The War of ‘38
Prime Ministers of Japan (Shōwa Restoration)
1936-1937:
Yasuhito, Prince Chichibu (National Principle Faction)
1937-1940:
Gen. Sadaro Araki (Imperial Way)
1940-1942:
Gen. Kazushige Ugaki (National Self-Defence Committee)
1942-1942:
Gen. Jinzaburō Masaki (Imperial Way)
1942-1942:
Nobusuke Kishi (National Self-Defence Committee)
Leader of the Japanese Provisional Government
1942-1944:
Joseph W. Stilwell (US Army // Provisional Government)
1944-1944:
Hitoshi Ashida (Japan Harmonious Self-Rule Committee // Provisional Government)
Prime Minister of Japan (Heisei Era)
1944-1946:
Hitoshi Ashida (Liberal)
1944 (National Compact with Socialists) def. Nobusuke Kishi (Democrats), Sanzō Nosaka (Communist), various ‘Imperial Way’ successors
1946-
0000:
Kōzō Sasaki (Socialist)
1946 (National Compact with Communists and ‘Left’ Liberals) def. Ichirō Hatoyama (New Japan Alliance // ‘Right’ Liberals and Democrats)
Although American historians have, traditionally, been wont to situate the eruption of the “War of ‘38” (known as the Pacific War in Japan) at the confluence of the simmering geopolitical tensions of the interwar period and the explosive Panay and Allison incidents, as the revisionists of the Sacramento School have long argued, such this dehistoricised narrative, in ignoring the domestic situation in Japan, unmoors the war from critical contingencies in Japanese history, and creates a false sense of inevitability. Indeed, whilst it is undeniable that certain geo- and power-political pressures created the conditions for Nippono-American war (particularly the resource depletion of the Japanese economy and the growth of American power in the Pacific with the waning of Britain), it is likely that war could, at least, have been avoided had Japan not succumbed to the lure of ultranationalist authoritarianism in February 1936. The now infamous coup of February 26th was itself a highly contingent affair: had one or two pieces not fallen perfectly into place (if General Araki had not swept in to support the plotters, if Prince Chichibu had not induced his elder brother’s compliance, had they failed to assassinate Prime Minister Keisuke Akada) the whole plot was liable to collapse, and we might now remember the Imperial Way and National Principle Factions only as reactionary footnotes in Japan’s peaceful march to modernity. Instead, they brought to power a clique of embittered reactionaries and militarists. From 1936-1937, the ‘Shōwa Restoration’ led by Prince Chichibu turned Japan into the most nominal and totalitarian of democracies: plebiscitary, nationalistic, hyper-majoritarian; a state ruled under the nominal sanction of the people, but controlled tightly by their masters in the imperial palace and military command. By the time Chichibu stepped aside for the power behind the throne, General Sadaro Araki, Japan had joined Italy and Germany in the camp of nationalist totalitarian states.
It was against this backdrop, that Japan and the United States slid towards war. Although Araki's 'Imperial Way' faction's principle geopolitical aim had been a "Strike North" against the Soviet Union, events would intervene: the sinking of the USS Panay in December 1937 exacerbated the already growing tensions between the two powers, and draw them to the brink of war as a diplomatic crisis extended into the new year over Araki's refusal to issue a formal apology. But it was the Allison Incident in Nanking a month later which would be the final straw. On the 26th January, John Moore Allison was struck by a Japanese officer in the midst of fighting around the American Embassy during Japanese soldiers' massacre of Chinese civilians: this confrontation could have ended otherwise, but when Allison fell and struck his head, his death sealed the fates of both of the Pacific's major powers. War might have been avoided, but a bullish Japanese government certain that war was imminent anyway, and too proud to issue any sort of apology and an American government pressured by popular opinion to seek satisfaction found themselves colliding. Two months after Allison's death, an abortive Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour would see the formal commencement of Nippono-American hostilities.
To begin with, the war was arduous but the combatants evenly-matched, but whilst the United States had rich access to the materiel demanded by war, Japan did not. As the war raged on, a slow and brutal "island hopping" campaign by the Americans drew closer to Japan. With much of the Japanese navy at the bottom of the Pacific, the Emperor dismissed Araki in 1940 in favour of the moderate General Kazushige Ugaki and the National Self-Defence Committee. The first six months of Ugaki's premiership saw a limited revival of Japan's fortunes as the American war-machine switched to propping up the United Kingdom against Germany as the Allies' position in Western Europe collapsed, but by 1941, Japan was all-but surrounded, expelled from China by the United Front and faced with American invasion as Marines swarmed into Seoul and occupied Formosa. Even as Britain reached a peace with Hitler, in the East it was democracy in the ascent against the hideous ambitions of fascism. The country blockaded and on the verge of collapse, Ugaki was overthrown in a second coup in March, but the ultranationalist government of General Jinzaburō Masaki could do little to turn things around, and never possessed the confidence of the imperial family. Although the first American landing in June was repelled, a second more successful landing near Nagasaki in July was more successful. With the prospect of hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of casualties on both sides looming over Japan, and the collapse of the economy unsettling the Japanese elite, moderates in the army, big business, and the Emperor aligned to remove the nationalist zealots, and install a government led by the former 'Economic King' of Manchuria, Nobusuke Kishi which surrendered to the Americans unconditionally in September.
The reconstruction of Japan, at the hands of commander of the United States' East Asian forces, Joseph W. Stilwell, would be the making of modern Japan. Stilwell recognised, early on, that Japan would need to be rebuilt in the American image if the nation was to win the coming Cold War with Nazism as the Third Reich's forces laid waste to the Soviet Union, and as the collapse of Stalin's forces became inevitable, the Roosevelt Administration and State Department had no choice but to agree. Whilst the Emperor Hirohito was compelled to resign as Emperor, his nine year-old son was able to remain upon the throne, and Japan's business elite, for their cooperation with the occupation and role in the surrender, were fully incorporated into the new order. With the end of Japanese reconstruction in 1944, Hitoshi Ashida of the Japan Harmonious Self-Rule Committee (the 'party of the collaborators' as it was and is dismissed by Japanese nationalists) was invited to serve as the chairman of the provisional government, a position from which he called fresh elections. These were won handily by the National Compact, the successor to the JHSRC, an alliance of Liberals and moderate Socialists.
But the coalition would not last long. As President Wallace drew America, and her Japanese client, closer to the Soviet Union and the ever more Communist dominated Republic of China, a new Socialist/Social Democratic international alliance began to emerge: the creation of this new league, the United Nations, was finalised in 1946 with the signing of the London Accords by Wallace, Zhdanov, Mao, and Attlee. This triggered a political crisis in Japan, and the right-wing of the Liberal Party quit the coalition under the leadership of the nationalist leader Ichirō Hatoyama, entering into an alliance with Kishi's Democratic Party. This rupture paved the way for the Socialists to take the reins of government after the new National Compact won the 1946 elections, bringing the Communists into the cabinet. As the West's Cold War with the Third Reich grew in hostility as it bled itself dry against the Soviets in the Urals, Japan joined the UN as an outpost for American influence in the Far East - as a new generation of Imperial Way inspired fanatics turned to desperate political terrorism funded covertly by the Nazis, the long shadow of the 1938 war began to darken Japan's bright political future with talk of a new war for Japanese national liberation...