Domestic Militarism: 1931-36

Make-up of Cabinet

1924-32

Prime Minister represented political party

Inukai Tsuyoshi assassinated, May 15, 1932

Average of 9 out of 12 ministers from parties

1932-40

No Prime Minister was a party politicians

Average of 3 out of 13 ministers from parties

Interpretations of Japanese Militarism

Militarism vs. Fascism

Similarities with Germany and Italy (Gordon pp. 207-8)

Natural evolution of Meiji policies

Continuity between late 19th and mid- 20th c. imperialism

Aberration in 20th c. trends toward domestic democracy and peaceful foreign policy

Taishō democracy of 1920s

Post-World War II democracy

Dominant Character of Japanese foreign relations

Multilateral negotiations, 1920s

Unilateral militarism, 1930s

Withdrawal from League of Nations, Feb. 1933

Schools of thought: aberration vs. evolution

Theses

Top-down: Hirohito? Military? Bureaucracy?

Bottom-up: Public support?

Samuel Yamashita, Daily Life in Wartime Japan, 1940-1945

External factors encouraging militarism

1) Resentment toward Western racism

Treaty of Versailles, 1919

Retain Shandong, China

No racial equality clause

U.S. Exclusion Laws, 1924

2) Naval Treaties

Washington Conference on E. Asia, 1921-2

10:10:6 capital ship ratio

“Open door” policy in China

Japan gives up Shandong

London Naval Conference, 1930

10:10:6 capital ship ratio

10:10:7 cruiser ratio

3) Depression, 1930s

Perceived need for markets and raw materials

Urban and rural crisis, 1929-1931

GDP fell 18%

Exports fell 50%

Price of silk fell 50%

15-20% unemployment

Gordon’s revisionist view (pp. 198-99)

GDP grows 50%, 1930-36

4) European Developments

Rise of German Nazism and Italian Fascism

Rise of Soviet Union

Internal factors encouraging militarism

1) High Prestige of military

Tokugawa

Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese Wars

2) Lack of civilian control over military

Constitutional position of military

Factionalism within military

Control vs. Imperial Way factions
Navy vs. Army
Central command vs. Field officers

3) Violent agitation for militarism

"National Defense Societies"

300,000 members, 1932

600,000 members, 1936

Assassinations

Prime Minister Inukai, 1932 “Kill the rich and annihilate the political parties”

Gen. Nagata Tetsuzan, 1935

Coup plots and mutinies

Two Twenty-Six Incident, Feb. 26, 1936

4) Lack of domestic opposition

*Peace Preservation Law, 1925

75,000 arrested, 1930-45

Socialists and communists

Censorship

Propaganda

Public pressure to conform

Diet rubber stamps budgets

Media self-censorship

Samuel Yamashita, Daily Life in Wartime Japan, 1940-1945

5) Roger Hackett: “War mentality,” from 1931

“Time of emergency” (Gordon, 192)

“War Fever” (Louis Young, Japan’s Total Empire, Ch. 3)