World War I was shocking to Westerners because of the huge number of casualties. The 1914-1918 war also had some important repercussions outside the West (notably in the Middle East, where it continued into the 1920s). But World War II was far more lethal and was much more of a genuinely global conflict (or series of linked conflicts). A major difference between the two wars was the situation in East Asia and the Pacific. There was no significant fighting in this area during World War I, but between 1937 and 1945 a bitter “war without mercy,” as one leading scholar put it, tore apart the Asia-Pacific region, destroying the lives of millions of Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, and Southeast Asians and leaving their countries in ruins.Central to the fierce and protracted fighting in East Asia and the western Pacific was the attempt by the Japanese to drive the Western colonial powers from the region and restore “Asia to the Asians.” What did the Japanese think about these goals during the war? The document that I would like you to read provides partial answers to that lingering question. It is drawn from a collection of Japanese oral histories recorded by two American researchers at the end of the 1980s. In it, Nogi Harumichi recalls his experiences as a student in Tokyo in 1940-1941. His memories are particularly interesting for the light they shed on the thinking of many ordinary Japanese prior to the attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor. You can ready his words by clicking here.
After reading the document, I would like you to consider and discuss the following: What do Nogi’s memories suggest about Japanese public opinion in 1940-1941? Why was there support in Japan for the invasion of China and Southeast Asia? Does there appear to have been any dissent? To what extent was there a relationship between the reforms of the Meiji era and the Japanese expansion in Korea, China, and Southeast Asia?
1 comment:
Harumichi's support for Asia for Asians sounds very much like a Japanese Man's Burden. These ultranationalist feelings are startling. Nationalism is powerful, and often destructive. The "southern Advance" was fueled by the belief that the Japanese had a duty to eradicate foreign influence in Asia and bring "technology and leadership" to make "a better country". He sounds like the British in Afria. There appears to be no dissent, but it is important that these ideas were supported by ultranationalist militarists. This document forced me to think of the role of the Japanese citizen and how they seem to be fooled into believing "Asia for Asians" is heroic. But are these sentiments at all different from those of the West in Season 4? No. Where in the Meiji reformation, Japan wanted to stand with the West,in the Japanese period of imperialsim, Japan wanted to the West to get out of Asia. The Japanese now felt they were ready to stand on there own and complete their transformation into a Great Power, colonies and all.
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