Modern Japan Final

Basic Theory of National Defense

"Basic Theory of National Defense and Suggestions for Its Realization" was a pamphlet published in 1934 that revealed the orientation imposed by the Hayashi Nagata leadership in the war ministry. It marked the first public espousal of the terms "national defense" and "economic planning". It has been identified as the army's commitment to a program of Japanese facism.

Manchurian Incident

The Manchurian Incident, or Mukden Incident, was a staged event followed through by Japanese military personnel as a false cause for the Japanese invasion in 1931 of northeastern China, known as Manchuria. On September 18, 1931,the military detonated a small quantity of dynamite close to a railway line owned by Japan's South Manchuria Railway near Mukden. The explosion was weak & failed to destroy the track, causing no real damage, but the Japanese Army accused Chinese protesters of the act and responded with a full invasion that led to the occupation of Manchuria, in which Japan established its puppet state of Manchukuo six months later. The ruse of war was soon exposed by the Lytton Report of 1932, leading Japan to diplomatic isolation and its March 1933 withdrawal from the League of Nations

Twenty-One Demands

The Twenty-One Demands were a set of demands made during the First World War by the Empire of Japan under Prime Minister Ōkuma Shigenobu sent to the government of the Republic of China on January 8, 1915. The demands would greatly extend Japanese control of Manchuria and of the Chinese economy, & were opposed by Britain and the US. In the final settlement Japan gained a little but lost a great deal of prestige and trust in Britain and the US. The Chinese people responded with a nationwide boycott of Japanese goods; Japan's exports to China fell 40%. Britain was offended and outraged, and no longer trusted Japan as a partner. With WWI underway, Japan's position was strong and Britain's was weak. Nevertheless, GB and the US forced Japan to drop the 5th set of demands that would have given Japan a large measure of control over the entire Chinese economy and ended the Open Door Policy. Japan obtained its first four sets of goals in a treaty with China on May 25, 1915.

Washington Treaty System

The Washington Treaty System, also known Washington Naval System, and included the Five-Power Treaty, the "Four-Power Treaty" and the "Nine-power Treaty" was a treaty among the major nations that had won World War I, which agreed to prevent an arms race by limiting naval construction. It was negotiated at the Washington Naval Conference, held in Washington, D.C., from November 1921 to February 1922, and it was signed by the governments of the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, France, and Italy. It limited the construction of battleships, battlecruisers and aircraft carriers by the signatories. The numbers of other categories of warships, including cruisers, destroyers and submarines, were not limited by the treaty, but those ships were limited to 10,000 tons displacement. 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.

February 26th 1936 Incident

known as the 2-26 incident, was an attempted coup in Japan. It was organized by a group of young Imperial Japanese Army officers with the goal of purging the government and military leadership of their factional rivals and Ideological opponents. Although the rebels succeeded in assassinating several leading officials and in occupying the government center of Tokyo, they failed to seize control of the Imperial Palace or assassinate the PM. Their supporters in the army made attempts to capitalize on their actions, but divisions within the military, combined with Imperial anger at the coup, meant they were unable to achieve a change of government. Facing overwhelming opposition as the army moved against them, the rebels surrendered on 29 February.[3] Unlike earlier examples of political violence by young officers, the coup attempt had severe consequences. After a series of closed trials, 19 of the uprising's leaders were executed for mutiny and another 40 imprisoned. The radical Kōdō-ha faction lost its influence within the army, the period of "government by assassination" came to a close, and the military increased its control over the civilian government.

Income Doubling

Also known as the economic miracle, His plan predicted a 7.2 percent growth rate (thereby doubling GNP over ten years), but by the second half of the 1960s, average growth had climbed to an astounding 11.6%. In addition, while Ikeda's "income-doubling plan" called for average personal incomes to double with ten years, this was actually achieved within seven years.[9] - Income doubling plan 1960 LDP gov't Promised double national income Double individual income in 10 years Achieved in 1966-7

Article 9 of the Constitution of 1947 (no-war clause)

Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution (日本国憲法第9条? Nihonkokukenpō dai kyū-jō) is a clause in the national Constitution of Japan outlawing war as a means to settle international disputes involving the state. The Constitution came into effect on May 3, 1947, following World War II. In its text, the state formally renounces the sovereign right of belligerency and aims at an international peace based on justice and order. The article also states that, to accomplish these aims, armed forces with war potential will not be maintained. However, Japan maintains de facto armed forces, referred to as the Japan Self-Defense Forces, which may have originally been thought of as something akin to what Mahatma Gandhi called the Shanti Sena (soldiers of peace) or a collective security police (peacekeeping) force operating under the United Nations. In July 2014, instead of using Article 96 of the Japanese Constitution to amend the Constitution, the Japanese government approved a reinterpretation which gave more powers to the Japan Self-Defense Forces, allowing them to defend other allies in case of war being declared upon them, despite concerns and disapproval from mainland China and South Korea, whereas the United States supported the move. This change is considered illegitimate by some Japanese political parties and citizens, since the Prime Minister circumvented Japan's constitutional amendment procedure.[1][2][3] In September 2015, the Japanese National Diet made the reinterpretation official by enacting a series of laws allowing the Japan Self-Defense Forces to provide material support to allies engaged in combat internationally. The justification is that by not defending/supporting an ally, it would weaken alliances and endanger Japan.[4]

The Konoe Memorial (Feb. 14, 1945)

At the beginning of 1945 American forces landed in the Philippines and Manila fell. As the war situation grew still more desperate, Konoe Fumimaro attended the court on February 14 for the first time in over three years and presented a long memorial to the Throne. In this memorial Konoe adomitted that defeat was inevitable but reasoned that defeat itself did not necessarily mean the end of the national polity, as the real threat was a communist revolution which could occur as a result of defeat. Therefore Konoe concluded that Japan should seek to terminate the war as immediately as possible. Until now studies about this memorial have focused mainly on his fear against the danger of a communist revolution.

The Bubble Economy

Late 1980's economy increased greatly Japan became very rich in paper an economic bubble in Japan from 1986 to 1991 in which real estate and stock market prices were greatly inflated.[1] In the late 1980s, on the heels of a three-decade long "Economic Miracle," Japan experienced its infamous "bubble economy" in which stock and Japan's Bubble Economy Graphicreal estate prices soared to stratospheric heights driven by a speculative mania. Japan's Nikkei stock average hit an all-time high in 1989, only to crash in a spectacular fashion shortly after, causing their real estate bubble to collapse and throwing the country into a severe financial crisis and long period of economic stagnation known as the "Lost Decades."

The rise of Japanese militarism in the 1930s

During the Taishō period, Japan saw a short period of democratic rule (the so-called "Taisho democracy"), and several diplomatic attempts were made to encourage peace, such as the Washington Naval Treaty and participation in the League of Nations. However, with the beginning of the Shōwa era, the apparent collapse of the world economic order with the Great Depression starting in 1929, coupled with the imposition of trade barriers by western nations and an increasing radicalism in Japanese politics, there was a resurgence of patriotism, a weakening of democratic forces and a belief that the military could solve all threats both domestic and foreign. Patriotic education also strengthened the sense of a hakko ichiu, or a divine mission to unify Asia under Japanese rule. Those who continued to resist the "military solution" in the government were driven from office A turning point came with the ratification of the London Naval Treaty of 1930. Prime Minister Hamaguchi agreed to a treaty which would severely limit Japanese naval power. This treaty was strongly opposed by the military, who claimed that it would endanger national defense, and was portrayed by the opposition Rikken Seiyukai party as having been forced upon Japan by a hostile United States, which further inflamed growing anti-foreign sentiment. The Japanese system of party government finally met its demise with the May 15 Incident in 1932, when a group of junior naval officers and army cadets assassinated Prime Minister Tsuyoshi. Although the assassins were put on trial and sentenced to fifteen years' imprisonment, they were seen popularly as having acted out of patriotism and the atmosphere was set where the military was able to act with little restraint. Japan had been involved in the Asian continent continuously from the First Sino-Japanese War, Boxer Rebellion, Russo-Japanese War, World War I and the Siberian Intervention. The Manchurian Incident of September 1931 did not fail, and it set the stage for the Japanese military takeover of all of Manchuria. Kwantung Army conspirators blew up a few meters of South Manchurian Railway Company track near Mukden, blamed it on Chinese saboteurs, and used the event as an excuse to invade and seize the vast territory. In January 1932, Japanese forces attacked Shanghai in the First Shanghai Incident, waging a three-month undeclared war there before a truce was reached. The civilian government in Tokyo was powerless to prevent these military adventures, and instead of being condemned, the Kwangtung Army's actions enjoyed considerable popular support. Military men, the last surviving genrō, recognized Manchukuo and generally approved the army's actions in securing Manchuria as an industrial base, an area for Japanese emigration, and a potential staging ground for war with the Soviet Union. Various army factions contended for power amid increasing suppression of dissent and more assassinations. In the February 26 Incident of 1936, the Army's elite First Infantry Division staged an attempted coup d'état in yet another effort to overthrow civilian rule. The revolt was put down by other military units, and its leaders were executed after secret trials. Despite public dismay over these events and the discredit they brought to numerous military figures, Japan's civilian leadership capitulated to the army's demands in the hope of ending domestic violence. Increases were seen in defense budgets, naval construction (Japan announced it would no longer accede to disarmament treaties), and patriotic indoctrination as Japan moved toward a wartime footing.[3 In November 1936, the Anti-Comintern Pact, an agreement to exchange information and collaborate in preventing communist activities, was signed by Japan and Germany (Italy joined a year later). War was launched against China with the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of July 7, 1937 in which a clash near Beijing between Chinese and Japanese troops quickly escalated into the full-scale warfare of the Second Sino-Japanese War, followed by the Soviet-Japanese Border Wars and the Pacific War. Despite the military's long tradition of independence from civilian control, its efforts at staging a coup d'état to overthrow the civilian government, and its forcing Japan into war through insubordination and military adventurism, the military was ultimately unable to force a military dictatorship on Japan. Under Prime Minister Konoe Fumimaro, the Japanese government was streamlined to meet war-time conditions and under the National Mobilization Law was given absolute power over the nation's assets. In 1940, all political parties were ordered to dissolve into the Imperial Rule Assistance Association, forming a one-party state based on totalitarian values. Even so, there was much entrenched opposition from the government bureaucrats, and in the 1942 general election for the Japanese Diet, the military was still unable to do away with the last vestiges of party politics. This was partly due to the fact that the military itself was not a monolithic structure, but was rent internally with its own political factions. Even Japan's wartime Prime Minister, Hideki Tōjō, had difficulty controlling portions of his own military. Japan's overseas possessions, greatly extended as a result of early successes in the Pacific War were organized into a Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, which was to have integrated Asia politically and economically—under Japanese leadership—against Western domination.

Kwantung Army

Founded in 1906, the Kwantung Army was an army group of the Imperial Japanese Army in the first half of the 20th century. It became the largest and most prestigious command in the IJA. Many of its personnel, such as Chiefs of staff Seishirō Itagaki and Hideki Tōjō were promoted to high positions in both the military and civil government in the Empire of Japan and it was largely responsible for the creation of the Japanese-dominated Empire of Manchukuo. In August 1945, the army group, only around 713,000 (from a previous total of 1,320,000) men at the time, was defeated by and surrendered to Soviet troops as a result of the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation.

Onoda Hirro and his No Surrender

Hirō Onoda was an Imperial Japanese Army intelligence officer who fought in World War II and was a Japanese holdout who did not surrender in 1945. After Onoda spent 29 years holding out in the Philippines, his former commander traveled from Japan to personally issue orders relieving him from duty in 1974.[1][2] He held the rank of second lieutenant in the Imperial Japanese Army. the Japanese government located Onoda's commanding officer, Major Yoshimi Taniguchi, who had since become a bookseller. He flew to Lubang where on March 9, 1974, he finally met with Onoda and fulfilled the promise made in 1944, "Whatever happens, we'll come back for you,". It was later revealed that that Onoda had killed several people, but at the same time he was welcomed his return home. The Japanese government offered him a large sum of money in back pay, which he refused. When money was pressed on him by well-wishers, he donated it to Yasukuni Shrine.

Kita Ikki

Ikki Kita, or real name: Kita Terujirō, was a Japanese author, intellectual and political philosopher who was active in early-Shōwa period Japan. A harsh critic of the Emperor system and the Meiji Constitution, he asserted that the Japanese were not the emperor's people, rather the Emperor was the "people's emperor". He advocated a complete reconstruction of Japan through a form of statist, right-wing socialism. Kita was in contact with many people on the extreme right of Japanese politics, and wrote pamphlets and books expounding his ideas. 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.

Ienage Saburo's textbook case

In April 1947, Ienaga published New Japanese History (新日本史) as a general history book. Upon request from Sanseidō, Ienaga wrote a draft of a Japanese history textbook for high school based on his New Japanese History. The draft was, however, rejected by the Ministry of Education at the school textbook authorization of 1952. The reasons for rejection included such grounds as the claim that the description of the High Treason Incident was not appropriate, and that the draft did not clarify the fact that the Russo-Japanese War was supported by the Japanese people. Ienaga reapplied for authorization without any alterations, and the draft somehow passed authorization and was published as a textbook for the school year of 1953, under the same title, "New Japanese History". After wholly revising the first edition of the textbook, Ienaga applied again for authorization of the textbook in 1955. The draft passed authorization on the condition that 216 items in the draft be altered. The Ministry of Education demanded that Ienaga correct the suggested elements two times subsequently. Ienaga made several alterations, but refused several others. The revised New Japanese History was published in 1956. On June 12, 1965, Ienaga filed the first suit against the government of Japan. He demanded 1,000,000 yen under the State Redress Law (国家賠償法) for the psychological damage that he suffered from the government's allegedly unconstitutional system of school textbook authorization making him correct the contents of his draft textbook against his will and violating his right to freedom of expression. Ienaga claimed that the system of textbook authorization, was unjust and unconstitutional

"Japanization"

In terms of World War II and military conquests, Japanization takes a negative meaning because of military conquests and forced introduction of Japanese culture by the government. After the Meiji Restoration in 1868, Japan began to follow the way of the western imperialism and expansionism. in 1879, Japan officially annexed the Ryūkyū Kingdom, which was a tributary kingdom of both the Qing Dynasty and the Empire of Japan. Though the Ryukyuan languages belong to the Japonic language family, the Japanese language is not intelligible to the monolingual speakers of the Ryukyuan languages. The Japanese government began to promote the language "standardization" program and took the Ryukyuan languages as dialects. In schools, "standard" Japanese was promoted, and there were portraits of the Japanese Emperor and Empress were introduced. Taiwan was ceded to the Empire of Japan in 1895 as a result of the First Sino-Japanese War. At the beginning, Taiwan was governed rather like a colony. In 1936, following the arrival of the 17th governor-general, Seizō Kobayashi, there was a change in the Japanese governance in Taiwan. In Korea during the second world war the use of written Korean in education and publication was banned by the Empire of Japan, but this did not cause a significant change in the use of the Korean language, which remained strong throughout the colonization.

Manchukuo

Manchukuo, was a puppet state created in 1932 by Japan out of the three historic provinces of Manchuria (northeastern China). After the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05), Japan gained control of the Russian-built South Manchurian Railway, and its army established a presence in the region; expansion there was seen as necessary for Japan's status as an emerging world power. In 1931 the Japanese army created an excuse to attack Chinese troops there, and in 1932 Manchukuo was proclaimed an "independent" state. The last Qing emperor was brought out of retirement and made Manchukuo's ruler, but the state was actually rigidly controlled by the Japanese, who used it as their base for expansion into Asia. An underground guerrilla movement composed of Manchurian soldiers, armed civilians, and Chinese communists opposed the occupying Japanese, many of whom had come over to settle in the new colony. After Japan's defeat in 1945 the settlers were repatriated.

Minamata Disease

It was caused by the release of methylmercury in the industrial wastewater (point source pollution) from the Chisso Corporation's chemical factory, which continued from 1932 to 1968. This highly toxic chemical bioaccumulated in shellfish and fish in Minamata Bay and the Shiranui Sea, which when eaten by the local populace resulted in mercury poisoning. While cat, dog, pig and human deaths continued over more than 30 years, the government and company did little to prevent the pollution. Minamata disease, sometimes referred to as Chisso-Minamata disease, is a neurological syndrome caused by severe mercury poisoning. Symptoms include ataxia, numbness in the hands and feet, general muscle weakness, narrowing of the field of vision and damage to hearing and speech. In extreme cases, insanity, paralysis, coma and death follow within weeks of the onset of symptoms. A congenital form of the disease can also affect fetuses.

Shidehara Dipliomacy

Japan's liberal foreign policy during the 1920s. In 1924, Shidehara became Minister of Foreign Affairs in the cabinet of Prime Minister Katō Takaaki and continued in this post under Prime Ministers Wakatsuki Reijirō and Osachi Hamaguchi. Despite growing Japanese militarism, Shidehara attempted to maintain a non-interventionist policy toward China, and good relations with Great Britain and the United States, which he admired. In his initial speech to the Diet of Japan, he pledged to uphold the principles of the League of Nations. In October 1925, Takaaki surprised other delegates to the Beijing Customs Conference in pushing for agreement to China's demands for tariff autonomy. In March 1927, during the Nanjing Incident, he refused to agree to an ultimatum prepared by other foreign powers threatening retaliation for the actions of Chiang Kai-shek's Guomindang troops for their attacks on foreign consulates and settlements. Disgruntlement by the military over Shidehara's China policies was one of the factors that led to the collapse of the administration of Prime Minister Wakatsuki in April 1927.

The "Lost Decade"

The Lost Decade or the Lost 10 Years (失われた十年? Ushinawareta Jūnen) is a period of economic stagnation in Japan following the Japanese asset price bubble's collapse in late 1991 and early 1992. The term originally referred to the years from 1991 to 2000,[1] but recently the decade from 2001 to 2010 is often included,[2] so that the whole period is referred to as the Lost Score or the Lost 20 Years (失われた二十年, Ushinawareta Nijūnen). Broadly impacting the entire Japanese economy, over the period of 1995 to 2007, GDP fell from $5.33 to $4.36 trillion in nominal terms,[3] real wages fell around 5%,[4] while the country experienced a stagnant price level.[5] While there is some debate on the extent and measurement of Japan's setbacks,[6][7] the economic effect of the Lost Decade is well established and Japanese policymakers continue to grapple with its consequences. It took longer to recover from the impact of these events because the conditions imposed by the new environment were not favorable to the Japanese management style at that time.

Konoe Fumimaro

Prince Fumimaro Konoe, born on October 12th, 1891 was a Japanese politician in the Empire of Japan who served as the 34th, 38th and 39th Prime Minister of Japan and founder/leader of the Imperial Rule Assistance Association. He was Prime Minister in the lead-up to Japan entering World War II. Konoe tried unsuccessfully to restrict the power of the military and to keep Japan's war with China from widening into a world conflict. With the widening of the war following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Konoe came under military surveillance and was forced to leave the centre of politics. After the war, he came under suspicion of war crimes. In December 1945, during the last call by the Americans for alleged war criminals to report to the Americans, he took cyanide poison and committed suicide. - 16 December 1945

The "1955 system"

Refers to functioning multi party system Dominated by one large party

The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere (Japanese: 大東亞共榮圏? Hepburn: Dai Tōa Kyōeiken) was an imperial concept created and promulgated for occupied Asian populations during the first third of the Shōwa era by the government and military of the Empire of Japan. It extended greater than East Asia and promoted the cultural and economic unity of Northeast Asians, Southeast Asians, and Oceanians. It also declared the intention to create a self-sufficient "bloc of Asian nations led by the Japanese and free of Western powers". It was announced in a radio address entitled "The International Situation and Japan's Position" by Foreign Minister Hachirō Arita on June 29, 1940.[1] An Investigation of Global Policy with the Yamato Race as Nucleus—a secret document completed in 1943 for high-ranking government use—laid out the superior position of Japan in the Greater Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, showing the subordination of other nations was part of explicit policy and not forced by the war. It explicitly states the superiority of the Japanese over other Asian races and provides evidence that the Sphere was inherently hierarchical, including the Japanese Empire's true intention of domination over the Asian continent and Pacific Ocean.

Imperial Rule Assistance (IRAA)

The Imperial Rule Assistance Association or Imperial Aid Association, was Japan's fascist organization created by Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe on October 12, 1940 to promote the goals of his Shintaisei ("New Order") movement. It evolved into a "statist" ruling political party which aimed at removing the sectionalism in the politics and economics in the Empire of Japan to create a totalitarian one-party state, in order to maximize efficiency of Japan's total war effort in China.[1] When the organization was launched officially, Konoe was hailed as a "political savior" of a nation in chaos; however, internal divisions soon appeared.

"The Economic Miracle"

The Japanese economic miracle was Japan's record period of economic growth between post-World War II era to the end of Cold War. During the economic boom, Japan rapidly became the world's second largest economy (after the United States) by the 1960s until it was surpassed by the USSR. In the Lost Decade of the 1990s, however, it suffered its longest economic stagnation since World War II.

Korean War

The Korean War (in South Korean Hangul: 한국전쟁; Hanja: 韓國戰爭; RR: Hanguk Jeonjaeng, "Korean War"; in North Korean Chosŏn'gŭl: 조국해방전쟁; Hancha: 祖國解放戰爭; MR: Choguk haebang chǒnjaeng, "Fatherland Liberation War"; 25 June 1950 - 27 July 1953)[36][b][38] began when North Korea invaded South Korea.[39][40] The United Nations, with the United States as the principal force, came to the aid of South Korea. China came to the aid of North Korea, and the Soviet Union gave some assistance. Korea was ruled by Japan from 1910 until the closing days of World War II. In August 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, as a result of an agreement with the United States, and liberated Korea north of the 38th parallel. U.S. forces subsequently moved into the south. By 1948, as a product of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, Korea was split into two regions, with separate governments. Both governments claimed to be the legitimate government of all of Korea, and neither side accepted the border as permanent. The conflict escalated into open warfare when North Korean forces—supported by the Soviet Union and China—moved into the south on 25 June 1950.[41] On that day, the United Nations Security Council recognized this North Korean act as invasion and called for an immediate ceasefire.[42] On 27 June, the Security Council adopted S/RES/83: Complaint of aggression upon the Republic of Korea and decided the formation and dispatch of the UN Forces in Korea. Twenty-one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the UN force, with the United States providing 88% of the UN's military personnel. After the first two months of war, South Korean forces were on the point of defeat, forced back to the Pusan Perimeter. In September 1950, an amphibious UN counter-offensive was launched at Inchon, and cut off many North Korean troops. Those who escaped envelopment and capture were rapidly forced back north all the way to the border with China at the Yalu River, or into the mountainous interior. At this point, in October 1950, Chinese forces crossed the Yalu and entered the war.[41] Chinese intervention triggered a retreat of UN forces which continued until mid-1951. After these reversals of fortune, which saw Seoul change hands four times, the last two years of fighting became a war of attrition, with the front line close to the 38th parallel. The war in the air, however, was never a stalemate. North Korea was subject to a massive bombing campaign. Jet fighters confronted each other in air-to-air combat for the first time in history, and Soviet pilots covertly flew in defense of their communist allies. The fighting ended on 27 July 1953, when an armistice was signed. The agreement created the Korean Demilitarized Zone to separate North and South Korea, and allowed the return of prisoners. However, no peace treaty has been signed, and the two Koreas are technically still at war.[43][44] Periodic clashes, many of which are deadly, continue to the present.

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)

The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan (自由民主党? Jiyū-Minshutō), frequently abbreviated to LDP or Jimintō (自民党?), is a conservative[8] political party in Japan. The LDP has near continuously been in power since its foundation in 1955, with the exception of a period between 1993 and 1994, and again from 2009 to 2012. In the 2012 election it regained control of government. It holds 291 seats in the lower house and 121 seats in the upper house, with the Komeito the governing coalition has the supermajority in both houses. Prime Minister Shinzō Abe and many present and former LDP ministers are also known members of Nippon Kaigi, a controversial monarchist and negationist organization.[9] The LDP is not to be confused with the now-defunct Liberal Party (自由党? Jiyūtō), which merged with the Democratic Party of Japan (民主党? Minshutō), now the Democratic Party (民進党? Minshintō), the main opposition party.[10]

Taisho Democracy

The Taishō period, or 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. 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 Imperial 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.

The Marco Polo Bridge Incident

The Marco Polo Bridge Incident, also known by several other names, was a battle between the Republic of China's National Revolutionary Army and the Imperial Japanese Army. It is often used as the marker for the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945).Small numbers of both Japanese and Chinese soldiers were stationed near what in the West was called the Marco Polo Bridge, because the explorer had seen and described its predecessor, near the town of Wanping outside Beijing. the Japanese were carrying out training exercises without giving the customary notice and a few shots were exchanged between them and the startled Chinese troops. The Japanese discovered that one of their soldiers was missing, thought the Chinese might have captured him and demanded to be allowed to search Wanping for him. The Chinese said they would do the searching themselves, with one Japanese officer accompanying them. Japanese infantry then tried to force their way into Wanping, but were driven back. Both sides sent more troops to the area and on July 8th Japanese infantry and armoured vehicles attacked the bridge and took it, but were driven off again. Attempts were made to settle things, but the incident gave Japanese hawks the excuse to mount a full-scale invasion of China. Hundreds of thousands of troops were sent in. Beijing and Shanghai fell in 1937, as did Nanjing, where Chiang Kai-Shek had established his Kuomintang capital. The fighting was accompanied by vicious atrocities. As many as 100,000 Chinese may have been slaughtered in the so-called Rape of Nanjing. By 1938 much of northern and eastern China had been overrun, including the eastern seaboard. The conflict continued and the two sides plunged into what was to become the Sino-Japanese War (1937-45) and, in 1941, the Pacific theatre of World War II.

The Rape of Nanking

The Nanking Massacre was an episode of mass murder and mass rape committed by Japanese troops against the residents of Nanjing, then the capital of the Republic of China during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The massacre occurred over a period of six weeks starting on December 13, 1937, the day that the Japanese captured Nanjing. During this period, soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army murdered Chinese civilians and disarmed combatants who numbered an estimated 40,000 to over 300,000, and perpetrated widespread rape and looting. Thousands of Chinese women were raped before being murdered. Victims were buried or burned alive, dismembered alive or drowned. Since most Japanese military records on the killings were kept secret or destroyed shortly after the surrender of Japan in 1945, historians have not been able to accurately estimate the death toll of the massacre. It was estimated in 1946 that over 200,000 Chinese were killed in the incident. China's official estimate is more than 300,000 dead based on the evaluation of the Nanjing War Crimes Tribunal in 1947. The event remains a political issue, and is a block in Sino-Japanese relations. Denial of the massacre and revisionist accounts of the killings have become a staple of Japanese nationalism.

The Potsdam Declaration

The Potsdam Declaration or the Proclamation Defining Terms for Japanese Surrender is a statement that called for the surrender of all Japanese armed forces during World War II. On July 26, 1945, United States President Harry S. Truman, United Kingdom Prime Minister Clement Attlee, and Chairman of the Nationalist Government of China Chiang Kai-shek issued the document, which outlined the terms of surrender for the Empire of Japan as agreed upon at the Potsdam Conference. This ultimatum stated that, if Japan did not surrender, it would face "prompt and utter destruction. Japan never officially responded, resulting in The US dropping an Atomic bomb on hiroshima on august 6 and nagasaki on august 9th. August 15, 1945, the Emperor announced his acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration, which culminated in the surrender documents signature on board the USS Missouri on September 2, 1945.

Racial Equality Clause

The Racial Equality Proposal was an amendment to the treaty under consideration at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference offered by the Empire of Japan. After the end of seclusion in the 1850s, Japan signed unequal treaties, but soon wanted to rectify the injustices with Western powers. Correcting inequality became the most urgent international issue of the Meiji government.Japanese delegation to the Paris peace conference proposed the "racial equality clause" to the League of Nations. It was rejected due to the racist overtones the deciding nations still ran with at the time. Though broadly supported, it did not become part of the Treaty of Versailles, largely because of the opposition of Australia and the United States. Its rejection led to the alienation of Japan from the other Great Powers and increased nationalism leading up to World War II.

Yoshida Doctrine

The Yoshida Doctrine, named after Japan's first Prime Minister after World War II Shigeru Yoshida, was a strategy adopted post World War II under Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida, in which economics was to be concentrated upon to reconstruct Japan's domestic economy while the security alliance with the United States would be the guarantor of Japanese security. The Yoshida Doctrine shaped Japanese foreign policy throughout the Cold War era and beyond.[1] Even after its surrender in World War II, the Japanese government continued to function. It held its first post-war election in the spring of 1946. This election was also the first time women were allowed to vote in Japan. Yoshida Shigeru emerged as the winner of the election, becoming Prime Minister. Around the same time, discontent grew over the previous Meiji Constitution, and a desire for an entirely new constitution grew. A small team from a section of SCAP helped draft a new constitution. After some revisions, the Japanese Diet approved this new Constitution in November 1946, it took effect in May 1947, and it continues on today. One important aspect of the Constitution was Article 9 which stated that "the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation" and that military forces "will never be maintained". When Yoshida Shigeru made his policies (the Yoshida Doctrine) Article 9 played a large role.[2]

Hiroshima

The location of the first bomb dropped as a result of Japan never responding to the Potsdam declaration. Dropped on august 6th, 1945, leading to the deaths of almost 250,000 people

The Characteristics of the Taisho Democracy

The postwar era brought Japan unprecedented prosperity. Japan went to the peace conference at Paris in 1919as one of the great military and industrial powers of the world and received official recognition as one of the "Big Five" nations 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 came of age after World War I, giving rise to the nickname for the period, "Taishō Democracy".Japan experienced a groundswell of liberalism in the early twentieth century that was dubbed "Taishō Democracy" by historians in the 1950s.(*1) The term "Taishō Democracy" refers to the flourishing of new ways of thinking, strengthening of social movements, and development of party politics in a period centered on the Taishō era (the reign of Emperor Taishō, 1912-26). From 1924 to 1932, seven successive cabinets were formed by political parties, laying the foundations for genuine party politics in the Diet; this was lauded at the time as "the normal course of constitutional government" and had a high degree of legitimacy. In this article, I will consider the World War I centennial from the perspective of Taishō Democracy, sketching the history of the party politics that developed in Japan's interwar period. Overall, during the 1920s, Japan changed its direction toward a democratic system of government. However, parliamentary government was not rooted deeply enough to withstand the economic and political pressures of the 1930s, during which military leaders became increasingly influential. These shifts in power were made possible by the ambiguity and imprecision of the Meiji Constitution, particularly as regarded the position of the Emperor in relation to the constitution.

The Yasukuni Shrine Controversy

The shrine authorities and the Ministry of Health and Welfare established a system in 1956 for the government to share information with the shrine regarding deceased war veterans. Most of Japan's war dead who were not already enshrined at Yasukuni were enshrined in this manner by April 1959.[13] War criminals prosecuted by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East were initially excluded from enshrinement after the war.[13] Government authorities began considering their enshrinement, along with providing veterans' benefits to their survivors, following the signature of the Treaty of San Francisco in 1951, and in 1954 directed some local memorial shrines to accept the enshrinement of war criminals from their area.[18] No convicted war criminals were enshrined at Yasukuni until after the parole of the last remaining incarcerated war criminals in 1958. The Health and Welfare Ministry began forwarding information on Class B and Class C war criminals (those not involved in the planning, preparation, initiation, or waging of the war) to Yasukuni Shrine in 1959, and these individuals were gradually enshrined between 1959 and 1967, often without permission from surviving family members.[13][18] Information on the fourteen most prominent Class A war criminals, which included the prime ministers and top generals from the war era, was forwarded to the shrine in 1966, and the shrine passed a resolution to enshrine these individuals in 1970. The timing for their enshrinement was left to the discretion of head priest Fujimaro Tsukuba, who delayed the enshrinement through his death in March 1978. His successor Nagayoshi Matsudaira, who rejected the Tokyo war crimes tribunal's verdicts, enshrined the Class A war criminals in a secret ceremony in 1978.[13] Emperor Hirohito, who visited the shrine as recently as 1975, was privately displeased with the action, and subsequently refused to visit the shrine.[19] The details of the enshrinement of war criminals eventually became public in 1979, but there was minimal controversy about the issue for several years.[13] No Emperor of Japan has visited Yasukuni since 1975, although the Emperor and Empress still continue to attend the National Memorial Service for War Dead annually. The head-priest Junna Nakata at Honzen-ji Temple (of the Shingon sect Daigo-ha) requested the pontiff Pope Paul VI to say a Mass for the repose of the souls of the 1,618 men condemned as Class A, B and C war criminals, and he promised to do so. In 1980, Pope John Paul II complied, and a mass was held in St. Peter's Basilica for the 1,618 war criminals.[11] Yasukuni Shrine's museum and web site have made statements criticizing the United States for "convincing" the Empire of Japan to launch the attack on the United States in order just to justify war with the Empire of Japan, as well as claiming that Japan went to war with the intention of creating a "Co-Prosperity Sphere" for all Asians.[20]

US-Japan Mutual Security Treaty

first signed in 1952 at the San Francisco Presidio following the signing of the Treaty of San Francisco (commonly known as the Peace Treaty of San Francisco) at the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House.[dubious - discuss] Then, the Security Treaty was later amended further on January 1960 between the US and Japan in Washington. When the Treaty was first signed, it contained provisions that permitted the United States to act for the sake of maintaining peace in East Asia and even exert its power on Japanese domestic quarrels. The latter part mentioned has been deleted in the revised version of the treaty. In the amended treaty, articles that delineate mutual defense obligations, the US obligations to pre-inform Japan in times of the US army mobilization were included to alleviate unequal status suggested in the treaty signed in 1952.[2] The treaty established that any attack against Japan or the United States perpetrated within Japanese territorial administration would be dangerous to the respective countries' own peace and safety. It requires both countries to act to meet the common danger. To support that requirement, it provided for the continued presence of US military bases in Japan. The treaty also included general provisions on the further development of international cooperation and on improved future economic cooperation.[3] The treaty has lasted longer than any other alliance between two great powers since the 1648 Peace of Westphalia.[4] The treaty had a minimum term of 10 years. However, it provided that it would remain in force permanently unless one party gives one year's notice that it wishes to terminate it.