Anti-Leukosphere conflict

Meiji restoration

  • Japan recognized its inferiority. People led by samurai from the border provinces of satsuma, choshu, (also hizen, tosa). led a movement to modernize and strengthen Japan. They rallied around the Meiji emperor, demanded that the shogunate end. Others wanted modernization to happen, while retaining the shogunate and the older system. The former won.
  • Overt civil war was avoided by the advice of the likes of ???, who warned that a full blown civil war would be exploited by the barbarians, as had happened in India and China.
  • The shogun (himself from the same miTo province as the great influencer Aizawa Seishisai) resigned, and after a few skirmishes, the shogunate ended in 1868. An oligarchy led by Satsuma and Choshu samurai took over.
  • Haihan Chiken (1871): Samurai caste system and the feudal system were abolished. This was done in the emperor’s name, so opposition was small. 280 Daimyo domains were replaced with prefectures.
    • This went remarkably smoothly, with some daimyo explicitly requesting it, and others complying. [T1, T2, T3] The daimyo bade their sAmurai to transfer the loyalty to national patriotism and the emperor.
    • 2 million samurai lost income.
  • A mission visited USA and Europe to try renegotiate trade humiliations (blocked by the British). They decided that the prussian model was the best. This was adapted.
  • In ~1895, the emperor issued an edict to correct for the western fad, and reemphasize core Japanese values.

First Chinese war

Causes of defeat

  • Not taking Japan seriously.
    • “In the Chinese mind, this neighbor was so insignificant that there was little point in conducting a thorough assessment of its military strength and capabilities”
    • Japan, by contrast, knew China well. Had set up a great spy network.
  • Chinese disunity.
    • Revenue minister did not finance the navy.
    • Admiral Ding Ruchang had poor relations with his officers, in part because he came from the north… Because of these regional loyalties and prejudices, the authorities in Peking could not concentrate their forces.
  • Bad administrative system.
    • Poorly organized navy.
    • “General Ye Zhichao, China’s point man in Korea, lied about his “exploits,” while, in fact, he and his demoralized men trekked 250 kilometers in six days to flee the marauding Japanese.”

Outcomes

  • It ceded Taiwan to Japan.
  • The booty of war from China boosted Japanese state coffers, nearly 90 percent of which was spent on military build-up.
  • Later, manchu rule overthrown.

Korean independence.

  • Japan forcibly opened trade with Korea.
  • Chinese influence on the vassal state of Korea was heavy. China itself was fast decaying due to European infestation. The dangers of Korea following suit were high. Modernization proposals were rejected and pro Japanese reformists were suppressed.
  • So, Japanese freed Korea from Chinese influence by force (1895). Japan captured Liaodong peninsula, Taiwan and Pescadores islands, and got much recompensation.

Fight with the Rus

  • Russians collaborated with anti Japanese Koreans, captured Liaodong, the pro Japanese Korean government was overthrown. China bowed to the Russians. Boxer rebellion was quelled by both.
  • Japanese allied themselves with the British, to ensure that they sided with the Japanese in the event of conflict with the Rus.
  • Diplomatic efforts to keep the Rus at bay failed - the Rus were just buying time.
  • Japan declared war, attacked and sunk Rus ships (even those from the Baltic fleet), won the land war, invaded Sakhalin. The Qing sided with the Japanese.
  • Japan annexed Korea.

Manchu invasion

  • The Republic of China was founded in 1912, following the Xinhai Revolution which overthrew the Qing Dynasty. Its leaders Sun Yat Sen and Chiang Kai Shek were methodist christians. Regional warlords held sway. In 1930-s Communist Party started a rebellion.
  • Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931 and established the puppet state of Machukuo. It create factories and made many investments.

Triggers:

  • Soviet and communist threat.
  • Chinese fragmentation and weakness of the nationalist governments.
  • An insubordinate Kwantung Army (Gekokujō).
  • Colonial ambitions, population pressure.

Full scale invasion of China (1937)

  • Triggers: Weakness of the nationalist government, inability to maintain control against communists and Soviets.
  • Japan pursued a divide and rule policy and set up zones favorable to Japanese interests. At some point, some incidents triggered full scale war with the KMT. Efforts at reigning in the Japanese military in China failed. Japan was not able to create effective puppet/ friendly states and delegate control.
  • Later evaluation: This was a mistake as it made conflict with US inevitable.

Occupation of Vietnam (1941)

  • Japanese invaded Vichy French Indochina. The occupation of the northern part was necessary to cut off allied supplies to China. The movement south was opposed by the navy, since it would provoke the west (this part was probably another mistake).

US fight over China and Vietnam

  • Oil embargo came into effect after full occupation of Vietnam / Cambodia (jul 1941). This crippled Chinese operations, and led to war to secure those resources.
  • In mid-1941, the United States government financed the creation of the American Volunteer Group (AVG) in China.
  • Diplomatic efforts
    • Japan made proposals of peace. US observed military movements, felt they were not sincere, and rejected them.
    • With the Hull note, US demanded that Japan leave China. Japan took it to include Manchukuo (which was not recognized by USA). War was inevitable - as appeasement would lead to more demands.
  • Events leading up to Hiroshima - T_SP15.
  • Most of US public was against overt war until Perl Harbor attack. Rosevelt’s planned sneak attack : RV40.
  • Japanese invaded Malaysia, Burma, Singapore, Indonesia (1942).

Achievement despite the great cost.

  • The mlecCha-s lost the will to overtly retain their dominion over our homelands (and the US would not help them retain their colonies, as FDR had stated).
    • जापानेन म्लेच्छसांराज्यनाशस् सोढ्वा स्वस्य श्रीविनाशं बभूव। मन्ये तस्माद् वृत्रहन्ता दधीचिं देशं कृत्वा प्राच्यभूमिं ररक्ष॥
  • This coincides with the view of the Japanese shiNTo elite:
    • “Many of the Shinto association’s aims overlap with those of another increasingly influential group, Nippon Kaigi (Japan Conference), whose 38,000 members, including Abe and most of his cabinet, believe that Japan “liberated” Asia from Western colonial powers, and that the postwar constitution has emasculated the country’s “true, original characteristics”[KV16]
  • In case of India, the example of INA led to the Navy mutiny, which convinced the British that they could not retain control (IF15).
  • Japanese trained 1000’s of Indonesians during the occupation & these were later to fight the dutch during the recolonizaton attempt. [GB]
  • Gratitude
    • Vietnamese remain thankful to the Japanese for granting them independence from the French and staying back to fight for it (though commies like Ho Chi Minh were on the opposite side, initially) [IMG1, VM1].
    • Taiwanese in general appreciate the Japanese role in their past. [EQ11]

Occupation

  • Subversion through Burakumin Liberation movement/ Theology led by Jiichirō Matsumoto.

Current subversion

Current opposition to revival of Japan’s true spirit and state shiNTo.

  • Opposition from foreign “my shiNTo is better than Japan’s backward shiNTo” types, Japanologists, with parallels with Hindu situation: KV16.