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Emperor Hirohito (reign: 1926-89)
Japan needed to sell goods abroad in order to buy food and to buy raw materials for manufacturing. Between 1929 and 1931, decline in sales to the United States brought decline to two of Japan's rural enterprises: its silk industry and rice growing. Japan's rice farmers and much of the nation suffered. The depression was deep in Japan. Children were begging in the streets. Distress in the countryside was moving people into sympathy with chauvinistic nationalists -- patriotic societies -- and many sought relief in Japan's nationalist religion: Shintoism. Disappointed farmers blamed big-city capitalism and favored government control over the economy. Rural people - nearly two-thirds of Japan's population -- tended to look with disdain upon the ways of city people, including the popularity of democracy. They agreed with the call from patriotic societies for "national reconstruction," military strength and reverence for authority. They were inclined to favor benefits for Japan at the expense of international accommodations.
Most of Japan's young military officers and enlisted men came from rural areas. They too were displeased by conditions in rural Japan, and they too tended to dislike businessmen from the cities -- a rival elite whom they saw as self-indulgent rather than as servants of the nation and the emperor. They tended to dislike foreigners, especially Westerners. And some among them dreamed of Japan creating a new order in all of Asia -- an Asia free of Western influences, an Asia for Asians.
The rightists held a traditional view of their emperor, Hirohito. They believed he was a god, while Hirohito remained at odds with their attitudes about Japan's future. Emperor Hirohito -- who had ascended the throne in 1926 at the age of twenty-five -- favored peace and cooperation with foreign powers. Supporting the emperor in this was the political party in power, the Democratic (Minseito) Party. The prime minister, Osachi Hamaguchi, wanted to limit government spending for the military, and in January, 1930, representatives of his government met in London and agreed with Great Britain and the United States in new limitations in naval construction. Emperor Hirohito supported the agreements, while newspapers were divided and the navy high command grumbled and mentioned that it had a constitutional right to veto the plan.
A Rightist who was angry about the London agreements shot and severely wounded Prime Minister Osachi Hamaguchi, and by the end of the year the Prime Minister was dead. Succeeding Hamaguchi was Reijiro Wakatsuki, also of the Democratic Party, who feared more violence from the Right, especially violence aimed at him. And Wakatsuki chose to appease the rightists and to ignore their lawlessness.
Japan was facing increased defiance in Korea, but Japan's foremost foreign policy concern was a threat by the Chinese against Japan's position in southern Manchuria. In the summer of 1927, during Chiang Kai-shek's visit to Japan, Japan's government had reached an understanding with Chiang. Chiang had recognized Japan's "rights and interests" in Manchuria, and Japan in turn had recognized Chiang's Guomindang regime as the authority in China -- with the proviso that the Guomindang disassociate itself from the Communists, which Chiang had done that spring. By 1931, however, in Manchuria the Chinese were annoying the Japanese by building rail lines parallel to Japanese rail lines. The Japanese saw this as overly aggressive competition in Manchuria, and the Japanese believed that the Chinese had designs on Manchuria. Manchuria was peopled to a great extent by Chinese, in addition to Manchu and Mongol peoples, and the Japanese were concerned about Chinese nationalism there. And among Japan's militarists and strategic thinkers was the belief that China responded only to threats of force or actual force.
The Japanese saw Manchuria as vital to their nation's well-being. From Manchuria the Japanese acquired oil, coal and iron, and it acquired soybeans, forty percent of which it sold to Europe for much needed foreign exchange. Also from Manchuria, Japan acquired tobacco, and there Japanese industries spun silk and cotton. And in Manchuria were nearly eight hundred Japanese-owned factories. Strategic thinkers in Japan believed that without Manchuria the population of Japan would suffer more hunger and deprivation. Japanese analysts believed that Japan's control over Manchuria had to be made secure. And Japan's military leaders saw a secure Manchuria as necessary if Japan's military was to compete with technologically advancing militaries. Japan's strategic and military thinkers worried about Chinese nationalism and also about a vastly improved Russian Army on the north side of Manchuria's border.
To make its position more secure in Manchuria, Japan invited Koreans and Japanese there, giving them low interest loans with which to buy land. Few Japanese responded to the invitation, but thousands of Koreans did, and Manchurians and Chinese rioted against the growing Korean presence.
Another incident occurred in June 1931. This began with a Japanese military man, Captain Nakamura, being shot while traveling in an area near the western border of Manchuria. Japan's army in Manchuria, the Kwantung Army, was in charge of law and order in southern Manchuria, and it demanded an apology from the Chinese and a promise that such an incident would not happen again. Japan's government sought a peaceful settlement with China regarding this and other incidents, and it was willing to put aside the military's demands. To some of Japan's military officers in Manchuria this was more weakness and another outrage by their government, reminiscent of the concessions it had made at the London naval conference. Rather than cave in to what they saw as Chinese stubbornness, these military leaders believed it was time to take matters into their own hands. They were aware of the military weakness of China's army in Manchuria -- the army of Zhang Xueliang (son and successor of the murdered warlord, Zhang Zuolin). On the night of September 18, 1931, they launched an effort to expand their power of their army in Manchuria. They blew up a section of railway just north of the city of Mukden and blamed it on Chinese subversives. Then, using their authority to respond immediately without waiting for approval from higher authorities, they drove the provincial government out of Mukden and occupied a number of strategic points, including all Chinese towns within a radius of 200 miles north of Mukden. This they accomplished in four days, facing only a token Chinese force.
The Kwantung Army described its operation in Manchuria as saving Manchuria from Soviet Russia. It wanted reinforcements sent from Korea, and the army's chief of staff in Tokyo made a formal request for this move. The Emperor ordered the army chief of staff to prevent the expansion of "the Manchurian incident," but later that same day Prime Minister Wakatsuki reported to the emperor that the cabinet had no alternative but to approve the move of reinforcements from Korea because the transfer of reinforcements was already under way. And out of respect for the authority of the prime minister, the emperor gave his approval to the army, but Emperor Hirohito told the army chief of staff that the Kwantung Army must exercise the utmost restraint.
The move by Japan's military won support in the press, and the military won the support from a good portion of the public, whose impulse was the same as the people of other nations in that it gave support to "our boys" in Manchuria. There were large public rallies, and common people donated money for the building of warplanes. And members of the army's general staff in Tokyo were acquiescent and outspoken in their opinion that it was unwise to restrain the activities of their officers in Manchuria.
A month into the crisis, the Emperor Hirohito was angry over the commander of the Kwantung Army, Honjo Shigeru, declaring his intention to pacify all of Manchuria and Mongolia. According to Japan's constitution, the military was responsible only to the emperor, and Emperor Hirohito was disturbed by his lack of control over the military and by government's loss of control over foreign policy. He spoke to a palace official about being unable to sleep at nights and about his belief in international justice and his desire to preserve world peace. He spoke of his worry about intervention by the Western powers and of Japan and its people being destroyed. Hirohito rejected the suggestion of his brother, Prince Chichibu – one year younger than he – that he take control of the government and suspend the Constitution if necessary. Hirohito telling his brother that he would never do anything that would "besmirch the honor of his ancestors."
The world was stunned by Japan's aggressions in Manchuria. China appealed to the League of Nations, and the United States attacked Japan verbally. Japan's move in Manchuria was in violation of the League of Nations covenant against making war, and its making war was a violation of Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928 -- to which Japan was a party. But at the League, Japan claimed that it was not making war, that it was involved only in "police operations" to protect Japanese lives and property. Other members of the League refused to accept this, and on October 24, 1931, the League passed a resolution demanding that Japan withdraw from areas it had conquered. Japan voted against the resolution, and because such resolutions required unanimity, Japan interpreted it as not binding.
By mid-November, the Kwantung Army was in control of the sparsely populated northern portion of Manchuria. Then on December 24 it began an offensive southward along coastal territory towards China's Great Wall, using bomber aircraft. Chiang Kai-shek responded by ordering Zhang Xueliang to stop the Japanese advance, but Zhang Xueliang's demoralized army made no determined stand, and the Japanese army's advance dismayed members of Chiang's government. The Japanese overran the cities of Chinchow on December 28, and, advancing along the coast, on January 4, 1932, it reached the town of Shanhaikwan, where the Great Wall meets the sea.
In December 1931, the nervous Wakatsuki had resigned as Japan's prime minister - his Democratic Party largely discredited by its lack of enthusiastic support for the military. Rising in popularity and forming a new government was the Constitution (Seiyukai) Party, a party with roots in rural areas, a party that favored cooperation with the military.
In January 1932, the United States sent a note to Japan proclaiming that it would not recognize any territory taken in violation of the Kellogg-Briand Pact. Then late in January the trouble in Manchuria spread to Shanghai. A rise in hostility toward the Japanese among the Chinese had resulted in some incidents in Shanghai, including an attack of five Japanese persons, two of them Buddhist priests, one of whom died. The Japanese consul-general in Shanghai demanded reparations, and Japan's navy, encouraged by the success of the army in Manchuria, sent ships and over a thousand marines to Shanghai to backup the consul-general, with the international community in Shanghai welcoming the Japanese force as agents of law and order. The army sent reinforcements to Shanghai and started a drive from the city's International Settlement against one of China's armies. In the West, criticism of Japan swelled. Emperor Hirohito was again concerned that the Western Powers might intervene, and he ordered a speedy conclusion to fighting around Shanghai, while hostilities around Shanghai were deteriorating into brutalities and atrocities. The international community was shocked by the ferocity of the fighting, which lasted one month, the Japanese using their navy guns, aircraft, incendiary bombs and bombing China's capital, Nanjing.
In February, Japan announced that it was making Manchuria an independent country, including Jehol and Inner Mongolia, areas the Kwantung Army did not yet control. The Japanese renamed the area Manchukuo, and its capital was to be Changchun. The official government of Manchukuo was to be an advisory council consisting of one Manchu, one Mongol, three Chinese and three Japanese -- subordinate in reality to Japan's military.
Japan's army officers were aware of their emperor's unhappiness with their aggressiveness, and they, in turn, were dissatisfied with their emperor. Some of them called Hirohito a mediocre sovereign and complained that he spent too much time playing mahjong instead of attending to his duties while the army was fighting a sacred war. But, exercising humanity's capacity for rationalization, they maintained their devotion to the emperor as an abstract ideal and as a god.
In October, 1932, a plot to overthrow the government had been thwarted and the plotters arrested. The plotters had planned to murder Emperor Hirohito's entire cabinet and to move Hirohito to accept a military government. Involved in the plot was Dr. Shumei Okawa (Okawa Shumei for the Japanese), a rightwing Chinese language scholar, intellectual, spy, and friend of persons at the royal court, including the Emperor's brother, Chichibu. Dr. Okawa (who was be tried as a war criminal) was a great talker and brilliant in debate. He was an admirer of the anti-industrial ideas of Charles Maurras of Action Française, and he had become Japan's leading advocate of fascistic ideas. Hirohito's brother, Prince Chichibu, was implicated in the plot. The plotters, but not Prince Chichibu, were arrested, but they were released almost immediately. Okawa was held for twenty days in a comfortable cell and then released. And none of them was tried.
One rightwing activist who continued worshiping the emperor and believed the emperor to be divine was a fundamentalist, born-again, Shinto priest and super-nationalist by the name of Nissho Inoue. He was leader of a small secret society called the Blood Brotherhood (Ketsumeidan), and he believed that assassination was a just means in fighting for an ideal Japan. He was a friend of Dr. Okawa, who gave him guns and ammunition. In early February, one of Inoue's followers, a student, shot the government's finance minister -- who had been outspokenly opposed to increased military spending. Then the assassin surrendered to police.
In early March, on the day of the arrival of a committee from the League of Nations, another assassin shot down a Japanese banker and prominent supporter of the League of Nations -- much to the embarrassment of the emperor. Another plot was hatched involving Dr. Okawa. Okawa took his group to Manchuria where they received a pep talk from the Kwantung Army commandant, General Shigeru Honjo. In mid-May, they made their assault in Tokyo. Their plan was to occupy a power station, banks and government ministries. One of the assault teams, consisting of civilians, naval officers and military cadets, had as their target the prime minister and leader of the Constitution Party, Takeshi Inukai. He had approved of the military's move into Shanghai and the creation of Manchukuo, but he had tried to put limits on further military activities, which had infuriated the super-patriots and had caused the prime minister to be included as a target of the assault times. An assault team invaded the prime minister's home and assassinated him.
But the coup failed to overpower government forces. And, in defeat, Dr. Okawa stood with others in another trial in a court of law, and as usual the defendants were allowed to make patriotic speeches. Killing for political motives was considered a crime of passion, and assassins had been getting light sentences because of their patriotic motives -- similar to what had happened in Germany in the early twenties. Fifty-four of the coup participants were sentenced, and by 1935 all would be free except for six, who would be free by 1940.
The Constitution (Seiyukai) Party withdrew from power, and Emperor Hirohito requested a government that would oppose fascism, uphold the constitution and work for peace. Rather than form a government from the political parties in parliament, the emperor accepted a recommendation that he make a retired admiral, Makoto Saito, head of a new government. Saito's new government claimed to be non-partisan and a national unity coalition, but it was dominated by military men. Parliamentary government by political parties had come to an end, with the emperor believing that he had not besmirched the honor of his ancestors.
With extreme rightists who believed in terror and assassination still thriving, being at the head of the government was still dangerous, and in August 1932 police aborted a plot to assassinate the new prime minister, Saito. The leader of the plot was a close friend of Dr. Okawa, and he received a suspended sentence. And in September, the police aborted a plot to kill the last living former prime minister of the Democratic Party, the fearful Wakatsuki.
By July 1933 another plot to overthrow the government was underway. The police arrested forty-four men from secret societies who were conspiring to kill members of the government's cabinet, other politicians and some people around the emperor. The police were aware that an army group was behind the plotters and intended to place Prince Chichibu on the throne in place of Hirohito -- facts that were not made public knowledge. The greater scandal was avoided, and the conspirators received suspended sentences on the grounds that they all had been motivated by love of country.
The Kwantung Army became preoccupied with fighting armed Chinese guerrillas who had sprung up in various areas in Manchuria. The guerrillas made quick raids on a number of cities, including Mukden. By the end of 1932 these guerrilla attacks subsided, and the Kwantung Army believed that it could turn its attention to bringing Jehol under its control as a part of Manchukuo. The Kwantung Army invaded Jehol in early January, 1933, beginning its slow move through mountainous terrain. And in February, the army's chief of staff requested Emperor Hirohito's sanction for a "strategic operation" against Chinese forces in Jehol. Hoping that it was the last of the army's operations in the area and that it would bring an end to the Manchurian matter, the Emperor approved, while stating that the army was not go beyond China's Great Wall.
In the League of Nations, the Assembly began discussing Japan's move into Jehol, while Chinese forces were making only a half-hearted effort to defend Jehol -- the Chinese aware of the superiority of the Japanese forces and afraid of head-on battles. In late February, the League of Nations Assembly voted on penalizing Japan by not recognizing Manchuokuo. Forty-two of the forty-four nations represented in the Assembly voted for the resolution. Thailand abstained, and Japan voted no. By mid-March, Jehol was under Japanese control, and on March 27 Japan's military-oriented government announced its intentions to withdraw from the League in two years. The emperor felt helpless and called the withdrawal "very regrettable" and stated his hope that cooperation and friendship could still be maintained with "other powers."
From March 1933 through 1934, the Japanese tried to consolidate their position in China. The Kwantung Army seized the passes through the Great Wall -- an understandable move that was ordinary defensive strategy. The Japanese linked Inner Mongolia with Manchuria, and the Japanese tried without success to win over Mongolians by promising local autonomy and support to the Lama priesthood. In 1934, Japan's new foreign minister, Hirota Koki, told parliament that the government was watching with misgivings the activities of China's Communist Party and the Communist armies. And in the months that followed, Japan announced to the world that it had "special responsibilities in East Asia." Japan announced what it called its Monroe Doctrine for East Asia and declared its opposition to China seeking help from Western powers in order to resist Japan. Japan's ambassador to the United States announced that the Japanese knew China better than any other nation, that Japan had an "ardent desire" to see peace and order re-established, and he requested that Japan be consulted concerning any important transactions with China are concluded. Japan was declaring China to be its preserve in trade and influence just as it believed Latin America was the preserve of the United States.
In 1934, Pu-yi, China's former boy-emperor (of Last Emperor fame) was officially crowned as monarch of Manchukuo -- while Manchukuo remained recognized only by Hitler's Germany, Mussolini's Italy, a few rightist Latin American regimes and the Vatican. Japan, meanwhile, was extending its rail lines in Manchuria, opening more land for development and making a better connection between Manchuria and Korea. The Soviet Union, wishing to eliminate a source of friction between it and Japan, sold to Japan its interest in the Chinese Eastern Railway -- a left over from tsarist times -- eliminating the last trace of Russian influence in Manchuria. And Japan watched as the United States Congress in 1934 passed the Tydings-McDuffie Act guaranteeing the Philippines independence in ten years. And the year,1934, ended with Japan announcing that in 1936 it would withdraw from the Washington and London agreements concerning naval limitations.
Japan, meanwhile, was increasing its military expenditures -- to 43.7 of the nation's budget in the fiscal year 1934-35, up from 28 percent in the fiscal year 1930-31. In actual money this was more than twice the amount spent up to 1931 (442.8 million yen versus 937.3 million yen). [note] By now, rumors were rife in Japan that the United States was preparing for war against Japan. And Dr. Okawa , in one of his books, predicted such a war and called upon the Japanese to prepare themselves for that "heavenly call."
An issue taken up by the extreme Right was the proper place of the emperor in government. Their target was a leading academic on constitutional law at Tokyo Imperial University and a member of the House of Peers, Tatsukichi Minobe. Among Japan's academic elite, Minobe was the leading opponent of the military expanding into government. In opposing Minobe's views on constitutional law, the rightists saw the divinity of the emperor at stake, and they accused Minobe of supporting democracy and committing treason. Among these rightists were Japan's Military Reserve Association and its Army Officers' Association.
The Army turned the debate into an attack on moderates in general, with Hirohito quietly trying to support Minobe's position. But Emperor Hirohito did nothing to influence the public or the military by showing support for Minobe, and in September 1935 Minobe was forced to resign from the House of Peers. Minobe's critics repeatedly invited him to commit suicide. The government gave Minobe police protection after two attempts to kill him Minobe failed. Then, in February 1936 Minobe was wounded, and the rightists made his assailant a hero.
Hate and a fanatical love of conformity to militarist virtues was very much alive in Japan. Lyrics to Japan's most popular song, written by a navy lieutenant, spoke of those in power being "swollen with pride," the rich flaunting their wealth and caring nothing for the welfare of Japan. It spoke of "brave warriors united in justice, cherry blossoms and a day when "our swords will gleam with the blood of purification."
Elections were called by the new prime minister, another retired admiral, Okada Keisuke. Small leftist parties and the larger of the moderate parties, the Democratic Party, gained seats in Japan's House of Representatives. The rightist parties lost seats. Rightists despised parliamentary democracy, and some of their supporters may have stayed away from the polls, holding elections in contempt. Japan's House of Representatives, at any rate, had little influence. Only a minority in the new membership in the House of Representatives was opposed to military men dominating the government's cabinet and against continuing military aggressions, but rightists were excitable people and they became alarmed. They saw great danger in the loss of seats by their fellow rightists and gains by others in the House of Representatives, and some of them decided that it was time to act to save Japan.
In late February, 1936, came the biggest attempt by the Right to take over the government. It began with a Shinto fundamentalist, Lieutenant Colonel Saburo Aizawa, killing with his sword the chief of the Military Affairs Bureau -- because the director of military education whom Aizawa admired had been dismissed from his position. Aizawa stood trial for the killing, and firebrand defense lawyers turned the trail into a spectacle, with the courtroom filled with off-duty army men supporting Aizawa.
In Tokyo, young army officers who were about to be transferred to Manchuria believed that their transfer was a plot to remove them from Tokyo during Aizawa's trial. These officers responded by leading about 1,500 soldiers in an attempt to overthrow the government. In Tokyo, in the early morning hours of a snowy day, they took control of the streets around the royal palace and capital buildings, with leaflets to distribute that spoke of the divinity of Japan being grounded "in the fact that the nation is destined to expand." The leaflet spoke of a "blood brotherhood of martyrs" and of Colonel Aizawa's "flashing sword" having no effect on "evil imperial advisers." Their leaflet spoke of self-seeking men encroaching "on the royal prerogative" and obstructing the true growth of the people, people who had been driven to the utmost depths of misery, making Japan an "object of contempt." The leaflet spoke of the Soviet Union, Great Britain and the United States wishing to crush "our ancestral land." And it concluded with the purpose of the coup: to "remove the villains who surround the Throne."
The soldiers murdered several persons including the former prime minister, Saito, filling his body with forty-seven bullet holes and then giving three cheers for the emperor. They believed they had also killed the prime minister, Okada Keisuke, but they had killed his brother-in-law instead, with Okada continuing to hide under a pile of laundry for a couple of days. They burned down one building, turned a hotel into a command post and occupied various other buildings. They sent a note to General Shigeru Honjo, the army's aide-de-camp to the emperor, announcing their coup and requesting reinforcements, and General Honjo learned that one of the coup leaders was his son-in-law.
The Emperor learned of the plot soon after sunrise. Enraged, he told General Honjo that the coup had to be crushed as quickly as possible. Hirohito dressed in his military uniform, and he ordered the navy to mobilize the fleet. He summoned the minister of war, and the minister of war angered the emperor by reading him the rebel's leaflet, as he had promised the rebels he would do. Hirohito summoned his family to join him in the palace, including Prince Chichibu, who had been friends with some of those now leading the coup, and he exacted a pledge of loyalty from his entire family. And at the end of the day, Hirohito began sleeping dressed in his military uniform, on his camp cot in his office.
The rebels stayed in the streets into the second and third days of the coup, and in meeting with Hirohito, General Honjo presented the army's point of view, referring to the rebels as "activists" and speaking of them as acting "for the good of the nation." And he told the emperor that in his opinion the "activists" should not be condemned. Hirohito would have none of it. He called the "activists" brutal criminals and reminded Honjo that they had murdered aged and venerable men.
On the third day of the crisis, after waiting for dithering generals to act, Hirohito issued an edict ordering the rebels to "speedily withdraw." He told General Honjo that if they did not withdraw he would personally lead the Imperial Guard Division against them. Facing what they perceived to be their failure, some of the rebel officers wished to commit suicide in the presence of an official representing the emperor. Hirohito refused. "If they want to kill themselves," he said, "let them do as they please."
Coup leaders surrendered, some of them hoping for more show trials at which they could make speeches and win leniency. Coup participants were immediately taken to an army jail, and Hirohito was determined to make examples of those who had led the coup. There were to be no public trials and no speeches. Over one hundred officers and under-officers were charged with treason and tried in a series of courts martial secluded from public view. Fifteen were executed by firing squad. No dates were given for the executions, and no ashes were returned to their relatives. And with the coup over, Hirohito's relatives looked upon him with a new respect.
Hirohito's strong move against the coup leaders brought shame on that faction in Japan's army that was wedded to the Rightist dream of spiritual reformation and restoring a pre-industrial and non-Westernized Japan. It was this faction, called the Kodoha, consisting mainly of younger officers, that believed that a war against the Soviet Union was imminent. A rival faction to the Kodoha now became dominate in the army. This faction consisted of older and more sober men who saw that industrialism was needed in making the military strong, leaders who were willing to work with government bureaucrats and leading industrialists. Among them was General Hedeki Tojo, destined to become Japan's wartime prime minister.
As Hirohito saw it, the military had been chastised, and he wished to demonstrate to the military that he was kind to them as he was to all his subjects. In demonstrating his kindness, Emperor Hirohito would now allow the military to pursue the goal of Japan's leadership in East Asia.
Recommended Books
Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, chapters 5 ~ 8, by Herbert P. Bix, 2000.
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