Japan's journey to extreme militarism can be traced from the Meiji Restoration to the 1930s. The Meiji Restoration (1868) was a movement defined by the need to bring an end to the Tokugawa shogunate. The oligarchs who spearheaded the revolution adopted a policy that advocated for a rich Japan founded on a strong military. Although this was the principle mantra, the oligarchs concealed their activisms for militarism in the first half of the Meiji Restoration (1868-1890) (Gordon, 2000). The Meiji revolution's major goal was to modernize Japan and ensure that the country grew economically with a bid to be on par with the Western countries. However, it was not until the 1920s when a multiparty system seemed to emerge with the Minseito and Seiyukai alternatively providing executive leadership to the country. These political factions nevertheless had radical members at each end of the political spectrum, and these are the people who instigated the extreme militarism of Japan of the 20 th century.
The Great Depression's effects on the Japanese economy ignited the extreme militarization of Japan. After 1929, the country began to feel the impacts of the depression, as evidenced by the US's decision and the majority of the European countries to impose trade tariffs on Japanese imports (“The Rise of Militarism in Japan," n.p.). The US and the European nations were acting to protect their local industries and businesses from further losses due to the depression. With the Japanese export industry suffering huge losses and farmers experiencing low prices for their produce, the militant began to question the country's peaceful collaboration with other countries. From 1905 to 1930s, Japan was also wary of security and safety threats from the Western powers. This concern was coupled with the need for the country to assume a Western-style imperial power (Gordon, 2000). As the country entered the third decade of the 20 th -century proponents of this plan, Japan had gained significant influence in running the country.
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The lack of confidence in peaceful Japanese cooperation with other nations, especially those from the West, laid a foundation for Japan's extreme militarization. The vision to have Japan take control of its internal and external affairs, especially its economic and security affairs, informed the coup d’état that began in Mukden in 1931. The 1930s were defined by the civilian cabinets struggling with economic challenges triggered by the Great Depression (“The Rise of Militarism in Japan," n.p.). During the same period, militant nationalists were beginning to become vocals with military officers in Manchuria increasingly acting on their own volition. A key incident that denotes this trend was the assassination of Inukai Tsuyoshi by extremists from the right-wing. His predecessor, Saito Makoto, was relatively moderate but faced huge challenges from radical groups.
Some of these hurdles included the killing of business leaders and other public officers. What this indicated at this time was that the parliamentary system had become weakened by materialism and Western values. Thus, radical leaders, especially military men, felt that it was time that the system would return to traditional values. The mid-1930s military influence and the voice of the extreme nationalists gained momentum over the government (“The Rise of Militarism in Japan," n.p.). The military commenced on silencing the minorities and leftist groups with a view of occupying cabinet positions. Gradually, the country control came under the military with the repercussions of the event being felt to date.
Between the 1850s and 1930s, the Western imperial powers stirred anger among the Japanese people. Among the key issues triggering this fear in the Japanese camp was the restrictions that the US and Great Britain placed on Japan, hindering its extraterritorial activities such as expansion. Thus, Japan had to take a radical stance by becoming fundamentally military to repel any further meddling of its internal and external affairs by these imperial powers. Among the actions that Japan undertook under the military-oriented regime was to acquire huge chunks of land and islands in the Asian continent. The hatred between the US and Britain, on the one hand, and Japan, on the other, was exacerbated by the strong racial prejudice the Japanese faced from the Chinese. Several politically instigated events against japan occurred in the early decades of the 20 th century. For example, the Japanese Exclusion Act (1924) fueled the conflict between the Asian country and the US. All these happenings fueled the militarization of Japan (Gordon, 2000).
In conclusion, the extreme militarization of Japan occurred from the late 1860s and progressing to the 1940s. A series of events and causative factors such as the need to stabilize the country's economy and keep off the US and Britain from its affairs.
References
Gordon, B. (2000). Japan's March Toward Militarism . Wgordon.web.wesleyan.edu. Retrieved 26 July 2020, from http://wgordon.web.wesleyan.edu/papers/jhist2.htm .
Axelbank, A. (2010). Black star over Japan: rising forces of militarism . Routledge.
The Rise of Militarism in Japan . World history. Retrieved 26 July 2020, from https://www.worldhistory.biz/contemporary-history/twentieth-century-world-history/94825-the-rise-of-militarism-in-japan.html .
