How did the Manchurian Crisis and its results affect militarism in Japan?

713 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Effects of manchurian crisis

How did the Manchurian Crisis and its results affect militarism in Japan?

Part A: Plan of Investigation

Through early 1930's Japan was facing difficult economic times and conflict pertaining to the rights that they believed were rightfully theirs. On The night of September 18, 1931 the Manchurian crisis (Mukden Incident) took place. An explosion destroyed part of the Southern Manchurian railway which was owned by the Japanese. After this incident Japan started to began to lean into militarism. This event was a huge turning point for the country of japan as a whole. To what extent did the Manchurian Crisis affect militarism in Japan. This will be investigated through the analysis of the The Manchurian Crisis and Japanese Society, 1931-33 by Sandra Wilson, Conspiracy at Mukden: The Rise of the Japanese Military By Takehiko Yoshihashi , and South Manchurian Railway The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.

Part B: Summary of Evidence

The Southern Manchurian railway was a Japanese owned extension of the Chinese Eastern Railway, when the Manchurian Crisis took place the Japanese soldiers that were put in place to protect the railway moved quickly to defend the interest of Japan. The Japanese automatically blamed this act on the Chinese. Later it was found that the crisis was actually enacted by the Japanese troops themselves in a scheme to expand Japan's power in Manchuria. The next day the Kwantung Army (section of the Imperial Japanese Army) was in full control of the city.

Part C: Evaluation of Sources

Sandra Wilson, The Manchurian Crisis and Japanese Society, 1931-33 (London: Routledge, 2002), 2, http://www.questiaschool.com/read/108172680.

This was written by Otto Tolischus, a journa...

... middle of paper ...

...aken control over the city. Otto D. Tolischus, a journalist at the time, believed that the crisis ‘put the military in the drivers seat’ and made the country war minded. Japan must have already been some what war minded if they were capable of planning this scheme to gain the power they wanted.

“From the beginning, Japanese observers referred to the dramatic series of events from September 1931 onwards as the Manchurian 'incident' (jihen), a term apparently denoting an undeclared war..” Many historians agree with this statement and others think it was not so much an undeclared war but it was a major turning point for military usage in japan. Some believe that it was the start to the road to pearl harbor. Historian takehiko Yoshihashi believed that the Manchurian crisis was responsible for bringing the army's influence into japanese politics.

Part E: Conclusion

Show More
Related

  • Tsuyoshi Hasegawa’s Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan

    904 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hasegawa’s argument attributing the Japanese surrender to Soviet aggression is at times compelling. His book clearly presents that Japanese surrender cannot entirely be attributed to the atomic bombings, however it also cannot be entirely attributed to Soviet aggression either. The lack of a hasty surrender by the Japanese seems better attributed to the extreme internal partisanship and indecision amongst the Japanese leadership, even when faced with Soviet invasion and American annihilation from the air.

    Read More

  • Atomic Bomb Justified Dbq

    646 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Japanese government believed that the only way to solve its economic and demographic problems was to expand into its neighbor’s territory and take over its import market, mostly pointed at China. To put an end on that the United States put economic sanctions and trade embargoes. We believed that if we cut off their resources and their source of federal income than they would have no choice but to pull back and surrender. But the

    Read More

  • Saburo Ienaga's Impacts Of The War In The Pacific War

    1437 Words  | 3 Pages

    Japan led a ruthless assault in the Pacific for fifteen years. This small island was able to spread imperialism and terror to neighboring countries through means of force and brutality. Japan even attempted to combat and overcome European and Western countries such as Russia and the United States. Even with an extreme militaristic government, Japan was unable to achieve the glory it was promised and hoped for. The Pacific War analyzes Japan’s part in the war and what the country could have done to prevent such a tragedy.

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Dropping The Atomic Bomb

    1246 Words  | 3 Pages

    Japan's actions from 1852 to 1945 were stimulated by an extensive aspiration to elude the providence of 19th-century China and also to overtake as a great power. When Japanese soldiers stormed into Manchuria in 1931, Japan commenced the first in the succession of

    Read More

  • Douglas Macarthur's Occupation of Japan

    1671 Words  | 4 Pages

    The occupation of Japan was, from start to finish, an American operation. General Douglans MacArthur, sole supreme commander of the Allied Power was in charge. The Americans had insufficient men to make a military government of Japan possible; so t hey decided to act through the existing Japanese government. General Mac Arthur became, except in name, dictator of Japan. He imposed his will on Japan. Demilitarization was speedily carried out, demobilization of the former imperial forces was complet ed by early 1946.Japan was extensively fire bombed during the second world war. The stench of sewer gas, rotting garbage, and the acrid smell of ashes and scorched debris pervaded the air. The Japanese people had to live in the damp, and col d of the concrete buildings, because they were the only ones left. Little remained of the vulnerable wooden frame, tile roof dwelling lived in by most Japanese. When the first signs of winter set in, the occupation forces immediately took over all the s team-heated buildings. The Japanese were out in the cold in the first post war winter fuel was very hard to find, a family was considered lucky if they had a small barely glowing charcoal brazier to huddle around. That next summer in random spots new ho uses were built, each house was standardized at 216 square feet, and required 2400 board feet of material in order to be built. A master plan for a modernistic city had been drafted, but it was cast aside because of the lack of time before the next winte r. The thousands of people who lived in railroad stations and public parks needed housing.All the Japanese heard was democracy from the Americans. All they cared about was food. General MacAruther asked the government to send food, when they refus ed he sent another telegram that said, "Send me food, or send me bullets."American troops were forbidden to eat local food, as to keep from cutting from cutting into the sparse local supply.No food was was brought in expressly for the Japanese durning the first six months after the American presence there. Herbert Hoover, serving as chairman of a special presidential advisory committee, recommended minimum imports to Japan of 870,000 tons of food to be distributed in different urban areas. Fi sh, the source of so much of the protein in the Japanese diet, were no longer available in adequate quantities because the fishing fleet, particularly the large vessels, had been badly decimated by the war and because the U.

    Read More

  • Events Prior to December 7, 1941

    1821 Words  | 4 Pages

    Japan was a small nation that was in dire need of resources so it could flourish. They need iron for weapons, rubber for tires, and coal and oil for fuel. In July 1937, to capture its coal and iron reserves, Japan launched a successful and brutal attack against China. This would be the start of an assault on the Pacific region by Japan. This assault would last for three years without anyone getting involved because tensions were growing futile in the European theatre.

    Read More

  • Nakae Chomin’s Discourse

    1062 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...feat of Japan in World War 2). With the changes of the nature of power, Japan by balancing out aggressive economic policies and a quiet military buildup, was able to build herself up to become a prominent player in the international sphere today. In closing, while Japan’s policies today in general have been skewered towards the arguments of the ‘Gentleman’, increasingly Japan has considered more realist concerns of security in the escalation of tensions of the East Asian geopolitical sphere. Chomin’s Discourse has nonetheless served as a prophetic blueprint for more than a century of Japan policy-making.

    Read More

  • kamikaze

    1879 Words  | 4 Pages

    Already earlier, Japan followed the example of Western nations and forced China into unequal economical and political treaties. Furthermore, Japan's influence over Manchuria had been steadily growing since the end of the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-05. When the Chinese Nationalists began to seriously challenge Japan's position in Manchuria in 1931, the Kwantung Army (Japanese armed forces in Manchuria) occupied Manchuria. In the following year, "Manchukuo" was declared an independent state, controlled by the Kwantung Army through a puppet government. In the same year, the Japanese air force bombarded Shanghai in order to protect Japanese residents from anti Japanese movements.

    Read More

  • genocide research project

    604 Words  | 2 Pages

    When 1937 arrived, Japanese soldiers raided China’s capital of Nanking and began to mass murder citizens. A sole leader of the Japanese Imperial Army was non-existent. There were many of people in power such as generals who allowed these behaviors to occur. Baron Koki Hirota, Foreign minister at the time, proceeded to do nothing while being well aware of the Japanese’s persecution of the Chinese. These unsympathetic murders of those who were thought to be Chinese soldiers as well as woman, children and elderly. This massacre lasted between the 1937 and 1938. Within this time 300,000 Chinese citizens were viciously killed. This genocide is called Rape of Nanking because of raping the woman before killing them. Most likely this group was selected because the second world war happened in Asia. This was significant because a country was able to kill half the population of another. I believe the reason of this Genocide was for Japan to take advantage of China while expand Japan. Most likely the Japanese wished to exterminate China’s entire population.

    Read More

  • Justification Of Hiroshima And Nagasaki Bombings

    931 Words  | 2 Pages

    Initially, the US had planned to invade Japan in what was to be known as Operation Downfall. America would have provided most of the forces for the operation. The rest were to come from the British Commonwealth. However, the U.S projected that the operation would cost the country more than half a million soldiers. Furthermore, the U.S feared that an invasion would hav...

    Read More

  • The Decision of a Lifetime: Dropping the Atomic Bomb on Japan

    1989 Words  | 4 Pages

    One of, if not the most influential part, of allowing the bombs to drop is because of the mentality of the Japanese military and the pull they had in politics. As Maddox stated, “[t]he army, not the Foreign Office controlled the situation” (Maddox, pg. 286). Although Japan had an influential leader in regards to their emperor, the military wanted to and would have engag...

    Read More

  • Comparison of Tokugawa and Manchu

    837 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the 17th and 18th centuries, the Chinese and Japanese faced much internal conflict, but while China faced a combination of economic setbacks and political weakness, the Japanese were riddled with wars along their countryside. First, the Chinese emperor was too weak in comparison to his bureaucracy, which ended up making most of the decisions for the last Ming dynasty emperor. This was due to the emperor’s realization that having a title as Son of Heaven did not mean he had all the power of the empire. Instead he lived a laid back life where the bureaucrats vied for power and wealth amongst themselves and he merely managed them. Like the Chinese, the Japanese also saw elites battling it out for power, but this time on the battlefield with armies of samurai. These battles put Japan in a period much like the Warring States period in early Chinese history, where families fought and fought for power almost endlessly. The political weakness in China contributed to its economic failure as well. With no force to manage to seas, pirates were free to raid trade ships and villages along the coast line, weakening the Chinese economy that relied on a transport system to supply the country. These two major forces led to China’s fragmentation and eventual takeover by the Manchu. In contrast, the battles happening in Japan were not harmful to the economy as much as they were in China. This is due to the fact that the Japanese daimyos were independent...

    Read More

  • Why was the League of Nations unable to stop Japan taking over Manchuria in the 1930s?

    1423 Words  | 3 Pages

    The main reason Japan took over Manchuria was because it did not want to fall victim to the vast European Empires at the time and be conquered. Instead, it was looking to be on par with major European nations such as Britain and France. As a result, it tried to expand its empire and had already taken control of Korea in 1876. In 1931, Japan invaded a North-eastern region of China – Manchuria. Manchuria was rich in resources and shared borders with Russia and Mongolia. Because both Japan and China were members of the League, China turned to the League for support and collective security. However, 20th century China was a country in decline and not considered a major country globally. In contrast, Japan was seen as the League’s most powerful member in the Far East and a permanent member of the League sitting in the League Council – which had full authority to make decisions, while China was not.

    Read More

  • The Manchurian Crisis

    960 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Manchurian incident was a turning point in Japanese history in which it abandoned its somewhat general policy of cooperation and peace and instead chose to pursue their personal interests in Asia (S,191). The Japanese interest in China was evident even before its invasion in 1931. In both the Sino Japanese war from 1894 to 1905 as well as the Russo-Japanese War from 1904 to 1905 Japan secured specific locations in Manchuria and other areas in China (U,351). Overall, the consensus for the extensive needs of the empire ultimately drove its policy making until the end of World War 2. To take control of what they believed to be the most mineral rich section of China in which they controlled expansive holdings in such as the South Manchurian Railroad, officers part of the Kwantung Army that were stationed there hatched a plan that would become to be known as the Manchurian Crisis. On September 18th 1931, Japanese soldiers located at the South Manchurian Railroad set off an explosive that they blamed on China (launching both nations into hostile relations for years to come.?? (P,115)) The Japanese invaded Japanese Invaded Chinese controlled Manchuria in 1931 because they wanted to accommodate the rising of the Japanese population, obtain more natural resources, and to stimulate their nearly collapsed economy.

    Read More

  • Reflection of Modern East Asia

    895 Words  | 2 Pages

    Our preliminary class gave a brief, yet detailed outline of major events affecting the East Asian region. Within that class, prompted by our limited geographical knowledge of Asia, we were given a fundamental explanation of the geographical locations of the various events taking place in the region. In subsequent classes, we were introduced to the major wars, political shifts, and economic interests which shaped Japan, China and Korea to what they are today. We examined the paradigm of pre-modern Japanese governance, the Shogunate, and the trained warriors which defended lord and land, Samurai. In addition, we examined the socio-economic classes of Medieval Japan, which included the Samurai, peasants, craftsmen, and the merchants. We also examined pre-1945 Japan’s policies toward foreign entities, notably the Sakoku Policy, which sought to expunge all foreign presence and commerce in an effort to protect its borders and culture. 1945, however, saw ...

    Read More

More about How did the Manchurian Crisis and its results affect militarism in Japan?

Open Document