The Causes of the Showa Restoration

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The Causes of the Showa Restoration

Sonno joi, "Restore the Emperor and expel the Barbarians," was the

battle cry that ushered in the Showa Restoration in Japan during the

1930's.Footnote1 The Showa Restoration was a combination of Japanese nationalism,

Japanese expansionism, and Japanese militarism all carried out in the name of

the Showa Emperor, Hirohito. Unlike the Meiji Restoration, the Showa Restoration

was not a resurrection of the Emperor's powerFootnote2, instead it was aimed at

restoring Japan's prestige. During the 1920's, Japan appeared to be developing a

democratic and peaceful government. It had a quasi-democratic governmental body,

the Diet,Footnote3 and voting rights were extended to all male

citizens.Footnote4 Yet, underneath this seemingly placid surface, lurked

momentous problems that lead to the Showa Restoration. The transition that Japan

made from its parliamentary government of the 1920's to the Showa Restoration

and military dictatorship of the late 1930s was not a sudden transformation.

Liberal forces were not toppled by a coup overnight. Instead, it was gradual,

feed by a complex combination of internal and external factors.

The history that links the constitutional settlement of 1889 to the

Showa Restoration in the 1930s is not an easy story to relate. The

transformation in Japan's governmental structure involved; the historical period

between 1868 and 1912 that preceded the Showa Restoration. This period of

democratic reforms was an underlying cause of the militarist reaction that lead

to the Showa Restoration. The transformation was also feed by several immediate

causes; such as, the downturn in the global economy in 1929Footnote5 and the

invasion of Manchuria in 1931.Footnote6 It was the convergence of these external,

internal, underlying and immediate causes that lead to the military dictatorship

in the 1930's.

The historical period before the Showa Restoration, 1868-1912, shaped

the political climate in which Japan could transform itself from a democracy to

a militaristic state. This period is known as the Meiji Restoration.Footnote7

The Meiji Restoration of 1868 completely dismantled the Tokugawa political order

and replaced it with a centralized system of government headed by the Emperor

who served as a figure head.Footnote8 However, the Emperor instead of being a

source of power for the Meiji Government, became its undoing. The Emperor was

placed in the mystic position of demi-god by the leaders of the Meiji

Restoration. Parliamentarians justified the new quasi-democratic government of

Japan, as being the "Emperor's Will." The ultra-nationalist and militaristic

groups took advantage of the Emperor's status and claimed to speak for the

Emperor.Footnote9 These then groups turned the tables on the parliamentarians by

claiming that they, not the civil government, represented the "Imperial Will."

The parliamentarians, confronted with this perversion of their own policy,

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