Essay/Term paper: The showa restoration in japan

Essay, term paper, research paper:  World History

"Restore the Emperor Expel the Barbarians":

The Causes of the Showa Restoration



Sonno joi, "Restore the Emperor and expel the Barbarians," was the battle cry that ushered in the
Showa Restoration in Japan during the 1930's.Footnote1 The Showa Restoration was a combination of
Japanese nationalism, Japanese expansionism, and Japanese militarism all carried out in the name of the
Showa Emperor, Hirohito. Unlike the Meiji Restoration, the Showa Restoration was not a resurrection of
the Emperor's powerFootnote2, instead it was aimed at restoring Japan's prestige. During the 1920's,
Japan appeared to be developing a democratic and peaceful government. It had a quasi-democratic
governmental body, the Diet,Footnote3 and voting rights were extended to all male citizens.Footnote4 Yet,
underneath this seemingly placid surface, lurked momentous problems that lead to the Showa Restoration.
The transition that Japan made from its parliamentary government of the 1920's to the Showa Restoration
and military dictatorship of the late 1930s was not a sudden transformation. Liberal forces were not
toppled by a coup overnight. Instead, it was gradual, feed by a complex combination of internal and
external factors.
The history that links the constitutional settlement of 1889 to the Showa Restoration in the 1930s is
not an easy story to relate. The transformation in Japan's governmental structure involved; the historical
period between 1868 and 1912 that preceded the Showa Restoration. This period of democratic reforms
was an underlying cause of the militarist reaction that lead to the Showa Restoration. The transformation
was also feed by several immediate causes; such as, the downturn in the global economy in
1929Footnote5 and the invasion of Manchuria in 1931.Footnote6 It was the convergence of these
external, internal, underlying and immediate causes that lead to the military dictatorship in the 1930's.
The historical period before the Showa Restoration, 1868-1912, shaped the political climate in
which Japan could transform itself from a democracy to a militaristic state. This period is known as the
Meiji Restoration.Footnote7 The Meiji Restoration of 1868 completely dismantled the Tokugawa political
order and replaced it with a centralized system of government headed by the Emperor who served as a
figure head.Footnote8 However, the Emperor instead of being a source of power for the Meiji
Government, became its undoing. The Emperor was placed in the mystic position of demi-god by the
leaders of the Meiji Restoration. Parliamentarians justified the new quasi-democratic government of Japan,
as being the "Emperor's Will." The ultra-nationalist and militaristic groups took advantage of the Emperor's
status and claimed to speak for the Emperor.Footnote9 These then groups turned the tables on the
parliamentarians by claiming that they, not the civil government, represented the "Imperial Will." The
parliamentarians, confronted with this perversion of their own policy, failed to unite against the militarists
and nationalists. Instead, the parliamentarians compromised with the nationalists and militarists groups and
the general populace took the nationalists' claims of devotion to the Emperor at face value, further
bolstering the popularity of the nationalists.Footnote10 The theory of "Imperial Will" in Japan's
quasi-democratic government became an underlying flaw in the government's democratic composition.
It was also during the Meiji Restoration that the Japanese economy began to build up its industrial
base. It retooled, basing itself on the western model. The Japanese government sent out investigators to
learn the ways of European and American industries.Footnote11 In 1889, the Japanese government
adopted a constitution based on the British and German models of parliamentary democracy. During this
same period, railroads were constructed, a banking system was started and the samurai system was
disbanded.Footnote12 Indeed, it seemed as if Japan had successfully made the transition to a western style
industrialized state. Almost every other non-western state failed to make this leap forward from
pre-industrial nation to industrialized power. For example, China failed to make this leap. It collapsed
during the 1840s and the European powers followed by Japan, sought to control China by expropriating its
raw materials and exploiting its markets.
By 1889, when the Japanese ConstitutionFootnote13 was adopted, Japan, with a few minor
setbacks, had been able to make the transition to a world power through its expansion of colonial
holdings.Footnote14 During the first World War, Japan's economy and colonial holdings continued to
expand as the western powers were forced to focus on the war raging in Europe. During the period
1912-1926, the government continued on its democratic course. In 1925, Japan extended voting rights to
all men and the growth of the merchant class continued.Footnote15 But these democratic trends, hid the
fact that it was only the urban elite's who were benefiting from the growing industrialization. The peasants,
who outnumbered the urban population were touched little by the momentous changes this lead to
discontent in a majority of the populace.
During the winter of 1921-1922, the Japanese government participated in a conference in
Washington to limit the naval arms race. The Washington Conference successfully produced an agreement,
the Five Power Treaty. Part of the Treaty established a ratio of British, American, Japanese, Italian, and
French ships to the ratio respectively of 5:5:3:1.75:1.75.Footnote16 Other parts of the Five Power Treaty
forced other naval powers to refrain from building fortifications in the Pacific and Asia. In return, Japan
agreed to give up its colonial possessions in Siberia and China.Footnote17 In 1924, Japan cut its standing
Army and further reduced the size of the Japanese military budget. It appeared to all that Japan was
content to rely on expansion through trade instead of military might.Footnote18 However, this agreement
applauded by the Western Powers, symbolized to many of the nationalists and militarists that the Japanese
Government had capitulated to the West. During the Showa Restoration, ten years later, these agreements
were often cited as examples of where the quasi-democratic Japanese government had gone
astray.Footnote19
The time preceding the Showa Restoration appeared at first glance to be the image of a nation
transforming itself into a full-fledged democracy. But this picture hid huge chasms that were about to open
up with the end of the 1920's. Three precipitating circumstances at the beginning of the 1930's shattered
Japan's democratic underpinnings, which had been far from firm: the downturn in the world economy,
Western shunning of Japan, and the independence of Japan's military. Thus, the shaky democracy gave
way to the Showa Restoration. This Restoration sought to not only restore the Showa Emperor, Hirohito
to power, but lead Japan into a new period of expansionism and eventually into World War II.
The first event that put Japan on the path toward the Showa Restoration was the downturn in the
world economy. It wrecked havoc with Japan's economy. World War I had permitted phenomenal
industrial growth, but after the war ended, Japan resumed its competition with the other European powers.
This renewed competition proved economically painful. During the 1920's, Japan grew more slowly than at
any other time since the Meiji Restoration.Footnote20 During this time the whole world was in an
economic slump, Japan's economy suffered inordinately. Japan's rural economy was particularly hard-hit
by the slump in demand for its two key products, silk and rice. The sudden collapse of the purchasing
power of the nations that imported Japanese silk such as America; and the worldwide rise in tariffs,
combined to stagnate the Japanese economy.Footnote21
In urban Japan, there were also serious economic problems. A great gap in productivity and
profitability had appeared between the new industries that had emerged with the industrialization of Japan
and the older traditional industries. The Japanese leadership was not attuned to such obstacles and thus
was slow to pass legislation to deal with its problems.Footnote22 The Meiji government had supported its
economic planning by claiming it would be beneficial to the economy in the long-run. When Meiji
government promises of economic growth evaporated, the Japanese turned toward non-democratic
groups who now promised them a better economic future.Footnote23 The nationalist and militaristic
groups promised that they would restore Japanese economic wealth by expanding Japanese colonial
holdings which the democratic leaders had given up.
At the same time that Japan was struggling economically, and capitulating to the West in adopting
democratic principals, many in Japan believed that western nations did not fully accept Japan as an equal.
It appeared to Japan, that the West had not yet accepted Japan into the exclusive club of the four
conquering nations of World War I.Footnote24 Events such as the Washington Conference, at which the
Five Power Treaty was signed, seemed to many Japanese hostile to Japan. (This belief was held because
the Treaty forced Japan to have a number of ships smaller than Britain and the United States by a factor of
3 to 5.) The Japanese Exclusion Act passed in 1924 by America to exclude Japanese immigrants again
ingrained in the Japanese psyche that Japan was viewed as inferior by the West.Footnote25 This view
became widely believed after the meetings at Versailles, where it appeared to Japan that Europe was not
willing to relinquish its possessions in Asia. Added to this perceived feeling of being shunned was the
Japanese military conception that war with the west was inevitable. This looming confrontation was thought
to be the war to end all wars saishu senso. Footnote26
The third circumstance was the independent Japanese military that capitalized on the economic
downturn and capitulation of the Japanese government to the West.Footnote27 The Japanese military
argued that the parliamentarian government had capitulated to the west by making an unfavorable
agreement about the size of the Japanese Navy (the Washington Conference and the Five Powers Treaty)
and by reducing the size of the military in 1924. With the depression that struck Japan in 1929; the military
increased their attack on the government politicians for the failure of the Meiji Restoration. Throughout the
1920's, they demanded change. As the Japanese economy worsened their advocacy for a second
revolutionary restoration, a "Showa Restoration" began to be listened to.Footnote28 They argued that the
Showa Restoration would restore the grandeur of Japan. Leading right-wing politicians joined the military
clamor, calling for a restoration not just of the Emperor but of Japan as a global power.Footnote29
1929 marked the world wide Great Depression. International trade was at a standstill and countries
resorted to nationalistic economic policies. 1929 became a Japanese turning point. The Japanese realized
that they had governmental control over only a small area compared to the large area they needed to
support their industrializing economy.Footnote30 Great Britain, France, and the Netherlands had huge
overseas possessions and the Russians and Americans both had vast continental holdings. In comparison,
Japan had only a small continental base. To many Japanese, it appeared they had started their territorial
acquisitions and colonization too late and had been stopped too soon. The situation was commonly
described as a "population problem."Footnote31 The white races had already grabbed the most valuable
lands and had left the less desirable for the Japanese. The Japanese nationalists argued that Japan had been
discriminated against by the western nations through immigration policies and by being forced to stop their
expansion into Asia. The only answer, the nationalists claimed, was military expansion onto the nearby
Asian continent.
The nationalists and independent military became the foremost advocates of this new drive for land
and colonies. Young army officers and nationalist civilians closely identified with the "Imperial Way
Faction."Footnote32 The relative independence of the Japanese armed forces from the parliament,
transformed this sense of a national crisis into a total shift in foreign policy. These "restorationists" in the
military and in the public stepped up the crisis by convincing the nation that there were two enemies, the
foreign powers and people within Japan.Footnote33 The militarists identified the Japanese "Bureaucratic
Elite" and the expanding merchant class, the "Zaibutsu" as responsible for Japan's loss of grandeur. It was
the Bureaucratic Elite who had capitulated to the Western powers in the Washington Conference and in
subsequent agreements, that decreased the size of the Japanese military,Footnote34 and made Japan
dependent of trade with other nations.
The independence of the Japanese military allowed them to feed this nationalist sense of crisis and
thus transform Japanese foreign policy. On September 18, 1931 a group of army officers with the
approval of their superiors who were angry at the government for its passage of the Five Powers Treaty,
bombed a section of the South Manchurian Railway and blamed it on unnamed Chinese
terrorists.Footnote35 Citing the explosion as a security concern, the Japanese military invaded Manchuria
and within six months had set up the Puppet State of Manchukuo in February, 1932.Footnote36
Following the invasion of Manchuria, Japanese nationalism overwhelmed Japan. The Japanese public
and military continued to blame the former quasi-parliamentarians for the economic woes and for
capitulating to the Western. The Japanese populace saw the military and its nationalist leaders as strong,
willing to stand up to Western power and restore the grandeur of Japan. Unlike the parliamentarian
leaders, these new nationalist leaders backed by the military, had a vision and the public flocked to their
side.Footnote37 This new mood in Japan brought an end to party cabinets and the authority of the
quasi-democratic government. It seemed now that the parliamentary democracy of the TaishoFootnote38
and Meiji eras had been fully usurped by the independent military. Nationalism swept through Japan after
the invasion of Manchuria, thus further strengthening the hand of the military. In the invasion of Manchuria
and its aftermath, all the discontent with the Meiji system of government come together and combined with
the military claim to leadership ordained by the power of the Emperor. With this convergence of events,
the shallow roots of democracy and the liberal reformism of the Meiji Restoration were uprooted and
replaced with a combination of nationalism and militarism embodied under the idea of the Showa
Restoration. When League of Nations condemned Japan for the Manchurian invasion, Japan, now
controlled by the military, simply walked out of the conference.Footnote39
The parliamentary cabinet of the 1930's became known as "national unity" cabinets and the
parliament took on more and more of a symbolic role as the military gradually gained the upper hand over
policies. The Japanese Parliament continued in operation and the major democratic parties continued to
win elections in 1932, 1936 and 1937. But parliamentary control was waning as the military virtually
controlled foreign policy.Footnote40
Japan's political journey from its nearly democratic government of the 1920's to its radical
nationalism of the mid 1930's, the collapse of democratic institutions, and the eventual military state was
not an overnight transformation. There was no coup d'etat, no march on Rome, no storming of the Bastille,
no parliamentary vote whereby the anti-democratic militaristic elements overthrew the democratic
institutions of the Meiji Era. Instead, it was a political journey that allowed a semi-democratic nation to
transform itself into a military dictatorship. The forces that aided in this transformation were the failed
promises of the Meiji Restoration that were represented in the stagnation of the Japanese economy, the
perceived capitulation of the Japanese parliamentary leaders to the western powers, and an independent
military. Japanese militarism promised to restore the grandeur of Japan, a Showa Restoration.



Footnote1

Ruth Benedict, The Chrysanthemum And The Sword (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1989) 76.

Footnote2

Marius B. Jansen Sakamoto Ryoma and the Meiji Restoration (Stanford: Stanford University Press,
1971) 147-164. Marius B. Jansen makes clear in this book that the Meiji Restoration (1868-1912) was a
movement centered around returning the Meiji Emperor to power. Only later did the Meiji Restoration
come to embody liberal reformism.

Footnote3

Frank Gibney Japan the Fragile Superpower (New York: Meridian, 1985) 158-159.

Footnote4

Tetsuo Najita Japan The Intellectual Foundations of Modern Japanese Politics (Chicago: Chicago
University Press, 1980) 121. In 1925 universal male suffrage was enacted.

Footnote5

Tetsuo Najita Japan The Intellectual Foundations of Modern Japanese Politics (Chicago: Chicago
University Press, 1980) 113.

Footnote6

Edwin O. Reischauer Japan Past and Present (Tokyo: Charles Tuttle Company, 1987) 170-171.

Footnote7

Karel van Wolferen The Enigma of Japanese Power (New York: Random House, 1990) 375-376.
During the Meiji Restoration Japan saw its mission to be to catch up with the already industrialized
Western powers.

Footnote8

Edwin O. Reischauer Japan Past and Present (Tokyo: Charles Tuttle Company, 1987)125.

Footnote9

Tetsuo Najita Japan The Intellectual Foundations of Modern Japanese Politics (Chicago: Chicago
University Press, 1980) 115.

Footnote10

Edwin O. Reischauer The Japanese Today (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988) 98.

Footnote11

Frank Gibney Japan the Fragile Superpower (New York: Meridian, 1985) 165-166.

Footnote12

Edwin O. Reischauer Japan Past and Present (Tokyo: Charles Tuttle Company, 1987) 119. During the
Meiji Restoration Samurais were stripped of their positions and even prohibited from wearing the Samurai
Sword in 1869.

Footnote13

Frank K, Upham Law and Social Change in Japan (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987) 49.
The Japanese constitution was adopted in 1889. It set up a British type parliament. The constitution did not
provide the parliamentary government with power over the military branch.

Footnote14

Karel van Wolferen The Enigma of Japanese Power (New York: Random House, 1990) 38. At the turn
of the century Japan had started its colonizing effort in China and other parts of Asia. It was these efforts at
Colonization that developed into the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). After winning the war Japan
continued with even more gusto to snatch up colonies in Asia.

Footnote15

Tetsuo Najita Japan The Intellectual Foundations of Modern Japanese Politics (Chicago: Chicago
University Press, 1980) 121. In 1925 universal male suffrage was enacted although in most elections
ballots were only made available to the urban elite.

Footnote16

Edwin O. Reischauer The Japanese Today (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988) 96.

Footnote17

Edwin O. Reischauer Japan Past and Present (Tokyo: Charles Tuttle Company, 1987) 150.

Footnote18

James B. Crawley Japan's Quest For Autonomy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1966) 270-280.

Footnote19

Tetsuo Najita Japan The Intellectual Foundations of Modern Japanese Politics (Chicago: Chicago
University Press, 1980) 128.

Footnote20

Karel van Wolferen The Enigma of Japanese Power (New York: Random House, 1990) 380-381. In
her Book Karel van Wolferen writes, "The Success of the Meiji oligarchy in stimulating economic
development was followed by a further great boost for Japanese industry deriving from the First World
War. This good fortune came to an end in 1920, and a 'chain of panics' caused successive recessions and
business dislocation".

Footnote21

Edwin O. Reischauer Japan Past and Present (Tokyo: Charles Tuttle Company, 1987) 117. Reischauer
makes the point in his book that external factors significantly hurt Japan's economy. Unlike a nation like the
United States which had vast reserves of natural resources when projectionist trade laws were
implemented around the world Japan suffered significantly because it lacked raw materials and markets.
Japan's economy which was guided during the Meiji Era to be primarily an export based economy.

Footnote22

Nakamura Takafusa Economic Growth in Prewar Japan (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983)
151-158. Nakamura Takafusa states that Japan was growing at vastly different rates between the urban
areas and rural areas.

Footnote23

Frank Gibney Japan the Fragile Superpower (New York: Meridian, 1985) 165-166.

Footnote24

James B. Crawley Japan's Quest For Autonomy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1966) 270-280.

Footnote25

David M. Reimers Still the Golden Door: The Third World Comes to America (New York: Columbia
Press, 1992) 27.

Footnote26

Tetsuo Najita Japan The Intellectual Foundations of Modern Japanese Politics (Chicago: Chicago
University Press, 1980) 128. "The exclusion of Japanese Immigrants by the United States in 1924
and the growth of mechanized Soviet Power on the Asian continent all confirmed in the Japanese
public eye the impending confrontation with the west." Testsuo views the rise of Japanese nationalism
and militarization resulting in the Showa Restoration to be to a large degree the fault of the west for its
maltreatment of Japan diplomatically. Tetsuo also views the Showa Restoration to be largely caused by
external factors that in consequence unbalanced the fragile Japanese political system.

Footnote27

Robert Story The Double Patriots (London: Chatto and Windus, 1957) 138.

Footnote28

Karel van Wolferen The Enigma of Japanese Power (New York: Random House, 1990) 380-381.

Footnote29

Tetsuo Najita Japan The Intellectual Foundations of Modern Japanese Politics (Chicago: Chicago
University Press, 1980) 114. One of the famous political leaders of the time Miyake Setsurei called for a
new Japan that had "truth, goodness, and beauty".

Footnote30

James Morley Dilemmas of Growth in Prewar Japan (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1971)
378-411.

Footnote31

Peter Duus The Rise of Modern Japan (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1976). Many of the nationalists of this
period claimed the West had tricked Japan into giving up its colonies in Asia so it could take them. The
Nationalists also claimed that renewed Japanese expansionism would liberate the Asians of their European
Colonizers.

Footnote32

Tetsuo Najita Japan The Intellectual Foundations of Modern Japanese Politics (Chicago: Chicago
University Press, 1980) 130. The Imperial Way Faction was a right wing political party that called for the
Showa Restoration. It was lead by Kita Ikki, Gondo Seikei, and Inoue Nissho.

Footnote33

Karel van Wolferen The Enigma of Japanese Power (New York: Random House, 1990) 381-382.

Footnote34

Tetsuo Najita Japan The Intellectual Foundations of Modern Japanese Politics (Chicago: Chicago
University Press, 1980) 128.

Footnote35

Tetsuo Najita Japan The Intellectual Foundations of Modern Japanese Politics (Chicago: Chicago
University Press, 1980) 138. Historians such as Testuo Najita cite this incident as the turning point in the
military role in Japan. For after this incident the Military realized that the parliamentary government did not
have the will or the power to stop the military power.

Footnote36

Edwin O. Reischauer The Japanese Today (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988) 96.

Footnote37

Edwin O. Reischauer Japan Past and Present (Tokyo: Charles Tuttle Company, 1987) 171. Edwin O
Reischauer writes in his book, "There could be no doubt that the Japanese army in Manchuria had
been eminently successful, The people as a whole accepted this act of unauthorized and certainly
unjustified warfare with whole hearted admiration".

Footnote38

Peter Duus The Rise of Modern Japan (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1976) 156. The period preceding the
Showa Restoration and coming after the Meiji Era is known as the Taisho Era. It is named after the Taisho
Emperor who was mentally incompetent and thus the parliamentarians during this time had control of the
government. His reign lasted only a decade compared to the Meiji Emperor's 44 year reign.

Footnote39

Edwin O. Reischauer Japan Past and Present (Tokyo: Charles Tuttle Company, 1987) 171.

Footnote40

Tetsuo Najita Japan The Intellectual Foundations of Modern Japanese Politics (Chicago: Chicago
University Press, 1980) 138.
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