The Empire of Japan (Japanese: 大日本帝國/大日本帝国, Hepburn: Dai Nippon Teikoku/Dai Nihon Teikoku), also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was the period of Japanese history spanning 79 years, starting with the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868, and ending with ratification of the Constitution of Japan on 3 May 1947. From August 1910 to September 1945, it included mainland Japan, Okinawa, the Kurils, Karafuto, Korea, and Taiwan. The South Seas Mandate and concessions were de jure not internal parts of the empire but dependent territories. In the closing stages of World War II, with Japan defeated alongside the rest of the Axis powers, the formalized surrender was issued on 2 September 1945, in compliance with the Potsdam Declaration of the Allies, and the empire's territory subsequently shrunk to cover only mainland Japan. However, Okinawa was later returned to Japan in 1972.
Under the slogans of "Enrich the Country, Strengthen the Armed Forces" and "Promote Industry" which followed the Boshin War and the restoration of power to the emperor from the shogun, Japan underwent a period of large-scale industrialization and militarization, often regarded as the fastest modernization of any country to date. Economic and political turmoil in the 1920s, including the Great Depression, led to the rise of militarism, nationalism, statism and totalitarianism, during which Japan joined the Axis alliance with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, conquering a large part of the Asia–Pacific; during this period, the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) and the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) committed numerous atrocities and war crimes, including the Nanjing Massacre. There has been some debate over defining the political system of the Empire of Japan as a dictatorship, due to the absence of a dictator, as well as calling it fascist. Other suggested terms are para-fascism, militarism, corporatism, totalitarianism, and police state.
The Imperial Japanese Armed Forces initially achieved large-scale military successes during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific War, most notably in the attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on 7 December 1941. However, from 1942 onwards, and particularly after decisive Allied advances at Midway Atoll and Guadalcanal, Japan was forced to adopt a defensive stance against the United States. The American-led island-hopping campaign led to the eventual loss of many of Japan's Oceanian island possessions in the following three years. Eventually, the American military captured Iwo Jima and Okinawa Island, leaving the Japanese mainland unprotected and without a significant naval defense force. The situation became desperate for Japan as they faced a two-front war due to the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, in addition to the United States dropping two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki with overwhelming destructive power. Plans had been made for an Allied invasion of mainland Japan, but were shelved after Japan accepted unconditional surrender under the Potsdam Declaration on 14 August 1945.
On 15 August 1945, the Japanese Emperor announced Japanese surrender to the Allies on the radio. However, the Pacific War only officially came to an end on 2 September 1945, leading to the end of the Empire of Japan and the beginning of the Allied occupation of Japan, during which United States military commander Douglas MacArthur administered the country. In 1947, through Allied efforts, a new Japanese constitution was enacted, officially ending the Japanese Empire and forming modern Japan. During this time, the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces were dissolved. It was later replaced by the current Japan Self-Defense Forces in 1954. Reconstruction under the Allied occupation continued until 1952, when the Treaty of San Francisco as a peace treaty took effect.
In total, the Empire of Japan had three emperors: Meiji, Taishō, and Shōwa. The Imperial era came to an end partway through Shōwa's reign, and he remained emperor until his death in 1989.
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01Terminology
The historical state is frequently referred to as the "Empire of Japan", the "Japanese Empire", or "Imperial Japan" in English. In Japanese it is referred to as Dai Nippon Teikoku (大日本帝国), which translates to "Greater Japanese Empire" (Dai "Greater", Nippon "Japanese", Teikoku "Empire"). Teikoku is itself composed of the nouns Tei "referring to an emperor" and -koku "nation, state", literally "Imperial State" or "Imperial Realm" (compare the German Kaiserreich). The name "Empire of Japan" appeared for the first time in the 1854 Convention of Kanagawa between the United States and the Tokugawa shogunate.
This meaning is significant in terms of geography, encompassing Japan, and its surrounding areas. The nomenclature Empire of Japan had existed since the anti-Tokugawa domains, Satsuma and Chōshū, which founded their new government during the Meiji Restoration, with the intention of forming a modern state to resist Western domination. Later the Empire emerged as a great power in the world.
Due to its name in kanji characters and its flag, it was given the exonyms "Empire of the Sun" and "Empire of the Rising Sun".
02History
After two centuries, the seclusion policy, or sakoku, under the shōguns of the Edo period came to an end when the country was forced open to trade by the Convention of Kanagawa which came when American commander Matthew C. Perry arrived in Japan in 1854. Thus, the period known as Bakumatsu began.
The following years saw increased foreign trade and interaction; commercial treaties between the Tokugawa shogunate and Western countries were signed. In large part due to the humiliating terms of these unequal treaties, the shogunate soon faced internal hostility, which materialized into a radical, xenophobic movement, the sonnō jōi (literally "Revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians").
In March 1863, the Emperor issued the "order to expel barbarians." Although the shogunate had no intention of enforcing the order, it nevertheless inspired attacks against the shogunate itself and against foreigners in Japan. The Namamugi Incident during 1862 led to the murder of an Englishman, Charles Lennox Richardson, by a party of samurai from Satsuma. The British demanded reparations but were denied. While attempting to exact payment, the Royal Navy was fired on from coastal batteries near the town of Kagoshima. They responded by bombarding the port of Kagoshima in 1863. The Tokugawa government agreed to pay an indemnity for Richardson's death. Shelling of foreign shipping in Shimonoseki and attacks against foreign property led to the bombardment of Shimonoseki by a multinational force in 1864. The Chōshū clan also launched the failed coup known as the Kinmon incident. The Satsuma-Chōshū alliance was established in 1866 to combine its efforts to overthrow the Tokugawa bakufu. In early 1867, Emperor Kōmei died of smallpox, and he was replaced by his son, Crown Prince Mutsuhito (Meiji).
On November 9, 1867, Tokugawa Yoshinobu resigned from his post and authorities to the emperor, agreeing to "be the instrument for carrying out" imperial orders, leading to the end of the Tokugawa shogunate. However, while Yoshinobu's resignation had created a nominal void at the highest level of government, his apparatus of state continued to exist. Moreover, the shogunal government, the Tokugawa family in particular, remained a prominent force in the evolving political order and retained many executive powers, a prospect hard-liners from Satsuma and Chōshū found intolerable.
On January 3, 1868, Satsuma-Chōshū forces seized the imperial palace in Kyoto, and the following day had the fifteen-year-old Emperor Meiji declare his own restoration to full power. Although the majority of the imperial consultative assembly was happy with the formal declaration of direct rule by the court and tended to support a continued collaboration with the Tokugawa, Saigō Takamori, leader of the Satsuma clan, threatened the assembly into abolishing the title shōgun and ordered the confiscation of Yoshinobu's lands.
On January 17, 1868, Yoshinobu declared "that he would not be bound by the proclamation of the Restoration and called on the court to rescind it". On January 24, Yoshinobu decided to prepare an attack on Kyoto, occupied by Satsuma and Chōshū forces. This decision was prompted by his learning of a series of arson attacks in Edo, starting with the burning of the outworks of Edo Castle, the main Tokugawa residence.
The Boshin War (戊辰戦争, Boshin Sensō) was fought between January 1868 and May 1869. The alliance of samurai from southern and western domains and court officials had now secured the cooperation of the young Emperor Meiji, who ordered the dissolution of the two-hundred-year-old Tokugawa shogunate. Tokugawa Yoshinobu launched a military campaign to seize the emperor's court in Kyoto. However, the tide rapidly turned in favor of the smaller but relatively modernized imperial faction and resulted in defections of many daimyōs to the Imperial side. The Battle of Toba–Fushimi was a decisive victory in which a combined army from Chōshū, Tosa, and Satsuma domains defeated the Tokugawa army. A series of battles were then fought in pursuit of supporters of the Shogunate; Edo surrendered to the Imperial forces and afterward, Yoshinobu personally surrendered. Yoshinobu was stripped of all his power by Emperor Meiji and most of Japan accepted the emperor's rule.
Pro-Tokugawa remnants retreated to northern Honshū (Ōuetsu Reppan Dōmei) and later to Ezo (present-day Hokkaido), where they established the breakaway Republic of Ezo. An expeditionary force was dispatched by the new government and the Ezo Republic forces were overwhelmed. The siege of Hakodate came to an end in May 1869 and the remaining forces surrendered.
The Charter Oath was made public at the enthronement of Emperor Meiji of Japan on April 7, 1868. The Oath outlined the main aims and the course of action to be followed during Emperor Meiji's reign, setting the legal stage for Japan's modernization. The Meiji leaders also aimed to boost morale and win financial support for the new government.
Japan dispatched the Iwakura Mission in 1871. The mission traveled the world in order to renegotiate the unequal treaties with the United States and European countries that Japan had been forced into during the Tokugawa shogunate, and to gather information on western social and economic systems, in order to effect the modernization of Japan. Renegotiation of the unequal treaties was universally unsuccessful, but close observation of the American and European systems inspired members on their return to bring about modernization initiatives in Japan. Japan made a territorial delimitation treaty with Russia in 1875, gaining all the Kuril islands in exchange for Sakhalin island. The Ryukyu Domain was abolished by the Meiji government in 1879 and reorganized as Okinawa Prefecture, and the Ryukyuan monarchy was integrated into the new Japanese nobility.
The Japanese government sent observers to Western countries to observe and learn their practices and paid "foreign advisors" in a variety of fields to come to Japan to educate the populace. For instance, the judicial system and constitution were modeled after Prussia, described by Saburō Ienaga as "an attempt to control popular thought with a blend of Confucianism and German conservatism." The government also outlawed customs linked to Japan's feudal past, such as publicly displaying and wearing katana and the top knot, both of which were characteristic of the samurai class, which was abolished with the caste system. This change later brought the Meiji government into conflict with the samurai.
Several writers, under the constant threat of assassination from their political foes, were influential in winning Japanese support for westernization. One writer was Fukuzawa Yukichi, whose works included "Conditions in the West", "Leaving Asia", and "An Outline of a Theory of Civilization", which detailed Western society and his own philosophies. In these works, he praised Western civilization and sought to emulate it as a way of national survival. He believed that Qing China and Joseon Korea were resisting modernization and that Japan's association with them would only lead Western nations to view Japan as equally "backwards" and thus colonize it as they did with the Opium Wars in China, which aided the intellectual groundwork for Japan's rapid Westernization. In the Meiji Restoration period, military and economic power was emphasized. Military strength became the means for national development and stability, a policy known as fukoku kyōhei (Enrich the Country, Strengthen the Armed Forces). Imperial Japan became the only non-Western world power and a major force in East Asia in about 25 years as a result of industrialization and economic development.
As writer Albrecht Fürst von Urach comments in his booklet "The Secret of Japan's Strength", published in 1942, during the Axis powers period:
The rise of Japan to a world power during the past 80 years is the greatest miracle in world history. The mighty empires of antiquity, the major political institutions of the Middle Ages and the early modern era, the Spanish Empire, the British Empire, all needed centuries to achieve their full strength. Japan's rise has been meteoric. After only 80 years, it is one of the few great powers that determine the fate of the world.
In the 1860s, Japan began to experience great social turmoil and rapid modernization. The feudal caste system in Japan formally ended in 1869 with the Meiji Restoration. In 1871, the newly formed Meiji government issued a decree titled Senmin Haishirei (賤民廃止令 Edict Abolishing Ignoble Classes) giving burakumin equal legal status. It is currently better known as the Kaihōrei (解放令 Emancipation Edict). However, the elimination of economic monopolies over certain occupations actually led to a decline in general living standards, and social discrimination simply continued. For example, the ban on the consumption of meat from livestock was lifted in 1871, and many former burakumin moved on to work in abattoirs and as butchers. However, slow-changing social attitudes, especially in the countryside, meant that abattoirs and workers were met with hostility from local residents. Continued ostracism as well as the decline in living standards led to former burakumin communities turning into slum areas.
In the blood tax riots in 1873, the Japanese Meiji government brutally put down revolts by Japanese samurai angry over the legal revocation of the traditional untouchable status of burakumin.
The social tension continued to grow during the Meiji period, affecting religious practices and institutions. Conversion from traditional faith was no longer legally forbidden, officials lifted the 250-year ban on Christianity, and missionaries of established Christian churches reentered Japan. The traditional syncreticism between Shinto and Buddhism ended. Losing the protection of the Japanese government which Buddhism had enjoyed for centuries, Buddhist monks faced radical difficulties in sustaining their institutions, but their activities became less restrained by governmental policies and restrictions. As social conflicts emerged in this last decade of the Edo period, some new religious movements appeared, which were directly influenced by shamanism and Shinto.
Emperor Ogimachi issued edicts to ban Catholicism in 1565 and 1568, but to little effect. Beginning in 1587 with imperial regent Toyotomi Hideyoshi's ban on Jesuit missionaries, Christianity was repressed as a threat to national unity. Under Hideyoshi and the succeeding Tokugawa shogunate, Catholic Christianity was repressed and adherents were persecuted. After the Tokugawa shogunate banned Christianity in 1620, it ceased to exist publicly. Many Catholics went underground, becoming hidden Christians (隠れキリシタン, kakure kirishitan), and others lost their lives. After Japan was opened to foreign powers in 1853, many Christian clergymen were sent from Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox churches, but proselytism was still banned. Only after the Meiji Restoration, was Christianity re-established in Japan. Freedom of religion was introduced in 1871, giving all Christian communities the right to legal existence.
Eastern Orthodoxy was brought to Japan in the 19th century by St. Nicholas (baptized as Ivan Dmitrievich Kasatkin), who was sent in 1861 by the Russian Orthodox Church to Hakodate, Hokkaido as priest to a chapel of the Russian Consulate. St. Nicholas of Japan made his own translation of the New Testament and some other religious books (Lenten Triodion, Pentecostarion, Feast Services, Book of Psalms, Irmologion) into Japanese. Nicholas has since been canonized as a saint by the Patriarchate of Moscow in 1970, and is now recognized as St. Nicholas, Equal-to-the-Apostles to Japan. His commemoration day is February 16.
03Government
In the administration of Japan dominated by the military political movement during World War II, the civil central government was under the management of military men and their right-wing civilian allies, along with members of the nobility and Imperial Family. The Emperor was in the center of this power structure as Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Armed Forces and supreme head of state.
Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa
Prince Kitashirakawa Naruhisa
Prince Komatsu Akihito
Marquess Michitsune Koga
Prince Yamagata Aritomo
Prince Itō Hirobumi
Prince Katsura Tarō
Prince Fumimaro Konoe
Kōki Hirota
Hideki Tojo
Marquess Komura Jutarō: Boxer Protocol and the Treaty of Portsmouth
Count Mutsu Munemitsu: Treaty of Shimonoseki
Count Hayashi Tadasu: Anglo-Japanese Alliance
Count Kaneko Kentarō: envoy to the United States
Viscount Aoki Shūzō: Foreign Minister of Japan, Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Commerce and Navigation
Viscount Torii Tadafumi: Vice Consul to the Kingdom of Hawaii
Viscount Ishii Kikujiro: Lansing–Ishii Agreement
Shigenori Tōgō: Served as Foreign Minister twice, including during the outbreak of war and the final negotiations for surrender
Mamoru Shigemitsu: Foreign Minister of Japan who signed the Instrument of Surrender of Japan on behalf of Japan on 2 September 1945.
Yōsuke Matsuoka: Foreign Minister who signed the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy, and the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact
Baron Hiroshi Ōshima: Japanese ambassador to Nazi Germany
Chiune Sugihara: Vice-consul in Lithuania who issued thousands of transit visas to Jewish refugees, enabling them to escape the Holocaust in Europe
The Empire of Japan's military was divided into two main branches: the Imperial Japanese Army and the Imperial Japanese Navy. To coordinate operations, the Imperial General Headquarters, headed by the Emperor, was established in 1893. Prominent generals and leaders:
Field Marshal Prince Yamagata Aritomo: Chief of Staff of the Army, Prime Minister of Japan, Founder of the IJA
Field Marshal Prince Ōyama Iwao: Chief of Staff of the Army
Field Marshal Prince Komatsu Akihito: Chief of Staff of the Army
Field Marshal Marquis Nozu Michitsura:
General Count Nogi Maresuke: Governor of Taiwan
General Count Akiyama Yoshifuru: Chief of Staff of the Army
General Count Kuroki Tamemoto
General Count Nagaoka Gaishi
Lieutenant General Baron Ōshima Ken'ichi: Chief of Staff of the Army, Ministry of the Army during World War I
General Viscount Kodama Gentarō: Chief of Staff of the Army, Governor of Taiwan
Field Marshal Prince Kotohito Kan'in: Chief of Staff of the Army
Field Marshal Hajime Sugiyama: Chief of Staff of the Army
General Senjūrō Hayashi: Chief of Staff of the Army, Prime Minister of Japan
General Hideki Tōjō: Prime Minister of Japan
General Yoshijirō Umezu: Chief of Staff of the Army
Marshal Admiral Prince Higashifushimi Yorihito (1867–1922)
Marshal Admiral Marquess Tōgō Heihachirō (1847–1934), Russo-Japanese war (Battle of Tsushima)
Marshal Admiral Count Itō Sukeyuki (1843–1914)
Admiral Count Kawamura Sumiyoshi (1836–1904)
Marshal Admiral Viscount Inoue Yoshika (1845–1929)
Marshal Admiral Baron Ijuin Gorō (1852–1921)
Marshal Admiral Baron Katō Tomosaburō (1861–1923)
Admiral Baron Akamatsu Noriyoshi (1841–1920)
Vice Admiral Akiyama Saneyuki (1868–1918), Battle of Tsushima
Marshal Admiral Mineichi Koga (1885–1944)
Marshal Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (1884–1943), attack on Pearl Harbor, Battle of Midway
Marshal Admiral Osami Nagano (1880–1947)
Admiral Chūichi Nagumo (1887–1944), attack on Pearl Harbor, Battle of Midway
Rear Admiral Viscount Morio Matsudaira (1878–1944)
04Racial policy
During World War II, Japan's racial policy was rooted in the concept of Japanese supremacy as the "Yamato race" (Yamato-minzoku), positioning itself as the leader of Asia, while promoting an "Asia for the Asians" propaganda aimed at ending Western colonialism in Asia. This policy, officially under the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, was heavily utilized to justify military expansion.
A 1943 government document (An Investigation of Global Policy with the Yamato Race as Nucleus) defined Japan as the "nucleus" and superior leader of the Asian continent that ensured other nations were under its protection but essentially subordinates.
Imperial Japan committed widespread war crimes during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II, involving the deaths of millions through massacres, torture, forced labor, forced prostitution of women and human experimentation. Key atrocities included the Nanjing Massacre, the use of chemical/biological weapons by Unit 731, and the abuse of POWs, with many perpetrators later receiving immunity from the United States.
05Society
Religion in the Empire of Japan was characterized by the establishment of State Shinto, whereby the government used indigenous beliefs to promote imperial divinity and nationalism. While freedom of religion was technically recognized, Shinto was elevated to a non-religious, patriotic obligation.
Although there was a strong anti-Buddhist movement (haibutsu kishaku) that occurred during the enforced separation of Buddhism and Shinto (shinbutsu bunri) which led to the destruction of many Buddhist temples during the Meiji era, major Buddhist institutions, including the Japanese Zen and Nichiren Buddhism sects would subsequently overwhelmingly support militarism and wartime aggression. According to Brian Daizen Victoria's book Zen at War, Japanese Buddhist institutions and masters had contributed significantly to the country's militarism and imperialism from the Meiji Restoration through World War II.
06Timeline (1926–1947)
1926: Emperor Taishō dies (December 25).
1927: Tanaka Giichi becomes prime minister (April 20).
1928: Emperor Shōwa is formally installed as emperor (November 10).
1929: Osachi Hamaguchi becomes prime minister (July 2).
1930: Hamaguchi is wounded in an assassination attempt (November 14).
1931: Hamaguchi dies and Wakatsuki Reijirō becomes prime minister (April 14). Japan occupies Manchuria after the Mukden Incident (September 18). Inukai Tsuyoshi becomes prime minister (December 13) and increases funding for the military in China.
1932: After an attack on Japanese monks in Shanghai (January 18), Japanese forces shell the city (January 29). Manchukuo is established with Henry Pu Yi as emperor (February 29). Inukai is assassinated during a coup attempt and Saitō Makoto becomes prime minister (May 15). Japan is censured by the League of Nations (December 7).
1933: Japan leaves the League of Nations (March 27).
1934: Keisuke Okada becomes prime minister (July 8). Japan withdraws from the Washington Naval Treaty (December 29).
1936: Coup attempt (February 26 Incident). Kōki Hirota becomes prime minister (March 9). Japan signs its first pact with Germany (November 25) and reoccupies Tsingtao (December 3). Mengjiang established in Inner Mongolia.
1937: Senjūrō Hayashi becomes prime minister (February 2). Prince Fumimaro Konoe becomes prime minister (June 4). Battle of Lugou Bridge (July 7). Japan captures Beijing (July 31). Japanese troops occupy Nanjing (December 13), beginning the Nanjing Massacre.
1938: Battle of Taierzhuang (March 24). Canton falls to Japanese forces (October 21).
1939: Hiranuma Kiichirō becomes prime minister (January 5). Japan annexes the Spratly Islands (March 30). Abe Nobuyuki becomes prime minister (August 30).
1940: Mitsumasa Yonai becomes prime minister (January 16). Konoe becomes prime minister for a second term (July 22). Hundred Regiments Offensive (August–September). Japan occupies French Indochina in the wake of the fall of Paris, and signs the Tripartite Pact (September 27).
1941: General Hideki Tojo becomes prime minister (October 18). Japanese naval forces attack Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (December 7), prompting the United States to declare war on Japan (December 8). Japan conquers Hong Kong (December 25). Japan annexes the Paracel Islands in 1941.
1942: Battle of Ambon (January 30 – February 3). Battle of Palembang (February 13–15). Singapore surrenders to Japan (February 15). Japan bombs Australia (February 19). Indian Ocean raid (March 31 – April 10). Doolittle Raid on Tokyo (April 18). Battle of the Coral Sea (May 4–8). U.S. and Filipino forces in the Battle of the Philippines (1942) surrender (May 8). Allied victory at the Battle of Midway (June 6). Allied victory in the Battle of Milne Bay (September 5). Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands (October 25–27).
1943: Allied victory in the Battle of Guadalcanal (February 9). Allied victory at the Battle of Tarawa (November 23).
1944: Tojo resigns and Kuniaki Koiso becomes prime minister (July 22). Battle of Leyte Gulf (October 23–26).
1945: Allied bombers begin firebombing of major Japanese cities. Allied victory at the Battle of Iwo Jima (March 26). Admiral Kantarō Suzuki becomes prime minister (April 7). Allied victory at the Battle of Okinawa (June 21). The US drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki (August 9), the Soviet Union and Mongolia invade Manchukuo, Chinese Mengjiang (Inner Mongolia), and Japan (northern Korea, South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands) (August 9 – September 2). Japan surrenders (September 2): Allied occupation begins.
1947: The Constitution of Japan comes into force.
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