Japan's Quest for Empire

The Japanese empire officially began in 1868, when Emperor Meiji strengthened Japan’s colonial and military powers. In the decades after this “Meiji Restoration” Japan worked hard to keep up with European empires of the day and industrialized its economy and military very rapidly. Because Emperor Meiji wanted to expand Japan’s influence around the world and establish as many colonies as he could, the Japanese military became very aggressive about grabbing territory from other nations.

In 1894 they fought a war with China over who would rule the Korean peninsula. The war set both nations up for years of tension. Japan also fought to take control of Manchuria, a large region in the northern part of China.

Reasons for Pursuing Empire

Time only accelerated Japan’s thirst for empire. Japan needed to take control of more land on the mainland in order to have enough resources to become a world power. In the late 1920s, Japan experienced an economic depression that further emphasized its need for natural resources. The country practiced aggressive economic policies. For example, they tried to become the cheapest place to buy textiles so that other countries could not compete.

In addition, Japan’s political structure was led mainly by military power, especially after the 1920s. A small group of men governed the nation during the early 20th century, but in the 1920s they all died, leaving the military to operate mostly on its own. Emperor Hirohito rose to power in 1926. Under his rule, democratic reformers achieved some political success, but they pushed too hard for reform and received an extreme backlash from conservative nationalists. Ultra-conservatism led to many restrictive policies. Due to strong feelings of nationalism, more leaders began to recognize the benefits of using force to become a world power.

Empire in Action

In 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria again and set up a “puppet government” designed to serve Japanese needs and desires. They became very rich because of Manchuria’s vast natural resources. More troops tried to push farther north, but the Russian army would not allow Japan to capture more territory. Instead, Japan slowly continued to take bits of Chinese territory over the next few years.

Total war began in 1937. Japanese soldiers were stationed at the Marco Polo Bridge when they heard explosions coming from the Chinese side. They used the incident as an excuse to alert the army and begin a full-scale attack on China. Japanese forces quickly overwhelmed the Chinese military. They captured all of China’s major ports, and most major cities, by 1939. The soldiers acted brutally towards their enemies and even towards civilians. The Rape of Nanking occurred in China’s capital city of Nanjing, where Japanese soldiers abused and then killed as many as 300,000 people, most of them civilians who had not been able to escape.

Throughout the war, Japanese forces also massacred entire villages because they suspected that local people were helping resistance fighters with guerrilla warfare. Historians estimate that between 10 and 20 million Chinese people died by the end of the war.

The End of Empire

Japan joined Germany and Italy in the Second World War in 1940 and famously bombed U.S. forces at Pearl Harbor at the end of 1941. After the bombing, the U.S. began giving supplies to the Chinese army to help them defeat Japan. Chinese troops held their own against Japan’s best efforts. The Japanese army launched a devastating attack in 1944, designed to force surrender, but the Chinese maintained their position and did not give in. By early 1945, China was able to retake two major southern cities. Finally, Japan surrendered in September of 1945 after the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing at least 129,000 people.

To punish Japan for its imperialist ways and its brutal actions during the war, the victorious Allied powers revoked all of the land Japan had conquered since the late 1800s and returned the territories to China. They also removed Japan from the Korean peninsula. In 1947, Japan adopted a new constitution and a parliamentary system of government, which is still in effect today.