UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Paradise in Peril. Western colonial power and Japanese expansion in Sout-East Asia, 1905-1941 Bussemaker, H.Th. Publication date 2001 Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Bussemaker, H. T. (2001). Paradise in Peril. Western colonial power and Japanese expansion in Sout-East Asia, 1905-1941. in eigen beheer. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:05 Oct 2021 593 3 Chapterr 6. JAPAN. 6.1.. Introduction. Thee origins of the Pacific War are rather complex, and the war should certainly not be attributedd to the Japanese alone. The Pacific War was caused by a complex interplay of American,, European and Japanese internal and external developments in the 19th and 20thh century. Japan as a cultural entity reacted to the pressure put upon it by expanding westernn states, and formulated in the process an effective answer to the challenge to its independencee as a nation. After having annexed outlying parts of the Chinese Empire at thee end of the 19th century, Japan strengthened its position on the Asian mainland after thee Russo-Japanese War. The First World War brought a golden opportunity: the take-over off German interests in China and German colonial possessions in the Pacific. Therefore Japann evolved into an expansionist state itself, which in its turn challenged the remaining coloniall powers in Asia. Thee phenomenal rise of Japan after 1853 is an event of world importance in itself. After onlyy a few decades of internal unrest and civil war, Japan emerged as a formidable power fromm a past, which according to Western standards of the time, was considered rather backward.. Moreover, for almost a century, it remained the only npn-westem power which couldd be seen as more or less equal to first-class western powers. This historical event in itselff is so amazing, that its analysis by western historians has resulted in numerous publications.. Although Japan lost its war of aggression against the West, its role in ending westernn imperialism in South-East Asia has been widely acknowledged in western historiography. Afterr the Second World War, a number of articles and books, and even movies, condem- nedd Japanese aggression as caused by the ageless hold of militarists over the minds of thee people, and over Japanese government and culture. The judgment of the victorious alliedd governments reflected this way of thinking by charging 28 of Japan's civil and militaryy leaders as criminals before the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE)) in 1946. That charge however is an oversimplification, in which the internal dynamismm of Japanese society has been overlooked. It was that same internal dynamism, thatt made Japan succesful as an economic world power after its military bid for world powerr had failed so spectacularly. Thee purpose of this chapter is to explain the events, which slowly but inexorably drew Japann into the abyss of a war of attrition, which it was not able to bring to a succesful conclusion,, as its leaders knew beforehand. In this context analysis of the role and responsibilitiess of these leaders and their complex interactions within the Japanese social andd cultural framework is unavoidable, resulting In such a disastrous "Grand Strategy". Withinn that framework the position and influence of the Japanese Emperor towards an almostt unavoidable war has to be scrutinised too. Only when the internal interplay of forcess between these leaders has been made clear, can a sensible explanation be given of 594 4 thee seemingly rudderless drift of Japan towards almost certain self-destruction as a nation, andd of the enormous gamble which the Japanese leaders undertook, a gamble which they ultimatelyy lost. The description and analysis of the historical evolution from a feudal state too a modern nation will therefore consume one-third of this chapter. Thee internal evolution of Japanese foreign policy will also be analysed, as it forced the westernn powers to react to their perception of the growing threat to their position in South- Eastt Asia, i.e. to the status quo. Without such a thorough analysis of the internal factors whichh shaped Japanese foreign policy, it would be impossible to put the reactions of the westernn colonial powers to the common threat from the North in a proper perspective. Afterr having explained the historical and political background of modem Japan, an attempt willl be made to analyze the two driving forces which determined the course of history in pre-warr Japan. These were the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) and the Imperial Japanese Navyy (UN). Much has been made of their alleged differences of opinion, with the Navy puttingg the blame for the lost war on the Army, and vice versa. Many postwar western historianss have tried to blame one or more factions within the Army elite for the drift to war, butt it will be made clear that the differences between Army and Navy, and between the factionss within these service departments were smaller than suggested in western studies. Thee overriding concern of both service departments, and of thé factions within, was the aggrandisementt of the Japanese Empire. The differences which appeared were about the direction,, the degree and the speed of this expansion, but not on its ultimate goal. Japan pursuedd a "manifest destiny" which ultimately was the control of the four corners of the globe;; a destiny which proved to be a mirage above a sea of blood. 6.2.. History of Japan.2783 Thee Japanese are a racially homogeneous people living in a group of volcanic islands at thee rim of East Asia. The total surface of the four main islands is 381.269 km2, or about elevenn times the size of the Netherlands. Rather undisturbed because of their relative isolationn from the East Asian power centers (the Mongolian and the Chinese Empire) due too the sea the Japanese developed a close-knit feudal society with one dominant religion, onee language, and a unique Japanese culture which derived much from Chinese culture. Japann at that time was already heavily populated having about 30 million people in 1850, livingg on agriculture and fishing and practising birth control because of the small area availablee to agriculture. The Japanese islands have 54 active volcanoes and 111 dormant ones,, leaving only a small but fertile area for intensive agriculture. Therefore, up to the modernisationn of Japan, no more expansion was possible for the Japanese population, whichh has remained constant for almost three centuries at between 25 and 30 million people.. Lack of resources and a harsh sea-climate with severe winters made the Japanese ass a people resilient, frugal and diligent. *""" Contrary to customary Japanese practice, all Japanese names in this publication are written as is customaryy in the west: given name first, followed by the surname or family name. 595 5 6.2.1.. Early History.2™* Ass in Europe during the Middle Ages, the Japanese developed a feudal system in the samee time period, with an Emperor at the top of the hierarchy. The Japanese Emperor at thatt time was comparable to the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire2™5. The power of thee Japanese tradition is illuminated by the fact that the present Emperor looks back on an unbrokenn lineage of 124 imperial forefathers, making the Japanese Imperial family the oldestt existing in the world. Although it was possible within the Japanese feudal system to adoptt a son in case a male successor was lacking - and without doubt this might have happenedd a number of times in Japanese History - this continuity in the imperial lineage is stilll remarkable. The day when, according to Japanese tradition, the first Emperor mounted thee throne (11 February, 660 B.C.) still is one of the few national holidays. The Japanese Calendarr even starts from that event Moreover,, the Japanese Emperor held an advantage over his European counterpart in that hee was considered as a God within the pantheon of the dominant Shinto State religion. He thereforee combined Papal and Imperial responsibilities and power, a position which was constitutionallyy codified up to 1945. According to Shinto ("the Way of the Gods"), which is basedd on animism and worship of Nature, the Emperor descended directly from Sun Goddesss Amaterasu, who had choosen to stay in the "Land of the Rising Sun". But becausee the Emperor was sacrosanct, communication between him and his subjects had too be limited to bare minimum. The pre-modern Japanese therefore developed a state system,, in which the Emperor had only a symbolic presence, like a myth. Real administra- tivee powers were exercised in his name by a noble family known as the Shogun. This was nott unlike the situation in early medieval Europe, where the Merovingian Kings also had theirr Court Mayors, until one of them {Pepin of Herstal) became so powerful that he deposedd the last Merovingian King, and founded the Carolingian dynasty.