1889 – Japan’s First Constitution

The Meiji Constitution has Three Tiers: The Emperor on top, the symbol of the stateThe Privy Council, behind the scenesThe Diet, popularly elected

• It has the power to set budget and levy taxes

Oligarchs at the controls, butPower curbed by Diet budgetary powers

Political parties appear rapidlyConstitution moves Japan closer to acceptance by the world community

Turn-of-the-century Wars

Two small but important wars:Sino-Japanese war of 1894-5 Russo-Japanese war of 1904-5

Consequences:Japan finally freed from unequal treatiesJapan becomes a colonial power (Taiwan, Korea, Manchuria)Patriotism inflamed

the whole country supports Japan’s “sphere of influence” nation connected by telephone, telegraph

Wars and patriotism

The magazineYouth of the World

reflects Japan’s growing confidence after the Sino-Japanese war (1894-5).

Patriotism at SchoolA page from a first grade

reader, 1918, which reads: "Kiguchi Kohei was struck by an enemy bullet, but even in death, his bugle never fell from his mouth."

First soldiers enshrined at Yasukuni Shrine after the Russo-Japanese War

Patriotism in the Media

Hideyoshi congratulates Itō Hirobumi

The Wars and Patriotism

A cover of Tokyo Puck Magazine

General Terauchi bathed in the light of Amaterasu as he oversees the Korean peninsula

Turn-of-the-century Economics

Silk and cotton spinningWomen workers

More urbanization

Developments inMining

heavy industry

However…

Hard times in the countryside

Farmers exploited, restive

Tenancy still high

Laborers widely exploited

The “dual economy”

The 1920s –Taishō Democracy

The era of “party politics”

The Privy council can no longer hold off the Diet

Compromise is struck with a series of “Party Prime Ministers” such as Hara Kei

Assassinations continue

As the Meiji constitutional system collapses

the military steps in

The 1920s –Taishō Democracy

Other Aspects:Universal male suffrage

The “Peace Preservation” laws

Socialism crushed

Population growth:55 million in 1920

Persistent divide between rich and poor

Continuing urbanization and industrialization

Urban Fashion – 1920s

Urban Japanese followed international fashion trends

“modern girl” or moga

“modern boy” or mobo

Depression and Militarism – the 1930s

The Meiji constitutional system collapses

The global depression hits Japan hard

The military steps into the vacuum

The Manchurian, or Mukden, incidentthe Manchukuo puppet regime

Attempted military coup, 2/26/1936

Marco Polo Bridge incident, 1937

Japan’s incursion into China begins

The Pacific War

The US response The US and other

Western Nations embargo Japan in response

But this only serves to justify further Japanese advances in Southeast Asia.

Japan as protector of Asia

The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

The expulsion of the West

The “A B C D” powers

Pacific War statisticsChinese civilians killed at Nanjing:

~80,000-100,000Japanese civilians killed in the firebombing of Tokyo:

~80,000-100,000Deaths in Okinawa:

62,500A-bomb deaths

~180,000

Homefront war production

Mitsubishi aircraft plant

Homefront production

Exhortation to increase production of staple foods in

support of the war effort

WWII – Japan’s Homefront

Women exhorted to support the war effort

Woman as compassionate Kannon

Homefront war support

The various measures taken to aid the war effort

Education and Propaganda

Children at Naka-Meguro school, Tokyo

Pledging allegiance to the Imperial Rescript on Education

and imperial regalia

Wartime “fashion”

Women in mompe during wartime

Wartime political commentary

“sweep away‘Westernisms’ like

dandruff out of hair”

WWII – Japan’s Homefront

Posters from the“Spiritual

Mobilization”Committee

WWII – the US and Japan

Negative portrayals of Japanese

Conclusions

Japan fell into war as a result of:Social, political, and economic turmoil in the first half of the 20th century

Unwise foreign adventurism – following the Western colonial model

An inability to keep its military in check

Even today, Japan has not officially fully confronted its wartime past.