Japanese Militarism

Why Japanese Nationalists wanted an Empire

Japan wanted to follow the European powers’ example by creating an empire. Japan invaded
Korea and took Formosa and the Ryuku Islands from China. During world war 1 japan sided
with the Allies to gain Germany’s territorial rights in China and other places in the north
pacific. Militarists believed that Japan was destined to dominate in Eastern Asia.

How and why Manchuria was invaded

Japan tried to overcome the
depression by building up an
empire. Japan controlled the
Manchurian railway and in
September 1931, the claimed
that Chinese soldiers had
sabotaged the railway and
attacked the Chinese army.
By February 1932 the
Japanese had conquered the
whole of Manchuria and
thousands of civilians were
killed. Japan wanted to
invade and take over this
land because of growing
population. It offered more
space to accommodate the
booming population and
would also help expand the
empire. It was also believed by the Japanese that Manchurian had rich natural minerals and
agricultural land which would increase the country’s wealth as it would have more to trade
and sell to other countries.

Why Japan left the League of Nations and became allied with Germany and Italy

Japan left the league of nations after a unanimous vote against them to withdraw from
Manchukuo and return the land to China. After this Japan and Germany became allies
through the Anti-Comintern Pact in November 1936. When Italy joined the pact in 1937 the
three powers united in the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis. The alliance of these three powers
threatened world peace. The worlds hope was on the league of nations but as shown in the
past with the Manchukuo issue it proved ineffective and by 1939 the world was on the brink
of war once again.