Karel van Wolferen The Enigma of Japanese Power (New York: Random House, 1990) 375-376. During the Meiji Restoration Japan saw its mission to be to catch up with the already industrialized Western powers.
Footnote8
Edwin O. Reischauer Japan Past and Present (Tokyo: Charles Tuttle Company, 1987)125.
Footnote9
Tetsuo Najita Japan The Intellectual Foundations of Modern Japanese Politics (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1980) 115.
Footnote10
Edwin O. Reischauer The Japanese Today (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988) 98.
Footnote11
Frank Gibney Japan the Fragile Superpower (New York: Meridian, 1985) 165-166.
Footnote12
Edwin O. Reischauer Japan Past and Present (Tokyo: Charles Tuttle Company, 1987) 119. During the Meiji Restoration Samurais were stripped of their positions and even prohibited from wearing the Samurai Sword in 1869.
Footnote13
Frank K, Upham Law and Social Change in Japan (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987) 49. The Japanese constitution was adopted in 1889. It set up a British type parliament. The constitution did not provide the parliamentary government with power over the military branch.
Footnote14
Karel van Wolferen The Enigma of Japanese Power (New York: Random House, 1990) 38. At the turn of the century Japan had started its colonizing effort in China and other parts of Asia. It was these efforts at Colonization that developed into the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). After winning the war Japan continued with even more gusto to snatch up colonies in Asia.
Footnote15
Tetsuo Najita Japan The Intellectual Foundations of Modern Japanese Politics (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1980) 121. In 1925 universal male suffrage was enacted although in most elections ballots were only made available to the urban elite.
Footnote16
Edwin O. Reischauer The Japanese Today (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988) 96.
Footnote17
Edwin O. Reischauer Japan Past and Present (Tokyo: Charles Tuttle Company, 1987) 150.
Footnote18
James B. Crawley Japan’s Quest For Autonomy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1966) 270-280.
Footnote19
Tetsuo Najita Japan The Intellectual Foundations of Modern Japanese Politics (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1980) 128.
Footnote20
Karel van Wolferen The Enigma of Japanese Power (New York: Random House, 1990) 380-381. In her Book Karel van Wolferen writes, “The Success of the Meiji oligarchy in stimulating economic development was followed by a further great boost for Japanese industry deriving from the First World War. This good fortune came to an end in 1920, and a ‘chain of panics’ caused successive recessions and business dislocation”.
Footnote21
Edwin O. Reischauer Japan Past and Present (Tokyo: Charles Tuttle Company, 1987) 117. Reischauer makes the point in his book that external factors significantly hurt Japan’s economy. Unlike a nation like the United States which had vast reserves of natural resources when projectionist trade laws were implemented around the world Japan suffered significantly because it lacked raw materials and markets. Japan’s economy which was guided during the Meiji Era to be primarily an export based economy.
Footnote22
Nakamura Takafusa Economic Growth in Prewar Japan (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983) 151-158. Nakamura Takafusa states that Japan was growing at vastly different rates between the urban areas and rural areas.
Footnote23
Frank Gibney Japan the Fragile Superpower (New York: Meridian, 1985) 165-166.
Footnote24
James B. Crawley Japan’s Quest For Autonomy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1966) 270-280.
Footnote25
David M. Reimers Still the Golden Door: The Third World Comes to America (New York: Columbia Press, 1992) 27.
Footnote26
Tetsuo Najita Japan The Intellectual Foundations of Modern Japanese Politics (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1980) 128. “The exclusion of Japanese Immigrants by the United States in 1924 and the growth of mechanized Soviet Power on the Asian continent all confirmed in the Japanese public eye the impending confrontation with the west.” Testsuo views the rise of Japanese nationalism and militarization resulting in the Showa Restoration to be to a large degree the fault of the west for its maltreatment of Japan diplomatically. Tetsuo also views the Showa Restoration to be largely caused by external factors that in consequence unbalanced the fragile Japanese political system.
Footnote27
Robert Story The Double Patriots (London: Chatto and Windus, 1957) 138.
Footnote28
Karel van Wolferen The Enigma of Japanese Power (New York: Random House, 1990) 380-381.
Footnote29
Tetsuo Najita Japan The Intellectual Foundations of Modern Japanese Politics (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1980) 114. One of the famous political leaders of the time Miyake Setsurei called for a new Japan that had “truth, goodness, and beauty”.
Footnote30
James Morley Dilemmas of Growth in Prewar Japan (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1971) 378-411.
Footnote31
Peter Duus The Rise of Modern Japan (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1976). Many of the nationalists of this period claimed the West had tricked Japan into giving up its colonies in Asia so it could take them. The Nationalists also claimed that renewed Japanese expansionism would liberate the Asians of their European Colonizers.
Footnote32
Tetsuo Najita Japan The Intellectual Foundations of Modern Japanese Politics (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1980) 130. The Imperial Way Faction was a right wing political party that called for the Showa Restoration. It was lead by Kita Ikki, Gondo Seikei, and Inoue Nissho.
Footnote33
Karel van Wolferen The Enigma of Japanese Power (New York: Random House, 1990) 381-382.
Footnote34
Tetsuo Najita Japan The Intellectual Foundations of Modern Japanese Politics (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1980) 128.
Footnote35
Tetsuo Najita Japan The Intellectual Foundations of Modern Japanese Politics (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1980) 138. Historians such as Testuo Najita cite this incident as the turning point in the military role in Japan. For after this incident the Military realized that the parliamentary government did not have the will or the power to stop the military power.
Footnote36
Edwin O. Reischauer The Japanese Today (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988) 96.
Footnote37
Edwin O. Reischauer Japan Past and Present (Tokyo: Charles Tuttle Company, 1987) 171. Edwin O Reischauer writes in his book, “There could be no doubt that the Japanese army in Manchuria had been eminently successful, The people as a whole accepted this act of unauthorized and certainly unjustified warfare with whole hearted admiration”.
Footnote38
Peter Duus The Rise of Modern Japan (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1976) 156. The period preceding the Showa Restoration and coming after the Meiji Era is known as the Taisho Era. It is named after the Taisho Emperor who was mentally incompetent and thus the parliamentarians during this time had control of the government. His reign lasted only a decade compared to the Meiji Emperor’s 44 year reign.
Footnote39
Edwin O. Reischauer Japan Past and Present (Tokyo: Charles Tuttle Company, 1987) 171.
Footnote40
Tetsuo Najita Japan The Intellectual Foundations of Modern Japanese Politics (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1980) 138.