THE MILITARY IN MODERN JAPAN This

This essay discusses the significance of the military establishment in modern Japanese history. In the first six plus decades which followed the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the military played a key role in the rapid modernization of Japan and the expansion of its power as a nation state. Between 1930 and 1945, the Japanese military became the supreme arbiters of the nation's destiny, the architects of a militarized police state and the planners and implementers of Japanese dreams of imperial conquest in East Asia.

Following Japan's catastrophic defeat in the Pacific War of 1941-1945, the influence of a discredited military sunk to a low ebb during the American occupation. After 1945 Japan relied primarily on American military power to safeguard its national security interests and maintained only relatively minor non-nuclear military forces. The remarkable Japanese economic recovery of the past half century has been achieved without recourse to military force. However, in the 90s a number of geopolitical and international economic factors have led to an on-going reassessment by the Japanese of the role of their military in protecting their national interests. This has led to substantial rearmament, especially the buildup of naval and air forces, the deployment of troops abroad on some peacekeeping missions, and the emergence of potentially divisive political issues --i.e. whether Japan should: (i) assume a greater share of the b

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y a peculiar combination of nationalist pride and insecurity" (135 and 145). Until the 1920s, the conservative coalition of elder statesmen, the genro, who guided the selection of prime ministers, the bureaucracy and business interests, largely kept ultranationalist extremists in check. However, for a number of reasons, that sentiment continued to mushroom and with it the influence of more expansionist-minded elements of the military. One was distress during the 1920s in the agricultural sector of the economy and the volatility of prices for Japan's principal textile exports, which collapsed in 1929-1931. Another was growing tensions with the United States, over what the Japanese perceived as American racially discrimination toward Japanese residents in the United States and Japanese immigration to America. The Japanese also resented attempts by the United States, largely confined to protests, to restrict Japan's expanding influence in Manchuria and North China. Following the Mukden incident in 1931 staged by hothead elements in the Kwantung Army in Manchuria who ignored their more cautious superiors in Tokyo, Japan seized control of Manchuria. Rise and Fall of Japanese Militarism Extremists within the Japanese army assassi
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Some common words found in the essay are:
According Pyle, La Feber, Pacific War, Tokugawa Shoguns, World Japan's, Hiroshima Nagasaki, Asia Aritomo, Yamiga Aritomo, Conclusion Japan's, Meiji Restoration, east asia, postwar japan history, berkeley california 1993, california 1993, la feber, berkeley california, pacific war, southeast asia, armed forces, angeles times, postwar japan, japan history, los angeles times, japan history ed, history ed andrew,
Approximate Word count = 2237
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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