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Government E-1275: Session #2. The Rise of Japan and the Pacific War

Government E-1275: Session #2. The Rise of Japan and the Pacific War. What is distinctive about Asia as a world region? 2. Was the Pacific War inevitable? 3. What were the consequences of Japanese imperialism? . Asia as a Distinctive World Region.

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Government E-1275: Session #2. The Rise of Japan and the Pacific War

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  1. Government E-1275:Session #2. The Rise of Japan and the Pacific War • What is distinctive about Asia as a world region? 2. Was the Pacific War inevitable? 3. What were the consequences of Japanese imperialism?

  2. Asia as a Distinctive World Region • Early development of a relatively centralized state organization on the Chinese mainland. • “universal domination” (Victoria Hui). • Balance of power/threat; rising costs of expansion. • Qin (356-221 BC). • “Divide and conquer strategies,” “ruthless tactics,” state-building. 2. Early development of merit-based civil service and bureaucratic state (David Kang): • Confucianism and Confucian ideals. • Tang Dynasty (8th century); Korea (10th c); Vietnam (12th). • “…genuine admiration for the Chinese civilization, and conscious efforts to emulate [its polity].”

  3. Asia as a Distinctive World Region (cont.) 3. Hierarchy and Sino-centric world order (Takeshi Hamashita): • Tributary system: Emissaries and tributes, in return for trade & diplomatic relations. • Political legitimacy for surrounding polities. • “Concentric circles” of inferior civilizations and “barbarians.” • Sovereignty (Europe) vs. Suzerainty (Asia): cultural and symbolic system of hierarchy. • Reinterpretation of Japanese imperialism since the late 19th century. • Relevance to the contemporary rise of China? (D. Kang).

  4. Asia as a Distinctive World Region (cont.) 4. Effects of Western imperialism in the 19th century: • India: British East India Company; formal colony (1857-1947). • China: internal & external problems of the Qing dynasty; Opium Wars (1839-42, 1856-60); unequal treaties; treaty port system. • Japan: Tokugawa bakufu (military government); unequal treaties; collapse of the Tokugawa regime (1868). • Southeast Asia. 5. Nationalism and anti-Western ideology. • Resistance against Western imperialism compelled nationalists to promote modernization.

  5. The Rise of Japan: The Meiji Restoration • Insurgency from the Satsuma and Choshu provinces. • Humiliation of the unequal treaties; poverty, inflation. • “Honor the emperor, expel the barbarians.” • The revolutionary consequences of the “Restoration”: • Abolish the rule of provincial military rulers (daimyo). • Strong military: universal military conscription (1873). • Centralized tax system. • Universal compulsory education (1872). • Abolish Tokugawa’s status system. • Transform foreign policy: “Rich Nation, Strong Army” • Restore the power and authority of the Japanese emperor.

  6. SAIGO Takamori as the Last Samurai?

  7. The Meiji Political System and Imperialism • The Meiji Constitution (1889): • Emperor: supreme command of the military; “emergency imperial decrees.” • Privy Council. • House of Peers, House of Representatives. • Meiji imperialism: • Sino-Japanese War (1894-95): reparations; control of Taiwan; railroad building rights in southern Manchuria; “independence” of Korea. • Russo-Japanese War (1904-05): Boxer Rebellion (1900-01); railroad building/leasing of ports in Manchuria; “exclusive right” on Korea’s internal affairs.

  8. “Imperial democracy” and Militarism • Development of “imperial democracy”: • Empire and “taxation without democracy.” • Economic effects of World War I. • Expansion of voting rights: universal male suffrage in 1925. • Meaning of “imperial democracy.” • Militarism. • Global economic depression. • Imperial Japanese military: dissatisfaction with the status quo (e.g. Washington Naval Treaty). • Political assassinations at home: PM INUKAI Tsuyoshi’s assassination (May 1932); “February 26 Incident” (1936). • Manchurian Incident (Sept. 1931), and Manchukuo (Feb. 1932). • Left the League of Nations (1933). • Marco Polo Bridge Incident (July 1937).

  9. Origins of the Pacific War • Mearsheimer (offensive realism) vs. Taliaferro (defensive realism). • Emperor’s war responsibility (Herbert Bix): • Frequent meetings/constant questioning of generals, admirals, and field commanders. • Disagreement among services: sided w/ more expansionist/aggressive strategies. • Delayed surrender: concern with saving himself and the institution of the imperial family. • MacArthur: postwar “humanization” and deliberate “exoneration” of his moral and political responsibility.

  10. Nature Consequences of Japanese Imperialism • High intensity of repression and investment. • Korea: geographical proximity and shared racial/cultural traits: long time horizon (Kohli, p. 1272). • Korea: state-building (bureaucracy, police, education, tax collection, infrastructure development). • Economic development/productivity growth in colonial Korea: Its effects on South Korea’s economic miracle? • The Nanjing Massacre (Dec. 1937-Jan. 1938). • Atrocities: Why? • Japanese memory of war as “victims” rather than “perpetrators.”

  11. Conclusions • Legacies of the Sino-centric world order (?). • China as a “civilizational state” (Kang, P. Katzenstein) vs. European state system and imperilism in the 19th-20th c. 2. Multiple (realist) causes of Japan’s rise and the road to the Pacific War. 3. Japan’s “history problem.” • Prime Minister ABE to FUKUDA. • Root causes remain unresolved.

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