Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
THE PURSUIT OF EMPIRE
Upon his death in 1912, Emperor Meiji was succeeded by his son, Yoshihito, whose period
of rule was named the Taishō era. When WWI broke out, Japan sided against Germany but
did not become deeply involved in the conflict. While the Allies were occupied with war,
Japan took the opportunity to expand its economy at top speed.
The Shōwa period began when Emperor Hirohito ascended to the throne in 1926. A
rising tide of nationalism was bolstered by the world economic depression that began in
1929. Popular unrest was marked by political assassinations and plots to overthrow the
government, which led to a significant increase in the power of the militarists, who ap-
proved the invasion of Manchuria in 1931 and the installation of a Japanese puppet regime,
Manchukuo. In 1933 Japan withdrew from the League of Nations and in 1937 entered into
full-scale hostilities against China.
As the leader of a new order for Asia, Japan signed a tripartite pact with Germany and
Italy in 1940. The Japanese military leaders viewed the USA as the main obstacle to their
imperial conquest of Asia, and when diplomatic attempts to gain US neutrality failed, the
Japanese drew them into WWII with a surprise attack on the US Pacific Fleet in Pearl Har-
bor on 7 December 1941. The intent of the strike was to neutralise the fleet, which Japan
rightly viewed as its main threat in the region.
At first Japan scored rapid successes, pushing its battle fronts across to India, down to
the fringes of Australia and into the mid-Pacific. But eventually the decisive Battle of Mid-
way turned the tide of the war against Japan. Exhausted by submarine blockades and aerial
bombing, by 1945 Japan had been driven back on all fronts. In August, the declaration of
war by the Soviet Union and the atomic bombs dropped by the USA on Hiroshima and Na-
gasaki were the final straws: Emperor Hirohito announced Japan's unconditional surrender.
WHO REALLY SAVED KYOTO?
Kyoto's good fortune in escaping US bombing during WWII is a well-publicised fact. Still, while it may provide
patriotic colour for some Americans to hear that the city was consciously spared out of US goodwill and reveren-
ce for Kyoto's cultural heritage, not everyone agrees with the prevailing story.
The common belief is that Kyoto was rescued through the efforts of American scholar Langdon Warner
(1881-1955). During the latter half of the war Warner sat on a committee that endeavoured to save artistic and
historical treasures in war-torn regions. More than a half-century later, Warner is a household name in Japan and
