Why did Japan turn to militarism in the 1930s ?

1 .Japan's belief in its leadership role for Asia

- In 1905, Japan became the first Asian country to defeat a Western power, in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5
- The victory bolstered Japan's belief in its destiny to lead Asia and encouraged leaders in other Asian countries that they had a chance to stand against Western imperialist designs.
-Several ultranationalist groups and writers, such as the Black Dragon Society and Kita Ikki, gained increasing popularity with their views that Japan should take leadership in Asia to expel foreign powers by means of a righteous war if necessary.
- Many of these ultranationalist groups believed that the moral purity of the Yamato race and Japan's unique ancestry as descendants of the sun goddess Amaterasu entitled the Japanese to such a leadership role in Asia.


2.Japan's frequent provocations by Western powers

-Strong racial prejudice by Westerners toward Japanese, in addition to Chinese and other Asians, led to several severely insulting incidents for the Japanese people.
- In 1919 at the Paris Peace Conference, Western countries rejected the simple Japanese request to have a racial equality clause included in the League of Nations Covenant.
- In 1905, California passed anti-Japanese legislation. In the following year, the school board in San Francisco ordered Japanese and other Asian children to attend segregated schools.
-In 1924, America passed the Japanese Exclusion Act to shut off Japanese immigration into the US.
-This series of international affronts to Japanese pride and status provided fuel to the militaristic and imperialist sentiments of Japanese government leaders and ultranationalists.



3.Japan's desire to secure its economic interests

- With Japan's heavy dependence on foreign trade, the world depression that began in 1929 caused great economic hardships for the Japanese people.
- This great worldwide depression came on the heels of the devastating Kantô earthquake in 1923 and economic stagnation during the 1920s, which especially hurt farmers and workers in small shops.
- Entering the decade of the 1930s, economic motives for Japan's imperialism became very strong in order to ensure continued foreign trade.