Japan - Drift to War

Drift To War

By Ivana

Japan in the League of Nations• World War I• Expand empire, not trade.• Joined Allies defeat

Germany.• Served material needs.• Occupied German territories.

– Seized Shantung (Shandong) & western Pacific islands.

– Forced China to sign a treaty “Twenty-One Demands” – January 1915.

– Seized Manchuria in 1931. Had war against China in 1937.

Japan in The League of Nations (Post-WWI)

• Proposed ‘editing’ the“racial equality clause” Rejected by the US, Britain & Australia.

• Arrogance & racial discrimination.• Great Britain cut off the 20-year alliance with

Japan.• Japan was ‘used’ to collect European empire.

– Claims on China.– Aggression.– Clash with Woodrow Wilson’s 14 Points.

• Lack of respect towards Japan.

Foreign Problems

• Versailles Japan given German rights in Shandong & Germany’s Pacific Islands.

• Wanted to imitate Britain’s acts in India in China.– 1937 war

against China.– Bombed Shanghai

for Japanese protection.

1933: Japan out of The League of

Nations!

Foreign Problems

• “Stop claiming China!”– Exclusion Act:

Forbidden to immigrate to the USA.

– USA stopped trading with Japan.

– Expansion to the south• Blocked by the US

Pearl Harbor, American bases in Luzon (Philippines).

Domestic Problems

• Population overgrowth.– Immigration cut off problem.

• Manufacturing & trade–More work & more trade.– Urbanization.• Rural life was hard.

• Banking crisis 1927.• Depression 1929-1930 destroyed

export industry.

FRUSTRATION!!!!

• Abandon democracy.• Militarism.

– Most politicians were in the military.– Removed

non-military politicians.

– Military in control of thegovernment.

– Western influences = limited.

– Japanese values (discipline, courage, obidience) =restored.

Stronger military + hopelessness

=

WAR

Resources• “Empire And Imperial Democracy, 1918-1932”, About Japan,

http://aboutjapan.japansociety.org/content.cfm/empire_and_imperial_democracy (Accessed 28 August 2010)

• “World War II in Japan”, World War II History Info, http://www.worldwariihistory.info/in/Japan.html (Accessed 28 August 2010)

• “Militarism and WW2”, Japan-Guide, http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2129.html (Accessed 28 August 2010)

• Buchanan, Patrick J. (2010) “Why Did Japan Attack Us?”, The American Cause, http://www.theamericancause.org/patwhydidjapan.htm (Accessed 28 August 2010)

• “World War I”,Country Studies, http://countrystudies.us/japan/29.htm (Accessed 28 August 2010)

• “Japan and the World War I Era”, United States HISTORY, http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1110.html (Accessed 28 August 2010)

• “Unit 3 Chapter 17: Modern Japan”, Global Insights, page 272-273.