Japan in the Twentieth Century

We tell you how the history of Japan was in the twentieth century. In addition, its economic growth after World War II.

How was the story of Japan in the twentieth century?

Since the end of the 19th century and during the first decades of the 20th century, Japan was an empire. Formed during the Meiji period (1868-1912), The Empire of Japan implemented modernizing reforms in the economy, politics and military forces, and began its expansion by Oriental Asia and the Pacific.

In 1926, Emperor Hirohito rose to the throne, with whom the Shōwa period began, and the military sector began to have greater institutional force. When the global crisis broke out in 1929, the economic need added to expansionist nationalism promoted by the military led to A conquest process which began with the invasion of Manchuria (1931) and continued with the Chinese-Japanese war (1937-1945).

During World War II (1939-1945), the Empire of Japan aligned with Germany and Italy on the Axis and was defeated by the allieswhich left a huge balance in destruction and human victims. Japan was politically reorganized during allied occupation (mainly American) until 1952.

From now on, Japanese democracy was consolidated and There was economic growth that was called “Japanese miracle” and made Japan. This situation lasts until at least the last decade of the twentieth century.

Japan at the beginning of the 20th century

At the beginning of the 20th century, Japan was an empire that had implemented modernizing reforms to imitation of Western powers, such as industrialization, formation of modern armed forces and the promulgation of the Meiji Constitution (which combined aspects of European constitutional monarchies with absolutism focused on the figure of the Japanese emperor).

Between 1904 and 1905, the Empire of Japan, which had already extended its influence to large areas of Oriental Asia, He faced the Russian Empire for Korea's control. The Japanese victory allowed the annexation of Korea in 1910.

During World War I (1914-1918), Japan joined the Triple Entente and He obtained in 1919 the recognition of his possession of a part of Shandong (in eastern China) and the mandate on Pacific territories that had been part of the German empire. In addition, he was admitted to the Nations Society.

The Second Chinese-Japanese War (1937-1945)

During the 1920s, the Japanese military sector began to acquire greater political prominence. When the world economic crisis broke out after the 1929 stock market crack, A strong nationalist feeling combined with economic need and promoted a new imperial expansion To get resources.

In 1931, the Japanese Army occupied the Chinese territory of Manchuria (where he established the puppet state of Manchukuo) and, before international criticism, Japan abandoned the Nations Society in 1933. In 1937 he began The Invasion of the North and East of China that inaugurated the Second Chinese-Japanese War (1937-1945) and caused facts convicted of world public opinion, such as the Nankín massacre (1937-1938).

Japan in World War II (1939-1945)

Japanese expansion

In September 1940, when World War II (1939-1945), Japan occupied French Indochina and signed the tripartite pact with Nazi Germany and fascist Italy.

With the intention of forming the “great sphere of coprosperity of Oriental Asia”, the Japanese authorities encouraged the antioccidental feeling of the nationalist sectors in the European Pacific colonies. The United States imposed a commercial embargo and prohibited the export of oil to Japandecision that supported the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.

Shortly after General Hideki Tojo assumed as prime ministerthe Japanese imperial army attacked the American naval base of Pearl Harbor (Hawai) on December 7, 1941, which caused the entrance of the United States into the war.

Next, the Japanese troops invaded the British and Dutch colonies in Southeast Asia, which produced oil, rubber and other necessary resources. Thus, between the end of 1941 and the first months of 1942, The Empire of Japan managed to occupy Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Dutch Eastern Indies and part of Burma, in addition to the Philippines.

The sign of the war in the Pacific front changed from the Japanese defeat in the battle of Midway (from June 4 to 7, 1942). The American navy caused immense damage to the Japanese fleet and stopped its advance.

Since then, The allied offensive found harsh resistance but was carrying out successful bombings and landings. Shortly after the occupation of the island of Saipán in June 1944, General Tojo resigned as Japan Prime Minister and was replaced by Kuniaki Koiso.

The allied counteroffensive

In October 1944, American troops began landing in the Philippines, and between February and March 1945 they fought the battle of Iwo Jima, considered one of the most bloody of the entire war, in which they managed to overcome Japanese resistance.

On April 1, 1945, American troops landed on the Japanese island of Okinawaonly 550 kilometers from the Japanese archipelago, and for 82 days they filed a battle in which Japanese forces used airplanes kamikaze But they were finally defeated.

Before the refusal of the Empire of Japan to surrender, The United States decided to launch two atomic bombs On the Japanese cities of Hiroshima (August 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (August 9, 1945), which caused more than 200,000 fatal victims. Besides, The Soviet Union declared war on Japan and invaded Manchuria and Korea.

The adverse situation in which Japan was and the magnitude of the destruction caused by the two atomic bombs led to the Japanese cabinet (headed by Kantaro Suzuki, who had happened to Koiso after the allied landing in Okinawa) to stop military actions on August 14.

On August 15, 1945, the emperor of Japan, Hirohito, announced Unconditional surrender, which was signed by its emissaries on September 2 aboard the battleship USS Missouriin Tokyo's bay. This fact marked the end of World War II.

Japan after World War II

The Allied Occupation of Japan

After the 1945 defeat, Japan remained occupied by allied troops (mainly Americans) and was governed by an administration directed by General Douglas MacArthur of the United States Army. The occupation authorities tried to demilitarize Japanese society, end the institutions, customs and semi -feudal traditions of imperial Japan, and reform the country according to Western criteria.

The MacArthur administration undertook a very deep series of reforms:

• A new Constitution (promulgated in 1946) That, although he accepted the survival of the Emperor's figure, he designed a parliamentary, democratic and pacifist political system, in which war was renounced as a means of resolving international litigation.
• A generalized agrarian reform which allowed the peasantry to access the property of the land.
• An educational reform that put the emphasis on developing humanistic, individualistic and democratic values ​​and abandoning feudal, nationalist and militaristic values ​​that spread the ancient Japanese textbooks.
• The breakdown of Zaibatsugreat industrial posters to which he was largely responsible for the country's imperialist policy in the thirties. It was about replacing them with smaller companies that operated in a framework of capitalist competition.

The reforms introduced by the US administration were mostly successful. Only one of them failed: the dismantling of the Zaibatsu. As the cold war extended to Asia, The United States decided to turn Japan into a key ally In front of the Soviet Union, the Communist China and North Korea. To do this, stopped the disintegration of Zaibatsu and tried to neutralize the post -war left unions. The economic success of the subsequent years largely silenced the protests against these measures.

In 1951, Japan signed with the United States and other allied countries the Treaty of San Francisco, which entered into force in 1952 and ended with the allied occupation of Japan. In addition, he formalized the loss of the territories that Japan had conquered in his imperial stage.

Japanese democracy after World War II

Japan was organized since the years of occupation in a stable and participatory democracy, with separation of powers:

• An Executive Powermade up of a cabinet headed by a prime minister.
• A legislative power or dietmade up of the House of Representatives and the Chamber of Directors.
• A Judicial Powerwhose maximum authority is the Supreme Court.

Since the constitution of Japan recognizes that sovereignty resides in the people, The emperor is admitted as a symbol of the State and the unity of the Japanese people but has no government powers.

However, Some traits of the Japanese political system demonstrated The survival of ancient traditions. Although the Japanese system is a multiparty and with full freedom of expression, a conservative party, the Democratic Liberal Party (PLD), ruled uninterruptedly from the end of the war until 1993 (between 1946 and 1955 it did it as alternation between the Liberal Party and the Democratic Party of Japan, which were merged into the PLD, which ruled since 1955).

The PLD was organized around features controlled by leaders who dominated, largely, based on clientelist relations. Finally, In 1993, shaken by acts of corruption and other scandals, the PLD lost the elections.

A coalition led by Morihiro Hosokawa ended his long hegemony. However, the alternation lasted very little. In 1994 Hosokama had to resign and, in 1995, the coalition that supported him collapsed. After a brief period in which he held the position of Prime Minister the leader of the Socialist Party of Japan, Tomiichi Murayama, The PLD returned to power in 1996.

The Japanese economy in the first decades of the postwar period

In 1950, like some western countries, Japan was an impoverished country because of war and in which almost half of the active population was used in the agricultural sector. But Japan had, since before World War II, with An effective economic system in several areas (including industry) and with businessmen, managers, officials and workers well qualified.

The average growth rate of Japanese GDP per capita between 1950 and 1973 was spectacular (8 %) and was not overcome by any other economy.

What happened during This “golden age” of the Japanese economy It has many similarities with what happened in Western Europe and the United States, but also some differences. Among the similarities, both growths were given as consequences of greater international economic cooperation (from the mid -twentieth century).

In Japan, particularly, the industrial base had been destroyed during the war, and that encouraged The installation of new factories with technological innovations (generally imported at low costs) that gave it a competitive advantage. On the other hand, the labor organization in unions by company and the permanent employment policy generally assured the loyalty of the workers to their companies and increased productivity.

Besides, a high social consensus and a context in which workers did not have much to spend their money allowed reach very high savings and investment rates that, in turn, contributed to future growth. Besides, The government invested in infrastructure, especially for communication and transport.

On the other hand, The Cold War and, in particular, the Korean War (1950-1953), inclined the United States to support the economic recovery of Japan. Japan's political, business and union leaders supported Japanese participation in the expansion of world trade, which consisted of the export of industrial products.

Japanese economy at the end of the 20th century

In the mid -1980s, when the West crossed an era of economic and social difficulties (slow economic growth, inflation, unemployment, etc.), Japan's economy surprised the world. He had avoided a good part of the main problems that affected the international economy.

Japanese capacity to offer the world a varied range of quality industrial products (steel, consumer electronics, cars and electrical machinery) sHe saw reinforced in front of his competitors. They also stood out its institutional stability and its achievements in health, education, internal cohesion and criminalityalthough not in other aspects of well -being (hours worked, consumption, housing, personal autonomy, condition of women, among others).

By 1990, other countries in Asia had also made significant advances in economic development, especially Hong Kong and Singapore (but also, although to a lesser extent, Taiwan and South Korea). However, Japan's economic success was exceptional.

This spectacular economic growth, which was called “Japanese miracle,” placed the Japanese economy in the second international position In 1990, with almost 9 % of world GDP, only behind the United States. With more than 120 million inhabitants, it had a very high GDP: almost 19,000 international dollars.

This level was just somewhat lower than that of a small number of Western countries that, unlike Japan, had been belonging to the “Club de los Ricos” for a long time. Japanese society was also at the head of the world classification of “human development.”

As of 1991, when a real estate and financial bubble exploded that had grown during the previous years, The Japanese economy entered a period of stagnation, known as the “lost decade”. Although exports continued to rise, The Japanese government had to implement reforms in its economy during the last years of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century.

Continue with:

References

• Britannica, Encyclopaedia (2019). Empire of Japan. Britannica Encyclopedia. https://www.britannica.com/
• COLCUTT, M., Jansen, M. & Kumakura, I. (1994). Japan. The Empire of the Rising Sun. Folio.
• Hane, M. (2011). Brief History of Japan. Alliance.Masamoto, K. et al. (2023). Japan Britannica Encyclopedia. https://www.britannica.com/