EMPIRE OF JAPAN: LEGACY OF THE RISING SUN

The Rising Sun flag of Japan, used by the Empire of Japan. It is still being used by the Japanese military to this day.

In the dawn of a momentous century, a new power rises from the east. It becomes the dawn of a rising sun, a sun that would scorch all of East Asia under its heat for years to come. The Empire of the Rising Sun, with a giant fleet of warships, threaten the very balance of power holding the region. But by 1947, the sun was forced to set back into the horizon and was succeeded by one of the most influential nations in the world: Japan. But many years ago in the 1800s, Japan adopted an outdated feudal government. How did a relatively laid back country manage to rapidly rise up the ranks to becoming a great power within a speed that other nations could only dream? This is the rise and fall of the Empire of Japan, and its ever-burning (and controversial) legacy in modern history.

THE TOKUGAWA SHOGUNATE

Prior to the early modern times, the islands of Japan were ruled over by the shogunate, composed of military leaders known as shoguns. The shogunate imposed very strict, conservative, and isolationist policies over Japan, essentially acting as a military dictatorship. Originally, shoguns were appointed by the Emperor, but as time went on, the shoguns gradually gained more power and the Emperor was turned into a figurehead, while the shoguns were the de facto leaders of the country.

Ever since Japan was unified under the rule of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Japan was engaged in multiple overseas conflicts, most notably the Imjin War in 1592. Original ambitions of Japanese rulers at the rime aimed for Japan to achieve some sort of regional supremacy over East Asia. Japan had, at the time, deployed mercenaries and samurai across Southeast Asia to help fight alongside local nations. However, the increasing presence of European trade into the region and the spread of Christianity that came with it threatened the conservative shogunate in Japan. The Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, and British were already engaged in trading activities in Southeast Asia. Within Japan itself, there was chaos during the Sengoku period under the shogunates. Order was restored soon enough by the emerging Tokugawa Shogunate, who decided that the increase of foreign activity in East Asia was a clear sign for Japan to stay away. To do this, the Tokugawa Shogunate would adopt the policy of Sakoku, which was a policy of strict isolationism, secluding Japan from the rest of the world.

This would continue for hundreds of years, and for a moment there was a state of peace within Japan. The country was split up into several regional districts known as daimyo, each holding a certain degree of autonomy, for each daimyo was allowed to construct their own armies loyal to them and control their own tax rates. The shogunate operated in the city of Edo, while the Emperor stayed in Kyoto, where he was still allowed to hold his luxuries but was stripped of any real political power. Entering into the 1800s, however, and cracks began to show within the tenous balance of power that the Tokugawa have carefully constructed. The social class in Japan, based from the ancient principles of Neo-Confucianism, seemed to favor a small minority of the merchant class. This small minority of merchants and artists alike were able to sell their goods into major commercial centres while lending money from their local daimyos and even from the samurai. This move caused the treasury of the Tokugawa Shogunate to run dry, and they did not want to impose taxation on commerce in fears that it would lower the authority of the government and bring prestige to this merchant class. This had the unintended effect of causing massive inflation across the country, and a general dissatisfaction to the government soon followed. The samurai were particularly feared by the shogunate, since they were seen as the trusted protectors of Japan and have the weaponry and resources capable of launching an armed revolt.

THE BAKUMATSU PERIOD

The outside world was becoming more hostile. Russian explorers began traversing the Kuril Islands, foreign whaling ships entered Japanese waters for, well, whale hunting, and British gunboats were in the area after Britain threatened to invade the city of Nagasaki. In 1825, the Japanese government made the decision to forcefully expel foreign ships from Japanese waters, a move supported by the public who became increasingly anti-Western. The conducts of the European powers in China during the Opium Wars sparked fears that Japan was about to be treated the same way if they do not stand their ground. During the same time period, the United States became a growing power in the Pacific, attempting to extend their influence as a worls superpower. Their first order of business was to strike commercial agreements with the hermit state of Japan, but the Japanese government rejected these offers multiple times. Somewhat infuriated by rejections, in 1853, the United States entrusted Commodore Matthew C. Perry to lead an expedition into Japan with several ships in an attempt to force the country to open trade to the outside world. The Japanese government was given a year to respond to Perry's, and by extension the United States's, demands in the country. But Perry and his crew could not wait any longer and arrived just six months later. This time, Perry had many more warships than before, being more aggressive during negotiations. It was eventually agreed upon by both sides in the Convention of Kanagawa, held in March 1854, for Japan to open up trade relations to foreign countries again.

Following Japan's agreement with the US, many European nations began signing commercial treaties with Japan that gave Westerners certain trading privileges that humiliated the Japanese. These unequal treaties, giving European powers more and more resources while leaving Japan little to no breathing room, turned Japan into a semicolony of sorts. They were now dependent on foreign powers to run their country, and needed to adhere to these unequal treaties simply because they had no choice. The domestic situation in Japan became more and more radicalized, as xenophobia became ever more prevalent across the country. People were getting tired of the shogunate's incompetence and subordination to foreign powers, giving rise to a new radical political movement. This movement was called the Sonnō Jōi movement, which translated to "Revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians."

The Sonnō Jōi movement caused several incidents between Japan and the Western powers. In 1862, a British merchant named Charles Lennox Richardson was murdered in Japan by a group of samurai. This spurred into what was known as the Namamugi Incident, which caused severe repercussions for Anglo-Japanese relations. The British wanted the shogunate to pay indemnities for the death of Richardson, which the Tokugawa agreed to. This coincided with numerous other armed incidents like the bombardments on several port cities like Kagoshima and Shimonoseki by the European powers in 1863 and 1864 respectively. Anti-Western sentiment was further promoted by the reigning Emperor Kōmei, who issued an order to expel barbarians, i.e. foreigners, from Japan. The shogunate did not want to reinforce this rule, but their decision only showed their internal weakness and showcased the shogunate's supposed disconnection from the demands of the Japanese people. The shogun had also died around this time, and an heir was needed to be appointed immediately, brewing tensions in the cauldron.

COLLAPSE OF THE SHOGUNATE

In 1866, the powerful Chōshū clan attempted to launch a coup d'etat against the Tokugawa shogunate. While the coup failed, it managed to spur Japan into a full-blown crisis as local daimyos no longer pledged their allegiance to the shoguns. On the very same year, Chōshū allied with the daimyo of Satsuma, forming a very strong military alliance known as the Satchō Alliance, united in their opposition against the Tokugawa Shogunate and their desire to overthrow them. A year later in 1867, Emperor Kōmei would pass away and was succeeded by a very young Emperor Meiji. The current shogun, Yoshinobu, attempted to create reforms to the shogunate as a last-ditch effort at keeping them in powe, but ultimately, with many rebels springing up across the country, Yoshinobu would be unsuccessful in his attempts and became the final shogun to reign in Japan. In November 1867, Yoshinobu would resign from his position as shogun, and granted authority back to the Emperor, restoring the old imperial order. With that, the centuries-old Tokugawa Shogunate was gone.

Tokugawa Yoshinobu, the final shogun of Japan.

Despite this, the Tokugawa family still retained important government positions in the country. They still held significant political power, with members of the family still holding executive positions within the government. This dissatisfied the daimyos of Chōshū and Satsuma, and in January 1868, aided by followers of the Sonnō Jōi movement, marched into the Imperial palace in Kyoto. Armies of both daimyos along with several rebels seized the palace, and Emperor Meiji declared that he would restore imperial power to its fullest extent. This kickstarted the Meiji Restoration, which gradually restored the imperial government and political powers back to the Emperor. Initially, the Tokugawa and the government assembly embraced the restoration of imperial rule, but the leaders of Satsuma wanted to erase every trace of the shogunate's political footmark. The Satsuma leaders threatened the assembly to abolish the title of shogun. This was followed with them demanding the confiscation of Yoshinobu's land. Of course, the former shogun was rather unhappy with the demands of the rebels, and on January 17th the same year, he announced his rejection of the Meiji Restoration. After several arson attacks occured in the city of Edo, not yet occupied by the rebels, Yoshinobu assembled his own army of loyalists to strike at Kyoto and liberate the capital from the Chōshū and Satsuma. Thus began the Boshin War.

THE BOSHIN WAR

The Boshin War was meant to be the decisive conflict which would put an end to the imperial-shogunate rivalry. Whoever would achieve victory in this massive civil war would get to rule the country. The war was fought between the Tokugawa loyalists and the rebel forces who wanted to restore the imperial court. The war lasted from January 1868 to May 1869. From a numerical standpoint, the Tokugawa held the advantage, but despite the small size of the rebel armies, they possessed more advanced weaponry and technology compared to the Tokugawa. They were more technologically and militarily advanced, and steadily gained ground from the Tokugawa. The rebels were further helped by samurai from the southern and western regions of Japan, and secured the support of the court. Emperor Meiji and the rebels aimed to crush the shogunate, so they would never threaten the new government. Yoshinobu and the Tokugawa's efforts were centered at the capture of Kyoto, but the rapid modernization of the rebels and the defection of multiple daimyos into the rebel camp led to the Tokugawa's odds of victory getting extremely slim. The Battle of Toba-Fushimi became one of the war's most famous battles, since it proved to be the decisive turning point for the war. Combined forces of the Chōshū, Tosa, and Satsuma clans managed to repel the Tokugawa forces. The rebels then chased down the shogunate all the way to Edo, where the city surrendered to the imperial forces. Yoshinobu would personally surrender, and he would be stripped of his powers by Emperor Meiji himself. Afterwards, the rest of Japan would slowly accept the new imperial order. Yet even after the Tokugawa's defeat, many of its remaining supporters fled to the island of Ezo – Hokkaidō as its called today – where they established the breakaway state known as the Republic of Ezo. The imperial government dispatched an expeditionary force to quell the state, besieging Hakodate and forcing the Republic to surrender to the imperial forces. The Boshin War ended the 200-year old shogunate and installed a new power into Japan.

Map of the Boshin War; red arrows depict the movement of the imperial and rebel forces, while blue depict areas under Tokugawa control

THE MEIJI ERA

In the aftermath of the Boshin War, the new Japanese government immediately went into massive nationbuilding efforts to rebuild the country from civil war and position itself as a great regional power. On April 7th 1868, the Meiji government signed the Charter Oath, setting the course for Japan's modernization industrially and militarily. Financial support was slowly ushering into the treasury of the new government, and a sense of national unity attempted to be made. The new government promoted the creation of a Japanese national identity rather than a regional identity adhering to an individual's daimyo of origin. To advance their modernization, Japan endeavored in the Iwakura Mission in 1871. This mission aimed to renegotiate the unequal treaties imposed upon Japan by the United States and other Western powers, which ultimately proved unsuccessful. However, the mission held a different kind of success. Many of the Japanese diplomats along the journey have closely observed the judicial and economic systems implemented in the US and Europe, inspiring the people undertaking the mission to carry on this information into Japan to boost its modernization process. The Japanese constitution would be very Western as a result, following the state of Prussia in terms of laws and military. Japan was also successful in negotiating a delimination treaty with Russia in 1875, whereupon Japan gained the Kuril Islands in exchange for the Sakhalin Islands. The Ryukyu Islands, controlled by the Ryukyu Kingdom, would be annexed into Japan in 1879, the most famous of the islands being Okinawa.

Emperor Meiji of Japan

But despite a seemingly prosperous beginnings for a new era, the transition from an old conservative government to a new liberal modern government was indeed not without its social crises. Starting from the 1860s, there was social tension in Japan amidst the modernization process. The unrest was partially halted in 1869, when the Meiji government abolished the outdated social class system of Japan. But with a greater emphasis on military strength, the Japanese governmenr introduced a new law which installed mandatory military conscription for all men. The new conscription laws were unacceptable for many, especially in the peasantry, erupting into the Blood Tax Riots. The riots were brutally suppressed by the Japanese government with the help of the samurai. There also came the question of religious freedom. During the 16th century up until the collapse of the shogunate in the 19th century, foreign religions like Christianity were strictly forbidden to be practiced in Japan due to fears that it may threaten the power of the shogunate. Japanese Christians, in fear of persecution or execution, went into hiding, but in 1871, the Japanese government introduced a law which allowed the freedom of religion for all Japanese citizens.

The samurai became a conundrum in Japan's modernization. The new Meiji government viewed the samurai class as the offspring of Japan's feudal era, and was thus incompatible for the modern age. Originally, a compromise was agreed upon to simply modernize the looks of upper class Japanese citizens, including the samurai, by cutting their hair short. However, the samurai soon disagreed with the actions of the Meiji government due to their ongoing campaigns to eliminate all remnants of the feudal shogunate era. The methods that the government employed to achieve this included the destruction of several ancient castles and temples, and the changing of societal norms to better fit the Western standard. Historic monuments were often destroyed and reduced to rubble, and even today, the aftermath could still be noticed. Many of Japan's older temples, shrines, castles, and palaces needed to be reconstructed. Some were reconstructed from cheap marble, while others needed to be built from scratch. Certain buildings were entirely destroyed from the historical record, so modern builders needed to look at old paintings of them to understand how the buildings looked.

The conservative samurai disapproved of the government's actions, and after the Blood Tax Riots, they began to openly oppose the government. The stipend, which was payment from the government to the samurai, stopped being sent, which left then without a source of income. Added with Japan's military reforms, it massively reduced the reputation of the samurai from the honorable protectors of Japan to normal upper class people left over from an outdated period. Since anybody could join the Army and become a soldier, the samurai were no longer seen as a powerful military force. Multiple samurai went into retreat in Satsuma, where their dissatisfaction to the government culminated into the Satsuma Rebellion in 1877, lasting from January to September. This rebellion was effectively put down by the Imperial Japanese Army, flexing their military muscle and showing its strengths to the people of Japan.

In spite of such early chaos, Japan was able to keep itself together and follow through with its Westernization. During the late 1880s, a new movement was springing up across the country, called the Freedom and People's Rights Movement, which demanded the implementation of Western-style democracy into the Japanese government. There were calls for the creation of a proper national assembly, political parties, and the creation of a proper constitution for which the country should follow. In 1889, the Empire of Japan was de jure formed after the signing of the Constitution of the Empire of Japan. In it, it detailed that political, judiciary, military, and legislative powers be vested into the current Emperor. The Emperor was to be regarded as holy and sacred, as a divine authority. While indeed possessing such powerful titles, the Emperor's power was partially curbed by the Imperial Diet, which the Emperor needed to consult in order to carry out his policies. The Imperial Diet was the main legislative body of Japan, consisting of the House of Representatives and the House of Peers. Democracy, however, was still limited; only 5% of men could vote in elections, and no women were allowed any political representation. Japan's first political parties were also formed, which concerned themselves over the current domestic situations in Japan and some also pursued ambitious foreign policies, like trying to decide whether or not Korea should be invaded.

Declaring the Meiji Constitution

There was also economic development in Japan. Its rapid industrialization caused the creation of a mainly capitalist economic model for the country. Feudal workers were transformed into factory workers and other wage laborers. In 1897, several Japanese metal workers were able to unionise, which would plant the seeds for the modern Japanese trade-union movement. Japan also copied the United States's decentralized economic system without the need of a bank, which they were able to do by sending observers there. The yen was introduced as the country's new circulated currency. The education system underwent heavy changes. Now, in order to enter into a certain university, one must have decent or good exam scores to be admitted. Thousands of Westerners were recruited and brought into Japan to teach mathematics, science, technology, language, and other modern subjects.

TENSIONS WITH CHINA

Japan becoming a rising Asian power was a concern for its neighbors, particularly the aging Qing Dynasty that ruled China at the time. For centuries, China had established itself as East Asia's sole superpower, but after the Meiji Restoration, this title was challenged by Japan. China's power had been severely weakened following the Opium Wars, in which Britain and France asserted their influence over the country. While the majority of China still believed in the imperial government, the actual ability of the Emperor to exert influence throughout the country decreased. China was in rapid decline, while Japan the opposite. As animosity grew between China and Japan, both nations realized the significance of the Korean Peninsula in either of their plans. For Japan, the status of Korea had been debated within the government even before the Meiji Restoration. As explained before, several political parties argued that Korea should be immediately conquered. Its strategic location meant it was like a dagger pointed at the heart of Japan. If Japan was able to conquer Korea, then it would become a valuable stepping stone for an invasion of China, which seemed inevitable due to the growing tensions. Likewise, if China conquered Korea, then it would become the springboard for a Chinese naval invasion onto the Japanese home islands. Currently, Korea was a Chinese vassal state, so it was firmly under Chinese influence for now. There were also more domestic reasons for Japan needing to invade Korea; natural resources. While Japan may be advancing as a great power, its major weakness was the lack of natural resources found in Japan itself. Korea, on the other hand, held large reserves of iron and coal.

Caricature depicting China and Japan's competition for the control of Korea, which is seen here as a fish. Russia looms over the two powers.

The Meiji government realized that imperial expansion was now necessary not just to complete its status as a great power, but also to acquire vital natural resources that it did not have. Keep this in mind for later, as it would be crucial in understanding Japan's future endeavors.

In 1875, the Japanese employed the tactic of gunboat diplomacy to instigate several skirmishes with Korea. One of these confrontations spiralled out of control, causing the Ganghwa Island incident where Japanese and Korean soldiers engaged in combat with one another. The following year in February, the Ganghwa Treaty was consequently signed, which ended Korea's own period of isolationism and opened the country to trade with the Japanese, a far cry of the methods that the US used to open trade in Japan. Under the treaty, Korea was meant to be free from Chinese influence. In 1880, Korea established diplomatic ties with the United States through Chinese mediation. China attempted to sway relations between Korea and the US by urging the latter to recognize Korea still as a Chinese vassal. The US did not agree, instead opting to follow the Ganghwa Treaty and respect Korean independence. Domestically though, Korea was still in chaos, as China and Japan attempted to influence the country into their favor. China supported the Korean monarchy under King Gojong, who still held close ties with them; Japan supported reformists that wanted to modernize Korea the same way Japan did.

In 1882, under the conditions of famine and drought, some soldiers of the Korean army rioted and attacked the Japanese diplomatic legation, killing several and forcing the evacuation of Japanese diplomats to Nagasaki. While the Chinese and the Japanese were able to quell the rebellion using their respective armies, the Imo Incident left an everlasting effect onto Korea. Due to the devastation of the riots, reforms in the country were slowed down and China regained their influence over the country. Internal affairs of Korea were directly controlled and maintained by the Qing dynasty, and security over the country was achieved by the stationing of Chinese troops throughout various key locations in Seoul. The Chinese military began training the Korean military, and one of these trainers ended up being famous Chinese general Yuan Shikai, who also participated in quelling the rebellion during the Imo Incident. This seemed like a direct violation of the Ganghwa Treaty, but China countered it by signing a new treaty with Korea that formally declared the country a full Chinese dependency. King Gojong no longer had the ability to freely appoint diplomats and Chinese products and merchants flocked to Korean markets. This was a severe blow to not just Japan's endeavors but also the European powers. Korea was now a semi-colony of China.

But Japan did not lose all their cards yet. Japan had a prominent pawn in Korea, that being the Gaehwadang party, also known as the Enlightenment Party. The Gaehwadang consisted of a group of reformers that wanted to replicate Japan's modernization into Korea, and the Meiji era government have done everything in their power to supply and empower the Gaehwadang. The party opposed the Sadaedang, which were mainly composed of a group of conservatives. The Sadaedang were more pro-Chinese following the Imo Incident, and believed Korea should modernize based off of China's model. In the wake of the Imo Incident, the Gaehwadang was not able to achieve its reform goals due to the Sadaedang's interference and as a result took to more drastic measures: coup d'etat. In 1884, France and China waged war over the status of Annam, part of French Indochina. Many Chinese troops were redirected to the war effort and were withdrawn from Korea, leaving the Gaehwadang a perfect opportunity to strike. They consulted Japan in their coup plans, and it was approved by Japanese minister Takezoe Shinichiro, who was willing to send Japanese guards stationed in the legation to aid the Gaehwadang. The coup would occur under the guise of a banquet to celebrate a new national post office. King Gojong was invited and expected to attend. When the king arrived, members of the Gaehwadang would falsely inform him that Chinese soldiers have caused a disturbance in the city, after which they escorted the king to the Gyoengu Palace. There, King Gojong was then placed under the custody of the Japanese, while the Gaehwadang would kill several important members of the Sadaedang party.

The Gapsin Coup, as it is called, brought the Japanese-backed Gaehwadang into power. Immediately, they created Japanese-approved reforms, broke off relations with China and declared Korea to be free from its influence. Along with it, also came modern reforms such as the transformation of Korea into a constitutional monarchy, the abolition of ruling-class privileges, the creation of free trade and commerce, and the development of a modern police force. In spite of their efforts, the Gapsin Coup was silenced just three days after the Gaehwadang came into power. While Chinese soldiers in Korea were indeed reduced to half, they still had around 1,500 soldiers present in the country, compared to Japan's 140. Not to mention, the Chinese troops were led by Yuan Shikai. The Chinese kicked the Gaehwadang out from power and restored power to the Sadaedang party. The Japanese legation building was burned down and destroyed, and yet again the Japanese lost several of their soldiers and diplomats. Now beyond pissed off, Japan sent warships into Korean waters, threatening the peninsula with the usage of military force. The brief standoff ended with another treaty between Japan and China that restored diplomatic relations to some degree and allowed for the reconstruction of the Japanese legation building. Sadly however, diplomacy wouldn't last.

On March 28th 1894, a man by the name of Kim Ok-gyun, was killed in the Shanghai International Settlement by a man named Hong Jong-u in his inn. Kim Ok-gyun was a pro-Japanese Korean, and was also involved in the Gapsin Coup before being evacuated to Japan. Korea demanded that Kim be given back to be arrested, but Japan refused. Many in Japan saw Kim as the man that would bring Korea's modernization, but the Japanese government was more cautious in their attitude towards him. A decision was ultimately made to exile him to the Bonin Islands. Unfortunately, he was lured into Shanghai and eventually assassinated. British authorities active in Shanghai gave Kim's body over to China, which then brought it back to Korea, where the body was dismembered and its pieces displayed to warn potential rebels of their fate. Kim Ok-gyun's death caused national outrage all across Japan. Nationalist groups viewed it as a heavy blow to Japan's dignity. Legally, Kim was killed outside of Japan, so the government couldn't do anything, and whatever happened to him and his killer was in China's realm of control. Further diplomatic crisis occured when Hong Jong-u was not imprisoned and instead released, and was showered with rewards by Koreans when he went back to his country. Japanese nationalists could not deny their suspicions that China had something to do with it, and immediately called for war on China. The Donghak Rebellion that broke out in Korea not long after was the final nail in the coffin, as a pro-Japanese government was installed in Korea yet again during the chaos of the rebellion, and marked the beginning of Japan's next major war, and its imperial expansion.

INITIAL IMPERIAL EXPANSION AND CONFLICTS

- First Sino-Japanese War

During the Donghak Rebellion, Korea requested China for help in suppressing the rebellion. China sent 2,800 soldiers to help the Koreans, but at the same time, the Japanese sent a counter-force of 8,000 soldiers, landing in Seoul and Incheon. Japan contacted China and attempted to persuade them into cooperation to reform Korea based on the interests of both nations. The Qing government turned down the offer, which allowed Japan to continue its operations in Korea. Initially sending troops to intervene in the rebellion, Japan now saw an opportunity to finally put Korea under their influence. During the chaos of the rebellion, Japanese troops captured King Gojong (again) and occupied the Royal Palace in Seoul, eventually installing a puppet government by June 25th. The new Korean government expelled the Chinese forces in the city and Japanese soldiers, who were becoming an ever-present force throughout the country.

China denounced the new Korean government as illegitimate, and the First Sino-Japanese War broke out. Japanese troops in Korea numbered around 3,500, outnumbering that of the Chinese. Japan's initial strategy was to occupy the Asan Bay, which was the only way Chinese troops could be supplied in Korea. By encircling and capturing Asan Bay, crippling China's ability to fight. The first battle of the conflict came in the Battle of Pungdo, which took place in Asan Bay. The Imperial Japanese Navy, having patrolled Asan Bay for any Chinese or affiliated warships, finally engaged in combat with the Chinese Beiyang Fleet. The Japanese were able to inflict heavy casualties onto the Chinese forces, forcing them to land ashore and disrupted China's ground campaigns against Japan. The war spilled out to Korea, where Chinese and Japanese troops fought each other at the battles of Seonghwan and Pyongyang. Numerically superior, the Japanese were able to push back the Chinese and force them into retreat from Korea. Following the Chinese defeat at Pyongyang, the Beiyang Fleet was deployed once again to intervene, when it met with the Imperial Japanese Navy once more, off the mouth of the Yalu River. The subsequent Battle of the Yalu River took place, which lasted almost the entire day and resulted in the near destruction of the Beiyang Fleet to the Japanese. Morale in China quickly pummeled and dwindled, as hopes of a victory seemed impossible now that Korea was firmly under Japan's thumb.

The defeats at Pyongyang and Yalu River firced China to reconsider its strategy and abandon northern Korea. On October 24th 1894, Japanese forces crossed the Yalu River and slowly made their way into Manchuria. The Japanese assaulted the Chinese defensive positions in Jiuliancheng, yet again forcing the Chinese to retreat and set fire to the city of Fengchang along the way. Japan had now entered into China proper, establishing a strong foothold in Manchuria. Japanese troops captured the city of Mukden and pursued the retreating Chinese to the Liaodong Peninsula. Along the way, the Japanese attacked the city of Lüshunkou by late November, successfully capturing the city with minimum losses. After which, they proceeded to massacre the civillian populations of the city. In what was memorialized as the Port Arthur massacre, Japanese troops killed thousands of Chinese citizens freely. At the time, the rest of the world believed it was the product of Chinese propaganda, since they couldn't believe that Japan was capable of doing such deeds. As they would unfortunately realize, decades later, Japan was capable of more than just that.

Moving onto the wider conflict, China lost its last important holdout in Weihaiwei during January to February of 1895. The siege was successful for the Japanese, who now began to rapidly advance into southern Manchuria and northern China. With the Liaodong Peninsula under Japanese occupation, and the rest of Manchuria threatened, China would open up for peace negotiations. The Treaty of Shimonoseki would be signed by both parties on April 17th 1895, ending the First Sino-Japanese War. China would cede the Liaodong Peninsula, the island of Formosa (now Taiwan), and the Penghu Islands. For Taiwan however, politicians and Chinese leaders on the island attempted to resist Japanese occupation, forming the breakaway state called the Republic of Formosa on May 23rd. Japanese forces landed on Taiwan's northern region six days after the Republic's declaration. Five months later, Japan managed to occupy all of Taiwan's most important city centres, and Formosa would eventually sue for peace before letting Taiwan be annexed into Japan.

Troop movement in the First Sino-Japanese War

The aftermath of the First Sino-Japanese War led to Japan achieving many of its pursued goals. For one, it showed the effectiveness of its military strategy and doctrines under Western-style military training. Both the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy achieved great victories against China with less casualties. Its victory showed to the world the true extent of the Meiji Restoration, and their victory in the war shaped them into an equal to the European powers. It solidified their position as the true great power of Asia, humiliating the already declining Qing China. Natural resources like iron was successfully extracted from Japan's newly gained territories, fueling the nation's imperial ambitions and plans for expansion. But not everybody was on board Japan's expansion; the European powers looked with concern over Japan's massive influence over China and Asia, which may evolve to become a threat to their colonial holdings. Japan's claims over the Liaodong Peninsula was the main source of contention between Europe and Japan. The nations of France, Germany, and Russia would force Japan to abandon the Liaodong Peninsula in exchange for several hundred million yen, which Japan would be forced to accept. Almost immediately after the peninsula was abandoned by Japan, the aforementioned nations began exerting their influence on it. Russia constructed Port Arthur and docked the Russian Pacific Fleet there, while Germany claimed Jiaozhou Bay in Tsingtao, which would be turned into a German colony that housed the German East Asian Squadron.

- Boxer Rebellion

It wouldn't be long before Japan began their activities in China again. In the year 1900, China suffered what is called the Boxer Rebellion. It was an anti-imperialist rebellion instigated by the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists, or referred to as the "Boxers" due to their martial arts. The Boxers attempted to rid China of foreign and Europan presence, and due to their vision, China ended up supporting the Boxers themselves, turning the rebellion into another China-Europe war. The European powers immediately formed the Eight-Nation Alliance, a coalition of nations that intervene in the Boxer Rebellion and attempt to put it down. Japan joined the alliance due to their continued interests in China.

At the outbreak of the Boxer Rebellion, Japan had only more than 200 soldiers present in China, all located in the city of Tientsin. Japan would contribute roughly 50 men into the Seymour Expedition, an attempt by the Eight-Nation Alliance to march onto Beijing and relieve the siege on the Europen legation buildings there. Unfortunately their advance was halted by a mix of Boxers and Chinese forces on early June, forcing them to temporarily reside in the city of Tianjin. News about the situation that the Japanese troops in the Seymour Expedition were experiencing reaches Tokyo, which prompted the Army General Staff to consider an emergency contingency plan if things went awry. However, the European powers' treatment on Japan during the Liaodong Peninsula crisis discouraged the Japanese military to send more troops to China. Nevertheless, Japan sent a 1,300-strong expeditionary force under the fluent English-speaking general Fukushima Yasumasa, which immediately reinforced the allies at Tianjin.

On June 17th, a combined British, Russian, and German forces managed to capture the Dagu Forts in an ensuing battle. Britain in particular felt needed to secure Japanese participation, due to the concurrent Boer War in Africa sapping Britain's manpower and the unwillingess of Britain to deploy armies from India, and the fact that Japan was the only country with a large amount of manpower available for deployment. Japan, while interested with joining the conflict to greater extents, was unwilling to lend Britain its valuable troops. With the siege of the foreign legations in Beijing continuing to be a matter of importance, Britain was willing to pay Japan one million British pounds in exchange for Japanese participation. After being paid, Japan sent more of its troops to aid the allies in the Battle of Tianjin, now having 3,800 Japanese soldiers deployed in the Boxer Rebellion, out of the 17,000 total allied forces in China. By the time the siege of the legations ended in August, Japan had 13,000 troops active in China, making up 40% of the 33,000-strong allied force by the end of the month.

Uniforms of the soldiers in the Eight-Nation Alliance

- Russo-Japanese War

When a final peace treaty was drafted by early September, 1900, and China surrendered, the combatants of the Eight-Nation Alliance were allowed to station their troops in the country to protect their citizens. In reality however, Japan, along with the European powers, took advantage of the terms of the Boxer Protocol to increase their influence within China. Russia, in particular, was beginning to spread its influence into Manchuria. Russia seemed eager to spread their control to Korea, which was currently a Japanese puppet state.

Tensions between Russia and Japan continued to rise as the former nation began to encroach on Korea. In the Treaty of Shimonoseki that ended the First Sino-Japanese War, Japan was given the aforementioned Liaodong Peninsula and also the port of Ryojun. But, as stated before, the European powers intervened and forced Japan to instead cede Ryojun, renamed to Port Arthur, to Russia. This move caused Russian foreign policy to put more and more attention to influence in East Asia, which crossed the lines to Japan's geopolitical territory. Not to mention, Korea was once again slipping out of Japan's control, and was leaning more to Russia's protection rather than Japan's.

However, Japan was not the only nation that fearrd Russia's influence. Britain felt fearful of having to compete with Russia in terms of naval control in Asia, and due to political tensions having existed between Britain and Russia for a long time, Britain was eager to cooperate with the Japanese to turn them as a bulwark against Russian expansion. In 1902, the Anglo-Japanese Alliance was signed between Britain and Japan. This also made Britain one of the only European nation to respect and recognize Japan's strengths and capabilities; Germany, which was also active in the area, antagonized Japan due to German propaganda at the time portraying Japan as a possible threat to European colonial endeavors in the region; France didn't seem to care; and the United States was busy consolidating their colonial holding over the Philippines and also felt like Japan was a threat to their Pacific interests.

Now with reassured British support, the Japanese leadership felt no need to be cautious anymore, and on February 8th 1904, the Japanese Navy launched a surprise attack onto the Russian fleet in Port Arthur, a strategy that Japan would find itself comfortable with doing. The attack on Port Arthur evolved into a full-on battle, as both the Japanese and Russian navies engaged in an indecisive naval conflict. The Japanese were unable to land on the port due to the coastal batteries protecting it, and the Russians were unwilling to leave the port after the death of one of their admirals. While the battle raged on, Japan took advantage and landed its soldiers onto Incheon, beginning the Japanese invasion of Korea, with the ultimate aim of bringing the country back into Japanese control through military force. By the end of April, Japan had capitulated Korea and occupied the entire country.

Japanese strategy, as shown in the First Sino-Japanese War, was to achieve naval superiority before launching a massive-scale ground invasion. Unfortunately for them, Russia still maintained its presence in Port Arthur. The battle proved a stalemate for both sides, yet it seemed to have inflicted a great psychological impact onto the Russian public. In order to swiftly eliminate the Russian threat, Japan attempted to blockade Port Arthur by encircling it with tons of underwater mines. A Japanese attempt to close off the port entirely on May 4th failed, and Japan took to its minelaying strategies. Russia was quick to learn, and soon began using Japan's own minelaying strategies against them by sinking two Japanese battleships. This forced Japan to go on a more aggressive doctrine, now opting to besiege the port with a combined ground force and naval artillery. The siege of Port Arthur began in April as Japanese troops attempted to make their way through the entrenched Russians in the hilltops. A few weeks later, the situation had massively deteriorated for the Russians. The Japanese were able to strategically place its long-range artillery to perfectly target the docked Russian warships, and eventually the Japanese were able to sink four battleships and two cruisers, all through the usage of land-based artillery, an incredible feat even by today's standards.

Japanese troops charging into Russian soldiers

Meanwhile, Japan was being supported by Britain based on the terms of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. Britain helped to intercept wired messages transmitted from Russia and sent them to Japan to aid them in the war effort. As a way to pay this British endeavor, Japan shared vital naval information regarding the Russians with them. In a way, the conflict was more of a semi-proxy war for Britain to act against Russia. On May 1st 1904, the Japanese striked once again and engaged the Russians in the famous Battle of the Yalu River, which took place in Russian-occupied Manchuria. The Japanese achieved a crushing victory in the battle, heavily decreasing Russian morale and destroying any hopes of a quick Russian victory. Subsequent battles, like the Battle of the Yellow River, would continue to drain out Russia's resources and influence in Asia. The Russian Baltic Fleet, which attempted to cross the Suez Canal, was blocked by the British and forced to go around Africa, delaying support from reaching the exhausted Russians. Entering into 1905, the Russians suffered continous setbacks in the battles of Mukden and Sandepu, and during the Battle of Tsushima, the Japanese occupied Sakhalin Island to force Russia to sue for peace. Exhausted, drained of its resources and unable to fight effectively, the Russian government did agree for surrender.

Russia's defeat in the war shook the entire nation and the world. It was the first instance of an Asian country defeating a European power. It became a massive humiliation for Russia, but also became a boost of hope for the natives of the European colonies in Asia, such as the Dutch East Indies. Many now saw Japan as the savior of East Asia that would rid the region of European presence and end imperial rule. The Russo-Japanese War officially ended after the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth on September 5th 1905, mediated by the United States and its then president, Theodore Roosevelt. In the treaty, Russia agreed to recognize Korea as being part of Japan's sphere of influence, and would withdraw from Manchuria. Port Arthur would be abandoned by the Russians and the southern half of Sakhalin Island would also be ceded to Japan. Unfortunately for them, their demands for Russia to pay them a war indemnity was not agreed upon. The United States sought to balance the power of Russia and Japan in the Pacific, and now many in Japan was growing suspicious that the US had other grand plans for the region that they are unaware of. The Japanese public, blinded by the fervor of nationalism, claimed the US cheated Japan of its rightful claims. This sparked a three-day long, anti-American riot in Tokyo to break out, which needed the involvement of law enforcement to put down.

Korea was finally annexed into Japan in 1910, ending the reign of King Gojong and firmly connecting the Korean economy to Japan's. The nation would slowly sap out Korea of its economic resources, and transform the country into a gateway leading to mainland China in the prospect of future conflicts. Unfortunately for Japan, the aging Emperor Meiji would pass away in 1912, leaving his son, Yoshihito, as the next monarch to rule Japan, under the name of Emperor Taisho.

THE TAISHO PERIOD

The coronation of Emperor Taisho onto the throne coincided with a massive seismic shift in global politics. On July 1914, after a month of diplomatic crises in Europe due to the infamous assassination of Franz Ferdinand, war broke out between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, causing the tenous balance of power in Europe to turn over and caused all the great powers of Europe - Britain included - into a massive global war: the First World War. Originally, the conflict seemed to be a purely European affair, but as Britain was pulled into the conflict following the German invasion of Belgium, they called upon their Japanese ally to help. As mentioned briefly, Germany did have a small colony in China and several colonies in the Pacific, which was near Japan's proximity. Adhering to a code of honor, Japan honored the Anglo-Japanese Alliance and joined the war on the side of the Allies. They officially declared war on Germany on August 23rd 1914, when they worked in conjunction with British forces to lay siege upon the German-held port of Tsingtao, located in German Shangdong. The port harbored its East Asia Squadron, and if it were to be captured, then the operations of the Germans in the Pacific would be extremely limited. The Japanese would also participate in the invasion of German New Guinea and its islands, gaining the colonies for themselves. After the surrender of German colonial forces in Asia and the Pacific in November 1914, Japan was allowed to occupy the colonies until the war's end. From then on, Japan made little to no direct military effort to help the Allies in Europe, opting to give them non-military support instead. A Japanese naval squadron was deployed in the Meditteranean to help Allied shipping and troop transport, and up until the war's end, Japan sat comfortably and idly by as Europe plummeted into a hellhole. They also used the war as an opportunity to press more of their claims to China. This was best seen in the Twenty-One Demands that Japan gave to China; these demands would grant Japan more influence into China and essentially reduce the country into a Japanese puppet state. However, growing anti-Japanese protests in China and the delaying of negotiations by the Chinese government, forced Japan to withdraw these demands and settle to less aggressive agreements with China. Moreover, the United States also had its ambitions in China, and as a result both Japan and the US signed an agreement in which the latter recognized Japan's influence over China.

Emperor Taisho of Japan

The First World War ended on November 11th, 1918 after the Germans and the French signed an armistice at Compiegne. Due to their participation in the Pacific campaigns, Japan was allowed to attend the peace conference in Versailles, as one of the "Big Five" of the Allies. Japan became a permanent member of the new international peacekeeping organization, the League of Nations, and was granted several territorial concessions. For one, the once German-held territory of Shangdong in China was transferred to Japan, while Germany's Pacific islands were organized into a Japanese mandate known as the South Seas Mandate. In addition, the Anglo-Japanese Alliance was renewed several times, securing Japan's alignment with Britain, but unfortunately the alliance would break down in 1921. TheThe reason for this may have been Japan introducing the Racial Equality Proposal during the Versailles negotiations, in which they attempted to implement the notion of racial equality for all of the League of Nations member states. The proposal was rejected by the European powers, and particularly Britain, which did not want to regard its colonial subjects as equals. Further disagreements between Japan and Britain fractured Anglo-Japanese relations.

During the postwar climate, Japan intervened during the Russian Civil War. In 1917, the communist Bolsheviks seized power and plunged Russia into a civil war between communists and royalist forces known as the Whites. The civil war was made more complicated due to numerous seperatist factions also springing up across the country, fighting both the Bolsheviks and the Whites. The United States, along with the Allies, wanted to intervene on the side of the Whites, and encouraged Japan to also join the conflict, as part of an international coalition like that during the Boxer Rebellion, and to support the American Expeditionary Force already present in Siberia.

Japan pressed to intervene as their own military force, mainly because Japan had other ulterior motives for intervening in the Russian Civil War. For many years, Japan had a sense of animosity with Russia in the north. While it culminated in Russian defeat in the Russo-Japanese War, the threat of Russian influence never disappeared. This was enforced with the fears of communism, which could easily present itself as a threat for the entire Japanese nation. To secure their own security, they aimed to form multiple buffer states or occupy territories in the Russian Far East to distance themselves away from the Bolsheviks. By November 1918, Japanese troops have managed to occupy major ports across the Far East and eastern Siberia, aiming to extend their gains until Lake Baikal; meanwhile the Bolsheviks formed the Far Eastern Republic, a breakaway state aligned with the Bolshevik cause being dangerously close to Japan. This sense of uncertainty ended on June 1920 after Red Army partisans massacred hundreds of Japanese civillians and soldiers in the Nikolayevsk Incident. Moreover, almost coinciding with the incident, a leader of the Whites, Admiral Aleksandr Kolchak, was executed by the Red Army. The United States and the rest of the Allies decided to end their involvement in the Civil War and withdrew from Vladivostok. Japan, however, remained in the Far East, opting to fund a nearby White breakaway state, the Provisional Priamurye Government, to deter against the Far Eastern Republic and, to a greater extent, the newly-formed Soviet Union. Unfortunately for them, Japan's activities in the Far East ended after they received severe diplomatic pressure from the United States and Britain, forcing them to leave the Far East in late 1922, following suspicion that Japan had territorial ambitions there.

Japanese plans for expansion during the immediate postwar world was destined to fail, though. The country suffered massive domestic problems, like during the rice riots that happened in 1918 due to the rising price of rice in the country, which led to the then prime minister, Terauchi Masatake, resigning from his office. The rice riots would eventually spiral out of control, as breakdown of public order and the increased aggression of the riots caused massive negative impacts onto the country. Which leads us directly to the next segment:

DOMESTIC SITUATION

The era under Emperor Taisho marked the beginning of the implementation of modern, Western-style democracy in Japan. But as stated prior, it was also riddled with discontent. Emperor Taisho was not as hardened as his father Meiji, which resulted in a slight weakening of imperial rule, the growth of democracy, and a period of uncertainty for the future of the nation. Japan had adopted a two-party political system to help rule the country. The traditional, old values retained during the Meiji period was becoming better blended with Western democracies, but reforms were beginning to be demanded from the Japanese public. There were demands for universal suffrage as the elections in Japan were still severely limited to a select few, and some demanded for the political party system to be reformed and changed to better fit with the modern era. However, with the country being more open than before, foreign political ideologies like communism and socialism were beginning to take root among the intellectuals of Japan, who serve as fertile soil for the seeds of communism. Fortunately so far, public demonstrations for change have been civilized and orderly, and were easily resolved without the use of much violence.

The Japanese Prime Minister since 1918, Hara Takashi, attempted to tackle the situation by listing off all the problems that Japan suffered; inflation was a key problem, and the country was having a difficult time readjusting to a normal economy rather than a wartime one. Foreign ideologies were beginning to appeal to the masses, and radical labor movements became a cause for concern. However, Takashi's cabinet attempted to fix these problems by implementing outdated changes into the government, and as a whole, there was little to no reform. Takashi was more focused on making sure that the dominant political party, the Seiyūkai, held power. Political violence caught up to Takashi however, and he was eventually assassinated in 1921.

Foreign policy was a delicate thing for Japan postwar. The growing power that is the United States held the Washington Naval Conference in 1922 to limit the navies of other countries, Japan included. This eventually led to the signing of the Washington Naval Treaty later that year. The United States and Britain were allowed to have large navies, France and Italy's navies were severely limited, while the Imperial Japanese Navy was moderately in the middle; not too large, but also not too small. The treaty would still cause outrage amongst the Imperial Japanese Navy, which we will touch on later. Other agreements like the Four-Power and the Nine-Power Treaties aimed to define the status quo of the Pacific, and aimed to prevent a war in the Pacific.

Then in early September 1923, Japan suffered a catastrophic earthquake in the Kantō Plain, killing more than 140,000 people. The earthquake not only had a physical impact but it also had a social one. Immediately in the aftermath of the earthquake, the Imperial Japanese Army conducted the Kantō Massacre, killing nearly 6,000 people, mainly Koreans, due to widespread discontent against the ethnic Koreans in Japan. Along with Koreans, suspected communists, anarchists, socialists and the likes were also silently killed off. The victory of the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War and the subsequent establishment of the Soviet Union proved detrimental for Japan. The Japanese Communist Party (which continues to exist to this day) was becoming a major player in Japanese politics, pledging to unite the working class and farmers together, and promising to end the Japanese occupations over Taiwan and Korea. The Communist Party would come into direct conflict with the government, which attempted to suppress the party after one of its radical members, Daisuke Nanba, attempted to assassinate a young Prince Hirohito. The period of chaos that followed the Kantō earthquake proved to be the perfect time to eliminate much of this left-wing threat.

The brief period of chaos ultimately subsided when Katō Komei became the Prime Minister in 1924. Komei introduced several democratic reforms and also introduced a new bill that gave all men over the age of 25 the ability to vote. It was not just Japanese citizens that received greater representation, but also Japan's subjugated people in Korea and Taiwan. Many politicians from both Japanese colonies managed to hold positions in the Japanese government. Greater political freedom, however, also had its downsides for Japan; communist and socialist parties, which the Japanese government have attempted to suppress so far, were still, by technicality, legal by all means. As such, in 1925, the Japanese government introduced the Peace Preservation Law that strictly prohibited the abolishment of private property, and made it firm that no large-scale reforms on the old political structure were to be allowed. The Peace Preservation Law was successful in severing strong cooperation between the various leftist movements rising across the country, and while it was indeed meant to target socialists and the likes, it eventually became used to target any ideology that threatened the state.

Before long, these new changes caused friction within the Imperial Diet itself, which caused the formation of a new, rather influential political party known as the Minseitō, which came into opposition against the pre-existing party of the Seiyūkai. Both parties held considerable influence in Japanese politics, and the two parties became Japan's dominant parties until the later Showa period in 1932.

Speaking of the Showa period, the Taisho period would come to an end in 1926 following the death of Emperor Taisho. As per tradition, his son, Hirohito, would ascend to the throne as Emperor Showa. But due to many people recognizing him as Emperor Hirohito, I would be referring to him as such in the remainder of this entry.

THE "EARLY SHOWA" PERIOD

The start of Hirohito's reign over Japan was met with rather turbulent events. For one, the tenous structure of democracy installed during the Taisho period was beginning to fall apart. This was likely caused by the outset of the Great Depression after the United States suffered severe economic downturn due to the Wall Street Crash. Due to the US being a major player in world economics after they began funding the European powers in their reconstruction after the First World War, the entire world suffered this economic downturn, Japan included. Throughout the 20s and 30s, Japan needed to import its natural resources from countries like the United States, which supplied them with iron, oil, and rubber; the holy trinity for Japan's, and practically any nation's, industrial power at the time. Business conglomerates such as Mitsubishi and the likes were slowly gaining control over Japan's economy, while nationalism was on the rise. Many in Japan noticed their country's lack of natural resources and believed that acquiring regions with these resources would jumpstart an economic boost in the country and to turn it self-sufficient. Japan's eyes began to wander back to its old nemesis; China, particularly the region of Manchuria, which was plenty of resources. In fact, Southeast Asia, which was currently a European playhouse, was plenty of these resources.

In this environment, the notion of Japanese nationalism began to exponentionally grow. The romanticized moral code of the Bushidō from feudal Japan, and the growing concerns by the government for regional dominance and industial development in East Asia led to the rise of Japanese colonialism towards other countries. The government also classified the United States, Britain, China, and the Netherlands as Japan's most prominent threats. The Soviet Union was also classified as a threat to Japan's integrity, along with Nazi Germany. Nationalists began to advocate for war as the only option to prevent Japan from falling to the influence of any of these countries. Racial discrimination towards non-Japanese Asians became a dominant government policy, now believing that Japan was destined to become a superpower of their own and subjugate East Asia for their own goals.

Emperor Hirohito of Japan

Demands for expansion of its territories was further cemented by the rise of the Japanese military, as they became more active in the country's political situation. There were already several military or Army-affiliated organizations active in Japan, such as the Kempeitai and the Imperial Young Federation. But the one that stood out the most was a faction of the Japanese military known as the Kōdōha faction, or the "Way Faction", led by Sadao Araki. The Kōdōha were directly opposed to the Tōseiha faction, or the "Control Faction" of the Japanese military. What differentiated the Kōdōha with the others was that Araki, and to a greater extent the faction as a whole, advocated for the return of the ancient social structure of pre-Meiji Japan, and for the country to adopt European-style fascism, like what had happened to Germany and Italy. Both these ideas blended together to birth the ideological movement known as "Showa nationalism". Araki paved the way for the Japanese military to influence domestic and foreign policies, now becoming a crucial figure for the implementation of militarism, nationalism, and totalitarianism all across the country. The relative political freedom of the Taisho period was undone, with people being unable to protest against the government for any new policies, laws, or bills they introduce. Araki also birthed the concept of a more fanatic form of Shintoism, the dominant religion in Japan at the time, which called for the literal worship of the Emperor as a god, and for Japanese people to die for the Emperor and the country's interests.

The spread of nationalism was further helped by the fact that various people like teachers and Shinto priests were recruited by nationalist organizations and encouraged to indoctrinate the masses with blinding ultra-nationalism. This propaganda campaign attempted to direct the loyalty of the populace from businessmen and politicians to the Emperor and the military only. Following this logic, a group of Japanese extremists then started the League of Blood Incident, in which they attempted to kill several businessmen and liberal politicians in March of 1932. The trial that ensued after the case was severely chaotic and disorganized, further leading to a decline of democracy in Showa-era Japan. The May 15 Incident on the same year caused the assassination of Prime Minister Inukai Tsiyoshi, effectively ending the little influence that political parties had on Japanese politics. From then on, the country seemed to be ruled by admirals, who themselves fought a tug-of-war for control against the Army.

In 1932, the Washington Naval Conference took place, which limited the navies that great powers were allowed to possess. This led to the signing of the Washington Naval Treaty, which expanded the sizes of the navies of the US and Britain but limited the size of the French and Japanese navies. The Imperial Japanese Navy was split into two factions themselves as a result of the treaty; there was the Treaty Faction which supported the terms of the treaty, and the Fleet Faction which supported against it, advovating for the development of larger warships and heavy calibre weapons to be mounted on those ships. Back to the IJA, though, the influence that the Kōdōha had onto the nation would be severely decreased after the onset of the February 26th Incident in 1936, in which members of the Kōdōha faction launched a coup attempt to secure total power. Fortunately the coup failed due to the intervention of Emperor Hirohito, leading to the downfall of the Kōdōha faction. Its leaders were purged from positions of leadership, and the Tōseiha faction prevailed. Even so, both factions were at this point almost the same in their motives of state-sponsored militarism and aggressive expansionism, which meant that there was no clear change to the situation. By this point, the Imperial Japanese Army would no longer hide their intentions of restoring the old shogunate system of pre-Meiji Japan, wanting to keep the people worshipping the Emperor while the military used him as a ragdoll to further control the population. The Imperial Japanese Navy, however, believed on a more conservative approach, wanting to retain the current system while increasing religious practices. Regardless, one thing was clear: the Japanese military were becoming more powerful than the government and Emperor Hirohito, just like the shogunate periods of old.

The now militaristic Japan also began to garner allies for itself. Withdrawing from the League of Nations proved to be extremely unwise, as the country's actions now became internationally criticized. However in 1936, Japan managed to gain a powerful new ally in Europe: Germany. On the same year, Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact to resist the Soviet Union and the growth of communism, thus establishing ties with Nazi Germany. There were many similarities between the two states; they were racially motivated and believed they were superior in their respective regions, they wanted to expand, and have a strong sense of ultranationalism towards their leaders.

THE LATER SHOWA PERIOD AND THE COMING OF WAR

Earlier in 1931, the Mukden Incident occured when allegedly Chinese forces caused a disturbance in Manchuria against the Japanese, but in reality, it was a false-flag operation, and the incident was purely caused by disguised Japanese soldiers. However, it was enough to give Japan a proper casus belli for war, which caused the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. Japan claimed that the invasion was done to liberate the local Manchu people from Chinese occupation, even though Manchuria was majority Chinese at this point. Japan managed to occupy all of Manchuria and settled a peace settlement with China in the Tanggu Truce that ended the brief conflict. Japan then proceeded to establish a puppet state in Manchuria, known as Manchukuo, led by the former Qing emperor Puyi. There was still heavy resistance put up by the local population throughout Manchukuo, in the form of the Anti-Japanese Volunteer Armies created in the northern regions of the puppet state. Japan then launched a campaign of pacifiying Manchukuo of its resistance. Japan's main aim for Manchukuo was resettlement; the United States and Australia banned the immigration of Japanese citizens into their countries, leading to many being redirected to populate Manchukuo. Japan now had a steady supply of natural resources and manpower ready to be assembled and deployed in Manchukuo, but of course, it was not enough.

By now, Japan had plunged into full ultranationalism. The Japanese military held every aspect of Japanese society under their thumb, and people were re-educated to believe that Japan and the Japanese people were more superior than other Asian peoples. The Chinese, the Koreans, and the colonized peoples of the European colonies were simply obstacles that Japan had to overcome to achieve regional dominance. In 1936, Japan acquired a part of Inner Mongolia and formed a new puppet state called Mengjiang, while the following year, Japan resumed their invasion of China, starting the Second Sino-Japanese War. At the time, China suffered a civil war between the nationalist Kuomintang government led by General Chiang Kai-shek and the communists led by Mao Zedong, but the Japanese invasion united the two factions together to combat the Japanese. Japan managed to capture major cities like Shanghai, Beijing, and the then capital, Nanjing. While occupying the city, the Imperial Japanese Army conducted the infamous Nanjing Massacre, killing hundreds of thousands of civillians. The Japanese advance into China continued as they formed a puppet regime in the form of the "Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China", led by Chinese politician and collaborationist Wang Jingwei. While it was the Army that caused the invasion of Manchuria, the invasion of China was approved by Emperor Hirohito and campaigned as a "holy war" against China. The invasion would soon bog down into a stalemate, but nonetheless Japan had occupied all of China's major city centres and coasts, defeating both the Kuomintang and the Communists time and time again.

Japanese troops marching through the occupied city of Beijing

Concurrently with the Second Sino-Japanese War, elements of the IJA entered into Mongolia in 1938, claiming that the territory of the country was not clearly defined and as such, its border areas were considered an openly disputed territory. Mongolia itself was, at the time, a Soviet puppet. There were clashes happening between Mongolian and Manchukuoan forces, leading into the Battle of Lake Khasan, which led to the forces of Manchukuo being driven out. This minor skirmish attracted the Japanese, who soon became involved. The Soviets would come to learn of the Japanese involvement, and Stalin ordered a counter-attack be made against the Japanese to protect their sphere of influence in Mongolia. A distinguished Soviet general, Georgy Zhukov, would manage to decisively cripple the Japanese forces, nearly annihilating an entire division, in the Battle of Khalkin Gol. As military spending needed to be focused on China, Japan reluctantly agreed for peace terms with the Soviet Union, signing an armistice in September 15th. For now, conflict between Japan and the Soviet Union was averted.

WORLD WAR II

The Second Sino-Japanese War began to spiral out of control. The Nanjing Massacre was soon implemented into public consciousness internationally (more on that in my "Nanjing Massacre" article), and the Japanese also engaged in a small skirmish with the United States in the Panay incident in 1937. American public opinion was strongly against Japan's actions as a result, and the US government began to consider the threats of Japanese expansion. Meanwhile in 1939, war had broken out in Europe following the partition of Poland between Germany and the Soviet Union, leading to another Great War. Germany, having militarized their country, managed to invade and capitulate France in 1940, a feat that their predecessors failed to accomplish during the First World War. With the fall of France into a Vichy puppet state, Japan looked south to an opportunity. The colony of French Indochina was now essentially up for grabs. In order to gain the agreement of Germany, Japan signed the Tripartite Pact on September 27th, 1940, officially joining the Axis Powers with Germany and Italy. After the signing, Japan invaded and occupied French Indochina with the help of neighboring Thailand, replacing the colony's French overseers with Japanese counterparts. The occupation of Indochina was seen as the final straw for the United States, which soon enacted a blockade of imports against Japan. This move cut off the country's supply of iron, rubber, and other vital resources for the war effort. The Japanese military leadership was faced with a choice: withdraw from China and sue for peace, or invade the other European colonies southward and extract resources from there. With the warmongering military controlling important aspects of the government, the latter option seemed more appealing. Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe established a ruling party in Japan called the Imperial Rule Assistance Association to act as a small counterweight against total military control, but he eventually relented. Emperor Hirohito, while not supportive of a war against the Allies, remained compliant in whatever plans the military and his government had set in motion, not knowing that his country was now heading into a hole which it could not climb out of.

The decision to war against the Allies was now a certainty. The United States had placed another embargo on oil over Japan, further weakening the war effort with China. A prominent naval admiral, Admiral Yamamoto, proposed to the Combined Fleet of Japan that forces of the United States, the British Empire, and the Netherlands must be driven out from colonies like the Philippines, Malaya, and the East Indies respectfully so that the country could save itself from its dwindling resources and carry on with its plan to establish hegemony over East Asia, through the establishment of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Japan pursued southward expansion, more than a northward expansion, due to the realization of Soviet strength. In 1941, Japan had even signed a Neutrality Pact with the Soviet Union, in which both parties agreed to respect each other's sphere of influence. On the contrary, its ally Germany had just begun a war with the Soviets.

But, modern historians have generally agreed that Japan had no faith in victory in a war against the United States. The planned attack on Pearl Harbor was just a desperate move to buy enough time for Japan to conquer most of the European colonies. Even Yamamoto, who designed the plan, also had no faith. He had studied as a naval attachè in the US Navy, and thus had seen the capabilities of Uncle Sam. He even warned his fellow military colleagues that the plan may only buy them time for six months or one year before the Allies would mobilize their full forces against Japan. It was a war that Japan could not win, and everybody knew that, but the plan was carried out anyway. The cabinet of Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe had already agreed to go to war against the Allies, for the sake of "self-preservation."

Diplomacy was still pursued to the very end, however. After all, the United States was still a neutral country at this point, and still accepted negotiations with Japan. The infamous new Prime Minister, Hideki Tojo, attempted a last-ditch effort for peace with the United States. But the US remained adamant on its decision to try and force Japan to end its war with China, and the Japanese military leadership had had enough. At the same time negotiations took place, the IJN launched its attack on Pearl Harbor in December 7th, 1941, damaging several important American naval infrastructure and killing several thousands of soldiers and sailors. Hoping that the attack would momentarily cripple the American response, Japan would quickly launch simultaneous offensives into Southeast Asia to gain as much territory as possible. Germany and Italy, feeling obligated to aid Japan due to the terms of the Tripartite Pact, declared war on the United States, pulling the US into fighting both the European and the Pacific War.

In the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, Japan immediately went into the offensive. Thailand, which had helped Japan in the occupation of French Indochina, formally allied with Japan and let its troops cross the country during the Malayan Campaign. British possessions seemed to be the current target for the Japanese offensive. Hong Kong was besieged, and the British colony of Penang, located in modern-day Malaysia, was successfully occupied. The initial Allied response, as the Japanese military had correctly guessed, was weak due to the ongoing war with Germany. Many of the Allied forces were focused in North Africa and the Middle East, and unable to provide support to the Allied forces in East Asia. The sinking of two British warships, HMS Repulse and HMS Prince of Wales, effectively eliminated British naval presence in East Asia for the time being.

In the eve of 1942, Japan launched further invasions into British Burma (modern-day Myanmar), the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia), New Guinea, and occupied several important major cities like Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and Manila in the Philippines. Continous Japanese airstrikes over American air fields in the Philippines proved to be detrimental to the Allies, allowing Japan free reign over the Philippines. To preserve its naval forces, the US sent its unscathed warships to Java and Australia, away from the Japanese. The Philippines was quickly falling to Japanese hands, as majoe islands like Luzon had been completely overrun. An American-Filipino force under Douglas MacArthur made a final stand in Bataan, but the Japanese once again overwhelmed them and were forced to retreat. Soon most of the Philippines would fall into Japaneae occupation, along with the Dutch East Indies. The front in Burma was met with resistance from the British Indians and the Chinese, who dispatched an expeditionary group to defend along the Irrawaddy River. Soon however Burma would also fall to the Japanese, after the fall of Rangoon.

The Empire of Japan at its fullest extent in 1942

By April 1942, the Empire of Japan had acquired most of its desired territories. It was now time to execute a "second operational phase", approved by the Emperor. This plan now aimed to extend the remaining British and American holdings like New Guinea, Fiji, Samoa, and Midway Atoll. Along with these territories, the IJN also hoped to conquer several key strategic points along Australia. The country had been harassed by Japanese submarines and air strikes ever since 1941, but there was still no clear intent from the Japanese military leadership to occupy it and New Zealand. The IJN though did view the acquisition of some Australian territory to be vital in the war effort. On the other hand, the IJA refused to commit to the IJN's plans simply because it needed a lot of ground troops and manpower to accomplish. Mind you, the war with China was still going on as China had de facto joined the Allies. This was one of many instances when the IJN and the IJA never got along. Both had a great degree of autonomy in the government and rarely ever came to each other's aid. What both branches of the military did agree, however, was the capture of Fiji and Samoa. The Japanese kickstarted their second operational phase with attacks along New Guinea. The advance was quickly halted by American air raids, crippling the Japanese capabilities for invasion.

Not only that, the US launched the Doolittle Raid, in which American bombers flew over Japan and bombed several places across the country. While from a strategic standpoint it achieved barely anything, it was a major victory from a psychological standpoint. It proved to the Japanese people that the US was able to fly over Japanese soil with relative ease, shattering the sense of immunity and dealing a heavy blow to Japanese morale. Admiral Yamamoto hastily developed another plan to cripple the US, that being in the form of occupying Midway. The atoll was close enough to Hawaii that if Japan occupied it, it would be threatening to the Americans. Thus he believed the US would be compelled to defend Midway at all costs, after which a great encircling movement would defeat much of the US Navy and inflict a severe blow to US naval capabilities. It was a certain gamble though, and it was only approved under the condition that Yamamoto spare one carrier division to continue Japan's New Guinea campaigns.

But Yamamoto's plans for a grand encirclement in Midway was met with disaster. In May 1942, the Japanese lost the Battle of the Coral Sea against the forces of the US and Australia. During the battle, neither side ever met face-to-face (or rather ship-to-ship) but instead attacked each other with fighter planes from aircraft carriers. And later on June, the Battle of Midway occured, and ended with another Japanese defeat. Four fleet carriers were absolutely destroyed by the Americans, and for the first time the IJN suffered their first major defeat. And it would be devastating. The loss of four fleet carriers meant a lot to Japan; while they were on par with the European powers and had a wide variety of resources to extract from its colonies, their industrial output never matched the likes of the US and Britain. As such, the battle left the IJN unable to launch their own offensives, and Japan would never be able to recover its lost warships. Yamamoto himself would be killed in action by the US, meaning Japan had lost one of its most valued admirals.

It was not just the sea war, but also the land war. The Japanese suffered a defeat at the Battle of Milne Bay in September 1942 to Australian forces, followed consequently with the successful Guadalcanal Campaign by the Allies and several counteroffensives in New Guinea in 1943. Crippling losses, both in the IJA and the IJN, forced Japan to go on the defensive for the remainder of the war. Even the war with China was going downhill due to the resilient Communist guerillas sporadically attacking and the stubborn Chinese counteroffensives. Now regaining the initiative, the Allies launched a series of successful counteroffensives against the Japanese throughout 1943 and 1944. The Battle of Leyte Gulf annihilated the remains of the IJN, and the Philippines Campaign of 1944 was becoming very smooth for the Allies, for they were helped by local Filipino guerillas fighting for independence. There seemed to be no more hope for Japan. It had basically lost the sea war with the Allies, making them unable to resist the Allied advance through the sea. Downfall was imminent.

DEFEAT AND SURRENDER

By 1944, the Allies had stripped Japan of most of its resource pool. Many of its military bases have either been occupied or destroyed, limitting the Japanese capability to resist. Allied submarines actively targetted Japanese supply vessels, pushing the country's economy and decreasing the influx of supplies headed to the IJA. In early 1945, the US continued with its island-hopping campaigns and occupied several islands through hard-fought battles like in Iwo Jima and Okinawa. The US continued their countrywide bombing campaign over Japan, destroying Japan's industry and infrastructure by burning down entire cities. Around 500,000 civillians were killed as a result of the Allied bombing campaigns. Underwater mines placed by the US had made it difficult for Japanese merchant and fishing vessels to enter the seas, effectively cutting off Japan's own resources. Despite these setbacks, the IJA did not yet give up; Japan still had an impressive amount of conquered territory, its empire, though far past its zenith, still stretching from Manchuria to Indonesia. Local rulers have been installed across Japan's colonies, spreading with them notions of independence that would make a large impact after the war. While Japan did encourage independence, it could be seen as an effort to undermine the Allies after the war.

Nevertheless, defeat was inevitable. In Europe, Germany had fallen. It was a matter of time before Japan met the same fate. The US had prepared an invasion plan onto Japan, codenamed Operation Downfall, but the risks were high. The IJA was determined to protect their homeland at all costs, and a ground invasion would unnecessarily drag the Second World War longer than it should be. So on August 6th 1945, the US dropped a nuclear bomb onto the city of Hiroshima, and another bomb three days later in the city of Nagasaki. 120,000 people were immediately atomized, while several thousands more followed suit due to radiation.

Japan's ultimate downfall would come in the form of the Soviet Union. During the Yalta Conference, the Soviets have agreed to help the Allies in the Pacific three months after Germany had surrendered in Europe. The deadline had come by August 1945, and the Soviets launched a devastating invasion onto Manchuria, driving out the remaining Japanese forces. They reoccupied South Sakhalin Island and flooded into Korea, seriously threatening an invasion onto Japanese soil. Faced with the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and also threatened by the Soviets, the Empire of Japan surrendered to the Allies on August 14th. Emperor Hirohito himself would broadcast the surrender nationwide.

Japanese statesmen sign their surrender aboard USS Missouri, witnessed by Allied officers

Emperor Hirohito with General MacArthur

END OF AN EMPIRE

In the end of the war, Japan's territory had been reduced into merely its home islands. The country was also to be temporarily occupied by American and British Commonwealth soldiers. During the occupation, multiple revisions were made to the constitution, and the country was demilitarized. The Allies supported Japan's change by lending economic support and assistance in domestic politics. Despite these positive changes, Allies-occupied Japan was still burdened by the tolls pf war. Censorship was also installed by the Allies, severely prohibiting the criticism of any of the country's occupiers and punishing those that would not comply. Some even said that Allied censorship in Japan was far worse than wartime Japan's censorship. But, whatever one may think of the occupation of Japan, one thing is for certain; the Empire that Emperor Meiji had carefully constructed decades ago had fallen from its heavenly grace. It was the only time Japan was occupied by a foreign power. In 1947, the Allies and the postwar Japanese government absolished the Meiji Constitution and adopted the new 1947 Constitution, which turned Japan into a democratic, parliamentary government, with the prime minister at its head while the Emperor returned to his symbolic status. And with the creation of the new constitution, the Empire of Japan had been dismantled.

The Rising Sun had set at last.

SOURCES

https://youtu.be/rHgbG1HsIrY?si=lmOWq7yX-21ng2WE

https://youtu.be/7vQ6nxBRGd8?si=3uNyBcN6GWe3bMzp

https://youtu.be/Oc_un-o4hGc?si=Uk6DFQTDnvzeul-q

https://youtu.be/RHvh2ly1-18?si=jorlRs0486Cjcu87

http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/japan_1750_meiji.htm

https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/the-first-sino-japanese-war-and-the-kowshing-incident/

https://www.e-ir.info/2017/02/23/japan-in-the-interwar-years-what-caused-the-japanese-invasion-of-china/

Wikipedia page for the Empire of Japan