Japan, the Bureaucratic War Machine | BETWEEN 2 WARS I 1931 Part 2 of 3 - YouTube (1)
As the 1930s begin the Empire of the Rising Sun, Japan looks to mainland Asia
as a means of expanding their colonial empire and securing the economic gains
of the 1920s in 1931 Japan invades Chinese Manchuria and sets in motion
events that will contribute to a global war just eight years from now
welcome to between two wars a chronological summary of the interwar
years covering all facets of life the uncertainty hedonism and euphoria and
ultimately humanity's descent into the darkness of the Second World War
I'm indy neidell after the first world war the Japanese economy booms for the
first time it is industry and not agriculture and crafts that are at the
forefront of the Japanese economy the government and the military drive this
with extensive infrastructure and armament programs and urban factories
draw hordes of people from agrarian life it's not a sudden development though
Japan has been transforming since 1867 when Prince masahito
succeeds his father and becomes the Meiji Emperor his immediate goal is to
remove Japan from the struggle for colonial Dominion by Western powers that
is at that point crippling China for generations the emperor had largely been
a symbolic figure with the Shogun's ruling Japan since the 17th century but
Meiji now seizes power and starts a series of reforms that will become the
Meiji Restoration it's a long series of military economic social political
cultural and religious reforms that gradually introduces western-style law
banking system military organization conscription and education meishi
replaces the feudal power structure with a centralized more democratic system of
government although he formally abolished the power of the noble Lords
the daimyo's and their military elite the samurai many of them transitioned
into positions of power in the prefecture system introduced in 1871
Japan now develops into a de facto oligarchy
with a more efficient bureaucratic system of decision-making but even the
introduction of a parliament and a democratic constitution in 1890 impose
few restrictions on what the bureaucrats can do see the military and the Cabinet
ministers don't answer to the legislature but report directly to the
Emperor but military independence is defined in the 1890 Japanese
Constitution so that the military has no civilian oversight it answers to the
Emperor and no one else to make it even more independent supreme command and I
mean final save is given to the General Staff effectively allowing them to act
independently from the rest of the state so the emperor has neither influence nor
oversight over the actions of the military the political parties have
little or no influence over policy making and the Parliament has no
influence over anything but despite the Democratic shortcomings the new system
means decisions based on rationale natural or science-based grounds at
least at first and improves the efficiency of Japan's governance in
almost every field as a result throughout the whole period and
accelerating in the 1920s and 30s Japanese economy is in high gear but at
the same time there are clouds gathering in the sky and beginning to obscure the
Sun that is rising over the empire here's the thing the decrease of the
agricultural sector and rapid growth of Industry is increasing the demand for
imported food and raw materials most notably rice oil and rubber right in
this way Japan is becoming increasingly dependent on foreign trade or production
in their colonies in Korea and Taiwan acquired in the first sino-japanese war
in 1894 and 1895 as the 20s progress the volatile global economy makes the
Japanese nervous about these dependencies and this is not a good
thing for the bureaucrats who have managed to keep the population happy
with progress that popular satisfaction is largely due to the lightning speed
that Japan has developed into a modern state in
more than a decade the Japanese have become used to electricity trains
cinemas even baseball stadiums to maintain the status quo
Japan has to take new measures the plan they come up with is based on two
already existing ideas nan Xin wrong and hokushin wrong the southern expansion
doctrine and the northern expansion doctrine both already formulated in the
19th century nana xin wrong has been practiced since 1875 by expansion into
the South China Sea and South Pacific through trade diplomacy planned
migration and colonization into territories that are viewed by the
Japanese as uncivilized or or at least less civilized than Japan it began with
the declaration of control over the Bonin islands and a gradual expansion
into the Pacific Islands the 1919 Paris Peace Conference gives Japan control
over several former Imperial German colonies like the Caroline islands
Mariana Islands Marshall Islands and Palau now in 1931 Nanchang wrong is
reaffirmed as doctrine when the government adopts it as official policy
but since the turn of the century it is actually a hokushin wrong that has been
the main doctrine in play this doctrine is formed in the 1890s
with a focus on mainland China including Korea and the island of Taiwan this
escalates into the first sino-japanese war in 1894 that eventually leads to the
annexation of Korea and Taiwan into the Japanese Empire continued encroachment
towards the western Pacific Rim leads to conflict with Russia and the
russo-japanese war of 1904 and 5 Japan invades and occupies Russian outer
Manchuria during the war but the war almost bankrupt Japan and has stalemate
threatens they sue for peace Japan agrees to withdraw in exchange for naval
bases in the region in the Treaty of Portsmouth they get a zone of influence
in the southern part of Manchuria but not Dominion at home the public is
enraged at what they see as a waste of money and lives see the gun
had made big promises that the war would be worthwhile as it would surely gain
Japan valuable resources for growth in outer manchuria if not more than that
and it is in this disappointment that we can find one of the roots of
ever-increasing Japanese imperialism in the 20s and 30s although it is
objectively clear that Japan's failure to secure their goals in the
russo-japanese war is because of overreach and economic effects this is
not how it is spun in Japan when the war breaks down it is the Western powers
that intervene to mediate between the belligerents this effort is led by
American President Theodore Roosevelt who gets a Nobel Peace Prize for his
efforts the Japanese government on the other hand rewards him by shifting the
blame onto him and the European leaders who are framed as the ones that forced
Japan out of outer manchuria it doesn't create a huge swell of extremism in
Japan at this point but does feed into a growing sentiment of resentment and is
used to fuel popular sentiment of being treated unfairly despite a sense of
superiority over other nations in the region in essence it's not any different
than what is going on in some parts of Europe at the time the country faces
challenges arising from the gradual change from feudalism to
parliamentarianism this is coupled with economic change that creates new
prosperity but also new kinds of disparity and
inequality all while the country is making leaps and bounds forward into the
modern age it's confusing right okay on one end there's great progress that
inflates a feeling of being ahead in the world and at the same time things just
aren't that great and just like in many places in Europe before the First World
War these feelings are channeled into a sentiment of resentment of unfulfilled
superiority for a while the cool heads of the bureaucrats prevailed but then
the great war comes and Japan is again caught up in a great game of
geopolitical chess this time on the side of the Allies though but things turn
sour again when after the war the Japanese
feel snubbed at Paris Peace Conference it gets to the
point that they break off negotiations and leave the conference in protest
somewhat ironically what with Japan's growing xenophobia their main point of
contention is the refusal of the Western powers to agree to Japan's calls for a
clause of absolute racial equality to guide the League of Nations
furthermore the Hawks in Japan are disappointed about what they see as
insufficient territorial gains while the bureaucrats leave Paris Japan's military
is since 1917 still part of the Siberian intervention together with the rest of
the antón powers the goal is to secure parts of eastern Russia in support of
the white army during the Russian Civil War to support a defeat of the Communist
Bolsheviks Japan's motives here are unclear or at least lack consensus
within the government straight from the beginning on one hand there's the
ideological goal of fighting communism which is perhaps the only thing all
Japanese leaders agree on on the other hand some of them want to pursue the
goal of securing the territory that wasn't won in 1905 which is in direct
conflict with the idea of supporting the white army to hold the territory which
is paramount to stop the Bolshevik advance while the rest of the antón
declared defeat in 1920 and leave Japan goes it alone all the way up to 1925 by
then the Soviet Union is an established fact and the Japanese occupation is a
big obstacle for establishing any diplomatic relations with their new
communist neighbor during these five years the siberian intervention is just
one of many issues that pit the militarist factions of the Imperial
bureaucracy against the more diplomatic administrators there is more popular
support for Japanese chauvinism and calls for revanche for the unfilled
goals of the past years at the same time modernization has also given birth to
increased liberalism with modern women calling for emancipation and young
people less concerned with hierarchic ancestral culture very much like in the
West the counter is a growing faction of reactionaries
the militarists who are of course also Fanning the reactionary and chauvinistic
attitudes now increase their power base as the 20s progress they patiently and
methodically take control of the Japanese bureaucracy squeezing out more
and more of the more moderate administrators by 1931 it is now the
military that decides what will happen next with their secure positions inside
the Imperial bureaucracy the military now has enormous power over how foreign
policy is to be conducted and the military favors the northern expansion
doctrine to escape for independancy they struggle more with the southern
expansion as they can't exert dominance over the seas very easily at this point
the US has reduced its own Navy after World War one and has demanded and
enforced an equivalent reduction of naval power from both Japan and Great
Britain to create a better global power balance Great Britain and Japan are also
at odds over dominance in the western Pacific so vastly oversimplified at this
point the military sees a land-based expansion on continental Asia as more
promising for success but there the Soviet Union has been expanding its
military presence and the rise of Chinese nationalism poses a second
threat now military action against the Soviets is not an option that promises
success in any case and a war with China would mean worsening relations and
potentially even sanctions by the USA on whom Japan at the moment depends for
much of its raw materials and oil so at first
Japan focuses on securing their economic interests in their allotted zones of
influence such as the South Manchuria railway zone in fact 68 percent of
Japan's foreign investment by 1927 goes to Manchuria
but the deterioration of the European empires after World War one and American
isolationism created a power vacuum in East Asia when Chinese nationalist
leader Chiang kai-shek openly vows to increase his control of Manchuria and
19:31 the militarists in japan are more than willing to use the power vacuum to
