Empire of Japan
On the 3rd of January 1868, Satsuma-Chōshū forces seized the imperial palace in Kyoto. The following day, a fifteen-year-old boy named Crown Prince Mutsuhito declared his restoration to full power. This event marked the end of the Tokugawa shogunate and began the Meiji era. Emperor Kōmei had died of smallpox in early 1867, leaving Mutsuhito as his successor. Tokugawa Yoshinobu resigned from his post on the 9th of November 1867, agreeing to be the instrument for carrying out imperial orders. However, his apparatus of state continued to exist despite the nominal void at the highest level of government. Speculation suggests that Yoshinobu agreed to an assembly of daimyōs in the hope that such a body would reinstate him. Hard-liners from Satsuma and Chōshū found this prospect intolerable. On the 24th of January 1868, Yoshinobu decided to prepare an attack on Kyoto, occupied by Satsuma and Chōshū forces. The Boshin War was fought between January 1868 and May 1869. A decisive victory occurred at the Battle of Toba, Fushimi when a combined army from Chōshū, Tosa, and Satsuma domains defeated the Tokugawa army. Pro-Tokugawa remnants retreated to northern Honshū and later to Ezo, where they established the breakaway Republic of Ezo. An expeditionary force dispatched by the new government overwhelmed these forces. The siege of Hakodate came to an end in May 1869, and the remaining forces surrendered.
Japan dispatched the Iwakura Mission in 1871 to travel the world and gather information on Western social and economic systems. Renegotiation of unequal treaties proved universally unsuccessful, but close observation inspired members to bring about modernization initiatives upon their return. The government paid foreign advisors to educate the populace in various fields. For instance, judicial systems and constitutions were modeled after Prussia. The Meiji leaders aimed to boost morale and win financial support for the new government through slogans like Enrich the Country, Strengthen the Armed Forces. Japan became the only non-Western world power and a major force in East Asia within approximately twenty-five years as a result of industrialization. Baron Masuda Tarokaja was a member of the House of Peers whose father transformed Mitsui into a zaibatsu. Economic development featured rapid industrialization and the transformation of many feudal workers into wage labor. The use of strike action increased, and 1897 saw the establishment of a union for metalworkers. The government recruited more than three thousand Westerners to teach modern science, mathematics, technology, and foreign languages. In 1871, the New Currency Act abolished local currencies and established the yen as the new decimal currency. It had parity with the Mexican silver dollar. Social mobility remained low due to samurai and their descendants being overrepresented in the new elite class.
The First Sino-Japanese War fought in 1894 and 1895 revolved around control and influence over Korea under the Joseon dynasty. On the 4th of June 1894, Korea requested aid from the Qing Empire in suppressing the Donghak Rebellion. The Japanese countered by sending an eight-thousand-troop expeditionary force known as the Oshima Composite Brigade. By June 25, they installed a puppet government in Seoul. Chinese ground troops routed the Chinese forces on the Liaodong Peninsula, and nearly destroyed the Chinese navy in the Battle of the Yalu River. The Treaty of Shimonoseki ceded the Liaodong Peninsula and the island of Taiwan to Japan. Russia, Germany, and France forced Japan to withdraw from Liaodong Peninsula in the Triple Intervention. The Russo-Japanese War took place from 1904 to 1905 for control of Korea and parts of Manchuria. A surprise attack on the Russian Eastern fleet stationed at Port Arthur began the conflict. Admiral Togo Heihachiro defeated elements that attempted escape at the Battle of the Yellow Sea. The Russian Baltic fleet arrived a year later only to be annihilated in the Battle of Tsushima. As a result, Russia lost part of Sakhalin Island south of 50 degrees North latitude. In addition, Russia's defeat cleared the way for Japan to annex Korea outright in 1910. Japan formally annexed Korea in August 1910 and ended its occupation thirty-five years later with the surrender of Japan in World War II.
Hirohito ascended to the throne on the 25th of December 1926, upon the death of his father Emperor Taishō, beginning the Shōwa era. Overall, during the 1920s, Japan changed its direction toward a democratic system of government. However, parliamentary government was not rooted deeply enough to withstand economic and political pressures of the 1930s. Military leaders became increasingly influential during this period. Sadao Araki was an important figurehead and founder of the Army party and the most important militarist thinker in his time. His first ideological works date from his leadership of the Kōdōha faction. On the 23rd of September 1931, Araki first mentioned the philosophy of Kodo linked the Emperor, the people, land, and morality as indivisible. This led to the creation of a new Shinto and increased Emperor worship. A coup d'état attempted on the 26th of February 1936 ultimately failed due to the intervention of the Emperor. Kōdōha members were purged from top military positions, and the Tōseiha faction gained dominance. Both factions believed in expansionism, a strong military, and a coming war. Symbolic katana swords came back into fashion as the martial embodiment of these beliefs. The final objective envisioned by Army thinkers such as Sadao Araki was a return to the old Shogunate system but in the form of a contemporary Military Shogunate. Real power would fall to a leader very similar to a führer or duce. In 1940 Japan celebrated the 2600th anniversary of Jimmu's ascension despite all historians knowing Jimmu was a made-up figure.
On the 5th of November 1941, Yamamoto issued his Top Secret Operation Order no. 1 to the Combined Fleet. This document laid out the position that the Empire of Japan must drive out Britain and America from Greater East Asia. Facing an oil embargo by the United States as well as dwindling domestic reserves, the Japanese government decided to execute a plan developed by Isoroku Yamamoto. The Imperial Japanese Navy made its surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in Honolulu on the 7th of December 1941. As a result, the U.S. battleship fleet was decimated and almost two thousand five hundred people died in the attack that day. From 1942 onwards, particularly after decisive Allied advances at Midway Atoll and Guadalcanal, Japan was forced to adopt a defensive stance against the United States. The American-led island-hopping campaign led to the eventual loss of many of Japan's Oceanian island possessions in the following three years. Eventually, the American military captured Iwo Jima and Okinawa Island, leaving the Japanese mainland unprotected and without a significant naval defense force. By August 1945, plans had been made for an Allied invasion of mainland Japan but were shelved after Japan surrendered. The Pacific War officially came to an end on the 2nd of September 1945.
On the 13th of December 1937, the Nationalist capital of Nanjing surrendered to Japanese troops. In the event known as the Nanjing Massacre, Japanese troops killed many tens-of-thousands of people associated with the defending garrison. It is estimated that as many as two hundred thousand to three hundred thousand including civilians may have been killed, although actual numbers are uncertain and possibly inflated. Coupled with the fact that the government of the People's Republic of China has never undertaken a full accounting of the massacre, estimates remain debated. In total, an estimated twenty million Chinese mostly civilians were killed during World War II. A puppet state was also set up in China quickly afterwards headed by Wang Jingwei. During the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Second World War, the firm Iwanami Shoten was repeatedly censored because of its positions against the war and the Emperor. Publisher Shigeo Iwanami was even sentenced to two months in prison later acquitted for the publication of Tsuda's banned works. The Imperial Japanese Army and the Imperial Japanese Navy committed numerous atrocities and war crimes throughout their campaigns. These actions included the treatment of prisoners of war and other human rights violations documented across occupied territories.
The formalized surrender was issued on the 2nd of September 1945, in compliance with the Potsdam Declaration of the Allies. Japan surrendered in the face of a major breakthrough by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Soviet invasion of Manchuria. The Pacific War officially came to an end on the 2nd of September 1945, leading to the beginning of the Allied occupation of Japan. United States military leader Douglas MacArthur administered the country during this period. In 1947, through Allied efforts, a new Japan's constitution was enacted, officially ending the Japanese Empire and forming modern Japan. During this time, the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces were dissolved. It was later replaced by the current Japan Self-Defense Forces in 1954. Reconstruction under the Allied occupation continued until 1952, consolidating the modern Japanese constitutional monarchy. In total, the Empire of Japan had three emperors: Meiji, Taishō, and Shōwa. The Imperial era came to an end partway through Shōwa's reign, and he remained emperor until 1989. The empire's territory subsequently shrunk to cover only the Japanese archipelago resembling modern Japan.
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Common questions
When did the Empire of Japan begin and end?
The Empire of Japan began on the 3rd of January 1868 when Satsuma-Chōshū forces seized the imperial palace in Kyoto. The empire officially ended in 1947 with the enactment of a new constitution that formed modern Japan.
Who was the first emperor of the Meiji era?
Crown Prince Mutsuhito became the first emperor of the Meiji era after declaring his restoration to full power on the 4th of January 1868. He succeeded Emperor Kōmei who had died of smallpox in early 1867.
What caused the Boshin War between 1868 and 1869?
Hard-liners from Satsuma and Chōshū found Tokugawa Yoshinobu's plan for an assembly of daimyōs intolerable and decided to attack Kyoto. This conflict resulted in a decisive victory for combined armies from Chōshū, Tosa, and Satsuma domains at the Battle of Toba, Fushimi.
How did Japan industrialize during the Meiji period?
Japan dispatched the Iwakura Mission in 1871 to gather information on Western social and economic systems which inspired rapid industrialization initiatives. The government recruited more than three thousand Westerners to teach modern science, mathematics, technology, and foreign languages while establishing the yen as the new decimal currency.
When did Japan formally annex Korea and end its occupation?
Japan formally annexed Korea in August 1910 after winning the Russo-Japanese War from 1904 to 1905. The empire ended its occupation thirty-five years later with the surrender of Japan in World War II.
Who administered Japan during the Allied occupation after 1945?
United States military leader Douglas MacArthur administered the country during the Allied occupation that began after the formalized surrender on the 2nd of September 1945. Reconstruction under this administration continued until 1952 before the Imperial era fully concluded.