Root of the War

On December 7, 1941, Japanese Imperial Navy attacked Pearl Harbor, that forced the United States into the War. Why Japanese started the Pacific War? The reason was not simple, which rooted all the way back to Japanese annexation of Manchuria in the late 1920s, today known as only north eastern part of China.

Conspiracy in Manchuria
Three years before the Great Depression, on Christmas Day, 1926, Emperor Taisho [大正天皇] Yoshihito [嘉仁] died. He had been on the throne for less than fifteen years since inheriting the position from his father, Emperor Meiji, Mutsuhito [睦仁明治天皇]. Hirohito [裕仁], at 25, the deceased emperor’s oldest son, automatically succeeded to the throne. On December 28, the era was officially named Showa [昭和], which means, “Bright Harmony,” or “Glorious Peace.”
Contrary to the hopeful naming, the beginning of Showa was bumpy, due to events preceding 1926. In 1920, during the recovery from World War I, the stock market plunged, causing raw silk and cotton yarn prices dropped severely. Along with them the production of iron, copper and sugar were reduced, creating bankruptcies, one after another. In 1922, when a major bank closed, it triggered a “bank panic” causing a ripple effect. That failure caused more failures, which caused still more failures until at last, depositors couldn’t withdraw their money.
A large earthquake hit Metropolitan Tokyo and vicinities on September 1, 1923, destroying almost the whole capital।

The recession passed into a chronic state. Thousands of checks became worthless. The total loss is estimated at over $2 billion (1923 value).
A new cabinet headed by Katõ Takaaki [加藤高明] was formed in August, 1925, but lasted only five months due to the sudden death of the prime minister. Immediately, Home Minister Wakatsuki Reijirõ [若槻礼次郎] succeeded him and formed a new cabinet.
On March 24, 1927, China’s Nationalist Revolutionary Army, fighting in the Chinese Civil War, pillaged the Japanese Consulate in Nanking and assaulted the consul. They also attacked the building housing the American and British Consulates. It was a part of the Chinese Civil War. General Tanaka Giichi [田中義一], with the agreement of Emperor Hirohito, dispatched Japanese troops to Shantung Province to protect Japanese residents. The action was Japan’s first military intervention in China’s civil war.
The Privy Council, reacting to the moderate China policy of foreign minister Shidehara Kijurõ [幣原喜重郎], who had earlier refused to send Japanese troops to avenge earlier Chinese provocations against Japanese living in treaty port settlements, caused the Wakatsuki cabinet to collapse on April 17.
On April 19, 1928, Hirohito consented to deploy 5,000 troops to the port of Tsingtao, Shantung, a center of Japanese textile capital and once a Japanese Protectorate. When Fukuda Hikosuke [福田彦助], the commander of the troop, arrived in Tsingtao, he decided, without authorization from Tanaka or Hirohito, to proceed inland to Tsinan where his troops and the Nationalist soldiers had several clashes. Hirohito later sanctioned the dispatch of reinforcements to protect some 2,000 Japanese civilians there.
On April 29 General Tanaka, governor of the Seiyu-kai party, formed his cabinet.
Coincidentally, on the same day, Chiang Kai-shek established his Nationalist (Kuomintang) government in Nanking (now Nanjing) and renewed his Northern Expedition to unify China.
On June 4, 1928, senior staff officers of Japan’s Kantõ Army [関東軍], led by Colonel Kõmoto Daisaku [河本大作], blew up a train, killing most of the passengers, including Manchuria’s warlord and territorial sovereign, Chang Tso-lin. This assassination pulled Manchuria into the turmoil of Japanese and international politics. Prime Minister Tanaka was criticized for being unable to control the Army, instead of prosecuting those who were arbitrary decision-making army officers—General Fukuda and Colonel Kõmoto—who were supposed to be accused.
Kantõ Army spokesmen falsely alleged that the crime was committed by rogue elements of China’s Southern Army. On October 1928, Tanaka finally learned the truth. However, everyone was afraid that disclosing the truth would harm Hirohito’s credibility, worsen China-Japan relations, and jeopardize Japan’s special rights in China. Tanaka stepped down after Hirohito’s scolding, avoiding possible conflict with the Imperial Court, the cabinet, and his own army.
The Emperor’s decision to indulge the army officers in their insubordination had given young army officers in Manchuria a feeling that they could take matters into their own hands. No one was aware that it would encouraged and escalated Japanese militarism, backed by imperialism.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For more comprehensive description of the book, click: http://kyovision7.com