1. The drafting of the Meiji Constitution.

The Meiji Constitution was the product of a number of Japanese statesmen who themselves did not totally agree on everything about Japan's future. These statesmen were called the genro (elderly statesmen), former prominent samurai who had assisted the Meiji emperor in his restoration of power. They worked in the emperor's Privy Council or served as cabinet ministers in the newly created Diet (which consisted of a House of Peers (aristocrats), a House of Representatives, and a cabinet). Their views ranged from a British style constitutional monarchy (which would give Japan a fairly liberal government), to an emperor with all encompassing power. The final product of the constitution was not only the result of compromise between the conservatives and liberals among the genro, but also the more liberal elements' reactions to the political movements of the people. Following the government's announcement that a constitutional government was to be established upon the Meiji Restoration, there were heated discussions in local political clubs and mass petitions for rapid establishment of representative government. The conservative backlash at the Popular Rights Movement created great pressure for the more liberal genro to move more to the right than they would have otherwise.

2. The role of the emperor in the Meiji Constitution (1889).

The Meiji constitution enabled an autocratic emperor to exist in a constitutional government. The founding fathers of modern Japan, primarily the samurai leaders from the domains of Satsuma and Choshu (the Satcho clique), did not sincerely welcome constitutional politics, but wanted to bring about a modern reform of Japan via strong policies of the emperor. Therefore the emperor was put in the paradoxical position of being a constitutional monarch and as the bestower of the constitution to the people.

The emperor's authority also rested on his ancient and "divine" lineage. One of the creations of the Meiji Restoration was State Shinto. Shintoism was the most ancient Japanese religion, close to primitive animism, that believed in the magical powers of natural objects, e.g. mountains, trees, rocks, sea, etc. Only in much recent times were emperors and imperial families worshipped as possessors of this magical power (kami). State Shinto was a branch of Shintoism developed upon the Meiji Restoration that required a unity of Rites and governance through the emperor: recognition that the emperor was one of those to be worshipped in the Shinto religion, and household registration of religious affiliation with a deity, who were all subordinated to the ancestral goddess of the imperial house, Amaterasu, the sun goddess.

In his article "The Showa Era (1926-1989)," Masataka Kosaka explains the role of the emperor in the Meiji Constitution as the centre of politics (Article I) because the new government needed the traditional imperial authority to unify the nation (Gluck, 38). This emphasis on the role of the emperor, however, was an "inherent contradiction" (Gluck, 39) in a constitutional government where the emperor was to be subject to the constitution like everyone else. Great pains were taken to cover up the contradictions, hence the emperor was said to work with the cabinet, the legislature, etc., but the cabinet was given little power, and the military was independent. To make the government work the genro's role was vitally important. This "informal" part of the Meiji constitution was weakened with the deaths of the genro as time went by, significantly so after 1922. (Gluck, 39) After this, one of the last remaining genro Saionji Kinmochi tried to introduce the British style cabinet system by giving the cabinet more power than before. (Gluck, 38) But there was no unanimous agreement in the country regarding the role of the emperor and the responsibility of the cabinet. Many continued to view the emperor as the center of politics, especially among the conservatives. The difficulty of establishing a new view giving more weight to the cabinet was compounded by that the change, such as that the emperor would approve of a decision the cabinet unanimously made, was not part of the Meiji Constitution and even when it was exercised, it did not serve the effect of informing the public that the cabinet gained more power than before.

In the 1920s, with the decline of Taisho emperor's (1912-26) political and divine clout, the Showa Emperor Hirohito tried to resurrect the power of the emperor. The Taisho emperor suffered from ill health, both physical and mental. Because of the establishment of a constitutional government that did grant the people certain rights (although it also cautioned people not to exercise them), the world was changing in Japanese politics in the 1910s and early 1920s. Peasants often complained about universal conscription. There was also public criticism of the wealth of the imperial house. There were many workers' strikes and peasants' food riots in the 1910s and 1920s, as Japan started to undergo industrialization and was experiencing some of its universal after-effects, such as long working hours, low wages, no protection of workers, and pollution. And as the Japanese government, typical of any industrializing country, used agriculture to subsidize the industrial sector. Growing democracy let to 35 incidents of lese majeste (contempt of the emperor) from 1921-27. And the number of people who joined the army to defend the emperor or who were willing to die for the emperor from 1921 to 1945 declined. Against growing democracy and the gradual dissappearance of the genro class, Emperor Hirohito became more assertive of his role as an emperor (here I am disagreeing with Masataka's view that the emperor was not exercising much power).

Another problem that the Meiji constitution would have later on was the military. Masataka explains the relationship between the military, the Diet, and the cabinet (Gluck, 40). Upon drawing up the constitution, the genro, reflecting back on the era of the shogunate, did not want military aristocracy to threaten the civilian government, hence their decision to have the military completely accountable only to the emperor. This would inadvertently create a situation when the military would act on its own and report back to the emperor when the imperial exploit was already accomplished, a situation unanticipated by the drafters of the Meiji Constitution.

2. The Meiji society

Upon the abolition of the noble status of the samurai class, a new social hierarchy was built and the country was reclassified into the following social classes: nobles(kazoku), former samurai (shizoku and sotsu), farmers, merchants and artisans (heimin), and eventually the outcasts as ordinary citizens.

After the Meiji Restoration and the decision to modernize Japan, Japan entered a phase of rapid industrial development.  It turned Japanese society more into one that resembled Western society in many ways.  On the one hand was the establishment of large businesses and sometimes large business conglomerates (zaibatsu) such as Mitsui and Mitsubishi, on the other hand industrialization brought about a host of problems to Japan as in European countries, such as pollution and terrible working conditions, especially for female workers.  Also as in Europe, a social gap was developed between working class and middle class women, both of whom used to work in the past.  Now the latter was retreating back to home (oku-san). 

Like the new constitution, a new educational system was deemed by the Meiji government as central to its reform. The French school district system was adopted and many primary and secondary school districts were drawn up. Also, like the constitution, the educational system was to set the values to be instilled in the students. In 1890, the Rescript on Education emphasized the kokutai (Japan's national polity) as embodied in the emperor.

Shintoism, the most ancient religion in Japan, originated as primitive animism that worshipped spirits in nature. After the Meiji Restoration, emperors were also more and more worshipped as Shinto deities and enshrined. By creating a list of national divinities, the newly remodeled Shintoism accentuated the importance of the emperor and the nation over the local regions.

The newly remodeled Shinto religion had a hierarchical structure, with the Ise shrine at the top (for sun goddess Amaterasu, where the three imperial regalia, sword, jade, and mirror, were placed), the imperial shrines and the Yasukuni Shrine (for the war dead, built 1869) next, and shrines for local deities at the bottom.

The death of Emperor Meiji in 1912 marked the beginning of a new era in Japanese history, when Japan had abolished its unequal treaties with the Western powers and entered into a consumer society.  Politics remained conservative, as only 1 per cent of Japanese were eligible to vote and most were shut out of politics.  Traditional values persisted in the modern era, one example being the  junshi (ritual suicide) of General Nogi Maresuke and wife following emperor Meiji.(any one interested in the contradictions of values can read Natsuma Soseki's novel Kokoro, where he actually discussed Nogi's death.)  The old confrontations between the conservative Satcho clique and the liberal elements continued, but there was greater tendency of compromise.  Society continued to be marked by the juxtaposition of the old and the new, but compared with the 19th century, there was more popular support for Western values in politics and society.

3. Japan in the 1910s-30s: causes for military aggression

Upon the death of emperor Meiji, the eldest son of the deceased emperor became the next emperor. Emperor Taisho (1912-26), however, suffered from various mental and physical diseases which could have been the result of inbreeding. Because of his illnesses, many state affairs were taken over by his eldest son Hirohito, the regent prince, including a tour of Europe in 1921. When Emperor Taisho died in 1926, Hirohito became Emperor Showa but did not conduct the imperial ceremonies of succession until 1928 to give time for national mourning.

Emperor Hirohito, whose rule spanned more than half of the twentieth century (1926-89) and who witnessed Japan's military imperialism and post World War II economic expansion during his rule, was a good testimony to modern Japanese history: both its opportunities and its dilemmas.

a. economic downtowns and failed financial policies

Between the 1910s-1930s, Japan underwent several phases of rapid development. The first phase was in 1914-19, when demand for goods during World War I boosted Japanese export. After the war was over, the international demand for goods dropped, dragging not only Japanese economy, but the economies of most countries in Europe and America, down. Despite this, Showa economy still managed to grow between 1920 to 1928, although more slowly. (Gluck 29-30) To compound the problem, Masataka argues that the Japanese government also made a terrible mistake in financial policy: to get Japanese economy back to the gold standard in 1929. (Gluck, 29) Although this policy was no longer practiced by most countries after 1945, it was customary for many countries to link their currency to a value represented by a certain amount of gold to maintain the stability of the currency and avoid inflation (cheapening of the money). The downside of this policy (gold standard) is that when a country is in a weak economy, it is helpful to have a cheap currency to boost export, which would enable a country's goods to undercut other countries' through cheaper prices. Masataka argues that Japan got back on the gold standard at the worst possible time in 1929, when the whole world sank into an economic depression and consumer purchasing power dropped drastically. The gold standard prevented Japanese goods from becoming cheap by preventing the Japanese currency to get cheaper. This worsened Japanese economic woes.

b. the polarization of the rural and urban economies

What added to the Japanese economic problems was the polarization of the rural and urban areas, when the poverty of the farmers, caused by both government policy to use farms to subsidize industrial development through more taxes on the former, and dividing the farmland into too many small lots, led to the farmers' frustrations with the government. (Gluck, 30-31) The problems of the nation were not adequately addressed by the political parties, which were eager to "bribe" the voters with promises of local construction in return for votes. (Gluck, 31) The two major political parties in Japan in the first half of the 20th century were:

Seiyukai (Association of Friends of Constitutional Government): founded in 1900 by Ito Hirobumi, one prominent genro who was the chief drafter of the Meiji Constitution, in the lower house to obtain support. Later developed close links with the bureaucracy.

Minseito, a party created in the 1920s through the merger of two other parties. The chief rival to Seiyukai in the Diet.

As political parties, they were founded to ease the operation of the Diet by unifying views within each house and between the two houses (similar to our political parties). But they never developed into grassroots parties and catered to powerful local interest groups in return for votes.

The problems with the Japanese countryside and the indifference of the politicians to the plight of the farmers fueled extremism in the military (Gluck, 32) whose members largely came from the countryside. Although the state did try to relieve the countryside of its difficulties in the 1930s, Masataka argues it came too late. (Gluck, 36)

c. Japanese imperial expansion and the postwar international environment

Japanese expansion in Asia, which started in the 19th century following the state policies of modernization, was undertaken in an age of active Western expansion into China. In particular, Russian expansion led to its takeover of large quantities of Chinese territories in the 19th century, including the acquisition of Vladivostok, and various other border regions between China and Russia. The building of the Trans-Siberian railway from Moscow to Vladivostok (1890s) furthered Russian penetration into Manchuria. Russian activities in China and Korea clashed with Japanese intentions to expand to these regions.

Like European countries, many in the Japanese government turned expansion into a systematic goal, for security, national pride, resources for industrialization, settlement of overpopulation, and markets for manufactured goods. These goals were often intertwined.

The Japanese government dominated by political parties sought to make itself a member and friend of the European countries. Despite its request for the former German colony of Shangdong Province in China, it abided by the decision of the Paris Peace Conference (1919) to return it to China. Japan's representative to the Washington Naval Conference (1921) and Nine power Treaty (1922) was Shidehara Kijuro, from the Kenseikai-Minseito coalition, who was bent on peace and cooperation with the West.

Many in the Japanese government, however, were distrustful of a friendly relationship with the West. The Pan-Asianist group that argued Japan should build an Asian colony were strengthened in their view by the discrimination by the West: in 1895 over Liaodong Peninsula, a Chinese peninsula that Japan took in 1895, which Russia, the U.S., and Britain asked Japan to return to China, but which Russia took over once returned to China, and in 1919 over Shandong Peninsula, former German colony in China that Japan wanted to take over after World War I, a request that Britain and the U.S. turned down because of growing Chinese nationalism, and clause of racial equality, which Japan requested to be written into the Peace Treaty of 1919, but was not.) Therefore although the Japanese government on the whole was friendly to the West after World War I, many in Japan, both in the army/navy and government, were skeptical to the new internatioanl order proposed by the West: peace based on cooperation and collective security. (Gluck, 33-34) The pacifists in the government failed to move the radicals. and the international economic depression pushed many to favor the army's policy of aggressive military expansion in China to boost Japanese economic growth.

Therefore, although after World War I, the U.S. tried to build up a world of peace, many Japanese in the army/navy viewed it with skepticism and were determined to pursue the traditional diplomacy of imperial expansion and power politics.

d. Whose responsibility was it?

All in all, Masataka attributes the cause of the war, or effective opposition to the military's unilateral actions of imperialism in China, to the problems of the constitution: it gave the emperor excessive power, therefore many other members of the government, such as Prime Minister Konoe Fumimaro, Foreign Minister Hirota Koki, and Navy Minister Oikawa Koshiro, all failed to act responsibly. (Glcuk, 36-37) We discussed the role of the emperor above and also mentioned that Emperor Hirohito was actually more assertive in his exercise of the imperial power at this point. Hirohito did waver over whether to go to war, in China, and later on against the U.S. But ultimately, he condoned the practices of the military in China, and approved of the attack on Pearl Harbor as something the Japanese had to do in order to successfully complete the war.