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To what extent did the weakness of the Japanese government in the 1920's contribute to the coming to the power of the militarists in the early 1930s?

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To what extent did the weakness of the Japanese government in the 1920's contribute to the coming to the power of the militarists in the early 1930s? Militarism means depending on force to achieve a certain goal. After the First World War in 1918, there was a rise of Party government in Japan. However, the party government ended in 1932 and there was the rise of militarism. To a certain, the weakness of the party government did contribute to the coming of militarists in 1930s. First of all, it was the institutional weakness of the party government that led to the coming of militarists. The party government never gained the full control over the cabinet. For example, the party governors in the diet could not reject or amend the policies made by the cabinet ministers, this shows that the majority party was not able to gain full control over the government and this was a source of weakness of the party government Moreover, the lack of unity and loyalty of the party members were also a sources of institutional weakness of the party government. In 1920s, politicians joined the parties were all from different background and they had different beliefs, they joined the parties only because they wanted to seek power in the government, thus, they would change side once their interests were lost. ...read more.


However, the failure of the party politics left no alternative leadership besides militarists. Thus, it was the weakness of the government in solving the socio-economic problems in Japan that caused the coming of the militarists. Added to the above was the weakness of the foreign policy of the party government. The party government at that time used the policy of peaceful economic expansion, in which Japan tried not to commit any aggressive act, but cooperate with other powers. However, the policy left the soldiers idle because there was no war for them and a myriad of soldiers became increasingly concentrated with internal problems of Japan and spread militarists' ideas through the Reservist society, which set up many branches in the countryside and was able to get a wide and solid social support. Another weakness of this party rule was that because of their policies, this made Japan difficult to revise the unequal treaties with the west. As a result, nationalists accused the party government of treason because the party politicians sacrifice Japan's sign of international prestige, for example, accepting extraterritority of the west in Japan. Worse still, this policy was not able to build up the trust of other countries. For instance, there were still anti-Japanese protest and boycotts in China in the 1920s. ...read more.


Moreover, education was made compulsory in the 1870s and government controlled education strictly, For example, the Meiji government was responsible in printing textbooks at that time and this made it easier for the government to indoctrinate ideas into the minds of the Japanese. Books at that time stressed much on moral teaching and glorified at that time to believe that death on battlefield for the emperor was most glorious think for a man. Many of the adults in the 1920s and 1930s were brought up in this education system and their nationalist feeling towards the country was very strong. This fanatic nationalism, which was brought about by the Meiji Reform, also helped to bring the coming of militarists in the 1930s because as an ultra-nationalists, they wanted their country to be strong and was able to extent her influence over other places, and so a myriad of Japanese supported the militarists when they came to power in 1930s. To conclude, the weakness of the party government in 1920s did contribute to the coming of the militarism, but it was only the immediate cause. Without the deep-rooted underlying causes, militarists might not be able to gain control in the 1930s. Therefore, it was only to a small extent that the weakness of the government contributed to the coming of the militarists. ...read more.

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