brought to numerous military figures, Japan's
civilian leadership capitulated to the army's demands in the hope of ending
domestic violence. Increases were seen in defense budgets, naval construction
(Japan announced it would no longer accede to the London Naval Treaty), and
patriotic indoctrination as Japan moved toward a wartime footing.
In November 1936, the
Anti-Comintern Pact, an agreement to exchange information and collaborate in
preventing communist activities, was signed by Japan and Germany (Italy joined
a year later). War was launched against militant Chinese nationalist after the
Marco Polo Bridge Incident of July 7, 1937, in which a clash took place near
Beiping (as Beijing was then called) between Chinese and Japanese troops and
quickly escalated into full-scale warfare. The Second Sino-Japanese War
(1937-39) ensued, and relations with the United States, Britain, and the Soviet
Union deteriorated. The increased military activities in China--and the
Japanese idea of establishing "Mengukuo" in Inner Mongolia and the
Mongolian People's Republic--soon led to a major clash over Soviet-Manchukuo
border claims. But the sudden break out of the Soviet Japanese War shattered these plans. By
late 1939 Japan was expulsed from the continent, and in 1940, political parties
were ordered to dissolve, and the Imperial Rule Committee, comprising members
of all former parties, was established to transmit government orders throughout
society. This system continued until the Great Reform of 1950.
