Imperial Japan 1919-1941

• Japan forcibly opened to western trade by the U.S. navy in 1854• Emperor Meiji decided to modernize and industrialize Japan• Emperor was head of the Shinto religion (supposedly descended from the sun goddess Amaterasu) as well as the political leader of Japan

Rising Sun flag= military flag/Imperial Japanese Army war flag of Japan

Flag of Japan today

Photo of Emperor Meiji in the 1890’s

Shintosymbol

Chrysanthemum- symbol of emperor, 16 pedals

Sun goddess- Amaterasu

Shintosymbol

Chrysanthemum

Constitution required members of army and navy in government, had veto power

Meiji married his 1st cousin and had an insane son, Taisho Taisho reached the throne in 1912, amidst ritual suicides Taisho was supposed to address the Diet (Japanese legislature) in 1913; he

instead rolled up his speech and looked at the Diet like it was a telescope Military takes over government from incompetent Taisho in 1926 Taisho’s son Hirohito becomes emperor in 1926

Emperor Taisho (left) & Emperor Hirohito (right)

Japan has almost no natural resources; Japan began attacking her neighbors trying to obtain their natural resources

First Sino-Japanese War took place in1895; Japan beat China and became the top regional(local) power

Allied countries made Japan give back most of the gains they took from China which humiliated Japan

Foreign PolicyFlag of the Qing dynasty (China);1890-1912

First Sino- Japanese war map of battles

Painting of First Sino-Japanese War

Japan defeated Russia in 1905 during theRusso-Japanese War

Japanese started with a sneak attack on Port Arthur (no declaration of war)

Japanese use suicide sailors to sink ships in front of harbor at Port Arthur, crews sink vessels, then come ashore and charge Russian forts and die

Tsushima Straits 20 Russian ships sunk, 5 captured, 5 escaped

Japanese lost 3 ships

Andreevsky flag ensign of the Russian Navy

Russo-Japanese War map

Painting of Russo-Japanese War

Black Dragon Society

Was founded as a criminal organization Became interested in Japanese

expansion into Siberia and Manchuria, opium traders, assassins of political opponents

Supported Nationalists under Sun Yat-sen (below left) and Chiang Kai-shek (below right) to overthrow Manchu dynasty, succeeded in 1911, Manchu’s dynasty opposed drug trafficking

Made Korea colony in 1910 Fought on allied side in WWI,

limited fighting in German owned islands in the Pacific

Allies refused to accept “Racial Equality Clause” in Treaty of Versailles

Seemed to be on way to democracy by the 1920’s

Manchu (Ding) Dynasty flag

4 giant Zaibatsu (giant, powerful Japanese business conglomerates) Mitsui (Finance), Yasuda (Finance), Sumitomo (Mining), Mitsubishi

(Military transport) dominated trade and industry, used by Japan to produce goods for war

1924, U.S. pass Exclusion Act banning Japanese immigration

Early 1920’s Japan

•Army ruled by samurai - military nobility•Code of bushido “The Way of the Warrior”- code of conduct for Samurai, includes honor until death – no surrender• The Japanese believed if you died fighting for the emperor you would be rewarded in heaven, or be re-incarnated to serve the emperor again under better circumstances in your next life

Samurai

The seven codes of Bushido should be followed by the Samurai every day(right)

Kanji symbol for

Bushido(left)

Samurai sword

RISE OF NATIONALISM

Japan began to see herself as the rightful ruler of Asia, wanted to replace western powers as imperial power in Asia

Nationalist movement became strong, opponents in politics were assassinated

Japanese policy led to China, first Manchuria, iron, coal, steel

China was trying to modernize, was ruled by warlords

Kenji Doihara

Japanese spymaster in Manchuria Achieved position by selling his young

sister to a high Japanese official Operated brothels and opium dens to

entrap Chinese officials Prostitutes paid 1 free pipe for each

one sold to Chinese, executed if addicted Japanese

Proceeds used to fund Japanese army in Manchuria

Assassinated warlord of Manchuria by blowing up his train

Flag of Manchuria;

1922 & Kenji Doihara

• Nationalists led by Chiang Kai-shek, his army is called the Kuomintang• Communists led by Mao Tse-tung (aka Zedong)• Spy Eastern Jewel hired Chinese gangs to burglarize Japanese merchants and

destroy homes in Shanghai, Japanese then invade until west opposes as obvious plot

Chiang Mao

Eastern Jewel, dressed like a man

Mukden Incident •September 18, 1931, Japanese army acted without orders•Japanese fake an attempt to blow up their railroad in Manchuria, place charge far from tracks so not to blow up any of the rails, blamed the Chinese and use it as excuse to take Manchuria, attacked Chinese barracks without warning (Japan lost 2 soldiers, and won Manchuria)

Japanese experts inspect the scene of the 'railway sabotage' on South Manchurian Railway, leading to the Mukden Incident and the Japanese occupation of Manchuria

Republic of China

The Mukden Incident Museum (literally, "September 18th History Museum") in Shenyang

Japanese troops entering Shenyang during the Mukden Incident

Japanese troops enter Chinese city after Mukden Incident

Japan set up a puppet state of Manchukuo, February 18, 1932, with former Chinese emperor Henry Pu-Y in charge

The Japanese wanted to convince Pu-Yi to move to Mukden and take the throne, and then authorize Japanese troops

Doihara sent Pu-Yi’s relative, Eastern Jewel, to seduce him, which failed Eastern Jewel then “found” a poisonous snake in his bed Eastern Jewel “found” a bomb in a gift fruit basket, bombs “identified” as coming from enemy

warlords Crowds hired by Doihara protested the Pu-Yi dynasty , Doihara then sent the army to “fight them to

the death” Doihara hired thugs to attack Pu-Yi’s bodyguards, finally accepted and became a prisoner of the

Japanese after he authorized their troops, tried and convicted for collaboration by Chinese after war Eastern Jewel got fat and suffered from numerous venereal diseases, beheaded by Chinese after war League of Nations asks Japan to leave Manchuria, Japan leaves the League in1933 Japan takes the rest of northern China by 1933 Mao and Chiang fight each other, did not work together until 1937

Henry Pu-Yi & Flag of Manchukuo

Japan broke Washington Naval Conference and began building a powerful navy, created 2 of the largest battleships in world history, Yamato and Musashi (a third was converted to a giant aircraft carrier, the Shinano)

Above: Diagram of Yamato battle ship Below: Picture of Yamatobattleship

Above: Musashi Below: IJN Shinano aircraft carrier

Clash at Marco Polo Bridge:• Fight between Japanese and Chinese troops on July 7, 1937•Japanese enter Chinese territory claiming to search for a “missing soldier”• Chinese resisted and the Japanese army attacked and invaded the rest of China•President Roosevelt calls for quarantine of Germany, Italy, and Japan•The Marco Polo Bridge (Lugouqiao), a key access to Beijing•The Double Seventh Incident (the 7th day of the 7th month) signaled the beginning of the Japanese all-out invasion of northern China

Guardian lions decorate the Marco Polo Bridge

Marco Polo Bridge

1st: Marco Bridge; 2007 2nd: On July 7, 1937, Japanese troops launched bombarded (Marco Polo Bridge) the Lugougiao Bridge 3rd: Chinese National Revolutionary Army Troops at the Marco Polo Bridge in 1937

Damage from the Japanese shells on the wall of Wanping Fortress is marked with a memorial plaque now. The text on the stone drums below summarizes the history of the war that followed the incident

Above (left) Kanji symbols of Banzai (Ten thousand years) in front of Japan's national flag

Above (right): Japanese aggressor cavalry troops passing through the Marco Polo Bridge

Below (right): Soldiers of the Imperial Japanese navy celebrating at the Marco Polo Bridge by doing banzai cheer

Rape of Nanking, winter (1937- 38), authorized slaughter of civilians, rape, bayonet and grenade practice, set afire with gasoline

Above: Japanese soldier beheads a prisoner at Nanking Below: The Quintessential Photo of Nanking a Wounded Child Who has Lost His Parents

Japanese soldiers at Work in Nanking

Field of Bones

Nanking Massacre:(Japanese Troops) and heads of beheaded victims

Iris Chang would never be the same after researching and writing the Rape of Nanking. Traumatized by what she had learned and burdened by the weight of what she had taken on, she killed herself on November 9th 2004.

Memorial Site for Victims of 1937 Nanking Massacre

Panay Incident:• Japanese dive bomber pilot sinks USS Panay December 12, 1937, ship was on the Yangtze River near Nanking to intimidate Japanese, 2 killed• Japanese bombers and fighter planes bombed and strafed (attack by low-flying aircraft) the ship, sank it, machine gunned the survivors in the water

Survivor’s of the Panay Incident

Newspaper Headline the day after the bombing of the USS Panay

• A Japanese ship followed and machine gunned the survivors near the shore• Japanese troops marched along the shore apparently hoping to capture the survivors• Japanese sailors boarded the ship just before it sank, perhaps in hopes of finding secret papers, equipment, or codes• Attack was partially filmed by news crews, but FDR ordered the film censored to edit out Japanese pilots’ faces• Japan claims it thought the ship was Chinese (even though it was clearly marked with two large U.S. flags) apologizes and pays $2 million damages, but awards pilot with a medal• Japan not capable of completing conquest of China

USS Panay

Japan began to regulate society more in 1937:

(Censorship, rationing, police surveillance)

Kempeitai (Imperial Japanese Army Military Police), able to use forced confessions in court, used to make sure everyone was loyal to the war, ran prisoner of war camps, participated in human experiments

The Kempeitai also provided, “Comfort Women”, women from territories occupied by Japan forced into sex slavery by the Japanese (Used for keeping moral support high for Japanese soldiers during WW2)

In 1938, Japan announces:

Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

• Japan plans to control resources in her Southeast Asian Empire

Japanese illustration of the “Cooperation” of Asian countries in the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

•U.S. does not use trade sanctions against Japan (Great Depression) until (1940-41)•Embargo on war materials including oil, aviation gasoline, scrap iron, steel•U.S. had begun preparing for war in the 1930’s, buildings aircraft carriers

Pro-Axis German postcard

Kingdom of Italy, Nazi Germany, and Empire of Japan

Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis (September 1940): military alliance between the three countries

DICTATOR’S

1st: Mussolini (Rome) 2nd: Hitler (Berlin) 3rd: Emperor Hirohito (Toyko)

1. Hideki Tojo, (pictured left with all the medals) was Minister of War, soldier, and became prime minister October 1941-July 19, 1944 (resigned 10 days after fall of Saipan)

TOJO

Signing of the Tripartite Pact on September 27, 1940 in Berlin. Seated on the left starting with Saburo Kurusu (Empire of Japan), Galeazzo Ciano (Kingdom of Italy) and Adolf Hitler (German Reich slumped in chair).

Yosuke Matsuoka, Japan’s Foreign Minister visits Adolf Hitler in Berlin on March 1941

Mussolini, Hitler, and Hirohito "Grotesque Italian, German, and Japanese characters" artist unknown; possibly September 1940