HIST4570 FINAL

Imperial Way Faction

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. It was never an organized political party and had no official standing within the Army. The founders of the Kōdōha were Sadao Araki and his protégé Jinzaburō Masaki. Araki was a noted political philosopher within the Army, who linked the ancient bushido code of the samurai with ideas similar to European fascism to form the ideological basis of his philosophy, which linked the Emperor, the people, land and morality as one and indivisible. The Kōdōha envisioned a return to an idealized pre-industrialized, pre-westernized Japan, in which the state was to be purged of corrupt bureaucrats, opportunistic politicians, and greedy zaibatsu capitalists. The state would be run directly by Emperor Hirohito in a "Showa Restoration" assisted by the military. Domestically, the state would return to the traditional values of Japan, and externally, war with the Soviet Union was not only unavoidable, but necessary to eliminate the threat posed by communism.[2] In a news conference in September 1932 Araki first mentioned the word "Kōdōha" ("The Imperial Way"), from which his movement received its popular name. Araki became Minister of War in the cabinet of Prime Minister Inukai in 1931, and Mazaki became Vice Chief of the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff. Both began to purge followers of their rival General Kazushige Ugaki from important posts in both the ministry and the general staff. Whereas Ugaki was pushing for a modernization of the military in terms of materials and technology, Araki and his followers argued that the spiritual training, or élan, of the Army was more important. Opposition Tetsuzan Nagata and Hideki Tōjō created the Tōseiha group, a loose faction united mostly by their opposition to Araki and his Kōdōha. Fundamental to both factions, however, was the common belief that national defense must be strengthened through a reform of national politics. Both factions adopted some ideas from totalitarian, fascist and state socialist political philosophies, and espoused a strong skepticism of political party politics and representative democracy. However, rather than the confrontational approach of the Kōdōha, which wanted to bring about a revolution, the Tōseiha foresaw that a future war would be a total war, and would require the cooperation of the bureaucracy and the zaibatsu to maximize Japan's industrial and military capacity. Whereas the Kōdōha was strongly supportive of the strike north strategy of a preemptive strike against the Soviet Union, the Tōseiha favored a more cautious defense expansion.

Control Faction

A political faction in the Imperial Japanese Army, active in the 1920s and 1930s. Led by Major General Tetsuzan Nagata, along with Hideki Tōjō, the Tōseiha was a grouping of officers united primarily by their opposition to the Kōdōha faction led by General Sadao Araki and Jinzaburō Masaki. The name "Tōseiha" was actually a pejorative coined by (and only used by) Kōdōha members and sympathizers. The Tōseiha attempted to represent the more politically conservative (moderate) elements within the army, as opposed to the radical and ultranationalist Kōdōha. The Tōseiha was a non-regional coalition, as opposed to Araki's reintroduction of regional politics into army promotions and policy decisions. Many members were promising graduates of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy and Army Staff College, and were concerned about Araki's emphasis of the spiritual élan of the army over modernization and mechanization. Whereas the Kōdōha was strongly supportive of the hokushin-ron strategy of a preemptive strike against the Soviet Union, the Tōseiha favored a more cautious defense expansion.[1] Fundamental to both factions, however, was the common belief that national defense must be strengthened through a reform of national politics. Both factions adopted some ideas from totalitarian and fascist political philosophies, and espoused a strong skepticism for political party politics and representative democracy. However, rather than the confrontational approach of the Kōdōha, which wanted to bring about a revolution (the Showa Restoration), the Tōseiha foresaw that a future war would be a total war, and would require the cooperation of the bureaucracy and the zaibatsu to maximize Japan's industrial and military capacity.[2] After the Manchurian Incident, the two cliques struggled against each other for dominance over the military.[3] After Araki's resignation in 1934 and the failure of the February 26 Incident in 1936, with its subsequent purge of the Kōdōha leadership from the military, the Tōseiha lost most of its raison-d'etre.[4] Under Hideki Tōjō and Muto Akira, the two factions merged into the Imperial Way Faction nationalist party.

Showa Period

A time in Japan between 1926 and 1989 in which the traditional government of the Edo period fell and modernization of Japan became more prominent, including strong militarism and mixture of Eastern and Western cultures.

Prince Ito Hirobumi

After the Meiji Restoration, Itō was appointed governor of Hyōgo Prefecture, junior councilor for Foreign Affairs, and sent to the United States in 1870 to study Western currency systems. Returning to Japan in 1871, he established Japan's taxation system. Later that year, he was sent on the Iwakura Mission around the world as vice-envoy extraordinary, during which he won the confidence of Ōkubo Toshimichi, one of the leaders of the Meiji government. In 1873, Itō was made a full councilor, Minister of Public Works, and in 1875 chairman of the first Assembly of Prefectural Governors. He participated in the Osaka Conference of 1875. After Ōkubo's assassination, he took over the post of Home Minister and secured a central position in the Meiji government. In 1881 he urged Ōkuma Shigenobu to resign, leaving himself in unchallenged control. Itō went to Europe in 1882 to study the constitutions of those countries, spending nearly 18 months away from Japan. While working on a constitution for Japan, he also wrote the first Imperial Household Law and established the Japanese peerage system (kazoku) in 1884. In 1885, he negotiated the Convention of Tientsin with Li Hongzhang, normalizing Japan's diplomatic relations with Qing Dynasty China. As Prime Minister In 1885, based on European ideas, Itō established a cabinet system of government, replacing the Daijō-kan as the decision-making state organization, and on December 22, 1885, he became the first prime minister of Japan. On April 30, 1888, Itō resigned as prime minister, but headed the new Privy Council to maintain power behind-the-scenes. In 1889, he also became the first genrō. The Meiji Constitution was promulgated in February 1889. He had added to it the references to the kokutai or "national polity" as the justification of the emperor's authority through his divine descent and the unbroken line of emperors, and the unique relationship between subject and sovereign. This stemmed from his rejection of some European notions as unfit for Japan, as they stemmed from European constitutional practice and Christianity.[ He remained a powerful force while Kuroda Kiyotaka and Yamagata Aritomo, his political nemeses, were prime ministers. Statues of Count Mutsu (Right) and Prince Itō (Left) at Shimonoseki During Itō's second term as prime minister (August 8, 1892 - August 31, 1896), he supported the First Sino-Japanese War and negotiated the Treaty of Shimonoseki in March 1895 with his ailing foreign minister Mutsu Munemitsu. In the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Commerce and Navigation of 1894, he succeeded in removing some of the onerous unequal treaty clauses that had plagued Japanese foreign relations since the start of the Meiji period. During Itō's third term as prime minister (January 12 - June 30, 1898), he encountered problems with party politics. Both the Jiyūtō and the Shimpotō opposed his proposed new land taxes, and in retaliation, Itō dissolved the Diet and called for new elections. As a result, both parties merged into the Kenseitō, won a majority of the seats, and forced Itō to resign. This lesson taught Itō the need for a pro-government political party, so he organized the Rikken Seiyūkai in 1900. Itō's womanizing was a popular theme in editorial cartoons and in parodies by contemporary comedians, and was used by his political enemies in their campaign against him. Itō returned to office as prime minister for a fourth term from October 19, 1900, to May 10, 1901, this time facing political opposition from the House of Peers. Weary of political back-stabbing, he resigned in 1901, but remained as head of the Privy Council as the premiership alternated between Saionji Kimmochi and Katsura Tarō. Toward the end of August 1901, Itō announced his intention of visiting the United States to recuperate. This turned into a long journey in the course of which he visited the major cities of the United States and Europe, setting off from Yokohama on September 18, traveling through the U.S. to New York City (Itō received an honorary doctorate LL.D. from Yale University in late October), from which he sailed to Boulogne, reaching Paris on November 4. On November 25, he reached Saint Petersburg, having been asked by the new prime minister, Katsura Tarō, to sound out the Russians, entirely unofficially, on their intentions in the Far East. Japan hoped to achieve what it called Man-Kan kōkan, the exchange of a free hand for Russia in Manchuria for a free hand for Japan in Korea, but Russia, feeling greatly superior to Japan and unwilling to give up its ability to use Korean ports for its navy, was in no mood to compromise; its foreign minister, Vladimir Lamsdorf, "thought that time was on the side of his country because of the (Trans-Siberian) railway and there was no need to make concessions to the Japanese." Itō left empty-handed for Berlin (where he received honors from Kaiser Wilhelm), Brussels, and London. Meanwhile, Katsura had decided that Man-Kan kōkan was no longer desirable for Japan, which should not renounce activity in Manchuria. When Itō reached London, he had talks with Lord Lansdowne which helped lay the groundwork for the Anglo-Japanese Alliance announced early the following year. The failure of his mission to Russia was "one of the most important events in the run-up to the Russo-Japanese War." It was during his terms as Prime Minister that he invited Professor George Trumbull Ladd of Yale University to serve as a diplomatic adviser to promote mutual understanding between Japan and the United States. It was because of his series of lectures he delivered in Japan revolutionizing its educational methods, that he was the first foreigner to receive the Second Class honor (conferred by the Meiji Emperor in 1907) and the Third Class honor (conferred by The Meiji Emperor in 1899), Orders of the Rising Sun. He later wrote a book on his personal experiences in Korea and with Resident-General Itō. When he died, half his ashes were buried in a Buddhist temple in Tokyo and a monument was erected to him. As Resident-General of Korea Prince Itō and the Crown Prince of Korea Yi Un. In November 1905, following the Russo-Japanese War, Japan-Korea Treaty of 1905 was made between the Empire of Japan and the Empire of Korea, making Korea a Japanese protectorate. After the treaty had been signed, Itō became the first Resident-General of Korea on December 21, 1905. In 1907, he urged Emperor Gojong to abdicate in favor of his son Sunjong and secured the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty of 1907, giving Japan its authorities to control Korea's internal affairs. Itō's position, however, was nuanced. He was firmly against Korea falling into China or Russia's sphere of influence, which would cause a grave threat to Japan's national security. But, he was actually against the annexation, advocating instead that Korea should remain as a protectorate. When the cabinet eventually voted for annexing Korea, he insisted and proposed a delay, hoping that the annexation decision could be reversed in the future. His political nemesis came when the politically influential Imperial Japanese Army, led by Yamagata Aritomo, whose main faction was advocating annexation forced Itō to resign on June 14, 1909. His assassination is believed to have accelerated the path to the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty. Assassination Itō arrived at the Harbin Railway Station on October 26, 1909 for a meeting with Vladimir Kokovtsov, a Russian representative in Manchuria. When he arrived and proceeded to meet his Russian colleague, An Jung-geun, a Korean nationalist[13] and independence activist,[fired six shots at him. Three of those shots hit Itō in the chest and he died shortly thereafter. A Series C 1,000 yen note of Japan. A portrait of Itō Hirobumi was on the Series C 1,000 yen note of Japan from 1963 until a new series was issued in 1984. His former house is preserved as a museum near the Shōin Jinja, in Hagi city, Yamaguchi prefecture. However, the actual structure was Itō's second home, formerly located in Shinagawa, Tokyo. The publishing company Hakubunkan was named after Itō, based on an alternate pronunciation of his given name.

Sugimoto Goro

Colonel Sugimoto Goro was a japanese army officer and buddhist philosopher, he was killed in combat during the Battle of Taiyuan in sept 1937, Sugimoto was a very pure imperialist, when he was shot he moved his sword to the left hand and gave a salute to the direction of the imperial palace, after his dead his friends and family decided to publish a posthumous book called Great Duty (Taigi) and became especially popular among japanese army officers and soldiers, 1,200,000 copies were sold from 1938 to 1945, in his book he said: The reason that Zen is necessary for soldiers is that all Japanese, especially soldiers, must live in the spirit of the unity of the sovereign and subjects, eliminating their ego and getting rid of their self. It is exactly the awakening to the nothingness (mu) of Zen that is the fundamental spirit of the unity of sovereign and subjects. Through my practice of Zen I am able to get rid of my self. In facilitating the accomplishment of this, Zen becomes, as it is, the true spirit of the imperial military.

Occupation

Disarmament[edit] Japan's postwar constitution, adopted under Allied supervision, included a "Peace Clause" (Article 9), which renounced war and banned Japan from maintaining any armed forces. This was intended to prevent the country from ever becoming an aggressive military power again. However, within a decade, America was pressuring Japan to rebuild its army as a bulwark against communism in Asia after the Chinese Civil War and the Korean War, and Japan established Self-Defense Forces. Traditionally, Japan's military spending has been restricted to about 1% of its gross national product, though this is by popular practice, not law, and has fluctuated up and down from this figure. Prime Ministers Junichiro Koizumi and Shinzo Abe, and other politicians have tried to repeal or amend the clause. Although the intention of the American occupation was to demilitarize the Japanese, due to the subsequent perceived threat of communism in Asia, and at American urging, the Japanese military was slowly restored to considerable strength. Japan now has the sixth largest military budget in the world. Liberalization Release of Japan Communist Party members on October 10, 1945. The occupation was not the simple experiment in democracy it is often portrayed to be. With the intensification of the Cold War, SCAP reined in its reform initiatives. From late 1947, U.S. priorities shifted perceptibly from liberal social change to internal political stability and economic recovery. Demilitarisation and democratization lost momentum and then seemed to stall. Economic deconcentration, for example, was left uncompleted as GHQ responded to new imperatives. American authorities encouraged business practices and industrial policies that have since become sources of contention between Japan and its major trade partners, notably the United States. During the Occupation, GHQ/SCAP mostly abolished many of the financial coalitions known as the Zaibatsu, which had previously monopolized industry. Along with the later American change of heart, and due in part to the need for an economically stronger Japan in the face of a perceived Soviet threat, these economic reforms were also hampered by the wealthy and influential Japanese who stood to lose a great deal. As such, there were those who consequently resisted any attempts at reform, claiming that the zaibatsu were required for Japan to compete internationally, and looser industrial groupings known as keiretsu evolved. A major land reform was also conducted, led by Wolf Ladejinsky of General Douglas MacArthur's SCAP staff. However, Ladejinsky has stated that the real architect of reform was Hiro Wada, former Japanese Minister of Agriculture. Between 1947 and 1949, approximately 5,800,000 acres (23,000 km2) of land (approximately 38% of Japan's cultivated land) were purchased from the landlords under the government's reform program and resold at extremely low prices (after inflation) to the farmers who worked them. By 1950, three million peasants had acquired land, dismantling a power structure that the landlords had long dominated. Democratization In 1946, the Diet ratified a new Constitution of Japan that followed closely a 'model copy' prepared by the GHQ/SCAP, and was promulgated as an amendment to the old Prussian-style Meiji Constitution. "The political project drew much of its inspiration from the US Bill of Rights, New Deal social legislation, the liberal constitutions of several European states and even the Soviet Union.... (It) transferred sovereignty from the Emperor to the people in an attempt to depoliticize the Throne and reduce it to the status of a state symbol. Included in the revised charter was the famous 'no war', 'no arms' Article Nine, which outlawed belligerency as an instrument of state policy and the maintenance of a standing army. The 1947 Constitution also enfranchised women, guaranteed fundamental human rights, strengthened the powers of Parliament and the Cabinet, and decentralized the police and local government." On December 15, 1945 the Shinto Directive was issued abolishing Shinto as a state religion and prohibiting some of its teachings and rites that were deemed to be militaristic or ultra-nationalistic. On April 10, 1946, an election with 78.52% voter turnout among men and 66.97% among women gave Japan its first modern prime minister, Shigeru Yoshida. Trade Union Act In 1945 the Diet passed Japan's first ever trade union law protecting the rights of workers to form or join a union, to organize and take industrial action. There had been pre-war attempts to do so, but none that were successfully passed until the Allied occupation.[26] A new Trade Union law was passed on June 1, 1949, which remains in place to the present day. According to Article 1 of the Act, the purpose of the act is to "elevate the status of workers by promoting their being on equal standing with the employer". Labor Standards Act The Labor Standards Act was enacted on 7 April 1947 to govern working conditions in Japan. According to Article 1 of the Act, its goal is to ensure that "Working conditions shall be those which should meet the needs of workers who live lives worthy of human beings."[28] While it was created while Japan was under occupation, the origins of the Act have nothing to do with the occupation forces. It appears to have been the brainchild of Kosaku Teramoto, a former member of the Thought Police, who had become the head of the Labor Standards section of the Welfare Ministry. Education reform Before and during the war, Japanese education was based on the German system, with "Gymnasium" (selective grammar schools) and universities to train students after primary school. During the occupation, Japan's secondary education system was changed to incorporate three-year junior high schools and senior high schools similar to those in the U.S.: junior high school became compulsory but senior high school remained optional. The Imperial Rescript on Education was repealed, and the Imperial University system reorganized. The longstanding issue of Japanese script reform, which had been planned for decades but continuously opposed by more conservative elements, was also resolved during this time. The Japanese written system was drastically reorganized with the Tōyō kanji-list in 1946, predecessor of today's Jōyō kanji, and orthography was greatly altered to reflect spoken usage.

Imperial rescript of Education

Following the Meiji Restoration, the leadership of the Meiji government felt the need to emphasize the common goals of rapid modernization (westernization) with support and legitimization of the political system centered on the imperial institution. In the 1870s and 1880s, Motoda Nagazane and other conservatives pushed for a revival of the principles of Confucianism as a guide for education and public morality; however, Inoue Kowashi and other proponents of the 'modernization' of Japan felt that this would encourage a return to the old feudal order, and pushed for an "emperor-centered" philosophy. Prime Minister Yamagata Aritomo authorized the drafting of the Rescript, which was a compromise written largely by Inoue Kowashi with input from Motoda Nagazane and others. After it was issued, the Rescript was distributed to all schools in the country, together with a portrait of Emperor Meiji. The Rescript requested of the people that they "furthermore advance public good and promote common interests; always respect the Constitution and observe the laws; should emergency arise, offer yourselves courageously to the State; and thus guard and maintain the prosperity of Our Imperial Throne coeval with heaven and earth". The basis of the Rescript was that Japan's unique kokutai was based on a historic bond between benevolent rulers and loyal subjects, and that the fundamental purpose of education was to cultivate virtues, especially loyalty and filial piety. After World War II, the American occupation authorities forbade the formal reading of the Imperial Rescript in schools, and the Diet of Japan officially abolished it on 19 June 1948. Kikuchi Dairoku and the Imperial Rescript on Education In 1907, Kikuchi Dairoku was invited by the University of London to give lectures on education from the middle of February for about five months. The central focus of his lectures was the Imperial Rescript on Education. The request for the lectures was initially communicated to Hayashi Tadasu, then ambassador in London (from December 1905). At first Sawayanagi Matsutaro was to give the lectures, but he was recalled when in Rome on the way to London and Kikuchi gave the lectures instead. As a preparation for the lectures he translated the Imperial Rescript into English.

Seiyukai

Founded on September 15, 1900 by Itō Hirobumi, the Seiyūkai was a pro-government alliance of bureaucrats and former members of the Kenseitō. The Seiyūkai was the most powerful political party in the Lower House of the Diet of Japan from 1900 to 1921, and it promoted big government and large-scale public spending. Though labeled "liberal" by its own members, it was generally conservative by modern definitions. It often opposed social reforms and it supported bureaucratic control and militarism for the purpose of winning votes. It viewed the Rikken Minseitō as its main rival. The Seiyūkai came into power in October 1900 under the 4th Itō administration. Under its second leader, Saionji Kinmochi, it participated in the Movement to Protect Constitutional Government from 1912-1913. It was the ruling party under the Prime Minister Yamamoto Gonnohyōe from 1913-1914. Cabinet minister (and later 4th party president) Takahashi Korekiyo helped reinforce its ties with the zaibatsu, especially the Mitsui financial interests.

Saionji Kinmochi

From January 7, 1906 to July 14, 1908, and again from August 30, 1911 to December 21, 1912, Saionji served as Prime Minister of Japan. Both his ministries were marked by continuing tension between Saionji and the powerful arch-conservative genrō, Field Marshal Yamagata Aritomo. Saionji and Itō saw political parties as a useful part of the machinery of government; Yamagata looked on political parties and all democratic institutions as quarrelsome, corrupt, and irrational. Saionji had to struggle with the national budget with many demands and finite resources, Yamagata sought ceaselessly the greatest expansion of the army. Saionji's first cabinet was brought down in 1908 by conservatives led by Yamagata who were alarmed at the growth of socialism, who felt the government's suppression of socialists (after a parade and riots) had been insufficiently forceful. The fall of Saionji's second cabinet was a major reverse to constitutional government. The Taishō Crisis (so named for the newly enthroned emperor) erupted in late November 1912, out of the continuing bitter dispute over the military budget. The army minister, General Uehara, unable to get the cabinet to agree on the army's demands, resigned. Saionji sought to replace Uehara. A Japanese law (intended to give added power to the army and navy) required that the army minister must be a lieutenant general or general on active duty. All of the eligible generals, on Yamagata's instruction, refused to serve in Saionji's cabinet. The cabinet was then forced to resign. The precedent had been established that the army could force the resignation of a cabinet. Saionji's political philosophy was heavily influenced by his background; he believed the Imperial Court should be guarded and that it should not participate directly in politics: the same strategy employed by noblemen and the Court in Kyoto for hundreds of years. This was another point in which he was opposed by nationalists in the Army, who wished for the Emperor to participate in Japanese politics directly and thus weaken both parliament and the cabinet. Nationalists also accused him of being a 'globalist'. Saionji was appointed a genrō in 1913. The role of the genrō at this time was diminishing; their main function was to choose the prime ministers - formally, to nominate candidates for Prime Minister to the Emperor for approval, but no Emperor ever rejected their advice. From the death of Matsukata Masayoshi in 1924 Saionji was the sole surviving genrō. He exercised his prerogative of naming the prime ministers very nearly until his death in 1940 at the age of 91. Saionji, when he could, chose as prime minister the president of the majority party in the Diet, but his power was always constrained by the necessity of at least the tacit consent of the army and navy. He could choose political leaders only when they might be strong enough to form an effective government. He nominated military men and non-party politicians when he felt necessary. In 1919 Saionji led the Japanese delegation at the Paris Peace Conference, though his role was largely symbolic due to ill health. Nevertheless, he courageously proposed that racial equality should have been legally enshrined as one of the basic tenets of the newly formed League of Nations, but both the USA and Great Britain opposed his proposal and prompted its rejection from the delegates, very likely because of the destabilizing effects it would have wreaked upon their respective racially segregated societies. Saionji, a never-married man of 70, was accompanied to Paris by his son, his favorite daughter, and his current mistress. In 1920 he was given the title kōshaku (公爵, Prince) as an honor for a life in public service. He was detested by the militarists and was on the list of those to be assassinated in the attempted coup of February 26, 1936. Saionji, on receiving news of the mutiny, fled from his home for his life in his car, pursued for a great distance by a strange car that he and his companions supposed held soldiers bent on his murder. It held newspaper reporters. In much of his career, Saionji tried to diminish the influence of the Imperial Japanese Army in political issues. He was one of the most liberal of Emperor Hirohito's advisors, and favored friendly relations with Great Britain and the United States. However, he was careful to pick his battles, and often accepted defeat by the militarists when placed into a position from which he could not easily win, thus he was unable to prevent the Tripartite Pact.

Ishiwara Kanji

Ishiwara was assigned to the Army Staff College as an instructor, followed by a staff position within the Kwantung Army in Manchuria. He arrived there at the end of 1928, some months after the assassination of Zhang Zuolin. Ishiwara quickly realized that the confused political situation in northern China, along with Japan's already significant economic investments in the area, provided the Kwantung Army with a unique opportunity. He and Colonel Seishiro Itagaki began formulating a plan to take advantage of the situation. On 18 September 1931, a bomb was secretly planted on the tracks of the Japanese-controlled Southern Manchuria Railway by Kwantung Army elements. Charging that Chinese soldiers had attacked the rail line, Ishiwara ordered Japanese troops to seize the Chinese military barracks in the nearby city of Liutiaokou. He then ordered Kwantung Army units to seize control of all other Manchurian cities without informing the new commander-in-chief of the Kwantung Army, General Shigeru Honjo, or the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff in Tokyo. The sudden invasion of Manchuria alarmed political leaders in Japan, and brought condemnation down on the country from the international community. Ishiwara thought it most likely that he would be executed or at least dishonorably discharged for his insubordination. However, the success of the operation brought just the opposite. Ishiwara was admired by right-wing younger officers and ultranationalist societies for his daring and initiative. He returned to Japan and was given command of the IJA 4th Infantry Regiment in Sendai. Army revolutionaries Ishiwara was appointed to the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff in 1935 as Chief of Operations, which gave him primary responsibility for articulating his vision for Japan's future. He was a strong proponent of pan-Asianism and the hokushinron ("strike north") philosophy, as opposed to the nanshin-ron ("strike south") philosophy espoused by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). The strike north view held that Japan should join with Manchukuo (the Japanese puppet state created out of occupied Manchuria in 1932) and China to form an "East Asian League", which would then prepare for and fight a war with the Soviet Union. After the Soviet Union was defeated, Japan could move to the south to free Southeast Asia from European colonial rule. Following this victory, Japan would then be ready to tackle the United States. However, in order to implement these plans, Japan would need to build up its economy and military. Ishiwara envisioned a one-party "national defense state" with a command economy in which political parties were abolished and venal politicians and greedy businessmen removed from power. However, Ishiwara stopped short of calling for a Shōwa Restoration and violent overthrow of the government. When the February 26 Incident erupted in 1936, rebels assassinated a number of major politicians and government leaders and demanded a change in government in line with Ishiwara's philosophies. However, Ishiwara dashed their hopes by speaking out strongly against the rebellion and demanding proclamation of martial law. After Vice Chief of Staff Hajime Sugiyama pulled troops in from garrisons around Tokyo, Ishiwara was named Operations Officer of the Martial Law Headquarters. Return to Manchukuo and disgrace In March 1937 Ishiwara was promoted to major general and transferred back to Manchukuo as Vice Chief of Staff of the Kwantung Army. He discovered to his dismay that his Army colleagues had no intention of creating a new pan-Asian paradise, and were quite content to play the role of colonial occupiers. Ishiwara denounced the Kwantung Army leadership, and proposed that all officers take a pay cut. He confronted the Kwantung Army commander-in-chief, General Hideki Tojo, over his allocation of funds to an officers' wives club. After becoming an embarrassment to his seniors, he was relieved of command and reassigned to a local army base at Maizuru, on the seacoast near Kyoto. Back in Japan, he began to analyze Soviet tactics at Nomonhan, where Japanese forces were defeated, proposing counter-strategies to be adopted by the Army. He wrote and gave public addresses, continuing to advocate an East Asia League partnership with China and Manchukuo and continuing to oppose the invasion of China. He became a lieutenant general in 1939 and was assigned command of the IJA 16th Division. Ishwara's political nemesis, Tōjō, now risen to the highest ranks, felt that the outspoken Ishiwara should be retired from the Army, but feared the reactions of young officers and right-wing activists. Finally, after Ishiwara publicly denounced Tōjō as an enemy of Japan who should "be arrested and executed," he was put on the retired list. Ishiwara went back to Yamagata, where he continued to write and study agriculture until the end of the war. After World War II, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers called upon Ishiwara as a witness for the defense in the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. No charges were ever brought against Ishiwara himself, possibly due to his public opposition to Tōjō, the war in China, and the attack on Pearl Harbor. He displayed his old fire in front of the American prosecutor, arguing that U.S. President Harry S. Truman should be indicted for the mass bombing of Japanese civilians.

Fukuzawa Yukichi

Japanese author, Enlightenment writer, teacher, translator, entrepreneur and journalist who founded Keio-Gijuku University, the newspaper Jiji-Shinpo and the Institute for Study of Infectious Diseases. He was an early Japanese civil rights activist and liberal ideologist. His ideas about government and social institutions made a lasting impression on a rapidly changing Japan during the Meiji Era. He is regarded as one of the founders of modern Japan. He is called a Japanese Voltaire. Fukuzawa's most important contribution to the reformation effort, though, came in the form of a newspaper called Jiji Shinpo which he started in 1882, after being prompted by Inoue Kaoru, Ōkuma Shigenobu, and Itō Hirobumi to establish a strong influence among the people through publishing. All agreed the government should take the form of a national assembly, and as reforms began, Fukuzawa, whose fame was already unquestionable, began production of Jiji Shinpo, which received wide circulation, encouraging the people to enlighten themselves and to adopt a moderate political attitude towards the change that was being engineered within the social and political structures of Japan. He translated many books and journals into Japanese on a wide variety of subjects, including chemistry, the arts, military and society, and published many books (in multiple volumes) and journals himself describing western society, his own philosophy and change, etc.

Kita Ikki

Japanese author, intellectual and a political philosopher who was active in early-Shōwa period Japan. A harsh critic of the Emperor system and the Meiji constitution, he claimed that the Japanese were not the emperor's people, rather the Emperor was the "people´s emperor." He advocated a complete reconstructing of Japan along the lines of his own version of state socialism. Kita was in contact with many people of the extreme right and wrote pamphlets and books. The government saw Kita´s ideas as disruptive and dangerous, in 1937 he was implicated, although not directly involved in a failed coup attempt and executed. He is still widely read in academic circles in Japan. Ideology He published his first book in 1905, after one year of research, which was called "On the kokutai and pure socialism" (国体論及び純正社会主義). In it, he criticized the government ideology of Kokutai and warned that socialism in Japan was in danger of denigrating into a washed down, simplified form of itself because socialists were too keen on compromising. His socialism however owned little to Marxism and was instead a nationalist brand of socialism (or right-wing Romantic anti-capitalism[clarification needed]) that had nothing in common with any Marxian notions of "socialism from below". Kita was also attracted to the cause of the Chinese Revolution of 1911, and became a member of the Tongmenghui (United League) led by Song Jiaoren. He traveled to China to assist in the overthrow of the Qing dynasty. However, Kita was also interested in the radical right wing. The right-wing, ultra-nationalist Kokuryukai (Amur River Association/Black Dragon Society), founded in 1901, was part of a current that has a history traceable back to the Genyosha (Deep Ocean Society/Genkai Straits Society) of 1881, founded by Tōyama Mitsuru. Tōyama, with many contacts in the Japanese establishment over a period of fully half a century, in turn claimed to be the rightful successor to Saigo Takamori, who pushed for Japanese expansion to the Asian mainland in the early Meiji era. Kita—who held views on Russia and Korea from almost a decade earlier that were already remarkably similar to those espoused by the Kokuryukai—was sent by that organization as a special member, who would write for them from China and send reports on the ongoing situation at the time of the 1911 Xinhai revolution. In his book on Kita, George Wilson tries to play down or deemphasize all such matters. Kita's article called "Tut-tut, those who oppose the war [with Russia]" showed he had little time for "those idiots" who opposed the Russo-Japanese war. In addition, Kita's first book, the Kokutairon book (the one purportedly on "pure socialism"), was banned upon publication. Some[who?] have argued from this to assert that Kita must have been deemed a radical threat from the left to the government. However, the case of Uchida Ryohei's anti-Russian book Roshiya bokoku ron (On Decaying Russia) was also subjected to a ban upon its appearance, five years prior to Kita's own suppression by the authoritarian Meiji state. The government had a predilection for banning books, irrespective of whether they stemmed from the right or from the left of the political spectrum. By the time Kita returned to Japan in 1919, he had become very disillusioned with the Chinese Revolution, and the strategies offered by it for the changes he envisioned. He joined Okawa Shumei and others to form the Yuzonsha, an ultranationalist organization, and devoted his time to writing and political activism. He gradually became the leading theorist and philosopher of the right-wing movement in pre-World War II Japan. His political proposal Kita first outlined his philosophy of nationalistic socialism in his book The Theory of Japan's National Polity and Pure Socialism (国体論及び純正社会主義 Kokutairon oyobi Junsei Shakaishugi?), published in 1906, where he criticized Marxism and the Class conflict-oriented socialism as outdated. He instead emphasised on an exposition of the evolutionary theory in understanding the basic guidelines of the societies and the nations. In this book Kita explicitly promotes the platonic state authoritarianism emphasizing the close relationship between Confucianism and the "from above" concept of the national socialism stating that Mencius is the Plato of the East and that Plato's concept in organizing a society is far preferable than that of Marx's. Kita's second book is entitled A Private History of the Chinese Revolution (Shina Kakumei Gaishi and is a critical analysis of the Chinese Revolution of 1911. His political views over the national and political future of Japan first appeared in various articles he penned from 1903 to 1906, while he was still based on Sado. It reappeared in his last major book on politics, An Outline Plan for the Reorganization of Japan (日本改造法案大綱 Nihon Kaizō Hōan Taikō?), first published in 1919, and republished in 1923. The common theme to his first and last political works is the notion of a national policy (Kokutai), through which Japan would lead a united and free Asia (see pan-Asianism). According to his political program, a coup d'état would be necessary as to impose a more-or-less totalitarian regime based on a direct rule by a powerful leader. Due to the unconditional respect that the Emperor enjoyed in the Japanese society, he identified him as the ideal person to play that role, suspending the Constitution and radically reorganize the Diet to be free of any "malign influence". The new "National Reorganization Diet" would nationalize certain strategic industries, impose limits on individual wealth and private property, enact a land reform to benefit the farmers, as to strengthen Japan enable it to liberate Asia from Western imperialism.[6] This was termed the Showa Restoration. In its historical prospect Kita's political program was for creating a state socialism in a rather fascistic oriented "socialism from above", as a tool to unite and strengthen the Japanese society in order to materialize the core element of his program, the unification of all Yellow peoples in a common empire, under common spiritual values. To this end, according to his view both agrarianism, social justice (socialism) and militarism had by necessity to implemented as the only way to win the people's support as well as the reaction of the major Western Imperialistic Powers. In short, although he called for overseas expansion as, among other reasons, a way to relieve the increasing population pressures in the Japanese mainland, he had seen this in an harmonized with the other Yellow People nations' interests program, in a racist-oriented way of liberation and unification of the Asian people rather than a nationalistic way of occupation in a Western-like colonial fashion. This eclectic blend of racism, socialism and spiritual principles[nb 2] is one of the reasons why Kita's ideas have been difficult to understand under the specific historical circumstances of Japan between the two world wars. Some[who?] have argued that this is also one of the reasons why it is hard for the historians to agree on Kita's political stance, though Nik Howard takes the view that Kita's ideas were actually highly consistent ideologically throughout his career, with relatively small shifts in response to the changing reality he faced at any given time.

Katsura Taro

Katsura Tarō served as the 11th, 13th and 15th Prime Minister of Japan. He remains the longest-serving Prime Minister of Japan to date. First Katsura Administration Katsura became Prime Minister for the first time on June 2, 1901 and retained the office for four and a half years to January 7, 1906, which was a record in Japan at that time. During his four year first term Japan emerged as a major imperialist power in East Asia. In terms of foreign affairs, it was marked by the Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902 and victory over Russia in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. During his tenure, the Taft-Katsura Agreement regarding the issue of Japanese hegemony over Korea was reached with the United States. During this term, Katsura received the Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George from King Edward VII of Great Britain, and was elevated to the rank of marquess by Emperor Meiji. In terms of domestic policy, Katsura was a strictly conservative politician who attempted to distance himself from the Diet of Japan and party politics. His political views mirrored that of Yamagata Aritomo, in that he viewed that his sole responsibility was to the Emperor. He vied for control of the government with the Rikken Seiyūkai, the majority party of the lower house, headed by his arch-rival, Marquess Saionji Kinmochi. In January 1906, Katsura resigned the premiership to Saionji Kinmochi over controversy and unpopularity of the Treaty of Portsmouth (1905) ending the war between Japan and Russia. However, his resignation was part of a "back door deal" brokered by Hara Takashi to alternate power between Saionji and Hara. On April 1, 1906, he was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Supreme Order of the Chrysanthemum. Second Katsura Administration Katsura returned as Prime Minister from July 14, 1908 to August 30, 1911. His second term was noteworthy for the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty of 1910. He also promulgated the Factory Act in 1911, which was the first act for the purpose of labor protection in Japan. Katsura was increasingly unpopular during his second term over public perception that he was using his office to further his personal fortune, and the interests of the military (gunbatsu) over the welfare of the people.[citation needed] He also faced growing public dissatisfaction over the persistence of the hanbatsu domainal based politics. After his resignation, he became a kōshaku (公爵 = prince), Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal of Japan and one of the genrō. Third Katsura Administration Katsura's brief reappointment again as Prime Minister again from December 21, 1912 to February 20, 1913 sparked widespread riots in what became known as the Taisho Political Crisis. His appointment was viewed as a plot by the genrō to overthrown rule by the Constitution. However, rather than compromising, Katsura created his own political party, the Rikken Dōshikai in an effort to establish his own support base. However, faced with a no-confidence motion (the first successful one in Japanese history) and the loss of the support of his backers, he was forced to resign in February 1913. He was succeeded by Yamamoto Gonnohyōe and the Diet was held by his new Rikken Dōshikai party.

Keiretsu

Keitretsu is a set of companies with interlocking business relationships and shareholdings. It is a type of informal business group. The keiretsu maintained dominance over the Japanese economy for the last half of the 20th century.The member companies own small portions of the shares in each other's companies, centered on a core bank; this system helps insulate each company from stock market fluctuations and takeover attempts, thus enabling long-term planning in innovative projects. It is a key element of the automotive industry in Japan. During the occupation of Japan, 16 zaibatsu were targeted for complete dissolution, and 26 more for reorganization after dissolution. Among the zaibatsu targeted for dissolution in 1947 were Asano, Furukawa, Nakajima, Nissan, Nomura, and Okura. Their controlling families' assets were seized, holding companies eliminated, and interlocking directorships, essential to the old system of intercompany coordination, were outlawed. Matsushita (which later took the name Panasonic), while not a zaibatsu, was originally also targeted for dissolution, but was saved by a petition signed by 15,000 of its unionized workers and their families. However, complete dissolution of the zaibatsu was never achieved, mostly because the United States government rescinded the orders in an effort to reindustrialize Japan as a bulwark against Communism in Asia. Zaibatsu as a whole were widely considered to be beneficial to the Japanese economy and government, and the opinions of the Japanese public, the zaibatsu workers and management, and the entrenched bureaucracy regarding plans for zaibatsu dissolution ranged from unenthusiastic to disapproving. Additionally, the changing politics of the Occupation during the reverse course served as a crippling, if not terminal, roadblock to zaibatsu elimination.

Manchuria Occupation

Manchukuo was a puppet state in Northeast China and Inner Mongolia, which was governed under a form of constitutional monarchy. The area, collectively known as Manchuria, was designated by China's erstwhile Qing Dynasty as the "homeland" of the ruling family's ethnic group, the Manchus. In 1931, Japan seized the region following the Mukden Incident and installed a pro-Japanese government one year later with Puyi, the last Qing emperor, as the nominal regent and emperor.[2] Manchukuo's government was abolished in 1945 after the defeat of Imperial Japan at the end of World War II. The territories formally claimed by the puppet state were first seized in the Soviet invasion of Manchuria in August 1945,[3] and then formally transferred to Chinese administration in the following year.[4][unreliable source?] Manchus formed a minority in Manchukuo, whose largest ethnic group were Han Chinese. The population of Koreans increased during the Manchukuo period, and there were also Japanese, Mongols, White Russians and other minorities. The Mongol regions of western Manchukuo were ruled under a slightly different system in acknowledgement of the Mongolian traditions there. The southern part of the Liaodong Peninsula was ruled by Japan as the Kwantung Leased Territory.

Matsukata Masayoshi

Matsukata moved to Tokyo in 1871 and began work on drafting laws for the Land Tax Reform of 1873-1881. Under the new system: a taxpayer paid taxes with money instead of rice taxes were calculated based on the price of estates, not the amount of the agricultural product produced, and tax rates were fixed at 3% of the value of estates and an estate holder was obliged to pay those taxes. The new tax system was radically different from the traditional tax gathering system, which required taxes to be paid with rice varied according to location and the amount of rice produced. The new system took some years to be accepted by the Japanese people. Matsukata became Lord Home Minister in 1880. In the following year, when Ōkuma Shigenobu was expelled in a political upheaval, he became Lord Finance Minister. The Japanese economy was in a crisis situation due to rampant inflation. Matsukata introduced a policy of fiscal restraint that resulted in what has come to be called the "Matsukata Deflation." The economy was eventually stabilized, but the resulting crash in commodity prices caused many smaller landholders to lose their fields to money-lending neighbors. Matsukata also established the Bank of Japan in 1882.[1] When Itō Hirobumi was appointed the first modern-day Prime Minister of Japan in 1885, he named Matsukata to be the first Finance Minister in his cabinet. Matsukata also sought to protect Japanese industry from foreign competition, but was restricted by the unequal treaties. The unavailability of protectionist devices probably benefited Japan in the long run, as it enabled Japan to develop its export industries. The national government also tried to create government industries to produce particular products or services. Lack of funds forced the government to turn these industries over to private businesses which in return for special privileges agreed to pursue the government's goals. This arrangement led to the rise of the zaibatsu system. Matsukata served as finance minister in seven of the first nine cabinets, and led the Finance Ministry for 15 of the 20 year period from 1881 to 1901. He is also believed to have had significant influence on drafting Articles 62-72 of the Meiji Constitution of 1890.

Miyake Setsurei

Miyake Setsurei (三宅 雪嶺?, July 7, 1860 - November 26, 1945) was a famous philosopher and author from Japan. He graduated from the University of Tokyo's Department of Philosophy in 1883. He helped found the Society for Political Education and its magazine "Nihonjin" (Japanese People). In 1907 the Nihonjin Magazine was renamed "Nihon Oyobi Nihonjin" (Japan and The Japanese People). It was at this time that Hasegawa Nyozekan was recruited to the magazine. Miyake's other works included "Shinzenbi Nihonjin" (Goodness, truth and beauty of The Japanese People) and "Giakushu Nihonjin" (Falsehoods, evil and ugliness of the Japanese People). Political Views[edit] Miyake was a Cooperative Nationalist and differed in opinion from Universalists. He felt that Japan was first a member of the Asian community and secondly a member of the global community. Also Japan should hold onto and preserve its cultural heritage from before the Meiji era as it helped to strengthen Asian culture and, by doing so, world culture. Miyake felt Japan should make it its mission to study Asia, oppose western imperialism, and nurture the distinctive Japanese sense of beauty.

Fumimaro Konoe

Prime Minister and war with China In June 1937, Prince Fumimaro Konoe became Prime Minister of Japan. One month after he came into office, Japanese troops clashed with Chinese troops near Peking in the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. Konoe dispatched three divisions of troops, admonishing the military to be sure not to escalate the conflict. Within three weeks the army launched a general assault. Konoe and his cabinet feared that Japanese troops would not respect any peace agreement. He was also unsure that Chiang could control his own forces. In August, Chinese sentries returned fire and killed two Japanese marines who crashed a gate at a Chinese military airfield in Shanghai. Konoe agreed with Army Minister General Hajime Sugiyama to send two divisions to defend Japanese honor. His cabinet then issued a declaration, accusing both nationalist and communist Chinese of "increasingly provocative and insulting" behavior toward Japan. In December, Imperial General Headquarters, a structure completely autonomous from the elected government, ordered its forces in China to drive toward Nanking, the Chinese capital. Nanking was captured within a few weeks, after which the Army committed the infamous Nanking massacre. In January 1938, Konoe's government announced that it would no longer deal with Chiang, but would await the development of a new regime. When later asked for clarifications, Konoe said he meant more than just non-recognition of Chiang's regime but "rejected it" and would "eradicate it".[3] Meanwhile, Konoe and the military pushed a National Mobilization Law through the Diet.[citation needed] This allowed the central government to control all manpower and material. Japanese victories continued at Hsuchow, Hankow, Canton, Wuchang, Hanyang - but still the Chinese kept on fighting. Konoe, stating that he was tired of being a "robot" for the military, resigned in January 1939, and was appointed chairman of the Privy Council. Kiichirō Hiranuma succeeded him as Prime Minister. Konoe was awarded the 1st class of the Order of the Rising Sun in 1939. Konoe's second term, the Matsuoka foreign policy[edit] Due to dissatisfaction with the policies of Prime Minister Mitsumasa Yonai, the Japanese Army demanded Konoe's recall as Prime Minister. On 23 June, Konoe resigned his position as Chairman of the Privy Council,[4] and on 16 July 1940, the Yonai cabinet resigned and Konoe was appointed Prime Minister. One of his first moves was to launch the League of Diet Members Believing the Objectives of the Holy War to counter opposition from politicians such as deputy Saitō Takao who had spoken against the Second Sino-Japanese War in the Diet on 2 February. Against the advice of his political allies and the Emperor,[citation needed] Konoe appointed Yosuke Matsuoka as his foreign minister. Matsuoka was popular with the Army and the Japanese public, having established himself as the man who angrily led Japan out of the League of Nations in 1933. Konoe and Matsuoka based their foreign policy on a document that had been drawn up by the Army. As a result of this policy, it was agreed that Japan would try to secure its position in China, defuse the conflict with the Soviet Union, move troops into Indochina, and prepare for a military response from Britain and possibly the United States. Konoe with his cabinet ministers, including War Minister Hideki Tōjō, the second row, second from the left (22 July 1940) Following the fall of the French Government, Japan stationed troops in French Indochina in September 1940. On 27 September 1940, the Tripartite Pact was signed, aligning Japan, Germany and Italy. Matsuoka attempted to secure Japan's position with a neutrality agreement between Japan and the Soviet Union (through Molotov and Stalin). Japan agreed to relinquish mineral extraction rights in the northern half of Sakhalin, but otherwise made no concessions. For Japan, the pact made it less likely that the United States and the Soviet Union would team up against them. This neutrality agreement was honored by both sides until 1945. Konoe's final term, attempts to avoid war with the United States[edit] In April, 1941, a triumphant Matsuoka returned to Japan, but Konoe had in hand a peace proposal from the United States. The proposal included American recognition of Manchukuo, the merging of Chiang's government with the Japan-backed Reorganized National Government of China, withdrawal of Japanese troops from China and mutual respect for its independence, and an agreement that Japanese immigration to the United States shall proceed "on the basis of equality with other nationals and free from discrimination". A meeting for negotiation between United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Konoe was proposed for Honolulu, to commence as early as May. Each side believed that it represented the starting position of the other side, however it had actually been drawn up by two American Maryknoll priests and two mid-level Japanese officials. Konoe, believing the document was an agreed starting point for negotiation, began to line up support for the idea of a summit conference in Hawaii. However, Secretary of State Cordell Hull and Roosevelt had no intention of bargaining from this draft. Back in Japan, Matsuoka was furious that Konoe had offered concessions behind his back. Konoe was unable to wear him down, and was afraid of the Army's reaction if he overrode the Foreign Minister. In the end, Matsuoka replaced the draft with Japan's "co-prosperity" policy. This document was conveyed to the Americans on 12 May, and found to be unacceptable. On 22 June 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union and once again Japan was caught completely by surprise. Hurried conferences took place at the highest levels. The question was whether this represented an opportunity for Japan. In the end, the formal leadership group, called the Imperial Headquarters-Cabinet Liaison Conference, agreed on the "southern" strategy. It also agreed that German progress should be closely monitored. Matsuoka transmitted a provocative statement to Hull, and informed the Soviet Ambassador that the Axis agreement took precedence over the Japan-Soviet neutrality pact. Konoe resigned, and formed a new government without Matsuoka as Foreign Minister. The new Foreign Minister assured the Soviet Ambassador that Japan would honor the neutrality agreement, even though Germany was urging its Japanese ally to attack the Russians from the east. On 28 July 1941, Japanese forces occupied all of French Indochina. The United States was forewarned of this move through its monitoring of Japan's cable traffic. Roosevelt immediately froze Japanese assets in the United States. Great Britain and the Dutch East Indies government did likewise. Roosevelt also placed an embargo on oil exports to Japan. Over 80% of Japan's need was being met through American imports, therefore on 31 July, the navy informed the Emperor that Japan's oil stockpiles would be completely depleted in two years. Konoe had been counting on the Navy to restrain the Army from its aggressive designs. Now, however, the Navy Chief of Staff Osami Nagano argued that if war with the United States was inevitable, it should start right away. Konoe made one more desperate attempt to avert war. He proposed a personal summit with Roosevelt-in the United States if necessary-to come to some understanding. Konoe secured backing from the Navy and the Emperor for this move. The Army agreed, provided that Konoe adhere to the consensus foreign policy, and be prepared to go to war if his initiative failed. Roosevelt and Hull accepted the invitation, since they were keen to delay Japan's potential attack. Roosevelt told Ambassador Nomura that he would like to see more details of Konoe's proposal, and he suggested that Juneau, Alaska, might be a good spot for a meeting. On 5 September, Konoe met the Emperor with chiefs of staff General Hajime Sugiyama and Admiral Osami Nagano. Alarmed, the Emperor asked what happened to the negotiations with Roosevelt. Konoe replied that, of course, negotiations were primary, and the military option was only a fall-back position if negotiations failed. The Emperor then questioned Sugiyama about the chances of success of an open war with the Occident. After Sugiyama answered positively, Hirohito scolded him, remembering that the Army had predicted that the invasion of China would be completed in only three months. The next day the policy about the preparation for war against "United States, England and Holland" was formally proposed at the Imperial Conference. The Imperial Conference adopted the policy that would result in the attack on Pearl Harbor. The policy established a set of minimum demands that must be met through negotiations. If Konoe's negotiations did not bear fruit by mid-October, Japan would commence hostilities against the United States, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. While the Emperor received detailed reports from Sugiyama and Nagano about the operations in Southeast Asia and the attack of Pearl Harbor,[6] Prime Minister Konoe made one last desperate attempt to avoid war. That very evening, he arranged a secret dinner conference with American Ambassador Joseph Grew. He told Grew that he was prepared to travel to meet Roosevelt on a moment's notice. The ship had already been prepared. Ambassador Grew urged his superiors to advise Roosevelt to accept the summit proposal. However, in the end, Konoe's last push for a diplomatic solution was made in vain. In a cabinet meeting on 14 October, Army Minister Hideki Tōjō stated that negotiations had failed, the deadline had passed. At the close of this meeting, Konoe realized he was not able to win Navy backing against the adamant Army stance. Konoe justified his demission to his secretary Kenji Tomita. "Of course His Imperial Majesty is a pacifist and he wished to avoid war. When I told him that to initiate war was a mistake, he agreed. But the next day, he would tell me: 'You were worried about it yesterday but you do not have to worry so much.' Thus, gradually he began to lead to war. And the next time I met him, he leaned even more to war. I felt the Emperor was telling me: 'My prime minister does not understand military matters. I know much more.' In short, the Emperor had absorbed the view of the army and the navy high commands.

Sakamoto Ryoma

Prominent figure in the movement to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate during the Bakumatsu period in Japan. One of his most noted accomplishments during this period was the negotiation of peace between Chōshū and Satsuma, two powerful provinces that had long been hostile to each other, and then unite them against the Bakufu, the government that supported the Tokugawa shogun. Ryōma frequently used the alias Saidani Umetarō during this period, as he was often hunted by Bakufu supporters, such as members of the Shinsengumi. He was ultimately attacked and murdered, along with his companion Nakaoka Shintarō, at an inn in Kyoto. Although many suspects have been named, the identities of the assassins have never been confirmed. When Ryōma completed his studies in 1858, he returned to Tosa. In 1862, his friend, Takechi Hanpeita (or Takechi Zuizan), organized the Tosa Loyalist Party "Kinnoto". Their political slogan was, "Revere the Emperor, Expel the Foreigners". It consisted of about 200 samurai, mostly from the lower rank, who insisted on the reform of the Tosa government. Since the Tosa lord refused to recognize the group, they plotted to assassinate Yoshida Toyo (who was later assassinated, but after Ryōma had left Tosa). Ryōma participated in the plot but did not advocate it; Takechi demanded a revolution for only the Tosa clan, and Ryōma thought they should to do something for all of Japan. He decided to leave Tosa and separate from Takechi. In those days, no one was permitted to leave their clan without permission, on penalty of death. One of Ryōma's sisters committed suicide because he left without permission. Sakamoto would later use the alias "Saitani Umetarō" (才谷 梅太郎) as he worked against the shogun.

Taisho Politics

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 Emperor Taishō.[1] The new emperor was a sickly man, which prompted the shift in political power from the old oligarchic group of elder statesmen (or genrō) to the Diet of Japan and the democratic parties. Thus, the era is considered the time of the liberal movement known as the "Taishō democracy" in Japan; it is usually distinguished from the preceding chaotic Meiji period and the following militarism-driven first part of the Shōwa period.After WWI, the postwar era brought Japan unprecedented prosperity. Japan went to the peace conference at Paris in 1919 as one of the great military and industrial powers of the world and received official recognition as one of the "Big Five" of the new international order. Tokyo was granted a permanent seat on the Council of the League of Nations and the peace treaty confirmed the transfer to Japan of Germany's rights in Shandong, a provision that led to anti-Japanese riots and a mass political movement throughout China. Similarly, Germany's former Pacific islands were put under a Japanese mandate. Japan was also involved in the post-war Allied intervention in Russia and was the last Allied power to withdraw (doing so in 1925). Despite its small role in World War I (and the Western powers' rejection of its bid for a racial equality clause in the peace treaty), Japan emerged as a major actor in international politics at the close of the war. 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, giving rise to the nickname for the period, "Taishō Democracy." In 1918, Hara Takashi, a protégé of Saionji and a major influence in the prewar Seiyūkai 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 surviving genrō and the House of Peers, and brought into his cabinet as army minister Tanaka Giichi, 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 Seiyūkai 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 Seiyūkai 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 in 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 (憲政会 Constitutional Government Association) and the Seiyū Hontō (政友本党 True Seiyūkai) to merge as the Rikken Minseitō (立憲民政党 Constitutional Democratic Party) in 1927. The Rikken Minseitō platform was committed to the parliamentary system, democratic politics and world peace. Thereafter, until 1932, the Seiyūkai and the Rikken Minseitō 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 worldwide 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 assault upon Rikken Minseitō prime minister Hamaguchi Osachi in 1930. Though Hamaguchi survived the attack and tried to continue in office despite the severity of his wounds, he was forced to resign the following year and died not long afterwards.

Washington Conference

The American delegation, led by Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes, included Elihu Root, Henry Cabot Lodge and Oscar Underwood, the Democratic minority leader in the Senate. The primary objective of the conference was to restrain Japanese naval expansion in the waters of the west Pacific, especially with regard to fortifications on strategically valuable islands. Their secondary objectives were intended to ultimately limit Japanese expansion, but also to alleviate concerns over possible antagonism with the British. They were: first, to eliminate Anglo-American tension by abrogating the Anglo-Japanese alliance; second, to agree upon a favorable naval ratio vis-à-vis Japan; and, third, to have the Japanese officially accept a continuation of the Open Door Policy in China. The British, however, took a more cautious and tempered approach. Indeed, British officials brought certain general desires to the conference—to achieve peace and stability in the western Pacific, avoid a naval arms race with the United States, thwart Japanese encroachment into areas under their influence, and preserve the security of Singapore, Hong Kong, and Dominion countries—but they did not enter the conference with a specific laundry list of demands; rather, they brought with them a vague vision of what the western Pacific should look like after an agreement. Japanese officials were more focused on specifics than the British, and approached the conference with two primary goals: first, to sign a naval treaty with Britain and the United States, and, secondly, to obtain official recognition of Japan's special interests in Manchuria and Mongolia. Japanese officials also brought other issues to the conference—a strong demand that they remain in control of Yap, Siberia, and Tsingtao, as well as more general concerns about the growing presence of American fleets in the Pacific. The American hand was strengthened by the interception and decryption of secret instructions from the Japanese government to its delegation. The message revealed the lowest naval ratio that would be acceptable to Tokyo; U.S. negotiators used this knowledge to push the Japanese to it. This success, one of the first in the U.S. government's budding eavesdropping and cryptology efforts, led eventually to the growth of such agencies. Policies agreed upon The Washington Conference was called by President Warren Harding and run by Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes. Harding demanded action in order to gain domestic political credit. Hughes—helped by the cryptographers who were reading the Japanese diplomatic secrets—brilliantly engineered a deal that everyone thought best for themselves. To resolve technical disputes about the quality of warships, the conferees adopted a quantitative standard, based on tonnage displacement (a simple measure of the size of a ship.) A ten-year agreement fixed the ratio of battleships at 5:5:3—that is 525,000 tons for the USA, 525,000 tons for Britain, and 315,000 tons for Japan. Smaller limits with a ratio of 1.7 applied to France and Italy. The dominant weapons systems of the era—battleships—could be no larger than 35,000 tons. The major powers allowed themselves 135,000:135,000:81,000 tons for the newfangled aircraft carriers. The Washington Conference exactly captured the worldwide popular demand for peace and disarmament; without it, the US, Britain and Japan would have engaged in an expensive buildup, with each worried the other two might be getting too powerful. The agreements forced the US to scrap 15 old battleships and 2 new ones, along with 13 ships under construction. The naval treaty was concluded on February 6, 1922. Ratifications of that treaty were exchanged in Washington on August 17, 1923, and it was registered in League of Nations Treaty Series on April 16, 1924. Japan agreed to revert Shandong to Chinese control by an agreement concluded on February 4, 1922. Ratifications of that agreement were exchanged in Beijing on June 2, 1922, and it was registered in League of Nations Treaty Series on July 7, 1922. Results The Washington Naval Treaty led to an effective end to building new battleship fleets and those few ships that were built were limited in size and armament. Numbers of existing capital ships were scrapped. Some ships under construction were turned into aircraft carriers instead.

Empire of Japan

The Empire of Japan (大日本帝國 Dai Nippon Teikoku?, literally "Greater Japanese Empire")[5] was an empire and world power that existed from the Meiji Restoration on January 3, 1868 to the enactment of the 1947 constitution of modern Japan. Imperial Japan's rapid industrialization and militarization under the slogan Fukoku Kyōhei (富国強兵?, "Enrich the Country, Strengthen the Army") led to its emergence as a world power, eventually culminating in its membership in the Axis alliance and the conquest of a large part of the Asia-Pacific region. At the height of its power in 1942, the Empire of Japan ruled over a land area spanning 7,400,000 square kilometres (2,857,000 sq mi), making it one of the largest maritime empires in history. After several large-scale military successes during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) and the Pacific War, the Empire of Japan also gained notoriety for its war crimes against the peoples of the countries it conquered. After suffering many defeats and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, however, the Empire of Japan surrendered to the Allies on September 2, 1945. A period of occupation by the Allies followed the surrender, and a new constitution was created with American involvement. The constitution came into force on May 3, 1947, officially dissolving the Empire. American occupation and reconstruction of the country continued well into the 1950s, eventually forming the current nation-state whose full title is the "State of Japan" (Nippon-koku) simply rendered "Japan" in English. The Emperors during this time, which spanned the entire Meiji and Taishō, and the lesser part of the Shōwa eras, are now known in Japan by their posthumous names, which coincide with those era names: Emperor Meiji (Mutsuhito), Emperor Taishō (Yoshihito), and Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito).

Sino-Japanese War

The First Sino-Japanese War (1 August 1894 - 17 April 1895) was fought between Qing Dynasty China and Meiji Japan, primarily over control of Korea. After more than six months of continuous successes by the Japanese army and naval forces, as well as the loss of the Chinese port of Weihai, the Qing leadership sued for peace in February 1895. The war was a clear indication of the failure of the Qing dynasty's attempts to modernize its military and fend off threats to its sovereignty, especially compared with Japan's successful post-Meiji restoration. For the first time, regional dominance in East Asia shifted from China to Japan; the prestige of the Qing Dynasty, along with the classical tradition in China, suffered a major blow. The humiliating loss of Korea as a vassal state sparked an unprecedented public outcry.

Kenseikai

The Kenseikai (Constitutional Party) (憲政会 Keiseikai?) was a short-lived political party in the pre-war Empire of Japan. The Kenseikai was founded on 10 October 1916, as a merger of the Rikken Doshikai (led by Katō Takaaki), Chuseikai (led by Ozaki Yukio) and the Koyu Kurabu (a minor opposition group). Led by Katō Takaaki, the new party was united by its opposition to the policies of the ruling Rikken Seiyukai under Prime Minister Ōkuma Shigenobu. The party was supported financially by the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, due to family ties with Katō Takaaki. Party leaders included Osachi Hamaguchi and Adachi Kenzō. The merger gave the Kenseikai a total of 198 seats in the Lower House of the Diet of Japan, thus forming a majority, and raised the expectation that Katō Takaaki would become the next Prime Minister. However, the position of Prime Minister was a direct appointment from the Emperor per advice provided by the genrō, and in this case, the genrō unexpectedly nominated General Terauchi Masatake instead. In protest, the Kenseikai initiated a no confidence motion, which subsequently dissolved the Diet and led to the political isolation of the Kenseikai for almost a decade. During its period in the opposition, the Kenseikai strongly opposed the Siberian Intervention and pushed for greater rights for labor unions. In the 1924 General Electrion, the Kenseikai secured 150 seats, making it the largest single party in the Lower House, but without a majority. Katō agreed to form a coalition government with the Rikken Seiyukai (led by Takahashi Korekiyo), which had 100 seats, and the Kakushin Kurabu (led by Inukai Tsuyoshi), which had 30 seats. This three-party coalition (Goken Sampa Naikaku) was the first ruling coalition government in Japanese history, and used its majority to focus on domestic political reform and a moderate foreign policy. It pushed strongly for rule under the Meiji Constitution, without influence or control by the genrō. It also favored universal male suffrage (which led to the General Election Law) and much needed reforms in labor laws and in the economic situation for farmers. However, despite its liberal image, the coalition passed the Peace Preservation Law in 1925. Following Katō's death, the party was led by Wakatsuki Reijirō, but his cabinet was unable to weather the Shōwa financial crisis of 1927. The Kenseikai merged with the Seiyu Hontō in June 1927 to form the Rikken Minseitō.

Meiji Constitution

The Meiji Restoration in 1868 provided Japan a form of constitutional monarchy based on the Prusso-German model, in which the Emperor of Japan was an active ruler and wielded considerable political power (over foreign policy and diplomacy) which was shared with an elected Diet. The Diet primarily dictated domestic policy matters. After the Meiji Restoration, which restored direct political power to the emperor for the first time in over a millennium, Japan underwent a period of sweeping political and social reform and westernization aimed at strengthening Japan to the level of the nations of the Western world. The immediate consequence of the Constitution was the opening of the first Parliamentary government in Asia. The Meiji Constitution established clear limits on the power of the executive branch and the Emperor. It also created an independent judiciary. Civil rights and civil liberties were guaranteed, though in many cases they were subject to limitation by law. However, it was ambiguous in wording, and in many places self-contradictory. The leaders of the government and the political parties were left with the task of interpretation as to whether the Meiji Constitution could be used to justify authoritarian or liberal-democratic rule. It was the struggle between these tendencies that dominated the government of the Empire of Japan.

Russo-Japanese War

The Russo-Japanese War (8 February 1904 - 5 September 1905) was "the first great war of the 20th century." It grew out of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over Manchuria and Korea. The major theatres of operations were Southern Manchuria, specifically the area around the Liaodong Peninsula and Mukden; and the seas around Korea, Japan, and the Yellow Sea. Russia sought a warm water port[4] on the Pacific Ocean, for their navy as well as for maritime trade. Vladivostok was only operational during the summer season, but Port Arthur would be operational all year. From the end of the First Sino-Japanese War and 1903, negotiations between Russia and Japan had proved impractical. Japan offered to recognize Russian dominance in Manchuria in exchange for recognition of Korea as a Japanese sphere of influence. Russia refused this, so Japan chose war to counter what it described as Russian aggression in Asia. After discussions broke down in 1904, the Japanese Navy attacked the Russian eastern fleet at Port Arthur, a naval base in the Liaotung province leased to Russia by China, which led to war. The resulting campaigns, in which the Japanese military attained complete victory over the Russian forces arrayed against them, were unexpected by world observers. Over time, the consequences of these battles would transform the balance of power in East Asia, resulting in a reassessment of Japan's recent entry onto the world stage.

Taft-Katsura Agreement

The Taft-Katsura Memorandum consists of the English and Japanese versions of the meeting notes of the conversation between Prime Minister Katsura and Secretary of War Taft, held in Tokyo on the morning of 27 July 1905. The memorandum detailing these discussions was dated 29 July 1905. Three significant issues were discussed during the meeting: First were Katsura's views on peace in East Asia, which according to him formed the fundamental principle of Japan's foreign policy and was best accomplished by a good understanding between Japan, the United States, and Great Britain. The second issue concerned the Philippines. On this, Taft observed that it was in Japan's best interests to have the Philippines governed by a strong and friendly nation like the United States; Katsura claimed that Japan had no aggressive designs on the Philippines. Finally, regarding Korea, Katsura observed that Japanese colonization of Korea was a matter of absolute importance, as he considered Korea to have been a direct cause of the just-concluded Russo-Japanese War. Katsura stated that a comprehensive solution of the Korea problem would be the war's logical outcome. Katsura further stated that, if left alone, Korea would continue to improvidently enter into agreements and treaties with other powers, which he said created the original problem. Therefore, Katsura stated that Japan must take steps to prevent Korea from again creating conditions which would force Japan into fighting another foreign war. For his part, Taft concurred that the establishment of a Japanese protectorate over Korea would directly contribute to stability in East Asia. Taft also expressed his belief that President Roosevelt would concur in his views in this regard. There were three substantive areas of understanding in the conversation. First, Taft said to Katsura that some pro-Russians in America were publicly claiming that the recent war between Japan and Russia was a certain prelude to aggression by Japan against the Philippine Islands. Taft stated that Japan's only interest in the Philippines would be to have these islands governed by a strong and friendly nation like the United States. Count Katsura strongly confirmed that this was Japan's only interest in the Philippines, and it already being the case, Japan had no aggressive interest toward the Philippines. Second, Count Katsura stated that Japan's policy in East and Southeast Asia was to maintain general peace, and that the means of achieving this was a good understanding between Japan, the United States, and Great Britain. Third, Count Katsura stated that because Korean autonomy resulted in Korea improvidently entering into agreements and treaties with other powers, this was the cause of international complications leading to the war between Japan and Russia. Japan therefore felt constrained to preclude any possibility of Korean autonomy. Secretary Taft stated that the establishment of a suzerainty of Japan over Korea (i.e., the less powerful Korea would pay tribute to or be somewhat controlled by the more powerful Japan), with Japanese military troops ensuring a requirement that Korea enter into no foreign treaties without the consent of Japan, was a logical result of the war, and would contribute to permanent peace in the East. Taft stated that his opinions were his own, but he believed that President Roosevelt would concur. Although there was never a signed agreement or secret treaty, only a memorandum of a conversation, and the conversations were kept secret for 20 years, President Theodore Roosevelt commented to his war Secretary Taft "Your conversation with Count Katsura absolutely correct in every respect. Wish that you would state to Katsura that I confirm every word you said." Yet, there is controversy among historians as to the historic significance of the conversation and as to whether the language of the conversation constituted an actual agreement in Realpolitik (i.e., an actual agreement was implied by the use of the language of diplomacy, although not made explicit as a formal agreement). The notes of the conversation were discovered in 1924 by historian Tyler Dennett. Dennett considered the notes to be of first rate significance, and asked permission for publication from Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes. Dennett referred to the notes as "President Roosevelt's Secret Pact With Japan". Context of agreement The Japanese were at war with Russia and had just destroyed two thirds of the Russia naval fleet in their war over Korea in 1905, so victory by Japan was clearly imminent. President Theodore Roosevelt was trying to bring both Russia and Japan to peace negotiations.The United States had obtained control of the Philippines from its war with Spain in 1898. Roosevelt's War Secretary William Howard Taft stopped by in Japan on his way to the Philippines

Treaty of Portsmouth

The Treaty of Portsmouth formally ended the 1904-05 Russo-Japanese War. It was signed on September 5, 1905 after negotiations at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, in the United States. he Russo-Japanese war, which involved not only the two warring countries, but also China, Korea, Europe, and the United States, set the balance of power in the Pacific for the next forty years. The war and the treaty signaled the emergence of Japan as a world power. Because of the role played by President Theodore Roosevelt, the United States became a significant force in world diplomacy. Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for his back channel efforts before and during the peace negotiations, even though he never went to Portsmouth. This international affair settled immediate difficulties in the Far East and created three decades of peace between the two warring nations. Negotiations lasted through August. Prior to the beginning of negotiations, the Japanese allegedly made the Taft-Katsura Agreement with the U.S. in July 1905, which agreed to Japanese control of Korea, in return for American dominance in the Philippines. The Japanese also agreed with the United Kingdom to extend the Anglo-Japanese treaty to cover all of Eastern Asia, and in return the UK also agreed to Japan's control over Korea. Despite Japan's demands for the entirety of Sakhalin and a war indemnity, and Russia's outright refusal, peace was attained through the actions of the participants, including Roosevelt's back-channel communications. Russia, under the guidance of Witte, was unwilling to give concessions in the name of peace and took advantage of Japan's need to end the war and thus Japan's willingness to compromise. Roosevelt first proposed that a neutral committee propose concessions that Russia would cede to Japan, but after the idea's rejection, Roosevelt convinced Japan to lay down its demand for an indemnity and accept the southern half of Sakhalin rather than the island as a whole. The treaty confirmed Japan's emergence as the pre-eminent power in East Asia, and forced Russia to abandon its expansionist policies there, but it was not well received by the Japanese public.[3] Shiba Ryotaro concluded in Saka no ue no kumo that the public, exuberant from several unlikely land victories against a superior force, did not realize how badly the Japanese Army had been weakened, and failed to understand Japan's need for compromise

Showa Constitution

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 ceremonial role without the possession of sovereignty. The constitution, also known as the "Postwar Constitution" ( 戦後憲法 Sengo-Kenpō?) or the "Peace Constitution" ( 平和憲法 Heiwa-Kenpō?), is most characteristic and famous for the renunciation of the right to wage war contained in Article 9 and to a lesser extent, the provision for de jure popular sovereignty in conjunction with the monarchy. The constitution was drawn up under the Allied occupation that followed World War II and was intended to replace Japan's previous militaristic and absolute monarchy system with a form of liberal democracy. Currently, it is a rigid document and no subsequent amendment has been made to it since its adoption

Meiji Era

The formation in 1866 of the Satsuma-Chōshū Alliance between Saigō Takamori, the leader of the Satsuma domain, and Kido Takayoshi, the leader of the Chōshū domain, built the foundation of the Meiji restoration. These two leaders supported the Emperor Kōmei (the Emperor's father) and were brought together by Sakamoto Ryōma for the purpose of challenging the ruling Tokugawa Shogunate (bakufu) and restoring the Emperor to power. On February 3, 1867, the Meiji emperor ascended the throne after Emperor Kōmei's death on January 30, 1867. This period also saw Japan change from being a feudal society to having a market economy and left the Japanese with a lingering Western influence. The Tokugawa Shogunate came to its official end on November 9, 1867, when Tokugawa Yoshinobu, the 15th Tokugawa Shogun, "put his prerogatives at the Emperor's disposal" and resigned 10 days later. This was effectively the "restoration" (Taisei Hōkan) of imperial rule - although Yoshinobu still had significant influence and it was not until January 3, the following year, with the young emperor's edict that the restoration fully occurred. The word "Meiji" means "enlightened rule" and the goal was to combine "western advances" with the traditional, "eastern" values. Finally, in 1871, the daimyo, past and present, were summoned before the Emperor, where it was declared that all domains were now to be returned to the Emperor. The roughly 300 domains (han) were turned into prefectures, each under the control of a state-appointed governor. By 1888, several prefectures had been merged in several steps to reduce their number to 75. The daimyo were promised 1/10 of their fiefs' income as private income. Later, their debts and payments of samurai stipends were to be taken over by the state. The oligarchs also endeavoured to abolish the four divisions of society. However, it is equally true that the majority of samurai were content despite having their status abolished. Many found employment in the government bureaucracy, which resembled an elite class in its own right. The samurai, being better educated than most of the population, became teachers, gun makers, government officials, or military officers. While the formal title of samurai was abolished, the elitist spirit that characterized the samurai class lived on.The oligarchs also embarked on a series of land reforms. In particular, they legitimized the tenancy system which had been going on during the Tokugawa period. Despite the bakufu's best efforts to freeze the four classes of society in place, during their rule villagers had begun to lease land out to other farmers, becoming rich in the process. This greatly disrupted the clearly defined class system which the bakufu had envisaged, partly leading to their eventual downfall. The military of Japan was also strengthened, and they showed themselves as a growing world power by winning both the Sino-Japanese war, and the Russo-Japanese war. Besides drastic changes to the social structure of Japan, in an attempt to create a strong centralized state defining its national identity, the government established a dominant national dialect that replaced local and regional dialects called hyojungo, which was based on patterns of the Tokyo's samurai classes that has eventually become the norm in the realms of education, media, government and business.

Nobusuke Kishi

When the purge was fully rescinded in 1952 with the end of the Allied occupation of Japan, Kishi was central in creating the "Japan Reconstruction Federation" (Nippon Saiken Renmei). He built his federation party around a number of former Minseito (one of the two main prewar conservative parties) politicians and control bureaucrats, and made Shigemitsu Mamoru, the former Foreign Minister, its nominal leader. The party goals were anti-communism, promotion of small and medium-sized businesses, deepening of U.S.-Japan economic relations, and revision of the Constitution. Kishi's federation failed in its first (and only) electoral test. When Yoshida Shigeru called for elections in the autumn of 1952, Kishi was not prepared and his young party was crushed at the polls. [2] Alt text Nobusuke Kishi (1896-1987, left) relaxes at the house of his brother, then-the-Chief-Cabinet-Secretary Eisaku Satō (1901-75), shortly after he was released from the Sugamo Prison on 24 December 1948. Kisi flirted with joining the Japan Socialist Party but, at the urging of his brother, Sato Eisaku, he turned reluctantly to Yoshida's Liberal Party. Kishi rationalized cooperation with Yoshida as a way of getting inside the main conservative tent so that he might transform it from within. At first, Yoshida—whose battles with Kishi dated from their opposing positions during the wartime mobilization—wanted no part of him, so much so that he had intervened with the Occupation authorities to keep Kishi from being de-purged. But this was a time of fluid ideological borders and great political desperation. Kishi brought to the table considerable political resources. He had money and (not unrelatedly) a battalion of politicians, both of which made his partnership palatable, if not appealing, to Yoshida. In the event, Yoshida took him in and Kishi won his first postwar Diet seat in 1953, and was reelected eight times until his retirement from politics in 1979. In 1955, the Democratic Party and Liberal Party merged to elect Ichirō Hatoyama as the head of the new Liberal Democratic Party. Two prime ministers later, in 1957, Kishi was voted in following the resignation of the ailing Tanzan Ishibashi. In the first year of Kishi's term, Japan joined the United Nations Security Council, paid reparations to Indonesia, set up a new commercial treaty with Australia, and signed peace treaties with Czechoslovakia and Poland. In 1959, he visited Buenos Aires, Argentina. Kishi's next foreign policy initiative was much more difficult: reworking Japan's security relationship with the United States. That November, Kishi laid down his proposals for a revamped extension of the US-Japan Mutual Security Treaty. After closing the discussion and vote without the opposition group in the Diet of Japan, demonstrators clashed with police in Nagatachō, at the steps of the National Diet Building. About 500 people were injured in the first month of demonstrations. Despite their magnitude, Kishi did not think much of the demonstrations, referring to them as "distasteful" and "insignificant." [3] Once the protests died down, Kishi went to Washington, and in January 1960 returned to Japan with a new and unpopular Treaty of Mutual Cooperation. Demonstrations, strikes and clashes continued as the government pressed for ratification of the treaty. On June 10, White House Press Secretary James Hagerty arrived in preparation for a state visit of President Dwight Eisenhower. He was met at the airport by Ambassador Douglas MacArthur II. Knowing that leftist demonstrators lined the road from the airport they chose to travel by car rather than helicopter. They felt that if the demonstrators were going to resort to violence it would be better for both the US and Japanese governments to know rather than waiting to test their resolve at the arrival of the President. They also believed that if any violence ensued it would bias the Japanese populace against the demonstrators. As they approached the exit to the airport grounds a mob spearheaded by Zengakuren students closed in stoning the car, shattering windows, slashing tires, and trying to overturn them. Police reached them after 15 minutes and managed to clear a landing zone for a helicopter which transported them the rest of the way.[4] To his embarrassment, Kishi had to request the postponement of Eisenhower's state visit. The end of Eisenhower's term of office prevented it from being rescheduled. The loss of face this entailed, along with his apparent inability to restrain the demonstrations resulted in factional disputes within the Liberal Democratic Party. On 15 July 1960 Kishi resigned and Hayato Ikeda became prime minister. On 14 December 2006, Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister of India, made a speech in the Diet of Japan. He stated "It was Prime Minister Kishi who was instrumental in India being the first recipient of Japan's ODA. Today India is the largest recipient of Japanese ODA and we are extremely grateful to the government and people of Japan for this valuable assistance.

Yoshida Shoin

Yoshida Shoin was one of the most distinguished intellectuals in the closing days of the Tokugawa shogunate. He devoted himself to nurturing many Ishin Shishi who in turn made an outstanding contribution to the Meiji Restoration. Ishin-Shishi was a group of Japanese political activists of the late Edo period. The term shishi literally translates as "men of high purpose." While it is usually applied to the anti-shogunate, pro-sonnō jōi (尊王攘夷; "Revere the Emperor, Expel the Barbarian[s]") samurai primarily from the southwestern clans of Satsuma, Chōshū, and Tosa, the term shishi is also used by some with reference to supporters of the shogunate who held similar sonnō jōi views. There were many different varieties of shishi. Some, such as the assassins Kawakami Gensai, Nakamura Hanjirō, Okada Izō, and Tanaka Shinbei, opted for a more violent approach in asserting their views. Kawakami Gensai, in particular, is recalled as the assassin of Sakuma Shōzan, a renowned pro-Western thinker of the time. Several assaults on westerners in Japan have been attributed to the shishi and associated rōnin warriors. Other more radical shishi, such as Miyabe Teizō, plotted large-scale attacks with little regard for public safety. Miyabe himself was one of the ringleaders of the plot, foiled by the Shinsengumi at the Ikedaya Incident, to burn Kyoto at the height of the Gion Festival. As mentioned above, shishi were not necessarily in support of bringing down the shogunate. Shishi from Mito were responsible for the death of the shogunal grand councilor Ii Naosuke, who was a signatory to treaties that favored foreign nations, and who had placed an underaged boy on the shogunal throne. Other Mito men and women arose in the Tengu-tō revolt, over the next several years. While these were definitely actions against the shōgun's government, they did not oppose the shōgun himself—indeed, the Mito shishi, who were retainers of a relative of the shōgun, believed they were only helping him. Other shishi had more scholastic leanings. A prime example of this was the scholar Yoshida Shōin of Chōshū. He founded the Shokason-juku school, and educated many of the future government leaders of Meiji era Japan. Yoshida had connections to many prominent figures of the Bakumatsu era: Kawai Tsugunosuke, Katsu Kaishū, the aforementioned Sakuma Shōzan, and others. The more radical shishi from Chōshū and Satsuma went on to form the core leadership of the nascent Meiji Government. Some, such as Itō Hirobumi and Yamagata Aritomo, remained prominent figures in Japanese politics and society until the early decades of the 20th century

Yoshida Shigeru

Yoshida became the 45th prime minister on 22 May 1946. His pro-American and pro-British ideals and his knowledge of Western societies, gained through education and political work abroad are what made him the perfect candidate in the eyes of the postwar Allied occupation. He is de facto the last prime minister of the Empire of Japan, before it was abolished following the signing of the constitution. After being replaced with Tetsu Katayama on 24 May 1947, he returned to the post as the 48th prime minister on 15 October 1948. Policies[edit] Yoshida's policies, emphasizing Japan's economic recovery and a reliance on United States military protection at the expense of independence in foreign affairs, became known as the Yoshida Doctrine and shaped Japanese foreign policy during the Cold War era and beyond.[1] Under Yoshida's leadership, Japan began to rebuild its lost industrial infrastructure and placed a premium on unrestrained economic growth. Many of these concepts still impact Japan's political and economic policies. However, since the 1970s environmental movement, the bursting of Japan's economic bubble, and the end of the Cold War, Japan has been struggling to redefine its national goals. His administration openly encouraged a "3-S" policy—sports, screen, and sex, a change from the strict pre-war censorship of materials labeled obscene or immoral. He was retained in three succeeding elections (49th: 16 February 1949; 50th: 30 October 1952; and 51st: 21 May 1953). Power slipped away as he was ousted on 10 December 1954, when he was replaced by Ichirō Hatoyama. Yoshida retired from the Diet of Japan in 1963.

Zaibatsu

Zaibatsu is a Japanese term referring to industrial and financial business conglomerates in the Empire of Japan, whose influence and size allowed control over significant parts of the Japanese economy from the Meiji period until the end of World War II. The zaibatsu were the heart of economic and industrial activity within the Empire of Japan, and held great influence over Japanese national and foreign policies. The Rikken Seiyukai political party was regarded as an extension of the Mitsui group, which also had very strong connections with the Imperial Japanese Army. Likewise, the Rikken Minseito was connected to the Mitsubishi group, as was the Imperial Japanese Navy. By the start of World War II, the Big Four zaibatsu alone had direct control over more than 30% of Japan's mining, chemical, metals industries and almost 50% control of the machinery and equipment market, a significant part of the foreign commercial merchant fleet and 70% of the commercial stock exchange. The zaibatsu were viewed with suspicion by both the right and left of the political spectrum in the 1920s and 1930s. Although the world was in the throes of a worldwide economic depression, the zaibatsu were prospering through currency speculation, maintenance of low labour costs and on military procurement. Matters came to a head in the League of Blood Incident of March 1932, with the assassination of the managing director of Mitsui, after which the zaibatsu attempted to improve on their public image through increased charity work. Today, the influence of the zaibatsu can still be seen in the form of financial groups, institutions, and larger companies whose origins reach back to the original zaibatsu, often sharing the same original family names (for example, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation). However, some argue[who?] that the "old mechanisms of financial and administrative control" that zaibatsu once enjoyed have been destroyed. Despite the absence of an actualized sweeping change to the existence of large industrial conglomerates in Japan, the zaibatsu's previous vertically integrated chain of command, ending with a single family, has now widely been displaced by the horizontal relationships of association and coordination characteristic of keiretsu (系列?). Keiretsu, meaning "series" or "subsidiary", could be interpreted as being suggestive of this difference

Tojo Hideki

n 1934, Tōjō was promoted to major general and served as Chief of the Personnel Department within the Army Ministry.[4] He was appointed commander of the IJA 24th Infantry Brigade in August 1934.[5] In September 1935, Tōjō assumed top command of the Kempeitai of the Kwantung Army in Manchuria. Politically, he was fascist, nationalist, and militarist, and was nicknamed "Razor" (カミソリ Kamisori?), for his reputation for a sharp, legalistic mind capable of making quick decisions.[6] During the February 26 coup attempt of 1936, Tōjō and Shigeru Honjō, a noted supporter of Sadao Araki, both opposed the rebels.[7] Emperor Hirohito himself was outraged at the attacks on his close advisers, and after a brief political crisis and stalling on the part of a sympathetic military, the rebels were forced to surrender. In the aftermath, the Tōseiha faction was able to purge the Army of radical officers, and the coup leaders were tried and executed. Following the purge, Tōseiha and Kōdōha elements were unified in their nationalist but highly anti-political stance under the banner of the Kōdōha military clique, with Tōjō in the leadership position. Tōjō was promoted to Chief of Staff of the Kwangtung Army in 1937.[8] As Chief of Staff, Tōjō was responsible for the military operations designed to increase Japanese penetration into the Inner Mongolia border regions with Manchukuo. In July 1937, he personally led the units of the 1st Independent Mixed Brigade in Operation Chahar, his only real combat experience.[9] After the Marco Polo Bridge Incident marking the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Tōjō ordered his forces to attack Hopei and other targets in northern China. Tōjō received Jewish refugees in accordance with Japanese national policy and rejected the resulting Nazi German protests.[10] Tōjō was recalled to Japan in May 1938 to serve as Vice-Minister of War under Army Minister Seishirō Itagaki.[11] From December 1938 to 1940, Tōjō was Inspector-General of Army Aviation.[12] Rise to Prime Minister[edit] On July 22, 1940, Tōjō was appointed Army Minister in the second Fumimaro Konoe regime, and remained in that post in the third Konoe cabinet. He was a strong supporter of the Tripartite Pact between Imperial Japan, Nazi Germany, and Fascist Italy. As the Army Minister, he continued to expand the war with China.[citation needed] After negotiations with Vichy France, Japan was given permission to place its troops in French Indochina in July 1941. In spite of its formal recognition of the Vichy government, the United States retaliated against Japan by imposing economic sanctions in August, including a total embargo on oil and gasoline exports.[13] On September 6, a deadline of early October was fixed in the Imperial Conference for resolving the situation diplomatically. On October 14, the deadline had passed with no progress. Prime Minister Konoe then held his last cabinet meeting, where Tōjō did most of the talking: For the past six months, ever since April, the foreign minister has made painstaking efforts to adjust relations. Although I respect him for that, we remain deadlocked... The heart of the matter is the imposition on us of withdrawal from Indochina and China... If we yield to America's demands, it will destroy the fruits of the China incident. Manchukuo will be endangered and our control of Korea undermined.[14] The prevailing opinion within the Japanese Army at that time was that continued negotiations could be dangerous. However, Hirohito thought that he might be able to control extreme opinions in the army by using the charismatic and well-connected Tōjō, who had expressed reservations regarding war with the West, although the Emperor himself was skeptical that Tōjō would be able to avoid conflict. On October 13, he declared to Kōichi Kido: "There seems little hope in the present situation for the Japan-U.S. negotiations. This time, if hostilities erupt, I might have to issue a declaration of war."[15] On October 16, Konoe, politically isolated and convinced that the Emperor no longer trusted him, resigned. Later, he justified himself to his chief cabinet secretary, Kenji Tomita: Of course His Majesty is a pacifist, and there is no doubt he wished to avoid war. When I told him that to initiate war is a mistake, he agreed. But the next day, he would tell me: "You were worried about it yesterday, but you do not have to worry so much." Thus, gradually, he began to lead toward war. And the next time I met him, he leaned even more toward war. In short, I felt the Emperor was telling me: "My prime minister does not understand military matters, I know much more." In short, the Emperor had absorbed the views of the army and navy high commands.[16] Hideki Tōjō in military uniform At the time, Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni was said to be the only person who could control the Army and the Navy and was recommended by Konoe and Tōjō as Konoe's replacement. Hirohito rejected this option, arguing that a member of the imperial family should not have to eventually carry the responsibility for a war against the West. Following the advice of Kōichi Kido, he chose instead Tōjō, who was known for his devotion to the imperial institution.[17][18] The Emperor summoned Tōjō to the Imperial Palace one day before Tōjō took office.[citation needed] Tōjō wrote in his diary: "I thought I was summoned because the Emperor was angry at my opinion." He was given one order from the Emperor: To make a policy review of what had been sanctioned by the Imperial Conferences. Tōjō, who was on the side of the war, nevertheless accepted this order, and pledged to obey. According to Colonel Akiho Ishii, a member of the Army General Staff, the Prime Minister showed a true sense of loyalty to the emperor performing this duty. For example, when Ishii received from Hirohito a communication saying the Army should drop the idea of stationing troops in China to counter military operations of Western powers, he wrote a reply for the Prime Minister for his audience with the Emperor. Tōjō then replied to Ishii: "If the Emperor said it should be so, then that's it for me. One cannot recite arguments to the Emperor. You may keep your finely phrased memorandum."[19] On November 2, Tōjō and Chiefs of Staff Hajime Sugiyama and Osami Nagano reported to Hirohito that the review had been in vain. The Emperor then gave his consent to war.[20][21] The next day, Fleet Admiral Osami Nagano explained in detail the Pearl Harbor attack to Hirohito.[22] The eventual plan drawn up by Army and Navy Chiefs of Staff envisaged such a mauling of the Western powers that Japanese defense perimeter lines—operating on interior lines of communications and inflicting heavy Western casualties—could not be breached. In addition, the Japanese fleet which attacked Pearl Harbor was under orders from Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto to be prepared to return to Japan on a moment's notice, should negotiations succeed.[citation needed] Two days later on November 5, Hirohito approved the operations plan for a war against the West and continued to hold meetings with the military and Tōjō until the end of the month. On December 1, another conference finally sanctioned the "war against the United States, England, and Holland"

Ii Naosuke

was daimyo of Hikone (1850-1860) and also Tairō of Tokugawa Shogunate, Japan, a position he held from April 23, 1858 until his death on March 24, 1860. He is most famous for signing the Harris Treaty with the United States, granting access to ports for trade to American merchants and seamen and extraterritoriality to American citizens. Under Ii Naosuke's guidance, the Tokugawa shogunate navigated past a particularly difficult conflict over the succession to the ailing and childless Tokugawa Iesada. Ii Naosuke managed to coerce the Tokugawa Shogunate to its last brief resurgence of its power and position in Japanese society before the start of the Meiji period. Ii was assassinated in the Sakuradamon incident by a group of 17 Mito and 1 Satsuma samurai on March 24, 1860. Although Ii's Ansei purge was very effective in silencing the officials and his high ranking opponents, it did not have the same effect on lower ranking samurai. Ii Naosuke's 20 month dictatorial reign as Tairō came to an abrupt end in the third month of Ansei 7 (March 24, 1860). In the Sakuradamon incident, Ii was attacked by a band of 17 young samurai loyalists from the Mito province and cut down just in front of one of the gates of the Shogun's Edo castle entering to meet with the shogun. The assassination of Ii Naosuke, who was seen as the symbol of the bakufu's power and authority, was construed as crushing any hopes for the resurrection of the shogunate's power. The death of Tairō Ii Naosuke started a wave of loyalist terrorism across Japan, the poet Tsunada Tadayuki even wrote a poem praising Ii's assassins. Soon attempts were being made on the lives of other members of the bakufu and their informants. The wave of popular dissent also turned against officials with a connection to Ii Naosuke, no matter how distant it was. Shimada Sakon, retainer of the Kujō, (one of the Sekke families; the 5 regent houses, and among the most powerful in the court), Imperial regent, was killed by dissidents for supporting the Harris treaty and helping Ii's confidant, Nagano Shuzen, expose members of the court who were targeted during the Ansei purge. The Shogun and the Bakufu were astounded and taken completely unaware by the death of Ii Naosuke. They didn't even announce his death until several months after the assassination took place. Instead, during this time the Shogun and the bakufu first pretended that Ii was still alive and rendering service to the Shogun. Then they faked an illness and had him render his resignation to the Shogun before announcing his death. In this way Ii continued to serve the Shogun, even after death. Ii's assassins were later granted a general amnesty by the bakufu, a precedent later used by Yamagata Aritomo, a key member of the Meiji restoration, to show that any action can be forgiven if it is performed for the betterment of the emperor.

Emperor Meiji

was the 122nd Emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, reigning from February 3, 1867 until his death on July 30, 1912. He presided over a time of rapid change in the Empire of Japan, as the nation quickly changed from a feudal state to a capitalist and imperial world power, characterized by Japan's industrial revolution. At the time of his birth in 1852, Japan was an isolated, pre-industrial, feudal country dominated by the Tokugawa Shogunate and the daimyo, who ruled over the country's more than 250 decentralized domains. By the time of his death in 1912, Japan had undergone a political, social, and industrial revolution at home (See Meiji Restoration) and emerged as one of the great powers on the world stage. The New York Times summed up this transformation at his funeral in 1912, with the words: "the contrast between that which preceded the funeral car and that which followed it was striking indeed. Before it went old Japan; after it came new Japan." During his lifetime, the emperor was known by his personal name Mutsuhito. But upon his death he was given the reign name, Meiji. His personal name is never used in Japan in any official context. As the reigning emperor is referred to as the "Emperor", all deceased emperors are referred to by their given reign name. The correct usage in Japanese is the "Meiji Emperor"