Japan Imperialism, Party Government, and Fascism. February 24, 2015

Transcription

1 Japan Imperialism, Party Government, and Fascism February 24, 2015

2 Review Can we find capitalism in Asia before 1900? Was there much social mobility in pre-modern China, India, or Japan? Outsiders ruled which large Asian countries in 1700? Can we find modern nationalism in Asia before 1900? What is Social Darwinism?

3 Nationalism and Collaboration Collaboration is a pejorative term for cooperation with an occupying power by members of the occupied people. Colonial powers could not have governed the large populations they governed without the help of collaborators. They used the help of local people to modernize the countries they colonized. By the early 20th century, that might mean introducing modern schools, modern public health facilities, modern industry, etc. Why did people collaborate? Sometimes they felt they had to choose between modernization (better schools, better public health facilities, etc) and their own traditional governing elite, who had been predatory.

4 Japan Becomes an Imperial Power after 1868: Began incorporating Hokkaidō into Japan proper deposed the king of the Ryūkyūs and announced it was now the province of Okinawa. (Where is Okinawa?) st Sino-Japanese War (fought over control of Korea) ends with Taiwan in Japanese hands, and Japan replacing China as the dominant power in Korea Russo-Japanese War allows Japan to replace Russia as the dominant foreign power in Manchuria. Why did Japan want to have colonies?

5 Russo-Japanese War (p. 382) Russia and Japan compete for influence over Korea and Manchuria Japan and Great Britain enter an alliance, the first between a European power and an Asian country Japan attacks the Russian fleet in Port Arthur Japan wins the Russo-Japanese War Treaty of Portsmouth formalizes Japan s victory. Informal agreement between Japan and US has the two agree to keep hands off the other s colonies. (Where was the US colony?) 1906 Japan puts Korea under a protectorate.

6 Russo-Japanese War

7 Barriers to Great Power Status 1915 Japan made 21 demands on China, which China was able to resist. (p. 384) 1918 Japan failed to get the League of Nations to agree to racial equality. (p. 385) 1918 Japan sent troops to Siberia to stop the Communist revolution in Russia but had to withdraw in and 1930 Japan was forced to accept a smaller navy than either the UK or the US (p. 385) US passed the Oriental Exclusion Act. (p 385)

8 Japan s empire See the map in Ebrey, p. 384

9 Economic Development Japan moved from a predominantly agrarian economy to one that was increasingly industrial and capitalist It also experienced rapid urbanization. During the period, the zaibatsu emerged. (p. 385) Zaibatsu are family-owned conglomerates that engage in a wide variety of commercial activities, from mining to manufacturing and trading. They are held together by a holding company, and a common bank. The dominated a dual economy -zaibatsu and small firms. The Zaibatsu encourage the concentration of capital without creating a monopoly.

10 Japan after World War I Barriers to democracy in Japan: No constitutional guarantee of party government (though there were party governments from 1918 to 1932.) (Party government means the leader of the party that wins the most votes becomes prime minister and appoints the cabinet.) (pp ) Universal male suffrage was allowed from 1925, but also laws were enforced against dissent. (what is kokutai? -p. 387) Racism in the aftermath of the 1923 Tokyo earthquake. (p.385) A cultural and economic gap grew, dividing the modern urban youth from the people in the villages.

11 Women in modernizing Japan denied the right to vote (p. 388) But women began to demand more social and cultural freedom. Some of them, who challenged governmentencouraged concepts of good wife and wise mothers, became moga (modern girls). (P. 398) Young women provided as much as half of the labour force, working at low wages to produce goods for export so Japan could earn foreign exchange. (p. 391) This means that modernization gave women more occupational choices, but most of the choices were not very attractive.

12 What is democracy? a political system in which mechanisms for reconciling competing interests peacefully are institutionalized. It requires majority rule together with protection for minority views. It is a political, not an economic, term. The term democracy can imply 1) multiparty elections with broad suffrage and no serious fraudcan be called procedural democracy or formal democracy allowing the possibility of a peaceful transfer of power. 2) + guaranteed freedom of speech, press, assembly, etc. 3)+ military under civilian control 4) + laws to protect citizens from oppression by the state or economic forces 5)+ broad social and economic equality--real (substantial) democracy

13 Japan s Headless Government The chiefs of the army and the navy reported directly to the emperor and were not under the control of the prime minister. Cabinets did not have to reflect the membership of the Diet The bureaucracy often acted as though it were a separate branch of government. Zaibatsu were rich enough to influence government decisions. The genrō (elder statesmen) and the Privy Council were unelected advisors to the Emperor.

14 The rise of the right military men from poor villages resented the wealth and decadence of urban elites, including capitalists. (p.457) the failure of the Western world to grant Japan equality, along with China s refusal to accept Japanese guidance, fuelled nationalist resentment. Two groups within the military, the Control Faction and the Imperial Way Faction, vied for control of the government. After several episodes of Imperial Way violence, the control faction won in (p. 457)

15 Fascism Fascism is a non-democratic and non-communist political ideology that views society as like a family, with no real internal conflicts of interest. Fascism is an attempt to contain the tensions of modernization by slowing social change so that the traditional social hierarchy doesn t undergo a rapid and therefore destabilizing transformation. It often used traditional rhetoric to legitimize its heavy-fisted control of society. Fascism is often racist, militaristic and aggressive, and extols authoritarian leaders as fatherly figures.

16 Japan under Fascism The end of party government in 1932 (p. 387) the slow creation of a national defence state in which the perceived needs of the military were given top priority. In 1938, the government gave itself the power to control production, transportation, exports, imports, and the use of important buildings and land. In 1940 the political parties were forced to merge In 1941, even religious groups were forced to merge. Was 1930s Japan fascist?

17 Fascism, Japanese-style glorified violence and engaged in aggressive behavior overseas. However, no Brown Shirts or ethnic cleansing. promoted a vision of the Japanese community as a family, with loyalty to the emperor compared to filial piety toward a parent. Denied any real conflicts of interest within the Japanese community--any conflict that emerged was believed to be caused by outsiders. Saw no need for democracy Idealized the perceived traditional values of rural life. Anti-capitalist and anti-socialist.

18 The sincerity of the rebels the post-war novelist Mishima Yukio in a re-enactment of the 1936 Imperial Way uprising. Here he prepares to commit seppuku (ritual suicide) rather than obey the emperor s order to suppress the rebellion. For a gory video (viewer beware!), go to The entire 28 minute video is available at For a full-length Hollywood account of Mishima Yukio s life, drawing on three of his novels and his gory movie, go to

19 Resisting Modernity The rise of agrarianism and bushido (p. 398) the growing popularity of new religions, such as Tenri-kyō, Ōmoto-kyō, and Sōka Gakkai. (p. 398) In times of rapid modernization, there will always be some who look back to an idealized past, and there will also be some who seek to shelter traditional values from the winds of change by protecting them with a modern religious organization.