The modern world which Japan entered was one where exploration, colonialism and imperialism had featured very prominently over a long period of time. When Commodore Perry arrived in Edo Bay in 1854, the treaty which the Japanese subsequently signed was widely held to be unequal and weighted in the favour of the Americans. Other such unequal treaties followed with Germany, Britain, the Netherlands and Russia. There was much dissatisfaction in Japan with this ‘second class’ treatment but, as Japan made rapid changes and developed its own national army, it began international power policies of its own starting with an unequal treaty with Korea in 1875. This was followed by the Sino-Japanese war (1894-5) with China from which Japan emerged the victor and China signed a treaty acceding land to Japan. At this point, however, Russia, France and Germany interfered and persuaded Japan to give some land back, leading to domestic unrest and accusations by the Japanese that their government was weak. Japan then entered into the Russo-Japanese War (1904-5) with Russia over land in China and Korea, resulting in the Russo-Japanese Alliance in which each agreed to respect the other’s territories in Asia. These wars, however, were to set the scene for Japan’s military activity over the next 50 years.

Colonization and World War I
In 1910 Japan invaded Korea and it remained a colony until 1945. The Koreans were forced to learn and speak Japanese as their first language, they had to have Japanese names, the teaching of Korean history was banned and hundreds of thousands of Koreans were moved to Japan as labourers (by the end of World War II there were more than 2 million Koreans in Japan). In 1914 Japan entered World War I as an ally of Britain and, after capturing German territory in China and the Pacific, forced China to sign treaties recognizing Japan’s gains. By 1918, Japanese military, imperial and economic power had reached new strengths and the production of munitions to support the war effort had given Japanese exports a huge boost.

Increase of militarism and extreme nationalism
The 1920s saw recession, cuts in wages and the end of the prosperity enjoyed during the war. There were many movements and demonstrations calling for democracy in Japan, the Communist Party was established in 1922 and it was a time of great growth in radical political parties and thinkers. At the same time, much of Japan was still rural and in these areas traditional and conservative values were deeply rooted. A growing number of right-wing activists believed that the social order was being weakened by this new left-wing thinking and in the same year (1925) that all men over the age of 25 were given the vote, a peace preservation law was passed to control the spread of ‘dangerous thinking’. On one day in 1929, about 700 suspected Communists were arrested and more than half were charged. By the 1930s, reaction against intellectual and left-wing movements had spread and a secret political police organization was used to track down and remove any kind of political dissent. Ideas of democracy were gradually being removed by militarism and an authoritarian government, as Japan increasingly isolated itself from the West and from Asia.

Japan enters World War II
Japan’s policies in Asia became increasingly militaristic and aggressive and, following its conquest of the Chinese state of Manchuria (renamed by the Japanese as Manchukuo) and the establishment of the last Chinese emperor as the puppet head of state, it withdrew from the League of Nations under increasing criticism of its actions. The Nanking massacre of 1937-8 when an estimated 140,000 Chinese were killed, was publicly condemned, even from within Japan, but any ‘liberal’ or ‘leftist’ objectors were now quickly silenced by arrest or worse. In 1940, Japan signed a tripartite pact with Germany and Italy then moved into Indo-China (now Vietnam) in 1941. In response, the USA blocked all shipments of raw materials, including oil, to Japan and the Japanese military, desperate to protect the territory it had already gained and to gain access to oil resources in South-east Asia, decided the only way forward was to take US naval forces in the Pacific by surprise, then move swiftly to capture American, British and Dutch-occupied territory including oil-rich Indonesia (then Dutch East Indies). And so, on 7 December 1941, under Prime Minister Tojo Hideki, the Japanese bombed the US naval forces at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and declared war against the USA, Britain and the Netherlands although never with the military backup of Germany and Italy which had been hoped for.

Prisoners-of-war
Japan always knew that their military strength could not match that of the Americans or the Allied forces but their surprise tactics worked and they marched through South-east Asia, taking soldiers and civilians prisoner as they went. Many thousands of prisoners died at the hands of the Japanese, some exhausted from being forced to walk hundreds of miles, some I rom starvation or disease contracted in the internment camps, others were executed by the Japanese soldiers. Perhaps most infamous was the Burma-Thailand (Siam) Railway, planned by i lie Japanese to carry raw materials and supplies through South-cast Asia and known as the Death Railway because of the ihousands of British, British Commonwealth and American I’OWs and forced local labourers who died building it.

The Japanese people and the war
In the 1930s and 1940s, Japan’s military leaders had control of i he government, the cabinet and the emperor, and made political decisions based on military assessments, increasingly without consulting the government. Any civilian cabinet minister who *-objected ran the risk (frequently carried out) of assassination. As with other countries at war, the Japanese people were urged, through nationalist and patriotic slogans, to do their duty for their country, but more extreme steps were taken to ensure absolute loyalty and unquestioning obedience. In 1941 kokumin gakko (compulsory schools) were introduced to indoctrinate the young in allegiance to the emperor and country. The militaristic education included military drills and factory work and children even had to have their hair cut in the close-cropped style of Japanese soldiers. The spirit of bushido (code of the warrior) was instilled in every soldier and the belief was promulgated that Japan could win the war because of its fighting spirit and its position as a divine nation. When the fortunes of war turned against Japan, the military government filtered ‘selected’ information through to the people which spoke of the heroic deeds of the Japanese soldiers and the aggressive actions of the enemy. The young men chosen to carry out the kamikaze attacks towards the end of the war were treated as heroes and there was much footage of soldiers being cheered on by friends and family as they walked to their planes. In fact, some of those who survived the attacks have talked since about their fear and unwillingness, the deep sorrow of their families and the certainty of death if they disobeyed orders. At the end of the war, with almost 1 million civilians dead because of the fierce bombing raids, the ordinary Japanese person felt both ashamed at the defeat and cheated by those in power.

Setbacks and resistance
The turning point of the war was in June 1942 when the Japanese were beaten by the Americans in the naval battle of the
Midway, north of Hawaii. The Japanese did not have the men or material resources to control the territories they had captured and the USA used submarine blockades to prevent oil and metal ores being carried back from South-east Asia to Japan. The Japanese were forced to give up the territories they had won and to concentrate on protecting their homeland which was now the target of Allied fire bomb attacks. By 1945 most of Japan’s major cities had been destroyed by air raids and on 19 February, American forces landed on Iojima Island, 48 km (30 miles) south of the Japanese mainland. They needed this island as a base for B-29s carrying out bombing raids on Japan but it was a hard-fought battle, lasting almost a month and resulting in the deaths of 20,000 Japanese and 7,000 Americans. The people of Iojima had been urged to fight to the death because the US soldiers would act like barbarians and show no mercy. This pattern continued in Okinawa with the deaths of virtually the entire Japanese force of 110,000 men, 150,000 civilians and 50,000 Americans. When the Japanese government refused to accept the terms of the Potsdam Declaration which demanded ‘unconditional surrender’, the US government decided that atomic warfare was necessary to avoid even greater loss of life.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Japan is the only country to have had genshi bakudan (atomic bombs) used against it. Several possible cities, all with substantial munitions factories, were chosen and President Truman stated specifically that the aim was to make a profound psychological impression”. On 6 August 1945, the weather was clear over Hiroshima and so the B-29 bomber Enola Gay flew over the city and dropped the uranium-235 atomic bomb. When Japan did not immediately surrender, a second plutonium bomb was dropped over Nagasaki on 9 August. About 140,000 people in Hiroshima and 70,000 in Nagasaki died immediately or within a few months of the bombing, amounting to about 50 per cent of the population of each city (compared to a 17 per cent loss in the heaviest conventional bombing). Hibakusha (atomic bomb survivors) continue to suffer the after-effects of radiation-related diseases and many thousands have died in the years since the bombing. Both Hiroshima and Nagasaki have peace parks and museums dedicated to the memory of those who died and to peace.

Surrender and occupation
Even after the bombing of Nagasaki, the military were still resistant to surrender but the emperor intervened and, although army officers tried to stop the broadcast, Emperor Hirohito announced Japan’s surrender in a radio broadcast on 15 August 1945. People were shocked to hear the emperor’s voice which had never been heard before in public and many found it difficult to understand his formal court style of language. Japan was occupied by US forces for nearly seven years during which time war crime trials were held, 948 military and political leaders were executed, including the notorious wartime prime minister Tojo Hideki, the emperor publicly renounced his divinity and Japan’s democratization process was put into motion.

Tojo Hideki (1884-1948)
Tojo was Japan’s prime minister during World War II (1941-4) and a key player in Japan’s military expansion and wartime aggression. Immediately after the war he attempted suicide but he was eventually tried as a Class A war criminal and hanged on 23 December 1948.

Altogether, 3 million Japanese people died during World War II and in 1945 the outlook was bleak as Japan came to terms with its humiliating defeat, the devastation of cities and industry, a severe shortage of food and an economy in crisis. The units that follow, in particular 7-12, will explore the ways in which post-war Japan rose to the challenge and rebuilt itself to become the second biggest economy and an important participant on the world’s stage but will also examine issues about the war which continue to affect Japan’s international relations and the perceptions of those who suffered under Japanese occupation.