Author: Tang Chongnan (Senior Researcher of Chinese Think Tank, Doctoral Supervisor of Institute of World History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Honorary President of China Japanese History Society)
Japan is an island country in Northeast Asia across the sea from the Asian continent, and is the second largest "economic power" in the world after the United States, a highly developed capitalist modern country. But before the Meiji Restoration, Japan was only a weak and backward feudal state in the East. It was through the Meiji Restoration that Japan built the only capitalist power in Asia at that time, the "Great Japanese Empire".
The "Great Japanese Empire" existed for less than a hundred years, with its rise and fall. Starting from the Meiji Restoration in Japan in 1868, Qixing suddenly appeared in the East at the end of the 19th century, breaking through the dark night that had been repeatedly invaded by the colonial aggression of European and American powers, radiating a dazzling light and bringing hope to the countries and peoples of the East that were sinking. While marveling at the rapid rise of Japan, the people of all countries and nationalities in East Asia have followed Japan's example in an all-round way, hoping to revitalize and take off like Japan. However, the aggression of Japanese imperialism shattered the delusion of people in the East to learn from Japan. The emerging Japanese Empire, which became a "world first-class country" and "one of the world's five great powers," not only joined forces with the Western powers, bullying and oppressing the weak and small neighbors in the East, but also went beyond that. After leaping to the status of "hegemony in the East", he went so far as to concoct and throw out the arrogant plan of establishing a "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" of a great colonial empire that included Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands. Once upon a time, the arrogant and ever-expanding "Empire of Japan", under the heavy blow of the world's anti-fascist forces, finally collapsed and collapsed rapidly in August 1945, and "disappeared like a comet again."
After the rise of Japan, why did it devote itself to militarism and fascism?
This has its far-reaching historical and cultural origins. As far as Japan is concerned, modern militarism originated from the ancient medieval Japanese samurai, samurai rule, and the spirit of Bushido. The Japanese samurai were born in the eighth and ninth centuries, and began to enter the political arena in the 11th century with the development of feudal economy and changes in class relations. Marked by the fact that in 1192, genrai dynasty, the leader of the samurai clique, was "appointed" by the emperor who had fallen to power as a "shogun of Seiyi" and established the Kamakura shogunate (the shogunate established in the Kamakura area), the samurai class held power at all levels of the state from the local to the central government. The Kamakura shogunate was the first samurai regime in Japan, and from then on, the samurai class specializing in conquest and killing became the ruling class for 676 years. The Muromachi shogunate established by the Ashikaga clan in 1336 was the second samurai regime, while the Edo shogunate established by Tokugawa Ieyasu in 1603 was the third and final samurai regime. The samurai class in Japan took combat and killing as its profession and became the advocates of militarism in the ancient Middle Ages, and naturally the formulators and promoters of the militarist system and policies. The Samurai class in Japan also developed and formed Bushido during the shogunate era, which lasted for nearly 700 years. Bushido, that is, the samurai spirit, is both the samurai's outlook on life and the world, as well as the feudal moral norms and codes of conduct such as the obligations and duties of the samurai. Inspired by Shinto, Buddhism, and Confucianism, Japanese Bushido has undergone three major stages: the new Bushido of the Edo period and the three stages of Bushido, which transformed into the spirit of modern military personnel after the Meiji Restoration, and has become an important part of modern Japanese militarism.
The Japanese militarist idea of foreign aggression can also be described as "long-standing." As early as ancient Japan, there have been myths and legends about Empress Shengong, that is, it is said that she conquered Silla (the ancient kingdom of southern Korea) in 210 AD, and won three great victories with troops. This is the legend of Japan's earliest foreign conquest, and later rulers have hyped up the battle merits of Empress Shengong to open up the territory and expand the territory.
By the end of the 16th century, the de facto ruler of Japan, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, for the first time put forward the arrogant plan of conquering Korea, invading China and India, and dominating Asia, Andi sent troops to invade Korea twice in 1592 and 1596, and Li Lingzhi dizzily claimed that the capital of Korea had been captured, and he "would directly attack the Ming Kingdom" and let his adopted son Toyotomi Hideji prepare to move the capital to Beijing, beijing "ten countries around the city" (counties), can be gongsei (emperor) royal use", "the surrounding hundred countries belong to you Shuji", and himself "live in Ningbo Province", because of his "near Tianzhu (India)" " in order to "occupy Tianzhu". Toyotomi's expansionist ideas and aggressive ambitions were unprecedented in the glory of The Japanese rulers. Toyotomi's invading army was defeated and retreated under the blows of the Sino-Korean coalition forces, and was forced to withdraw, and Toyotomi also mourned his death, and before dying, he suddenly opened his eyes and told him, "Don't make my 100,000 soldiers an overseas ghost!" "Die after words."
After Toyotomi, Japan's rulers and many thinkers continued to advocate their plans and propagate their ideas, resulting in the continuation and increasingly rampant Japanese idea of foreign aggression for more than 300 years. From the 1880s and 1890s onwards, Japanese classicists and pioneers of the Restoration Movement, such as Hayashi Ziping, Bendori Akira, Sato Nobuchi, Fujita Gyoya, Aizawa Yasu, and Yoshida Shoin, who advocated the "Theory of Coastal Defense," the "Theory of Founding of the Nation," the Theory of Overseas Flight, and the "Theory of The Exodus," openly put forward the strategy of losing it to Europe and the United States and compensating for Manchuria (northeast China and Korea), which had a great impact on the Meiji leaders. These have become an important source of ideas for modern Japanese militarism.
As for the main causes of modern Japanese militarism, there are three main causes.
The first is the incompleteness of the Japanese bourgeois revolution and reform of the Meiji Restoration. Most of the people who held the political power were feudal samurai, and the spirit of Bushido was inherited and developed, becoming the ethical norms instilled by the leaders of the Restoration to the Japanese people, especially the army and students, and was immersed in the spirit of Bushido in the "Edicts of Soldiers" and "Edicts of Education", and became the centralized representative of Japan's advocacy of militarism and the promotion of militarist education. The old samurai hierarchy no longer existed, and a group of bourgeoisized "new samurai" (warriors) were active in various fields and were the dominant force. In 1871, 87% of the officials of the 9 central provinces (ministries) were scholars, and by 1880, 74% of the central and local officials were still scholars. Most of the backbone of the ruling clique were samurai-born people, and the most famous "three masters of the Restoration", Okubo Ritsu, Saigo Takamori, Kido Takayoshi, as well as Ito Hirobumi, Yamagata Aritomo, and Matsukata Masayoshi, who had monopolized Japanese power for nearly 50 years, were all from old samurai origins. In the Taisho era, prime ministers Hara Kei and Kato Takaaki, the showa era fascist leaders Hideki Tojo, Ugaki Kazunari, and Itagaki Seishiro were also from the clan. Naturally, the warriors and those of scholarly origin became the main social force that promoted the development of Japanese militarism. In terms of economic reasons, due to the reform of land taxation and the reform of the granting of property by the gentry, the rural land system (parasitic landlord system) has left a strong feudal residue, and the family village has become a "domestic colony", so the domestic market is narrow. In addition, a large number of clans could not survive and were dissatisfied with the Meiji regime, and the ruling class used foreign aggression and expansion to lead the dissatisfaction of disgruntled peasants and clans to overseas conquests, making them the basic social force of militaristic Japan.
Second, Japanese capitalism started late, but it rapidly developed into military feudal imperialism. Japan's realization of national independence and the extrication from the crisis of becoming a colony and semi-colony were made important means by territorial expansion and armed aggression against its weak and small neighboring countries in Northeast Asia. It was the rapid transformation of itself into an oppressive nation that ushered in the rapid rise of Japan.
Therefore, in addition to the typical examples of the expansion of early capitalist foreign aggression, it also has the characteristics of militaristic Japan. The Meiji government has implemented the three major policies of "rich countries and strong soldiers", "breeding and rejuvenating industries", and "civilized civilization", and the rich countries and strong soldiers are the main body and the first of all policies. The development of modern Japan has taken the road of "strengthening the army and enriching the country". The implementation of the line of "strengthening the army and enriching the country" made the realization of Japan's industrialization, that is, the completion of the industrial revolution, closely related to the Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War between the aggressors and the DPRK. When Japan rapidly transitioned to monopoly capitalism and was even more tied to the war of aggression, the essence and characteristics of Japan's military feudal imperialism brought Japan into the military and war track and entered a vicious circle from war to greater war.
Third, there is no situation or force in Japan or abroad that restricts or hinders the development of militarism. There have been three climaxes of democracy movements in Japan, namely, the liberal civil rights movement, the Taisho democracy movement, the struggle of the three factions of the Constitution, and the anti-fascist struggle, but all of them have failed; when Japan invaded the outside world, it was easier to take risks, which further stimulated it to run quickly on the road of militarism.
The formation and development of Japanese militarism coincided with Japan's rise. It is roughly divided into three stages.
The first stage of modern Japanese militarism was the formation stage, roughly from the establishment of the Meiji government in 1868 to the end of the Southwest War in 1877. This was the decade when Japan began to embark on the path of militarism. As soon as the Meiji government came to power, it set the goal of "confronting all nations." In his 1868 book Chenhan (Imperial Letter), the Emperor announced that he would "open up the waves of thousands of miles, and spread the power of the country in all directions." From 1871 to 1873, the Japanese Iwakura Mission (48 and 59 international students) visited 12 countries in Europe and the United States, which lasted 20 months, fully accepted the theoretical concepts of "the weak eat the strong" and "the axiom of the mighty" of the Western powers, laying the ideological foundation for Japanese militarism. The main measure of Japan's policy of "rich countries and strong troops" is to try its best to build and expand the army. In 1871, the Guards Army, called the "Pro-Soldiers", was formed to defend the Emperor. At the same time began to create a modern army. In 1873 , a conscription order was issued , which established a standing army and expanded rapidly , but was not called the Wehrmacht but the " Imperial Army " , emphasizing its allegiance to the Emperor. Soon after, the navy was formed and expanded by the receiving shogunate and various domain warships. In 1874, the modern police system was established, and its leader, Daisuke Kawajiri, even expressed the hope that "Japan will be called a police state." From the end of 1873, the Meiji government promulgated a unified prison system, establishing a vast prison network that covered the country.
Soon after the establishment of the Meiji government, it began to carry out armed aggression against the weak and small countries in Asia with its military strength. In 1874, he launched a war of aggression against Taiwan, and in 1875 he provoked the "Ganghwa Island Incident" to invade Korea, and forced Korea to sign the unequal "Ganghwa Treaty" in 1876.
In these 10 years, Japan established and consolidated a centralized government centered on the emperor, established the economic foundation of militarism, established a militarist armed forces, police, and prisons, and began to carry out aggression and expansion abroad, marking the initial formation of modern Japanese militarism.
The second stage is the stage when the modern Japanese militarist system is fully established. Roughly from 1878, when Secretary of State of the Army (Defense Minister) Yamagata Aritomo issued the "Military Admonitions" and the "Regulations of the General Staff Headquarters" to 1894, when the "Japan-Britain New Treaty of Commerce and Navigation" was signed and the Sino-Japanese War of Aggression and Korea was launched. During this period, the establishment of the military police system and the issuance of the "Military Edict" in 1881, the promulgation of the "Constitution of the Empire of Japan" in 1889, the "Education Edict" in 1890, and the formation of the military department in 1893 were all its road signs. Japan has established a militarist system in the political, military, economic, cultural and ideological fields.
The third stage is the stage of development and evolution. Roughly from 1895 after the Sino-Japanese War to 1936, when fascist militarism was established or until 1945, when it was defeated. After the establishment of modern militarism in Japan, it continued to move from war to war, and almost every five years it used troops to the outside world until it was completely defeated. The "two and two" coups d'état of 1936 marked the rise of fascism to power, which is an extreme manifestation of modern Japanese militarism. The establishment of fascism is the highest form of Japanese militarism.
The characteristics and harms of Japanese militarism.
Japanese militarism is a war of aggression, and the war of aggression it launches has its own characteristics. First, militarism has no righteous war. The series of wars waged and participated in by militarism, without exception, were all wars of aggression. Second, when Japanese militarism launches wars, it is crazy and adventurous, that is, the so-called gamblers who "gamble with the fortunes of the country." The third is barbarism. The Lushun Massacre, which shocked the world and devastated the world, and the Nanjing Massacre during the War of Aggression against China are their concentrated representatives. The fourth is predatory. In every war of aggression, there was wanton plundering and forcing weak and small countries to cede land for reparations, and Japanese militarism was an insatiable predator. For example, after the Sino-Japanese War, China was forced to pay 230 million taels of silver, equivalent to four and a half times the revenue of Japan's national treasury. Japan's war windfall plundered from China only this time made Japan "considered by the people in the opposition to be endless wealth." Japan "has thus expanded considerably in all its aspects" (Japanese Prime Minister Shinsuke Inoue). Fifth, deceptiveness. Japanese militarism has always carried out deceptive propaganda to the outside world. Its cunning and upside-down approach to black and white can be described as the pinnacle.
Although Japanese militarism can succeed for a while, its ultimate failure is inevitable. Fundamentally, "the regressive and barbaric nature of the Japanese war was the main basis for the inevitable defeat of the Japanese war" (Mao Zedong).
Japanese militarism has not only committed countless and numerous crimes against the world and Asia, especially against the Chinese and Korean people, but has also caused the japanese nation to perish and suffer a catastrophe, and the Japanese people have suffered and caused great harm.
During the Japanese war of aggression against China, the Japanese army attacked cities and plundered the land, trampled half of China's rivers and mountains with iron hooves, and committed countless and numerous crimes: The murderous massacre, from Shanghai, Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou, Zhenjiang, Yangzhou to Nanjing, stained the Yangtze River with the blood of 700,000 of our compatriots; burned and plundered, ravaged tens of millions of compatriots in the occupied areas; lost all conscience, carried out poison gas warfare and germ warfare; disregarded international laws and regulations, and bombed our peaceful cities indiscriminately; in the anti-Japanese base areas, implemented the "three-light policy" of killing, burning, and robbing people of human nature; and brutal pit killing. More than 80 "mass graves" were built; 42,000 Chinese laborers were arrested to serve hard labor in Japan, with more than 14,000 casualties; demons committed adultery, raped and humiliated millions of Chinese women, violated humanitarian and international law, and forced 200,000 Chinese women to be "comfort women" for the Japanese army to ravage, and so on. During the 15 years of the war of aggression against China, Japan inflicted enormous losses on China: 35 million Chinese military and civilian casualties, of which 20 million died; direct property losses of $100 billion, indirect economic losses amounted to $500 billion (about one-thousandth of the current value according to the currency value at that time). Japan's war of aggression against China has caused the greatest damage to China and occupied the most extensive areas, and it has indeed caused great pain and deep pain, causing the nation the most serious material and spiritual harm, causing great damage to the development of Chinese society, and seriously affecting China's historical destiny.
During the Pacific War, more than 1.11 million People were killed and killed by the Filipino people and more than $8 billion in property were lost; the Vietnamese people were starved to death in 1944-1945 alone; about 2 million laborers were taken away from Indonesia; in Thailand and Burma, 12,000 prisoners of war and about 250,000 laborers were killed in the atrocities of the forced construction of the Thai-Burma Railway (known as the Death Railway) alone; and more than 100,000 were slaughtered by the Japanese army in Malaysia.
The atrocities committed by the Japanese army are rare in human history and heinous.
The Japanese militarist war of aggression also caused great disasters to the Japanese people. The war cost more than 56 billion US dollars, an average of more than 650 US dollars per Japanese; 7.3 million troops mobilized, an average of one person per household as a soldier; Japanese military and civilian casualties of 3.1 million.
At the end of the war, more than 80% of the houses in Tokyo, the capital of Japan, were destroyed, and more than 150,000 people were killed in a sky raid on March 10, 1945 alone, and almost all Japanese cities except Kyoto and Nara were bombed by air raids, and there were ruins everywhere. In particular, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, and in an instant, hundreds of thousands of residents were killed or injured, resulting in an unprecedented number of tragic scenes.
As a result of the war of foreign aggression of Japanese militarism, the Japanese national economy collapsed in an all-round way. The common conclusion of Japanese economists is that the Japanese economy has gone backwards by 25 years!
The war made the Japanese people even more traumatized, and it can be said that they had a "total mental breakdown." The myth of the emperor and the invincibility of the Japanese army was shattered for a time. Thought is extremely chaotic, and traditional moral concepts are destroyed. To this day, many Japanese people have been plagued by the "nightmare of war".
"Let history illuminate the future" and look back at the tragic consequences caused by Japan's military poverty is for the sake of peace and development now and in the future; "listening to history is a kind of wisdom," and we hope that the wise and diligent Japanese people will sum up the lessons of history, never repeat the mistakes of history, and truly live up to the honor of "the Japanese nation is a great nation" (Mao Zedong).
About author:Tang Chongnan, born in November 1940 in Chongqing, born in Wujin, Jiangsu Province, is a researcher and doctoral supervisor at the Institute of World History of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Former President and Honorary President of the Chinese Society for Japanese History, former Vice President and Current Advisor of the Society for the History of Sino-Japanese Relations in China. Since 1989, he has visited Japan and South Korea more than 30 times to study, investigate and attend international academic conferences. There are more than 10 co-authored books such as "Comparison of Sino-Japanese Modernization" (Japanese edition), "The Rise and Fall of the Japanese Empire", "China and Japan in the 21st Century", and "On Japanese Militarism". In addition, there are more than 100 papers, such as "Sakamoto Ryoma and the Fallen Curtain Restoration", "The Unique Japanese Modern Emperor System", "The Dual Role of Traditional Culture on the Social and Economic Development of China and Japan in Modern Times", "A Brief Discussion on the National System of Modern Japan -- Military Feudal Imperialism", "The Huge and Complicated Spiritual Dross -- An Analysis of Japanese Militarist Ideology", "Vigilance against the Resurgence of Japanese Militarism".