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THE EXCESSES OF AMBITION: THE PACIFIC WAR AND ITS LEAD-UP

THE EXCESSES OF AMBITION: THE PACIFIC WAR AND ITS LEAD-UP. The Fragile Democracy of Taisho (1912–26). Yoshihito (1879–1926). has meningitis just after birth. Hirohito (1901–89). suggested self-assurance as a world power, and promised wisdom and justice.

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THE EXCESSES OF AMBITION: THE PACIFIC WAR AND ITS LEAD-UP

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  1. THE EXCESSES OF AMBITION: THE PACIFIC WAR AND ITS LEAD-UP

  2. The Fragile Democracy of Taisho (1912–26) Yoshihito (1879–1926) • has meningitis just after birth Hirohito (1901–89) suggested self-assurance as a world power, and promised wisdom and justice.

  3. The main parties now included not only the (Rikken) Seiyukai but the newly formed (Rikken) Kokuminto (Constitutional Nationalist Party). These two parties initiated the Movement to Protect Constitutional Government (KenseiYogo Undo), which attracted many thousands of supporters from amongst the public KatsuraTarō桂太郎  After ignoring the emperor’s order, he was surrounded by thousands of angry demonstrator obliging him to resign after less than three months

  4. Admiral Yamamoto Gonbei(1852–1933) political neutral and was well disposed towards party politics. Parties gradually strengthened their representation in cabinet, but it could not be said that party politics became established.

  5. 1916 Terauchi Masatake (1852–1919) who was firmly opposed to party politics and was an unpopular prime minister

  6. Hara Takashi (1856–1921, also Kei) • The first real party-dominated cabinet • Succeeded Terauchi in 1918 • he was in fact of high-ranking samurai descent and very well-connected • He had only become prime minister after close vetting and approval by the oligarchs • Killed by assassination • was followed by a number of non-party cabinets.

  7. Great Tokyo Earthquake • September 1923 • One of Taisho Japan's darkest moments • This killed over 100,000 people, with many more injured Rumours spread very quickly that Korean residents had been responsible for some of the fires. They were also said to be exploiting the opportunity to loot and inflict further damage on the Japanese by poisoning wells and so on. In the relative state of lawlessness of the days immediately after the earthquake (martial law had in fact been declared), as many as 6,000 Koreans are estimated to have been murdered by vigilantes.3 Anti-Korean members of the public were not the only ones to avail themselves of the lawlessness: the military police killed a number of radicals and those associated with them

  8. international arena • there were budgetary restraints imposed by the government on military expenditure and growth • There were also moments of belief in diplomacy rather than military might Shidehara Kijuro (1872–1951)

  9. The First World War, in which Japan was nominally involved as a British ally but in practice hardly involved at all, obviously occupied the attention of the European powers. Japan was not slow to capitalise on this. It rapidly seized German territory in the Shantung (Shandong) Peninsula in China, as well as various German-owned Pacific islands. The presentation of the Twenty One Demands to China early in 1915. These demands not only sought Chinese recognition of Japanese footholds, such as the newly acquired territory in Shantung, and further concessions in Mongolia and Manchuria. They also called for the appointment of Japanese advisers within the Chinese government, armed forces, and police. Effectively this would have placed China under Japanese control

  10. Washington Conference of November 1921–February 1922. This was aimed at producing a new and more stable world order by focusing on multilateral rather than bilateral agreements between nations. One of the Washington resolutions obliged Japan to agree to a naval limitation of three Japanese capital ships to five American and five British One major source of upset to the Japanese was a series of race-based exclusion acts passed in the United States. Voluntary restraints were unsuccessful, leading to the 1924 act, which was deliberately tightened so as to have particular effect on the Japanese. This caused outrage among the Japanese people, and greatly weakened the arguments of those who advocated cooperation with the United States in the new world order set up under the Washington treaties.

  11. Japan was receiving a message that it was not going to be treated as an equal after all. It was respected for its achievements, and accepted in the world community as a major power, but it would never be accepted as a real equal because its people were simply not white. It could do things western-style for ever and a day, but it would never be a proper white nation

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