Transcript Japanese Imperialism

World Cultures
Japan Unit
 Why?
• Lack of fertile land for
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agriculture?
Markets for finished
products?
Need for the raw
materials of industry?
Population growth?
Response to Western
imperialism?
“Enrich the country, strengthen the military”
“The condition of foreign states is not what it
once was…if we cling to our outdated
systems, heaven only knows what disaster
may befall our Empire.”
1. Desire to be a Western-style imperialist power
2. Concerns for security and safety
3. Belief in its leadership role for Asia
4. Provocation by Western powers
5. Security of economic interests

First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895)
 Gained:
Taiwan
Manchuria
Foothold and Influence in Korea

Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905)
 Destruction of a Russian fleet
 Finally respected as a world power
 Japan is seen as a growing threat
Annexation of Korea (1910)
 World War I (1914-1918)
 Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945)
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 Included the Rape of Nanjing
• “Liberating” Asia from Western imperialism
 In reality, replacing Western imperialism with Japanese
imperialism

Washington Conference (1922)
 Size limits on navies
5:5:3 ratio for Great Britain, United States, and Japan
Japanese resented these uneven limitations

U.S. - Japanese Exclusion Act (1924)

Four Power Pact (1933)
France, Great Britain, Japan, United States
One another’s colonial possessions would be respected
1929 – Great Depression in United States
• Japan’s economy depended on
exporting products to other nations
(mainly silks and mostly with the USA)
• Depression decreased the number of
exports to foreign countries.
 Countries placing high tariffs on
imports to protect their own
industries
1929-1931 – Value of Japanese exports fell
by 50%
• Results: Factories closed and
unemployment rose
Japanese government couldn’t handle economic
crisis as a result of the Great Depression
 Extreme
nationalists gained support
• Claimed that Japan should have continued its
efforts at overseas expansion – The West has
gobbled up a large part of the world
• Angry that laws were passed to prevent
Japanese Immigration (Immigration Act of
1924)
1930s – Japan becomes a military
dictatorship
• New leaders promote glorification of the military
• Revival of Samurai traditions (Bushido Code)
• Loyalty to Emperor of Japan
• Mission: Free Asia from western imperialism
 Axis
Powers include Germany, Italy, and
Japan
• Tripartite Pact, September 1940
 Allied
Powers include Britain, France,
and the Soviet Union
• The United States remains isolated but responds
to Japan by cutting off supplies of oil
 On
December 7th, 1941, a day that will
live in infamy, Japanese planes bombed
Pearl Harbor
8
U.S. battleships were destroyed and
2,500 Americans were killed
 United States joins Allied Powers
• 1942, policy of island-hopping forces Japanese
to retreat from many Pacific Islands

By 1945, Japanese economy is in ruins
from the war

Refusing to give up the fight, Japan’s
military leaders will not surrender

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August 6, 1945 – American bomber
dropped an atomic bomb on
Hiroshima
• 80,000 people dead by “Little
Boy”
August 9, 1945 – Second bomb was
dropped on the city of Nagasaki
• 40,000 people dead by “Fat Man”
August 14, 1945 – Japan surrendered