When it comes to Japan before the end of World War II, the first thing that comes to mind is militarism. It was the ravages of militarism that brought endless disasters to China, Asia, and even the world, and the rest of the poison even pervaded to this day. So what is "militarism"?
The Japanese explanation is that "the country's political, economic, legal, educational, and other policies and organizations are prepared for war, attach importance to the use of armaments to develop externally, and use war to exalt national prestige" ("Guangciyuan").
Our definition of militarism is: "the complete subordination of the state to military control, all the thoughts and actions of the armed forces for the purpose of aggression and expansion" (Ci hai).
Militarist education in Japan began with dolls
Although the expressions are different, there is not much difference in the specific meaning. Militarism differs from the other demon "Nazis" of World War II, in that there is no dictatorial leader, but the whole country participates and acts by means of war. Total participation is the key to the eventual formation of militarism.
What many consider to be The Japanese dictator Hideki Tojo was actually laid off by the struggle before the end of World War II. Moreover, Hideki Tojo himself only became prime minister in November 1941, and a year earlier Germany, Japan, and Italy had signed a tripartite alliance treaty. There is no excuse for Hideki Tojo here, but to show him that militarism is not dictatorship but participation in the whole.
So how did Japan get into the quagmire of militarism and be unable to extricate itself?
In 1853 four warships of the U.S. East Indies Fleet led by Commodore Matthew Perry arrived in Tokyo Bay, Japan. Faced with strong ships and cannons from the West, Japan, like the Manchu Qing at that time, chose to yield and open the door to the country.
No one is born willing to be poor and inferior, and the Japanese have begun to innovate and strengthen themselves. By learning from the Western powers, the Japanese realized that in order to be rich and powerful, they must first end centuries of princes. Driven by this strong, unified sense of the state, the Japanese had the same idea of "for the emperor and Japan."
This unity based on the state and the nation ensured that the Meiji Restoration could be completed quickly and in a relatively peaceful manner (the scale of the war was much smaller than the previous power changes). The first problem facing Japan, which has established a modern government organization, is finding a trade market and a supply of raw materials.
Japan has a crush on North Korea. Although North Korea was not a rival to Japan, there was a Manchu Qing behind North Korea, and the Manchu Qing dynasty was also the first power in Asia no matter how broken it was, and the Japanese soon realized the real gap.
In 1886, four warships of the Beiyang Marine Division of the Great Qing Dynasty visited Nagasaki, and the "Nagasaki Qingguo Sailor Incident" occurred. It doesn't matter who is who is right, what matters is that the Japanese see bigger ships and thicker guns than in 1853!
Faced with the guns of the ship again, the Japanese could only give in again, apologize to the Great Qing and compensate for the losses. Of course, the humiliated and irritated Japan wanted revenge, but why did it take revenge without a large warship? Warships are not blown out, and real money and silver are needed to be built. At that time, Japan was not generally poor, it was very poor, and it simply could not afford to buy such giant ships as "Dingyuan" and "Zhenyuan".
What to do? Emperor Meiji issued the Edict on Building Ships and said that he would voluntarily cut down on food and clothing to support the country "for the sake of Japan." Inspired and seduced by the Emperor, all Japanese tightened their belts and cut the flesh to help the Navy. How crazy it is, take a small thing to illustrate.
Influenced by Eastern culture, Japan also has a similar view of shame to us. Looking down on prostitutes, the prostitutes' money is even more dirty, and it is possible to openly accept the financial support of prostitutes. But after rinsing "for the emperor and Japan," the money donated by the government from prostitutes seemed reasonable to everyone.
In the end, Japan built a fleet large enough to rival the Beiyang Naval Division, won the Sino-Japanese War, and forced the Manchu Qing to sign the Treaty of Qing-NiMaguan. The great success caused a large number of ordinary Japanese people to become fanatical, and they began to believe that as long as they were united, they would be invincible.
Oil painting At the scene of the signing of the Treaty of Maguan
After the Sino-Japanese War, the contradictions between Japan and Russia in the Far East deepened due to the competition for interests. Seven PhDs from Tokyo Imperial University jointly issued an "Opinion Letter", denouncing the government's weakness toward Russia and advocating the unity of the whole people to declare war on Russia and defeat Russia. Dr. Seven's remarks quickly led the whole country, and all walks of life in Japan demanded toughness toward Russia, which had a great impact on the eventual march of Japan and Russia to war.
In 1904, the Russo-Japanese War officially broke out. As in the Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese people once again chanted "for the emperor and Japan" to support the war, but the outcome of the Russo-Japanese War was completely different from the Sino-Japanese War.
Although Japan won the battlefield, Russia refused war reparations and only agreed to transfer some of its interests in the Far East to Japan (the lease rights of the South Manchuria Railway and Lushun were transferred to Japan and the southern part of Sakhalin Island was ceded), and if Japan did not accept it, Russia would choose to continue the war. However, all walks of life in Japan did not accept it, and they expected to achieve the results of the Sino-Japanese War.
However, at this time, the Japanese government was not fanatical, and it was very clear that Japan's national strength was not strong and it was no longer able to support the huge war attrition, so under the mediation of Britain and the United States, it negotiated with Russia to end the war. The news of the negotiations spread back to Japan, and the Japanese intellectual circles led by Dr. Seven stood up one after another to fight against the "traitors and traitors."
At their deliberate instigation, almost all the media shunned the question of why Japan had to end the war. It was only to seduce the Japanese civilians, who paid a huge sacrifice "for the emperor and Japan" (the casualties on the Battlefield of Japan were far greater than those of the Russian army, and many people in Japan starved to death and died of illness in support of the war), but all this was so easily betrayed by the "Japanese traitors" at the top.
In order to further incite the people, the target of the attack is not only "Japanese traitors", but also Westerners. The reason is that the Western powers manipulated the war and used it to consume and suppress the rising Japan.
The anger of the Japanese could not be suppressed on September 5, 1905 (the Peace of Portsmouth was officially signed and entered into force), and they took to the streets to demonstrate against the Russian peace, and began to smash the American Embassy and western churches. When the police came to suppress it, the Japanese were even more angry – we patriotic people were even more suppressed!
The scale of the violence expanded rapidly, with attacks on the National Press Agency, the residence of the Minister of the Interior, the Christian Church, the police station and the city trams, burning seven out of ten police posts and police stations. On September 7 and 12, patriots from Kobe and Yokohama followed suit and smashed Kobe and Yokohama. This is the famous "Hibiya yakitori incident" in Japan.
Hibiya Park, where the rally was held that year
Although the violence was quickly suppressed by the Japanese government, the "patriotic chorus" did not stop, and the ideological arming and struggle continued. The famous term was shouted out again -- "Yamato Soul." To what extent the Japanese were obsessed with the word at the time, take a look at the description of the Japanese writer Natsume Soseki:
The Japanese coughed like lung patients and shouted: Yamato Soul! The newspaper vendor shouted: Yamato Soul! The thief shouted: Yamato Soul! Yamato Soul leapt across the ocean, giving speeches on Yamato Soul in England and performing Yamato Soul drama in Germany. Togo Daimyo has yamato souls, and A-yin of the fish shop also has Yamato souls. Liars, kidnappers, murderers, all have Yamato souls! What is the Yamato Soul? Answered: It is the Yamato Soul. After answering, I walked over, and after walking a few miles, I could hear a hum. Is the Yamato Soul triangular? What about the Yamato Soul being four-cornered? The Yamato soul literally shows itself as a kind of soul. It is only the soul, so it is always ethereal. No one does not say it in his mouth, but no one has actually seen it, no one has not heard it in his ears, but no one has personally met it. Yamato Soul is probably something like a tengu.
In the end, the perpetrators of the Hibiya burning incident in Tokyo were convicted, but public opinion on them was: What crime did they commit? Isn't it a "patriotic crime"?
At this time, the "Yamato Soul" is precisely an idea and logic. This means that under the goal of "for the sake of the Emperor and Japan", all actions are reasonable and necessary, and any action that hinders this goal is wrong.
In other words, the criterion for judging the right or wrong behavior is whether it does not conform to "for the sake of the emperor and Japan" and whether Japan can be profited. Because The DPRK is not willing to be enslaved by Japan, the DPRK is guilty of fault; because China is unwilling to submit to Japan, China is guilty of being wrong; because Asia is unwilling to contribute resources to Japan, Asia is guilty of being wrong...
Under this trend of thought, more and more Japanese people find that only they have the truth, and the outside world is either an enemy who hinders Japan's progress or a fool who cannot understand the reason. What to do?
The enemy is naturally to be destroyed, the ignorant barbarians must be conquered, so what Japan needs is violence. Allowing the military to expand became the choice of the vast majority of Japanese. Violence always begins with itself, and a small number of "dissidents" in the people have been excluded and eliminated as "Japanese traitors" because of their hateful behavior, and the Japanese government has also entered a period of rapid change. The main way of change is the government downfall and restructuring triggered by political assassination.
In fact, political assassinations are not accurate, and the young men of the military who create trouble never think that they are despicable killers. They see themselves as pursuing noble causes rather than conspiracies and clearing the way for Japan's development.
Before each assassination, the news spread all over the place, and basically everyone knew who was going to kill whom in the near future. The assassins don't play a false game to kill people, and they don't run away after killing. Public opinion also responds to them with sympathy and praise, and the so-called trials are often just formalities and light sentences.
Explanation: Only the 226 Incident was an exception, and the Emperor felt that his humerus minister had been killed. As a result, the Emperor explicitly demanded that the murderer be severely punished, so in the end he had to execute several major participants.
In this way, the expanding forces of the anti-military forces in Japan from top to bottom (such as Saienji Gongwang, Inuyasha, etc.) were assassinated or eliminated, and the people became supporters of militarism, and the government became the government of militarism. After solving the internal enemy and realizing the voice of all Japan, then we must deal with the external enemy, and the way is war.
During World War II, in order to support the front-line war, Japan desperately scavenged for resources at home, and the Japanese civilians who struggled on the line of life and death were miserable? miserable!
In the Pacific War, the Japanese troops trapped on isolated islands in the Pacific Ocean ate the corpses of their comrades in order to survive. It's miserable!
Photographs after the bombing of Tokyo, this is literally carpet bombing
When Li Mei used incendiary bombs to carry out strategic bombing against Japan, the high temperature of the city burning heated and boiled the rivers, and the Japanese hiding in the river were boiled alive. It's miserable!
The "little boy" and the "fat man" instantly sentenced hundreds of thousands of people to death, raze two cities to the ground, and look at the people in the photos who are like coke, and the skin is peeling off. Very miserable!
We, as others, can give mercy and sympathy if we wish. But they themselves have no right to ask for mercy and sympathy, for they can only regret it. The calamities inflicted on them, and the sufferings of all of Asia, are due to their choices, so they must bear the consequences of them.