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Account for the development of Militarism in Japan in the 1930’s

Japan

How did militarism grow in Japan between 1919 and 1939?

Japan had a powerful navy, a great deal of influence in china, and had benefited economically from the First World War, while the states of Europe were busy fighting each other. Japan took advantage of the situation both by providing the allies with stepping and other goods and by steeping into supply orders especially in Asia. During the war years, her export of cotton cloth almost trebled while her merchant fleet doubled in tonnage. Politically the course seemed set fair for democracy when in 1925 all adult males were given the vote. Hopes were soon dashed. At the beginning of the 1930’s the army assumed control of the government.

There were many reasons for the growth of militarism in Japan:-

i) From the beginning, democracy was not popular with many influential groups in Japanese society, such as the army and the conservatives. They seized every opportunity to discredit the government. Many of them believed that Japan had a tragic mistake in adopting western parliamentary institution. They favored the assumption of internal political power by the army leaders.

ii) Many politicians were corrupt and regularly accepted bribes from big businessmen. The system was not one to inspire respect, and the prestige of parliament suffered.

iii) The great trading boom of the war years lasted only until the middle of 1921, when Europe began to recover lost markets. In Japan, unemployment and industrial unrest developed. At the same time farmers were hit by the rapidly falling price of rice caused by a series of bumper harvest. When farmers and industrial workers tried to organize themselves into a political party, they were suppressed by the police. Thus, the workers as well as the army and the right gradually became hostile to a parliament.

iv) The world economic crisis of 1939 affected Japan severely. Her export shrank disastrously and others countries introduced or raised tariffs against her to safeguard their own industries. One of the worst affected trades was the export of raw silk, which went mostly to the USA. The period after the Wall Street crash was no time for luxuries and the Americans drastically reduced her imports of raw silk, so that by 1932 the price had fallen to less than 1/5 of the 1932 figure. This was a further blow for Japanese farmers. There was desperate poverty especially in the north, for which factory workers and peasants blamed the government.

v) Matters were brought to a hand in 1931 by the situation in Manchuria, where Japan had valuable investment and trade. The Chinese were trying to squeeze out Japanese trade and business, which would have been a severe blow to Japanese economy already hard hit by the depression. To preserve their economic advantages, Japanese army unit invade and occupied Manchuria in September 1931 with out permission from the government. When Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi criticized action, he was assassinated by a group of army officers in May 1932. His successors felt he had support army action.

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