Empire of Japan: Encyclopedia II - Empire of Japan - History

Empire of Japan - History

Paleolithic
Jomon
Yayoi
Yamato period
– Kofun period
– Asuka period
Nara period
Heian period
Kamakura period
– Kemmu restoration
Muromachi period
– North-South Court
– Warring States period
Azuchi-Momoyama period
– Nanban trade period
Edo period
– Late Tokugawa shogunate
Meiji period
Taishō period
– Japan in WWI
Shōwa period
– Japanese expansionism
– Occupied Japan
– Post-Occupation Japan
Heisei

• Economic history
  
• Educational history
  
• Military history
  
• Naval history

Glossary

With the Great Depression, Japan, like some other countries, turned to what has debatably been termed Fascism. It was a unique political form (see detailed discussion at Japanese nationalism), though with some European parallels. Unlike the regimes of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, however, Japan had two economic goals in developing an empire.

First, as with its European counterpart, a tightly controlled domestic military industry seems to have jump started the nation's economy in the midst of the depression. Also, due to the lack of natural resources on Japan's home islands, in order to maintain a strong industrial sector with strong growth, raw materials such as iron, oil, and coal largely had to be imported. Most of these materials came from the United States. So, for the sake of the military-industrial development scheme, and industrial growth on the whole, mercantilist theories prevailed, and the Japanese felt that resource-rich colonies were needed to compete with European powers. Korea (1910) and Formosa (Taiwan 1895) had earlier been annexed as primarily agricultural colonies. Manchuria's iron and coal, Indochina's rubber, and China's vast resources were prime targets for industry.

Manchuria was invaded and successfully conquered in 1931, with little trouble. Ostensibly, Japan did this to liberate the Manchus from the Chinese, just as the annexation of Korea was supposedly an act of protection. As with Korea, it was installed (with former Emperor of China Puyi as its official head of state). Jehol, a Chinese territory bordering Manchuria, was taken in 1933.

Japan invaded China in 1937, creating what was essentially a three-way war between Japan, Mao Zedong's communists, and Jiang Jieshi's nationalists. Japan took control of much of China's coasts and port cities, but very carefully avoided European spheres of influence. In 1936 before the Chinese invasion, Japan signed an anticommunism treaty with Germany in 1937.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki