The impact of Japanese nationalism and militarism on foreign policy Notes

The Impact of Japanese Nationalism and Militarism on Foreign Policy

1. Up until the mid 19th century, Japan had been isolated from foreign influence.
2. While they had an emperor, it was a symbolic figure
3. In practice authority was decentralized and exercised by shogun, daimyo and samurai.
4. Economically, Japan had little resources
   1. Only 20% of the land could be farmed.
   2. They had not industrialized.
5. Everything changed in 1868-1912, with the Meiji Restoration.
   1. This period will see the end of Shogunate and the attempt to restore real authority to the Emperor (not fully achieved!).
   2. It will also bring massive economic changes.
6. Japan’s modernization: in order to protect Japan from foreign invasion, the government believed that they should imitate Western models of industrialization to compete on equal terms.

Japanese Industrialization

1. The initial industrialization was driven by government investment.
   1. Foreign experts were brought into Japan, and academies and universities were set up to train new scientists in Japan.
   2. Banks, postal service and railways were completed at an impressive pace.
2. Around 1880, the government sold some of its industries and large corporations emerged.
   1. They were the zaibatsu, and by the beginning of the 20th Century, they owned a large part of the industrial and commercial sectors.
3. By the turn of the century, Japan was one of the fastest growing economies of the world, with exports worth $200 million and a GNP that grew by more than 3% per year.
   1. In the 1879s, most of Japan’s exports were primary goods (mostly silk), but by 1914, 90% of exports were manufactured, and they were importing raw materials.
   2. Politically, the Meiji brought the end of daimyo and the samurai military power was absorbed into the Japanese Imperial Army and Navy.
   3. The emperor remained the ultimate authority, but there was a new Constitution (1889) that implemented a cabinet and a National Assembly (1890).
   4. There was a Parliament: a “two chamber Diet”, with a House of Peers and an elected House of Representatives.
   5. Voting rights were restricted to men paying high levels of taxation (only 2% of the male population voted).
   6. Cabinet ministers and armed forces were accountable to the Emperor.

Causes for Japanese expansionism before WW1

1. Need for raw materials as a result of the rapid industrialization.
2. Demographic pressures: The expansion would ease Japanese pressure on food and other resources.
3. China and Korea were very weak and unstable, and have already been pressured by other countries.
4. Japan saw this as an opportunity of fairly easy expansion.
   1. In 1895, Japan took Formosa (Taiwan), part of Manchuria and China’s interests in Korea.
5. These victories had a double effect
   1. On the one hand, it stimulated Japanese nationalism.
   2. On the other hand, it made other powers both respect and fear Japan, and the end of the 19th century would see the signing of agreements and protocols between Japan and other countries like Russia, Britain and Germany.
   3. By 1902, Japan signed the Anglo-Japanese Alliance with Britain, marking Japan’s rising status and aligning both nations in mutual defense against multiple enemies.
6. Among these military confrontations and victories, two stand out:
   1. The Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905)
      1. Began after tensions rose over control of Korea and Manchuria in Northern China. Russia, expanding east after setbacks in Europe, clashed with Japan, which viewed Korea as its sphere of influence.
      2. Japan was able to get Mukden (the capital of Manchuria) and destroyed Russia’s Baltic fleet at Tsushima.
      3. The Treaty of Portsmouth ended the war, granting Japan control of previously Russian owned land.
      4. Despite victory, Japanese nationalists protested the treaty’s terms, because they wanted Russia to pay a financial penalty for losing the war.
   2. The annexation of Korea, which was incorporated into the Japanese empire in 1910.

Japan and the First World War (1914-1918)

1. Soon after the beginning of the war, Japan declared war on Germany and seized German territories in Northern China and some German owned Pacific islands.
2. In 1915, under the Twenty One Demands, Japan demanded Chiang Kai Shek, the then president of China, to give Japan control over Port Arthur and the South Manchuria Railway.
   1. In the context of political instability in China and WW1, Chiang Kai Shek accepted.This sparked anti-Japanese demonstrations and boycotts of Japan’s goods in China.
3. Japan benefited from WW1.
   1. This is evidenced by its growing influence, which was confirmed by the Treaty of Versailles that formalized Japan’s control over previously owned German territories in China and in the Pacific.
   2. Furthermore, Japan was given a permanent seat in the League of Nation’s security council.