Transformations in Asia

1. Transformations in Asia Civil War in China, Militarism in Japan, and an Independence Movement in India

2. Just prior to World War I, in 1911, revolution in China had overthrown the imperial dynasty of the Qing • In its place was the Chinese Republic, governed by the Nationalist (Kuomintang) Party • Sun Yat-sen (Sun Yixian), often regarded as the father of modern China, was president • Quickly, however, the republic disintegrated • In 1912, Sun was forced to give up the presidency to General Yuan Shikai, in order to gain the support of the armed forces • In the face of Yuan’s growing traditionalism and dictatorialism, Sun and the Kuomintang found themselves in opposition to the government

3. In 1913, Yuan disbanded the Kuomintang-dominated parliament • In response, the Kuomintang began a revolution • It failed, and Sun fled to Japan • Yuan ruled until his death in 1916 • Military officers continued to govern Beijing until the early 1920s • Meanwhile, the rest of China slipped into anarchy • Warlords and bandits took control of vast stretches of the country • In 1920, Sun and the Nationalists returned to the mainland, establishing a base at Canton and throughout southern China

4. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), founded by radicals at Beijing University in 1921, also became a major force • A deadly external threat came from Japan, whose imperial ambitions grew during and after World War I • Japan already controlled Korea and had a sphere of influence in southern Manchuria • Because it had aided the Allies in World War I, Japan also had their blessing to expand that sphere after the war • Political control was not the only issue over which these groups would struggle

5. During these years, there was a great clash between traditional values and the desire for modernization • The military government in Beijing attempted to revive Confucian principles, while younger students and intellectuals embraced progressive concepts such as democracy, technology, and science • The clearest example of popular activism came on May 4, 1919, when thousands of students came to Tiananmen Square in Beijing to protest against the military government

6. The immediate cause of the May Fourth Movement was the government’s willingness to allow Japan to annex Shantung Province, Germany’s former concession in China • Underlying that specific issue, however, was the desire for political and social reform • As for China’s other major political actors, the CCP was progressive in outlook, while the Kuomintang was torn between the past and the future

7. By the mid-1920s, the real political forces in China were the Nationalists and the Communists • From 1923 through April 1927, both parties had cooperated to drive warlords and foreign powers out of China • Sun Yat-sen died of cancer, leaving the leadership of the Kuomintang to Chiang Kai-shek (Jiang Jieshi), a Western-educated officer who was also farther to the right than Sun had been • By early 1927, the Nationalist-Communist alliance, in its Northern Expedition, had gained control of all China south of the Yangtze River, including the major cities of Shanghai and Nanjing

8. At this point, Chiang turned against the Communists • In April 1927, he murdered thousands of Communists in Shanghai • Most of the rest of the party was driven far to the north, under the revolutionary Mao Tse-tung (Mao Zedong) • Chiang completed the Northern Expedition in 1928, gaining control over Beijing • That same year, he established the Nanjing Republic, a Kuomintang-dominated regime that combined Westernization with mild authoritarianism

9. Chiang proclaimed his allegiance to Sun’s Three People’s Principles (nationalism, democracy, and people’s livelihood or socialism) and made some attempts to create a constitutional government and an industrial economy • However, general backwardness, the foreign threat of Japanese imperialism, and warlord anarchy hampered Chiang’s efforts • Full-scale civil war against the Communists would also become a problem • Against incredible odds, Mao Tse-tung kept the CCP alive

10. Mao kept the CCP alive, leading it on the Long March (1934-1935), far to the north • Mao’s central strategy was to make communism appealing to China’s vast peasant masses, rather than concentrating on the small industrial working class in the cities • In 1937, Japanese forces would land on the Chinese mainland, starting a three-way conflict among China’s Nationalists, Mao’s Communists, and the invading Japanese

11. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Japan seemed to have the potential of evolving into a democratic parliamentary monarchy in the Western style • During the 1920s, the power of the Diet (Japanese Parliament) increased, and political parties became more meaningfully competitive • Universal male suffrage and a bill of rights was granted in 1925 • But traditional forces remained in place • The upper-class elite retained its oligarchical outlook • Nationalism also ran high

12. And even though the economy was strong and modern, most of Japan’s industrial might was concentrated in the hands of a small number of corporate conglomerates called zaibatsu • By the 1930s, the four largest zaibatsu (including Mitsubishi) controlled 21 percent of banking, 35 percent of all shipbuilding, 38 percent of merchant marine, and 21 percent of the mining industry • The effect of this system was to keep wealth in the hands of a tiny number of rich and powerful industrialists and capitalists, rather than benefiting the entire population

13. Also, because the zaibatsu enjoyed substantial governmental support, economic policy was largely under state influence, in a way not unlike the system of state capitalism practiced in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany

14. Increased imperial aggression and the effects of the Great Depression derailed Japanese democratization during the 1930s • Almost overnight, Japan’s exports plummeted more than 50 percent • Farmers and workers alike were badly hurt • Nationalist sentiment skyrocketed, and anti-Western feelings sharpened • The right-wing nationalist Kita Ikki became a celebrity with his slogan, “Asia for the Asians,” calling for the expulsion of colonizing powers such as Britain and France from Southeast and South Asia

15. In September 1931, Japan seized all of Manchuria from China, turning it into a puppet kingdom, Manchukuo, ruled by Henry Pu-yi, who had been China’s last emperor before 1911 • Shortly afterward, Japan withdrew from the League of Nations • In 1932, Japan’s prime minster was assassinated by right-wing extremists • Moderates and leftists were persecuted informally during the mid-1930s • By 1941, Hideki Tojo, had gained control of the parliamentary government • The military was able to dominate the young emperor, Hirohito, who had taken the throne in 1926

16. The Japanese began a full-scale war in Asia in 1937 • After a military clash with Chinese forces at the Marco Polo Bridge in July, the Japanese decided to seize as much of mainland Asia as possible • Proclaiming a “New Order” in Asia, the Japanese invaded in full force, committing dreadful atrocities against the civilian population • The “Rape of Nanjing” in December 1937 included the massacre of 200,000 to 300,000 noncombatants, including women and children

17. The Japanese war against the Chinese would continue throughout the 1930s and all during World War II • In 1938 and 1939, the Japanese clashed with the Soviets on the Siberian borderland, but were turned back • The war then spread to Southeast Asia, as Japan attempted to drive out the French and British, establishing its own empire, which it referred to as the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere

18. In South and Southeast Asia, most of which remained under British and French colonial rule, nationalists and anti-imperial aspirations became widespread • The most successful and sustained freedom movement appeared in British-controlled India • The moving force here was the Indian National Congress (later the Congress Party, founded in 1885 • After World War I, the dominant figure of the independence movement was Mohandas K. Gandhi

19. Because it had loyally supported Britain in World War I, mobilizing 1.2 million soldiers, India hoped it would gain greater autonomy after the war, perhaps even dominion status, like Canada, Australia, and New Zealand • But demonstrations and protests, organized largely by Gandhi, led to clashes with the British • In 1919, at Amritsar, British troops fired on unarmed protestors, killing 379 and wounding 1,137 • The Amritsar massacre led to chaos • The British imposed a crackdown, and Gandhi went to prison

20. For the rest of the 1920s, India balanced on a political knife-edge • The British began to make concessions, such as the Government of India Act (1921) • The act allowed 5 million Indians to vote and created a new Parliament, in which two thirds of the members would be Indian, elected by popular vote • On the other hand, the earlier repression of the British prompted the Congress Party to demand more • India could very well have erupted into bloody revolution • That it did not was due mainly to Gandhi’s political and spiritual guidance

21. Whether free or in prison, Gandhi – by now known increasingly as the Mahatma, or “Great Soul” – preached the policy of nonviolent resistance to British authority • Based partly on Hindu religious principles, this policy was called satyagraha, or “hold to truth” • An example of satyagraha in action came when the British imposed a high tax on the salt they sold to India • Rather than protest violently, Gandhi led 50,000 people on a 200-mile march to the seashore, where they began to make salt illegally by drying out seawater

22. When the British arrived, Gandhi allowed himself to be arrested peacefully

23. Gandhi was freed in 1931 • He continued to work with the Congress Party, but as a guiding force rather than a politician • Due to the influence and guidance of Gandhi, nonviolent tactics such as civil disobedience (the act of breaking an unjust law and willingly facing the consequences) and boycotts (such as the boycott of British cloth) were used to achieve independence for India

24. Jawaharlal Nehru was the political leader of the Congress, and Gandhi’s working partner • Nehru was a young lawyer and an intellectual • The spiritual, traditional Gandhi and the modern, secular Nehru pressed the British for greater reform • In 1935, the British granted a liberal constitution that was a long step forward on the path toward eventual self-rule • In 1937, Gandhi and Nehru began their “Quit India” campaign, trying to convince the British to leave altogether

25. The advent of World War II delayed the British withdrawal, but India would gain its freedom in 1947, soon after the war

26. It is important to realize that the Congress Party was not the only force pressing for Indian independence • India’s Muslims had their own freedom movement • Although during World War I, with the Lucknow Pact of 1916, Muslims and Hindus had pledged to work together for greater autonomy from the British, they began to go separate ways during the 1920s

27. By 1930, a Muslim League, led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, had formed • It paralleled the Congress Party’s independence efforts, but its aims were different • The Muslim League called for the creation of a separate Muslim state called Pakistan, or “land of the pure” • The failure of the Muslim League and the Congress Party to resolve their differences peacefully would lead to great bloodshed when independence was finally achieved in 1947

28. Indian Muslims had feared that they would face discrimination and persecution in a Hindu-dominated India • As such, Indian Muslim Nationalists came to believe that the partitioning of the Indian subcontinent would ensure the safety of Indian Muslims • Thus, at independence, the British agreed to partition the subcontinent into a Muslim-dominated Pakistan in the subcontinent’s northwest corner and a Hindu-dominated India

29. As thousands of Indian Muslims fled to Pakistan and thousands of Indian Hindus fled to India, rioting and violence often ensued • Even today, tensions run high between the two nations