Background After two centuries, the seclusion policy, or
sakoku, under the
shōguns of the
Edo period came to an end when the country was forced open to trade by the
Convention of Kanagawa which came when American commander
Matthew C. Perry arrived in Japan in 1854. Thus, the period known as
Bakumatsu began. The following years saw increased foreign trade and interaction; commercial treaties between the
Tokugawa shogunate and Western countries were signed. In large part due to the humiliating terms of these
unequal treaties, the shogunate soon faced internal hostility, which materialized into a radical,
xenophobic movement, the
sonnō jōi (literally "Revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians"). In March 1863, the Emperor issued the "
order to expel barbarians." Although the shogunate had no intention of enforcing the order, it nevertheless inspired attacks against the shogunate itself and against foreigners in Japan. The
Namamugi Incident during 1862 led to the murder of an Englishman,
Charles Lennox Richardson, by a party of
samurai from
Satsuma. The British demanded reparations but were denied. While attempting to exact payment, the
Royal Navy was fired on from coastal batteries near the town of
Kagoshima. They responded by
bombarding the port of Kagoshima in 1863. The Tokugawa government agreed to pay an indemnity for Richardson's death. Shelling of foreign shipping in
Shimonoseki and attacks against foreign property led to the
bombardment of Shimonoseki by a multinational force in 1864. The Chōshū clan also launched the failed coup known as the
Kinmon incident. The
Satsuma-Chōshū alliance was established in 1866 to combine their efforts to overthrow the Tokugawa
bakufu. In early 1867,
Emperor Kōmei died of smallpox and was replaced by his son,
Crown Prince Mutsuhito (Meiji). On November 9, 1867,
Tokugawa Yoshinobu resigned from his post and authorities to the emperor, agreeing to "be the instrument for carrying out" imperial orders, leading to the end of the Tokugawa shogunate. However, while Yoshinobu's resignation had created a nominal void at the highest level of government, his apparatus of state continued to exist. Moreover, the shogunal government, the Tokugawa family in particular, remained a prominent force in the evolving political order and retained many executive powers, a prospect hard-liners from Satsuma and Chōshū found intolerable. On January 3, 1868, Satsuma-Chōshū forces seized the
imperial palace in
Kyoto, and the following day had the fifteen-year-old Emperor Meiji declare his own restoration to full power. Although the majority of the imperial consultative assembly was happy with the formal declaration of direct rule by the court and tended to support a continued collaboration with the Tokugawa,
Saigō Takamori, leader of the Satsuma clan, threatened the assembly into abolishing the title
shōgun and ordered the confiscation of Yoshinobu's lands. On January 17, 1868, Yoshinobu declared "that he would not be bound by the proclamation of the Restoration and called on the court to rescind it". On January 24, Yoshinobu decided to prepare an attack on Kyoto, occupied by Satsuma and Chōshū forces. This decision was prompted by his learning of a series of
arson attacks in Edo, starting with the burning of the outworks of
Edo Castle, the main Tokugawa residence.
Boshin War , May 1869; in the foreground, and of the Imperial Japanese Navy The was fought between January 1868 and May 1869. The alliance of samurai from southern and western domains and court officials had now secured the cooperation of the young Emperor Meiji, who ordered the dissolution of the two-hundred-year-old Tokugawa shogunate. Tokugawa Yoshinobu launched a military campaign to seize the emperor's court in Kyoto. However, the tide rapidly turned in favor of the smaller but relatively modernized imperial faction and resulted in defections of many
daimyōs to the Imperial side. The
Battle of Toba–Fushimi was a decisive victory in which a combined army from Chōshū, Tosa, and Satsuma domains defeated the Tokugawa army. A series of battles were then fought in pursuit of supporters of the Shogunate; Edo surrendered to the Imperial forces and afterward, Yoshinobu personally surrendered. Yoshinobu was stripped of all his power by Emperor Meiji and most of Japan accepted the emperor's rule. Pro-Tokugawa remnants retreated to northern Honshū (
Ōuetsu Reppan Dōmei) and later to Ezo (present-day
Hokkaido), where they established the breakaway
Republic of Ezo. An expeditionary force was dispatched by the new government and the Ezo Republic forces were overwhelmed. The
siege of Hakodate came to an end in May 1869 and the remaining forces surrendered.
Meiji era (1868–1912) , the 122nd emperor of Japan The
Charter Oath was made public at the enthronement of Emperor Meiji of Japan on April 7, 1868. The Oath outlined the main aims and the course of action to be followed during Emperor Meiji's reign, setting the legal stage for Japan's modernization. The
Meiji leaders also aimed to boost morale and win financial support for the
new government. , Yamaguchi Masuka,
Iwakura Tomomi,
Itō Hirobumi,
Ōkubo Toshimichi Japan dispatched the
Iwakura Mission in 1871. The mission traveled the world in order to renegotiate the unequal treaties with the United States and European countries that Japan had been forced into during the Tokugawa shogunate, and to gather information on western social and economic systems, in order to effect the modernization of Japan. Renegotiation of the unequal treaties was universally unsuccessful, but close observation of the American and European systems inspired members on their return to bring about modernization initiatives in Japan. Japan made a
territorial delimitation treaty with
Russia in 1875, gaining all the
Kuril islands in exchange for
Sakhalin island. The Japanese government sent observers to Western countries to observe and learn their practices, and also paid "
foreign advisors" in a variety of fields to come to Japan to educate the populace. For instance, the judicial system and
constitution were modeled after
Prussia, described by
Saburō Ienaga as "an attempt to control popular thought with a blend of
Confucianism and
German conservatism." The government also outlawed customs linked to Japan's feudal past, such as publicly displaying and wearing
katana and the
top knot, both of which were characteristic of the samurai class, which was abolished together with the caste system. This would later bring the Meiji government into
conflict with the samurai. Several writers, under the constant threat of assassination from their political foes, were influential in winning Japanese support for
westernization. One such writer was
Fukuzawa Yukichi, whose works included "Conditions in the West", "
Leaving Asia", and "An Outline of a Theory of Civilization", which detailed Western society and his own philosophies. In the Meiji Restoration period, military and economic power was emphasized. Military strength became the means for national development and stability. Imperial Japan became the only non-Western
world power and a major force in
East Asia in about 25 years as a result of industrialization and economic development. As writer
Albrecht Fürst von Urach comments in his booklet "The Secret of Japan's Strength", published in 1942, during the
Axis powers period: The rise of Japan to a world power during the past 80 years is the greatest miracle in world history. The mighty empires of antiquity, the major political institutions of the Middle Ages and the early modern era, the Spanish Empire, the British Empire, all needed centuries to achieve their full strength. Japan's rise has been meteoric. After only 80 years, it is one of the few great powers that determine the fate of the world.
Transposition in social order and cultural destruction In the 1860s, Japan began to experience great social turmoil and rapid modernization. The feudal caste system in Japan formally ended in 1869 with the
Meiji restoration. In 1871, the newly formed
Meiji government issued a decree called
Senmin Haishirei (
賤民廃止令 Edict Abolishing Ignoble Classes) giving
burakumin equal legal status. It is currently better known as the
Kaihōrei (
解放令 Emancipation Edict). However, the elimination of their economic monopolies over certain occupations actually led to a decline in their general living standards, while social discrimination simply continued. For example, the ban on the consumption of meat from livestock was lifted in 1871, and many former
burakumin moved on to work in
abattoirs and as
butchers. However, slow-changing social attitudes, especially in the countryside, meant that abattoirs and workers were met with hostility from local residents. Continued ostracism as well as the decline in living standards led to former
burakumin communities turning into slum areas. In the
blood tax riots, the Japanese Meiji government brutally put down revolts by Japanese samurai angry over the legal revocation of the traditional
untouchable status of burakumin. The social tension continued to grow during the
Meiji period, affecting religious practices and institutions. Conversion from traditional faith was no longer legally forbidden, officials lifted the 250-year ban on Christianity, and missionaries of established Christian churches reentered Japan. The traditional
syncreticism between Shinto and
Buddhism ended. Losing the protection of the Japanese government which Buddhism had enjoyed for centuries, Buddhist monks faced radical difficulties in sustaining their institutions, but their activities also became less restrained by governmental policies and restrictions. As social conflicts emerged in this last decade of the Edo period, some new religious movements appeared, which were directly influenced by
shamanism and
Shinto. Emperor Ogimachi issued edicts to ban Catholicism in 1565 and 1568, but to little effect. Beginning in 1587 with imperial regent Toyotomi Hideyoshi's ban on Jesuit missionaries, Christianity was repressed as a threat to national unity. Under Hideyoshi and the succeeding Tokugawa shogunate, Catholic Christianity was repressed and adherents were persecuted. After the Tokugawa shogunate banned Christianity in 1620, it ceased to exist publicly. Many Catholics went underground, becoming , while others lost their lives. After Japan was opened to foreign powers in 1853, many Christian clergymen were sent from Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox churches, though proselytism was still banned. Only after the Meiji Restoration, was Christianity re-established in Japan. Freedom of religion was introduced in 1871, giving all Christian communities the right to legal existence and preaching.
Eastern Orthodoxy was brought to Japan in the 19th century by St. Nicholas (baptized as Ivan Dmitrievich Kasatkin), who was sent in 1861 by the
Russian Orthodox Church to
Hakodate, Hokkaido as priest to a chapel of the Russian Consulate. St. Nicholas of Japan made his own translation of the
New Testament and some other religious books (
Lenten Triodion,
Pentecostarion,
Feast Services,
Book of Psalms,
Irmologion) into
Japanese. Nicholas has since been canonized as a saint by the
Patriarchate of Moscow in 1970, and is now recognized as St. Nicholas,
Equal-to-the-Apostles to Japan. His commemoration day is February 16.
Andronic Nikolsky, appointed the first Bishop of Kyoto and later martyred as the archbishop of
Perm during the
Russian Revolution, was also canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church as a Saint and Martyr in the year 2000. ,
Nagasaki Divie Bethune McCartee was the first ordained
Presbyterian minister
missionary to visit Japan, in 1861–1862. His gospel
tract translated into Japanese was among the first Protestant literature in Japan. In 1865, McCartee moved back to
Ningbo, China, but others have followed in his footsteps. There was a burst of growth of Christianity in the late 19th century when Japan re-opened its doors to the West. Protestant church growth slowed dramatically in the early 20th century under the influence of the military government during the
Shōwa period. Under the Meiji Restoration, the practices of the samurai classes, deemed feudal and unsuitable for modern times following the end of in 1853, resulted in a number of edicts intended to 'modernise' the appearance of upper class Japanese men. With the Dampatsurei Edict of 1871 issued by Emperor Meiji during the early Meiji Era, men of the samurai classes were forced to cut their hair short, effectively abandoning the chonmage () hairstyle. During the early 20th century, the government was suspicious towards a number of unauthorized religious movements and periodically made attempts to suppress them. Government suppression was especially severe from the 1930s until the early 1940s, when the growth of
Japanese nationalism and
State Shinto were closely linked. Under the Meiji regime
lèse majesté prohibited insults against the Emperor and his Imperial House, and also against some major Shinto shrines which were believed to be tied strongly to the Emperor. The government strengthened its control over religious institutions that were considered to undermine State Shinto or nationalism. The majority of
Japanese castles were
smashed and destroyed in the late 19th century in the Meiji restoration by the Japanese people and government in order to modernize and westernize Japan and break from their past feudal era of the Daimyo and Shoguns. It was only due to the
1964 Summer Olympics in Japan that cheap concrete replicas of those castles were built for tourists. The vast majority of castles in Japan today are new replicas made out of concrete. In 1959 a concrete keep was built for Nagoya castle. During the Meiji restoration's
Shinbutsu bunri, tens of thousands of Japanese Buddhist religious idols and temples were smashed and destroyed. Many statues still lie in ruins. Replica temples were rebuilt with concrete. Japan then closed and shut down tens of thousands of traditional old Shinto shrines in the
Shrine Consolidation Policy and the Meiji government built the new modern
15 shrines of the
Kenmu restoration as a political move to link the Meiji restoration to the Kenmu restoration for their new State Shinto cult. Japanese had to look at old paintings in order to find out what the
Horyuji temple used to look like when they rebuilt it. The rebuilding was originally planned for the Shōwa era. The Japanese used mostly concrete in 1934 to rebuild the
Togetsukyo Bridge, unlike the original destroyed wooden version of the bridge from 836.
Political reform , showing the Prime Minister speaking addressing the House of Peers, 1915 The idea of a written constitution had been a subject of heated debate within and outside of the government since the beginnings of the
Meiji government. The conservative Meiji oligarchy viewed anything resembling
democracy or
republicanism with suspicion and trepidation, and favored a gradualist approach. The
Freedom and People's Rights Movement demanded the immediate establishment of an elected
national assembly, and the promulgation of a constitution. The constitution recognized the need for change and modernization after the removal of the
shogunate: We, the Successor to the prosperous Throne of Our Predecessors, do humbly and solemnly swear to the Imperial Founder of Our House and to Our other Imperial Ancestors that, in pursuance of a great policy co-extensive with the Heavens and with the Earth, We shall maintain and secure from decline the ancient form of government. ... In consideration of the progressive tendency of the course of human affairs and in parallel with the advance of civilization, We deem it expedient, in order to give clearness and distinctness to the instructions bequeathed by the Imperial Founder of Our House and by Our other Imperial Ancestors, to establish fundamental laws.... Imperial Japan was founded,
de jure, after the 1889 signing of Constitution of the Empire of Japan. The constitution formalized much of the Empire's political structure and gave many responsibilities and powers to the Emperor. • Article 1. The Empire of Japan shall be reigned over and governed by a line of Emperors unbroken for ages eternal. • Article 2. The Imperial Throne shall be succeeded to by Imperial male descendants, according to the provisions of the Imperial House Law. • Article 3. The Emperor is sacred and inviolable. • Article 4. The Emperor is the head of the Empire, combining in Himself the rights of sovereignty, and exercises them, according to the provisions of the present Constitution. • Article 5. The Emperor exercises the legislative power with the consent of the Imperial Diet. • Article 6. The Emperor gives sanction to laws, and orders them to be promulgated and executed. • Article 7. The Emperor convokes the Imperial Diet, opens, closes and prorogues it, and dissolves the House of Representatives. • Article 11. The Emperor has the supreme command of the Army and Navy. • Article 12. The Emperor determines the organization and peace standing of the Army and Navy. • Article 13. The Emperor declares war, makes peace, and concludes treaties. • Article 14. The Emperor declares a state of siege. • Article 15. The Emperor confers titles of nobility, rank, orders and other marks of honor. • Article 16. The Emperor orders amnesty, pardon, commutation of punishments and rehabilitation. • Article 17. A Regency shall be instituted in conformity with the provisions of the Imperial House Law. In 1890, the
Imperial Diet was established in response to the Meiji Constitution. The Diet consisted of the
House of Representatives of Japan and the
House of Peers. Both houses opened seats for colonial people as well as Japanese. The Imperial Diet continued until 1947. and the transformation of many
feudal workers to
wage labor. The use of strike action also increased, and 1897, with the establishment of a union for metalworkers, the foundations of the modern
Japanese trade-union movement were formed. Samurai were allowed to work in any occupation they wanted. Admission to universities was determined based on examination results. The government also recruited more than 3,000 Westerners to teach modern science, mathematics, technology, and foreign languages in Japan (
O-yatoi gaikokujin). Despite this,
social mobility was still low due to samurai and their descendants being overrepresented in the new elite class. After sending observers to the United States, the Empire of Japan initially copied the decentralized American system with no central bank. In 1871, the
New Currency Act of Meiji 4 (1871) abolished the local currencies and established the
yen as the new decimal currency. It had parity with the Mexican silver dollar.
First Sino-Japanese War and the cession of Taiwan to Japan The
First Sino-Japanese War, fought in 1894 and 1895, revolved around the issue of control and influence over Korea under the rule of the
Joseon dynasty. Korea had traditionally been a
tributary state of China's
Qing Empire, which exerted large influence over the conservative Korean officials who gathered around the royal family of the Joseon kingdom. On February 27, 1876, after several confrontations between Korean isolationists and the Japanese, Japan imposed the
Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876, forcing Korea open to Japanese trade. The act blocked any other power from dominating Korea, resolving to end the centuries-old Chinese
suzerainty. On June 4, 1894, Korea requested aid from the Qing Empire in suppressing the
Donghak Rebellion. The Qing government sent 2,800 troops to Korea. The Japanese countered by sending an 8,000-troop expeditionary force (the Oshima Composite Brigade) to Korea. The first 400 troops arrived on June 9 en route to
Seoul, and 3,000 landed at
Incheon on June 12. The Qing government turned down Japan's suggestion for Japan and China to cooperate to reform the Korean government. When Korea demanded that Japan withdraw its troops from Korea, the Japanese refused. In early June 1894, the 8,000 Japanese troops captured the Korean king Gojong, occupied the
Royal Palace in Seoul and, by June 25, installed a puppet government in Seoul. The new pro-Japanese Korean government granted Japan the right to expel Qing forces while Japan dispatched more troops to Korea. China objected and war ensued. Japanese ground troops routed the Chinese forces on the
Liaodong Peninsula, and nearly destroyed the Chinese navy in the
Battle of the Yalu River. The
Treaty of Shimonoseki was signed between Japan and China, which ceded the Liaodong Peninsula and the island of
Taiwan to Japan. After the peace treaty, Russia, Germany, and
France forced Japan to withdraw from Liaodong Peninsula in the
Triple Intervention. Soon afterward, Russia occupied the Liaodong Peninsula, built the
Port Arthur fortress, and based the
Russian Pacific Fleet in the port. Germany occupied
Jiaozhou Bay, built Tsingtao fortress and based the German
East Asia Squadron in this port.
Boxer Rebellion . Komura became Minister for Foreign Affairs under the first Katsura administration, and signed the
Boxer Protocol on behalf of Japan. In 1900, Japan joined an international military coalition set up in response to the Boxer Rebellion in the Qing Empire of China. Japan provided the largest contingent of troops: 20,840, as well as 18 warships. Of the total, 20,300 were Imperial Japanese Army troops of the
5th Infantry Division under Lt. General Yamaguchi Motoomi; the remainder were 540 naval
rikusentai (marines) from the
Imperial Japanese Navy. At the beginning of the Boxer Rebellion the Japanese only had 215 troops in northern China stationed at Tientsin; nearly all of them were naval
rikusentai from the and the , under the command of Captain
Shimamura Hayao. The Japanese were able to contribute 52 men to the
Seymour Expedition. On June 12, 1900, the advance of the Seymour Expedition was halted some from the capital, by mixed Boxer and Chinese regular army forces. The vastly outnumbered allies withdrew to the vicinity of
Tianjin, having suffered more than 300 casualties. The
army general staff in Tokyo had become aware of the worsening conditions in China and had drafted ambitious contingency plans, but in the wake of the Triple Intervention five years before, the government refused to deploy large numbers of troops unless requested by the western powers. However three days later, a provisional force of 1,300 troops commanded by Major General
Fukushima Yasumasa was to be deployed to northern China. Fukushima was chosen because he spoke fluent English which enabled him to communicate with the British commander. The force landed near Tianjin on July 5. On June 17, 1900, naval
Rikusentai from the
Kasagi and
Atago had joined British, Russian, and German sailors to seize the
Dagu forts near Tianjin. In light of the precarious situation, the British were compelled to ask Japan for additional reinforcements, as the Japanese had the only readily available forces in the region. Britain at the time was heavily engaged in the
Boer War, so a large part of the British army was tied down in South Africa. Further, deploying large numbers of troops from its
garrisons in India would take too much time and weaken internal security there. Overriding personal doubts, Foreign Minister
Aoki Shūzō calculated that the advantages of participating in an allied coalition were too attractive to ignore. Prime Minister Yamagata agreed, but others in the cabinet demanded that there be guarantees from the British in return for the risks and costs of the major deployment of Japanese troops. On July 6, 1900, the 5th Infantry Division was alerted for possible deployment to China, but no timetable was set for this. Two days later, with more ground troops urgently needed to lift the siege of the foreign legations at Peking, the British ambassador offered the Japanese government one million British pounds in exchange for Japanese participation. Shortly afterward, advance units of the 5th Division departed for China, bringing Japanese strength to 3,800 personnel out of the 17,000 of allied forces. The commander of the 5th Division, Lt. General Yamaguchi Motoomi, had taken operational control from Fukushima. Japanese troops were involved in the
storming of Tianjin on July 14, after which the allies consolidated and awaited the remainder of the 5th Division and other coalition reinforcements. By the time the siege of legations was lifted on August 14, 1900, the Japanese force of 13,000 was the largest single contingent and made up about 40% of the approximately 33,000 strong allied expeditionary force. Japanese troops involved in the fighting had acquitted themselves well, although a British military observer felt their aggressiveness, densely-packed formations, and over-willingness to attack cost them excessive and disproportionate casualties. For example, during the Tianjin fighting, the Japanese suffered more than half of the allied casualties (400 out of 730) but comprised less than one quarter (3,800) of the force of 17,000. Similarly at Beijing, the Japanese accounted for almost two-thirds of the losses (280 of 453) even though they constituted slightly less than half of the assault force. After the uprising, Japan and the Western countries signed the
Boxer Protocol with China, which permitted them to station troops on Chinese soil to protect their citizens. After the treaty, Russia continued to occupy all of
Manchuria.
Russo-Japanese War The
Russo-Japanese War was a conflict for control of Korea and parts of Manchuria between the Russian Empire and Empire of Japan that took place from 1904 to 1905. The victory greatly raised Japan's stature in the world of global politics. The war is marked by the Japanese opposition of Russian interests in Korea, Manchuria, and China, notably, the Liaodong Peninsula, controlled by the city of
Ryojun. Originally, in the Treaty of Shimonoseki, Ryojun had been given to Japan. This part of the treaty was overruled by Western powers, which gave the port to the Russian Empire, furthering Russian interests in the region. These interests came into conflict with Japanese interests. The war began with a surprise attack on the Russian Eastern fleet stationed at Port Arthur, which was followed by the
Battle of Port Arthur. Those elements that attempted escape were defeated by the Japanese navy under Admiral Togo Heihachiro at the
Battle of the Yellow Sea. Following a late start, the Russian Baltic fleet was denied passage through the British-controlled
Suez Canal. The fleet arrived on the scene a year later, only to be annihilated in the
Battle of Tsushima. While the ground war did not fare as poorly for the Russians, the Japanese forces were significantly more aggressive than their Russian counterparts and gained a political advantage that culminated with the
Treaty of Portsmouth, negotiated in the United States by the
American president Theodore Roosevelt. As a result, Russia lost the part of
Sakhalin Island south of
50 degrees North latitude (which became
Karafuto Prefecture), as well as many mineral rights in Manchuria. In addition, Russia's defeat cleared the way for Japan to
annex Korea outright in 1910.
Annexation of Korea In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, various Western countries actively competed for influence, trade, and territory in East Asia, and Japan sought to join these modern colonial powers. The newly modernized Meiji government of Japan turned to Korea (under the Joseon dynasty), then in the
sphere of influence of China's Qing dynasty. The Japanese government initially sought to separate Korea from Qing and make Korea a Japanese
puppet state in order to advance their security and national interests. In January 1876, following the Meiji Restoration, Japan employed
gunboat diplomacy to pressure the Joseon Dynasty into signing the
Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876, which granted
extraterritorial rights to Japanese citizens and opened three Korean ports to Japanese trade. The rights granted to Japan under this
unequal treaty, were similar to those granted western powers in Japan following the visit of Commodore Perry. With its Western allies, notably the United Kingdom, heavily involved in the war in Europe, Japan
dispatched a Naval fleet to the
Mediterranean Sea to aid Allied shipping. The
Anglo-Japanese Alliance was renewed and expanded in scope twice, in 1905 and 1911, before its demise in 1921. It was officially terminated in 1923. At the
Paris Peace Conferences, Japan participated as one of the "Big Five" victorious Allied powers, solidifying its status as a major global power. Japan successfully secured German territorial rights in Shandong, China, and mandates over Pacific islands. However, its proposal for a "
racial equality clause" in the
League of Nations Covenant was rejected by Western colonial powers, leading to increased resentment in Japan and a growing belief that international respect could only be secured through military strength.
Siberian Intervention ,
Vladivostok during the
Allied intervention After the fall of the Tsarist regime and the later provisional regime in 1917, the new
Bolshevik government signed a separate peace
treaty with Germany. After this, various factions that succeeded the Russian Empire fought among themselves in
a multi-sided civil war. In July 1918, President Wilson asked the Japanese government to supply 7,000 troops as part of an international coalition of 25,000 troops planned to support the
American Expeditionary Force Siberia. Prime Minister
Terauchi Masatake agreed to send 12,000 troops but under the Japanese command rather than as part of an international coalition. The Japanese had several hidden motives for the venture, which included an intense hostility and fear of
communism; a determination to recoup historical losses to Russia; and the desire to settle the
"northern problem" in Japan's security, either through the creation of a buffer state or through outright territorial acquisition. By November 1918, more than 70,000
Japanese troops under Chief of Staff
Yui Mitsue had occupied all ports and major towns in the
Russian Maritime Provinces and eastern
Siberia. Japan received 765
Polish orphans from Siberia. In June 1920, around 450 Japanese civilians and 350 Japanese soldiers, along with
Russian White Army supporters, were massacred by partisan forces associated with the
Red Army at
Nikolayevsk on the Amur River; the United States and its allied coalition partners consequently withdrew from Vladivostok after the capture and execution of White Army leader Admiral
Aleksandr Kolchak by the Red Army. However, the Japanese decided to stay, primarily due to fears of the spread of Communism so close to Japan and Japanese-controlled Korea and Manchuria. The Japanese army provided military support to the Japanese-backed
Provisional Priamurye Government based in Vladivostok against the Moscow-backed
Far Eastern Republic. The continued Japanese presence concerned the United States, which suspected that Japan had territorial designs on Siberia and the Russian Far East. Subjected to intense diplomatic pressure by the United States and United Kingdom, and facing increasing domestic opposition due to the economic and human cost, the administration of Prime Minister
Katō Tomosaburō withdrew the Japanese forces in October 1922. Japanese casualties from the expedition were 5,000 dead from combat or illness, with the expedition costing over 900 million yen.
Rise of militarism and its social organizations in the 1920s Important institutional links existed between the party in government (
Kōdōha) and military and political organizations, such as the
Imperial Young Federation and the "Political Department" of the
Kempeitai (the
military police). Among the himitsu kessha (
secret societies), the
Kokuryu-kai and Kokka Shakai Shugi Gakumei (National Socialist League) also had close ties to the government. The
Tonarigumi (residents committee) groups, the Nation Service Society (national government trade union), and
Imperial Farmers Association were all allied with the government as well. Other organizations and groups related with the government in wartime were the
Double Leaf Society,
Kokuhonsha,
Taisei Yokusankai,
Imperial Youth Corps,
Keishichō (to 1945), Shintoist Rites Research Council,
Treaty Faction,
Fleet Faction, and
Volunteer Fighting Corps. Japanese militarists were furious at the outcome of the
Washington Naval Conferences of 1921–1922, viewing them as deliberate attempts by Western powers to limit its geopolitical rise, undermined its security and denied its status as an equal global power. Initially, the moderate pro-democracy forces in Japan accepted the need for naval arms reductions on the grounds that an arms race would place a heavy burden on the Japanese economy. The head of the Japanese delegation to the Conference, Naval Minister
Katō Tomosaburō, recognized that mutual arms reductions could work in Japan’s favor. In exchange for accepting limits on its own naval power, the U.S. would have to reduce the size of their fleet, making it less of a threat to Japanese interests in the Pacific. The resulting naval ratio, which restricted Japan to a smaller fleet than the U.S. and Great Britain was later viewed as a national humiliation, especially after the Great Depression, as Japan was heavily dependent upon imports to keep its economy afloat. The militarists would later successfully opposed new disarmament efforts during the
1930 London Naval Treaty. Furthermore, the passage of the
Immigration Act of 1924 (also known as the Johnson-Reed Act) in the United States caused significant anger and outrage in Japan. The act specifically banned immigration from Asia, particularly targeting Japanese immigrants. Prior to 1924, immigration was controlled by the
1907 Gentlemen's Agreement, which allowed Japan to a leeway by voluntarily restricting emigration to the U.S. The 1924 act disregarded the 1907 deal and implemented a strict legal ban.
"Taishō Democracy" is credited as being the first Japanese party leader and an important force for liberalism in Meiji Japan. 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". 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 thoughts, mounted large but orderly public demonstrations in favor of universal male suffrage in 1919 and 1920. On September 1, 1923, at a magnitude of 7.9, an
earthquake struck Kantō Plain. The death toll was estimated to have exceeded to 140,000 lives lost. On the same day, the Imperial Japanese Army and its nationalists began committing a
massacre of Korean residents after scapegoating them for the disaster. The disaster also prompted the government to declare martial law, ushering in the largest domestic deployment of the army in Japanese history. This established a lasting "emergency" (hijōji) mentality, where the state prioritized control over democratic freedoms. Elites and conservatives used the catastrophe to frame the disaster as "divine punishment" (tenbatsu) for the hedonisma and materialism caused by westernized democracy. This provided them with a pretext to promote militarism and weakened the Taishō Democracy. In the infamous
Amakasu Incident, military police murdered anarchist
Sakae Ōsugi and his partner,
Noe Itō, signaling an increase in political repression. The election of
Katō Komei as Prime Minister of Japan continued democratic reforms that had been advocated by influential individuals on the left. This culminated in the passage of universal male suffrage in March 1925. This bill gave all male subjects over the age of 25 the right to vote, provided they had lived in their electoral districts for at least one year and were not homeless. The electorate thereby increased from 3.3 million to 12.5 million. In the political milieu of the day, there was a proliferation of new parties, including
socialist and
communist parties. Fear of a broader electorate, left-wing power, and the growing social change 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. In 1932, Park Chun-kum, a Korean, was elected to the House of Representatives in the
1932 Japanese general election as the first person elected from a colonial background. In 1935,
democracy was introduced through limited elections in Taiwan and in response to Taiwanese public opinion, local assemblies were established. In 1942, 38 colonial people were elected to local assemblies of the Japanese homeland.
Early Shōwa (1926–1941) during an army inspection on January 8, 1938
Hirohito ascended to the throne on 25 December 1926, upon the death of his father
Emperor Taishō, beginning the
Shōwa era. He would rule Japan as the 126th emperor to claim direct descent from
Amaterasu, the Japanese
goddess of the sun. 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.
Nationalism and decline of democracy Sadao Araki was an important figurehead and founder of the Army party and the most important militarist thinker in his time. His first ideological works date from his leadership of the Kōdōha (Imperial Benevolent Rule or Action Group), opposed by the
Tōseiha (Control Group) led by General
Kazushige Ugaki. He linked the ancient (
bushido code) and contemporary local and
German and
Italian fascist ideals (see
Kokkashugi), to form the ideological basis of the movement (Shōwa nationalism). From September 1931, the Japanese were becoming more locked into the course that would lead them into the Second World War, with Araki leading the way. Increasing
totalitarianism,
ultranationalism,
militarism, and
expansionism were to become the rule, with fewer voices able to speak against it. In a September 23 news conference, Araki first mentioned the philosophy of "Kōdōha" (The
Imperial Way Faction). The concept of Kodo linked the Emperor, the people, land, and morality as indivisible. This led to the creation of a "new" Shinto and increased
Emperor worship. In 1931, the ruling liberal
Rikken Minseitō opposed the
Mukden Incident, which was engineered by the military as a pretext for an invasion into Manchuria. The anti-war Foreign Minister
Kijuro Shidehara and Prime Minister
Wakatsuki Reijirō formally opposed the military's actions to seize Manchuria and aimed to keep the incident contained. Known for "Shidehara Diplomacy"—a policy of economic expansion and non-intervention in China—he tried to resolve the crisis through diplomatic negotiation. The army ignored the Cabinet’s "non-expansion" policy and continued to expand the invasion, forcing the government into a position of helplessness. Strong criticism from military interests and public opinion regarding the handling of the crisis, combined with internal political sabotage, led to the resignation of the Wakatsuki Cabinet in December 1931 and ended liberal efforts at conciliation. Following the collapse of the government, the right-wing
Rikken Seiyūkai led by
Inukai Tsuyoshi took power, leading to a pro-military stance and the eventual establishment of the Manchukuo puppet state. In the early months of 1932, ultra-nationalist extremists, led by radical Buddhist preacher
Nisshō Inoue, aimed to assassinate 20 prominent wealthy businessmen and liberal politicians to end party democracy and restore power to the Emperor. The plot, known later as the
League of Blood Incident (Ketsumeidan Jiken) eventually resulted in the murders of former Finance Minister
Junnosuke Inoue and businessman
Dan Takuma, that further fueled rising militarism through the erosion of the rule of law and Taishō democratic institutions and the legitimization of violence as a patriotic act. Despite Inukai being a right-winger, he remained commited to democracy rather than outright endorsed a military dictatorship desired by radicals. Inukai tried to restrain the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy from initiating further unauthorized actions in China, specifically halted any further expansion of the Manchurian Incident and sought to curb the political influence of junior officers who were acting on their own initiative. Inukai withheld formal recognition of the newly created puppet state of Manchukuo, intending to find a diplomatic resolution to which both China and Japan could agree on. The move was seen as a major betrayal by the radical hardliners who wanted complete independence for Manchukuo. He then attempted to resolve tensions over the
Shanghai Incident through diplomatic channels rather than military conquest, further angering military hardliners. Months later, on 15 May 1932, during a failed coup d'état attempt (the
May 15 Incident) by young militant naval officers, Prime Minister Inukai was assassinated, effectively ending Taishō democracy in the Empire of Japan. Civilian rule was replaced by "national unity" cabinets, which were dominated by bureaucrats and military leaders, accelerating Japan's shift toward militarism and imperialism. On February 26, 1936, a coup d'état was attempted (the
February 26 Incident). Launched by the ultranationalist
Kōdōha faction (Imperial Way faction) within the military, it ultimately failed due to the intervention of the Emperor. Kōdōha members were purged from the top military positions and the established
Tōseiha (Control faction) gained dominance. Both had differing views on how the military should operated (Kōdōha's spiritual holy war versus Tōseiha industrialization) and the nature of the threats to the system (communist Soviet Union versus the Western naval powers). However, both factions believed in expansionism, a strong military, and a impending war. Furthermore, Kōdōha members, while removed from the military, still had political influence within the government. By 1937, the state was effectively being transformed to serve the Army and the Emperor. Symbolic
katana swords came back into fashion as the martial embodiment of these beliefs, and the
Nambu pistol became its contemporary equivalent, with the implicit message that the Army doctrine of close combat would prevail. The final objective, as envisioned by Army thinkers such as
Sadao Araki and right-wing line followers, was a return to the old Shogunate system, but in the form of a contemporary Military Shogunate. In such a government, the Emperor would once more be a figurehead (as in the Edo period). Real power would fall to a leader very similar to a führer or duce, though with the power less nakedly held. On the other hand, the traditionalist Navy militarists defended the Emperor and a constitutional monarchy with a significant religious aspect. A third point of view was supported by
Prince Chichibu, a brother of
Emperor Shōwa, who repeatedly counseled him to implement a
direct imperial rule, even if that meant suspending the constitution.
One-party state With the launching of the
Imperial Rule Assistance Association as a ruling party in Japan on October 12, 1940, by Prime Minister
Fumimaro Konoe, Japan would turn to a
one-party form of government. There have been debates among historians over defining the political system of Japan as a dictatorship, as
fascist, The arguments in favor of the definitions "dictatorship" and "fascist" were "the subordination of both country and society to militarism, control by a rigid style of leadership exercising authoritarian discipline, and the most brutal treatment of occupied areas."
Robert Paxton wrote that Japan "is better understood" as a
military dictatorship than a fascist regime, but the term "military dictatorship" has been criticized by such scholars as
Ben-Ami Shillony;
Edwin Palmer Hoyt uses the term "
oligarchy" and notes that it was not led by a dictator, but by the officers known as
gunbatsu. The opponents, such as
Stanley G. Payne, have noted that the Japanese far-right organizations lacked a mass movement similar to the mass Fascist movement in Europe. According to Payne, Japan was a "somewhat pluralistic authoritarian system which exhibited some of the characteristics of fascism, but it did not develop fascism's most distinctive and revolutionary aspects" and had more in common with the
German Empire during World War I than with the Third Reich. It was also noted that this political system lacked the figure of a single person with an absolute authority and a
personality cult, since Hirohito couldn't be referred to as a dictator because of being a monarch, and since his authority existed along with party politics, while Hideki Tojo never had an absolute authority and was forced to resign, while the IRAA, according to
Roger Griffin, was "little more than a bureaucratic fiction." S. J. Lee believes that the ideological base "was traditional", as opposed to "revolutionary" ideologies required by the Western theories of totalitarianism, "even if the methods of communication and control were modern and European," and that the traditional society of Japan was "to a large degree differential", while its institutions remained too elitist and conservative to follow such practices as a "democratic mass mobilization" characteristic of totalitarianism, so he defines this system as
authoritarian as opposed to totalitarian. However, such Western historians as Griffin acknowledge that this system had traits of fascism; while designating Italy and Germany as the only fascist regimes, he calls Japan "
para-fascist", a system which "emulated" fascist systems but was not one, similarly to
Vichy France and
Francoist Spain. Elise K. Tipton rejects the terms totalitarian-authoritarian paradigm on the grounds that it presents a false understanding both of
Nazi Germany and the
Soviet Union and all the regimes called totalitarian (
see Totalitarianism#Nazism and Fascism on this kind of critique), and the term "dictatorship", and instead proposes the term
police state, which she believes to be more accurate. Tsuda put forward the then-controversial theory that accounts in the chronicle were not based on history (as Edo period and State Shinto ideology believed) but rather on propagandistic myths concocted to explain and legitimize the rule of the imperial dynasty. Tsuda also saw the
deity Susanoo as a negative figure, arguing that he was created to serve as the rebellious opposite of the imperial ancestress Amaterasu. Tsuda's view of history has become mainstream after World War II. Many scholars today also believe that the mythology of the heavenly plane of
Takamagahara in was created by the
ruling class to make people believe that the class was precious for originating there. During the Second Sino-Japanese War and the
Second World War, the firm
Iwanami Shoten was repeatedly censored because of its positions against the war and the Emperor. Publisher
Shigeo Iwanami was even sentenced to two months in prison (later acquitted) for the publication of Tsuda's banned works. Shortly before his death in 1946, he founded the newspaper
Sekai, which had a great influence in post-war Japanese intellectual circles.
Economic factors , March 1927 During the 1920s, the whole global economy was dubbed as "a decade of global uncertainty". At the same time, the
zaibatsu trading groups (principally
Mitsubishi,
Mitsui,
Sumitomo, and
Yasuda) looked towards great future expansion. Their main concern was a shortage of raw materials. Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe combined social concerns with the needs of capital, and planned for expansion. Their economic growth was stimulated by certain domestic policies and it can be seen in the steady and progressive increase of materials such as in the iron, steel and chemical industry. The main goals of Japan's expansionism were acquisition and protection of spheres of influence, maintenance of territorial integrity, acquisition of raw materials, and access to Asian markets. Western nations, notably the United Kingdom, France, and the United States, had for long exhibited great interest in the commercial opportunities in China and other parts of Asia. These opportunities had attracted Western investment because of the availability of raw materials for both domestic production and re-export to Asia. Japan desired these opportunities in planning the development of the
Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. The
Great Depression, just as in many other countries, hindered Japan's economic growth. The Japanese Empire's main problem lay in that rapid industrial expansion had turned the country into a major manufacturing and industrial power that required raw materials; however, these had to be obtained from overseas, as there was a critical lack of natural resources on the home islands. In the 1920s and 1930s, Japan needed to import raw materials such as iron, rubber, and oil to maintain strong economic growth. Most of these resources came from the United States. The Japanese felt that acquiring resource-rich territories would establish economic self-sufficiency and independence, and they also hoped to jump-start the nation's economy in the midst of the depression. As a result, Japan set its sights on East Asia, specifically Manchuria with its many resources; Japan needed these resources to continue its economic development and maintain national integrity.
Architecture In the early twentieth century, a distinctive style of architecture was developed for the empire. Now referred to as
Imperial Crown Style (帝冠様式,
teikan yōshiki), before the end of World War II, it was originally referred to as ''Emperor's Crown Amalgamate Style
, and sometimes Emperor's Crown Style'' (帝冠式, Teikanshiki). The style is identified by Japanese-style roofing on top of
Neoclassical styled buildings; and can have a centrally elevated structure with a pyramidal dome. The prototype for this style was developed by architect
Shimoda Kikutaro in his proposal for the Imperial Diet Building (present National Diet Building) in 1920 – although his proposal was ultimately rejected. Outside of the Japanese mainland, in places like
Taiwan and
Korea, Imperial Crown Style architecture often included regional architectural elements.
Prewar expansionism Manchuria ,
Northeast China during the
Mukden Incident, 1931 In 1931, Japan, under a false pretext of claimed Chinese sabotage of a railway bridge in
Mukden, launched a limited invasion into
China. Mid-level officers of the
Kwantung Army had aimed to seize the resource-rich region to secure economic stability, counter the Soviet Union influence and expand the Japanese Empire, all while bypassing civilian government oversight. They soon conquered Northeast China (Manchuria) with little resistance. Japan claimed that this invasion was a liberation of the local
Manchus from the Chinese, although the majority of the population were
Han Chinese as a result of the
large scale settlement of Chinese in Manchuria in the 19th century. Japan then established a
puppet state called
Manchukuo (), and installed the last
Manchu Emperor of China,
Puyi, as the official
head of state.
Rehe, a Chinese territory bordering Manchukuo, was later also taken in 1933. This puppet regime had to carry on a protracted pacification campaign against the
Anti-Japanese Volunteer Armies in Manchuria. In 1936, Japan created a similar Mongolian puppet state in Inner Mongolia named
Mengjiang (), which was also predominantly Chinese as a result of recent Han immigration to the area. At that time, East Asians were banned from immigration to
North America and
Australia, but the newly established Manchukuo was open to immigration of Asians. Japan had an emigration plan to encourage colonization; the Japanese population in Manchuria subsequently grew to 850,000. With rich natural resources and labor force in Manchuria, army-owned corporations turned Manchuria into a solid material support machine of the Japanese Army.
Second Sino-Japanese War ) in China, on August 13, 1937. Japanese troops are shown passing from Beiping into the Tartar City through
Zhengyangmen, the main gate leading onward to the palaces in the
Forbidden City. Japan invaded China proper in 1937, beginning a war against both
Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists and also the Communists of
Mao Zedong's
united front. On December 13 of that same year, the Nationalist capital of
Nanjing surrendered to Japanese troops. In the event known as the
Nanjing Massacre, Japanese troops killed many tens-of-thousands of people associated with the defending garrison. It is estimated that around 100,000 to 200,000 including civilians, have been killed. In total, an estimated 20 million Chinese, mostly civilians, were killed during World War II.
A puppet state was also set up in China quickly afterwards, headed by
Wang Jingwei. The Second Sino-Japanese War continued into World War II with the Communists and Nationalists in a temporary and uneasy nominal alliance against the Japanese.
Clashes with the Soviet Union In 1938, the Japanese 19th Division entered territory claimed by the Soviet Union, leading to the
Battle of Lake Khasan. This incursion was founded in the Japanese belief that the Soviet Union misinterpreted the demarcation of the boundary, as stipulated in the
Treaty of Peking, between Imperial Russia and Manchu China (and subsequent supplementary agreements on demarcation), and furthermore, that the demarcation markers were tampered with. On May 11, 1939, in the Nomonhan Incident
(Battle of Khalkhin Gol), a Mongolian cavalry unit of some 70 to 90 men entered the disputed area in search of grazing for their horses, and encountered Manchukuoan cavalry, who drove them out. Two days later the Mongolian force returned and the Manchukoans were unable to evict them. The
IJA 23rd Division and other units of the
Kwantung Army then became involved.
Joseph Stalin ordered
Stavka, the Red Army's high command, to develop a plan for a counterstrike against the Japanese. In late August,
Georgy Zhukov employed encircling tactics that made skillful use of superior artillery, armor, and air forces; this offensive nearly annihilated the 23rd Division and decimated the
IJA 7th Division. On September 15, an armistice was arranged after Japan recognized it could not effectively fight the Soviet Union while engaged in China. Nearly two years later, on April 13, 1941, the parties signed the
Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact, in which the Soviet Union pledged to respect the territorial integrity and inviolability of Manchukuo, while Japan agreed similarly for the
Mongolian People's Republic.
Korean rebellion The
Korean resistance against Japan had evolved into a full armed struggle by the exiled
Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea (KPG) whose armed wing conducted underground sabotage against the Japanese on the occupied
Korean Peninsula. The KPG, based in Chongqing, and backed by the Allied forces would formally declared war on Japan in 1941, while others, such as the communists (including one that goes by the name of
Kim il-Sung) would engaged in guerrilla warfare against Japan in Manchuria.
Tripartite Pact , September 27, 1940, in
Berlin,
Nazi Germany In 1938, Japan prohibited the expulsion of the
Jews in Japan, Manchuria, and
China in accordance with the spirit of
racial equality on which Japan had insisted for many years. The Second Sino-Japanese War had seen tensions rise between Imperial Japan and the United States; events such as the
Panay incident and the Nanjing Massacre turned American public opinion against Japan. With the occupation of
French Indochina in the years of 1940–41, and with the continuing war in China, the United States and its allies placed embargoes on Japan of
strategic materials such as scrap metal and oil, which were vitally needed for the war effort. The Japanese were faced with the option of either withdrawing from China and losing face or seizing and securing new sources of raw materials in the resource-rich, European-controlled colonies of
Southeast Asia—specifically
British Malaya and the
Dutch East Indies (modern-day
Indonesia). On September 27, 1940, Japan signed the
Tripartite Pact with
Germany and
Italy. Their objectives were to "establish and maintain a new order of things" in their respective world regions and spheres of influence, with Germany and Italy in Europe, and Japan in Asia. The signatories of this
alliance became known as the
Axis powers. The pact also called for mutual protection—if any one of the member powers was attacked by a country not already at war, excluding the
Soviet Union and for technological and economic cooperation between the signatories.
World War II (1941–1945) On November 5, 1941, Yamamoto issued his "Top Secret Operation Order no. 1" to the Combined Fleet. This document lays out the position that the Empire of Japan must drive out Britain and America from Greater East Asia, and hasten the settlement of China. Once Britain and America were driven out from the Philippines and Dutch East Indies, an independent, self-supporting economic entity was to be established, mirroring the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Facing an
oil embargo by the United States and its allies as well as dwindling domestic reserves, the Japanese government decided to execute a plan developed by
Isoroku Yamamoto to attack the
United States Pacific Fleet in
Hawaii. While the United States was
neutral and continued negotiating with Japan for possible peace in Asia, the Imperial Japanese Navy at the same time made its surprise
attack on Pearl Harbor in
Honolulu on December 7, 1941. As a result, the U.S. battleship fleet was decimated and almost 2,500 people died in the attack that day. The primary objective of the attack was to incapacitate the United States long enough for Japan to establish its long-planned South East Asian empire and defensible buffer zones. The American public saw the attack as barbaric and treacherous and rallied against the Japanese. Four days later,
Adolf Hitler of Germany, and
Benito Mussolini of Italy declared war on the United States, merging the separate conflicts into a total world war. The United States entered the
European Theatre and
Pacific Theater in full force, thereby bringing the United States to World War II on the side of the
Allies. Even as they launched the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese were well aware that the United States had the capability to mount a counter-offensive against them. However, they believed that they could maintain their defensive perimeter and push back any attempt by the British and Americans that could incur enough losses to make the Allied forces consider making peace on the basis of Japan's retainment of the territories she had gained.
Japanese conquests following the
city's capture in February 1942 Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese simultaneously launched offensives against Allied forces in East and Southeast Asia, with simultaneous attacks in
British Hong Kong, British Malaya and the
Philippines.
Hong Kong surrendered to the Japanese on December 25. In
Malaya the Japanese overwhelmed an Allied army composed of British, Indian,
Australian and
Malay forces. The Japanese were quickly able to advance down the
Malayan Peninsula, forcing the Allied forces to retreat towards
British Singapore. The Allies lacked aircover and tanks; the Japanese had complete air superiority. The
sinking of HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse on December 10, 1941, led to the east coast of Malaya being exposed to Japanese landings and the elimination of British naval power in the area. By the end of January 1942, the last Allied forces crossed the strait of Johore and into Singapore. On January 11, 1942, a Japanese submarine shelled the United States naval Station at Pago Pago in Samoa, suggesting that the Japanese were advancing to the direction of Australia and nearby Oceanic regions. In
the Philippines, the Japanese pushed the combined American-Filipino force towards
the Bataan Peninsula and later the
island of Corregidor. By January 1942,
General Douglas MacArthur and President
Manuel L. Quezon were
forced to flee in the face of Japanese advance. This marked one of the worst defeats suffered by the Americans, leaving over 70,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war in the custody of the Japanese. On February 15, 1942,
Singapore, due to the overwhelming superiority of Japanese forces and encirclement tactics,
fell to the Japanese, causing the largest
surrender of British-led military personnel in history. An estimated 80,000 Australian, British and Indian troops were taken as
prisoners of war, joining 50,000 taken in the Japanese invasion of Malaya (modern day
Malaysia). The Japanese then seized the key oil production zones of
Borneo,
Central Java,
Malang,
Cebu,
Sumatra, and
Dutch New Guinea of the late
Dutch East Indies, defeating the
Dutch forces. However, Allied sabotage had made it difficult for the Japanese to restore oil production to its pre-war peak. The Japanese then consolidated their lines of supply through capturing key islands of the
Pacific, including
Guadalcanal.
Tide turns Japanese military strategists were keenly aware of the unfavorable discrepancy between the industrial potential of Japan and the United States. Because of this they reasoned that Japanese success hinged on their ability to extend the strategic advantage gained at
Pearl Harbor with additional rapid strategic victories. The Japanese Command reasoned that only decisive destruction of the United States' Pacific Fleet and conquest of its remote outposts would ensure that the Japanese Empire would not be overwhelmed by America's industrial might. In April 1942, Japan was bombed for the first time in the
Doolittle Raid. During the same month, after the Japanese victory in the Battle of Bataan, the
Bataan Death March was conducted, where 5,650 to 18,000 Filipinos died under the rule of the imperial army. In May 1942, failure to decisively defeat the Allies at the
Battle of the Coral Sea, in spite of Japanese numerical superiority, equated to a strategic defeat for the Japanese. This setback was followed in June 1942 by the catastrophic loss of four fleet carriers at the
Battle of Midway, the first decisive defeat for the Imperial Japanese Navy. It proved to be the turning point of the war as the Navy lost its offensive strategic capability and never managed to reconstruct the "'critical mass' of both large numbers of carriers and well-trained air groups". Australian land forces defeated Japanese Marines in New Guinea at the
Battle of Milne Bay in September 1942, which was the first land defeat suffered by the Japanese in the Pacific. Further victories by the Allies at
Guadalcanal in September 1942 and
New Guinea in 1943 put the Empire of Japan on the defensive for the remainder of the war, with Guadalcanal in particular sapping their already-limited oil supplies. In the subsequent months, during the
Philippines campaign (1944–45), the Allies, including the combined United States forces together with the native guerrilla units, recaptured the Philippines.
Surrender on July 24 during a
series of bombings. By 1944, the Allies had seized or bypassed and neutralized many of Japan's strategic bases through amphibious landings and bombardment. This, coupled with the losses inflicted by
Allied submarines on Japanese shipping routes, began to strangle Japan's economy and undermine its ability to supply its army. By early 1945, the US Marines had wrested control of the
Ogasawara Islands in several hard-fought
island-hopping battles such as the
Battle of Iwo Jima, marking the beginning of the fall of the islands of Japan. After securing airfields in
Saipan and
Guam in the summer of 1944, the
United States Army Air Forces conducted an intense
strategic bombing campaign by having
B-29 Superfortress bombers in nighttime low altitude incendiary raids, burning Japanese cities in an effort to pulverize Japan's war industry and
shatter its morale. The
Operation Meetinghouse raid on Tokyo on the night of March 9–10, 1945, led to the deaths of approximately 120,000 civilians. Approximately 350,000–500,000 civilians died in 67 Japanese cities as a result of the
incendiary bombing campaign on Japan. Concurrent with these attacks, Japan's vital coastal shipping operations were severely hampered with extensive aerial mining by the US's
Operation Starvation. Regardless, these efforts did not succeed in persuading the Japanese military to surrender. In mid-August 1945, the United States dropped
nuclear weapons on the Japanese cities of
Hiroshima and
Nagasaki. These bombings were the first and, remained to the present day, the only combat use of nuclear weaponry. These two bombs killed approximately 120,000 people in a matter of seconds, and as many as a result of
nuclear radiation in the following weeks, months and years. The bombs killed as many as 140,000 people in Hiroshima and 80,000 in Nagasaki by the end of 1945. At the same time, during the
Yalta Conference, the US, the UK, and the USSR (Soviet Union) had agreed that the USSR would enter the war on Japan within three months of the defeat of Germany in Europe. This
Soviet–Japanese War led to the fall of Japan's Manchurian occupation, Soviet occupation of
South Sakhalin island, and a real, imminent threat of Soviet invasion of the home islands of Japan. This was a significant factor for some internal parties in the Japanese decision to surrender to the US and gain some protection, rather than face simultaneous Soviet invasion as well as defeat by the US and its allies. Likewise, the
superior numbers of the armies of the Soviet Union in Europe was a factor in the US decision to demonstrate the use of atomic weapons to the USSR, just as the Allied victory in Europe was evolving into the
division of Germany and Berlin, the division of Europe with the
Iron Curtain and the subsequent
Cold War. Having ignored (
mokusatsu) the
Potsdam Declaration, the Empire of Japan surrendered and
ended World War II after the
atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the declaration of war by the Soviet Union and subsequent
invasion of Manchuria and other territories. In a national radio address on August 15,
Hirohito announced the surrender to the Japanese people by
Gyokuon-hōsō.
End of the Empire of Japan Occupation of Japan on November 1, 1945, following the
end of the Second World War. In the foreground are several Allied soldiers watching the proceedings from the back of the balcony. A period known as
occupied Japan followed after the war, largely spearheaded by US Army General Douglas MacArthur to revise the Japanese constitution and democratized the nation. The Allied occupation, including concurrent economic and political assistance, continued until 1952. Allied forces ordered Japan to abolish the Meiji Constitution and enforce the 1946
Constitution of Japan. This new constitution was imposed by the United States under the supervision of MacArthur. MacArthur included
Article 9 which changed Japan into a
pacifist country. Upon adoption of the 1947 constitution, the Empire of Japan was dissolved and became simply the
modern state of Japan. With the formal surrender before, the empire's territory was much reduced to the Japanese archipelago; mostly the islands of
Honshu,
Hokkaido,
Kyushu, and
Shikoku. The Korean Peninsula was liberated from Japanese rule back in 1945 but was later
divided and occupied by the United States in the South and the Soviet Union in the North, separated by the 38th parallel. Taiwan was effectively placed back under adminstrative control by the
Republic of China. It was offically confirmed with the 1951
Treaty of San Francisco, a
peace treaty that officially ended hostilities, terminated Japan's status as an imperial power and a promise to restore its sovereignty a year later, while addressing territorial renunciations and postwar reparations. The
Kuril Islands had historically belonged to Japan and were first inhabited by the
Ainu people before coming under the control of the
Matsumae clan during the
Edo Period. The islands were invaded by the
Soviet Union following the Soviet–Japanese War, and Japan renounced all rights to the Kuril Islands in the treaty, but the Soviet Union was not a signature to the treaty, and the Northern Territories were never explicitly included in the renunciation, its
legal status remained contested to the present day. Japan adopted a parliamentary-based political system, and the role of the Emperor became symbolic. The
US occupation forces were fully responsible for protecting Japan from external threats. Japan only had a minor police force for domestic security. Japan was then placed under the sole control of the United States. This was the only time in
Japanese history that it was occupied by a foreign power. The occupation ended in 1952 and Japan officially became a US ally in the Asia Pacific region. General MacArthur later commended the new Japanese government that he helped establish and the new Japanese period when he was about to send the American forces to the
Korean War: The Japanese people, since the war, have undergone the greatest reformation recorded in modern history. With a commendable will, eagerness to learn, and marked capacity to understand, they have, from the ashes left in war's wake, erected in Japan an edifice dedicated to the supremacy of individual liberty and personal dignity; and in the ensuing process there has been created a truly representative government committed to the advance of political morality, freedom of economic enterprise, and social justice. Politically, economically, and socially Japan is now abreast of many free nations of the earth and will not again fail the universal trust. ... I sent all four of our occupation divisions to the Korean battlefront without the slightest qualms as to the effect of the resulting power vacuum upon Japan. The results fully justified my faith. I know of no nation more serene, orderly, and industrious, nor in which higher hopes can be entertained for future constructive service in the advance of the human race. For historian
John W. Dower: In retrospect, apart from the military officer corps, the purge of alleged militarists and ultranationalists that was conducted under the Occupation had relatively small impact on the long-term composition of men of influence in the public and private sectors. The purge initially brought new blood into the political parties, but this was offset by the return of huge numbers of formerly purged conservative politicians to national as well as local politics in the early 1950s. In the bureaucracy, the purge was negligible from the outset. ... In the economic sector, the purge similarly was only mildly disruptive, affecting less than sixteen hundred individuals spread among some four hundred companies. Everywhere one looks, the corridors of power in postwar Japan are crowded with men whose talents had already been recognized during the war years, and who found the same talents highly prized in the 'new' Japan. ==Government==