The Impact of Japanese Nationalism and Militarism on Foreign Policy
To begin, it is important to know what caused Japanese Nationalism to help better understand its impact on foreign policy. Here are some key causes of nationalism in Japan:
There were many impacts of Japanese nationalism and militarism on foreign policy:
Japanese Domestic Issues: Political and Economic Issues, and Their Impact on Foreign Relations
Political issues:
Political Instability in China
To begin, it is important to know what caused Japanese Nationalism to help better understand its impact on foreign policy. Here are some key causes of nationalism in Japan:
- Foreign influence from the United States
- Change in government after the United States force the Japanese Market to open up to the rest of the world
There were many impacts of Japanese nationalism and militarism on foreign policy:
- Nationalism allowed for the Japanese society to become organized and controlled
- Nationalism allowed for cultural revolution in Japan which made Japan a stronger country as a whole
- A strong feeling of nationalism supported a strong military
- Militarism allowed Japan to have a stronger government
- Militarism allowed Japan to recover their economy after the effects of the great depression
- Having a large military required large amounts of military equipment to be produced to support the army
- Strong nationalism and militarism allowed Japan to turn its eyes to other strong countries in the West
- Japan began to emulate the actions of other countries which was large amounts of expansions.
- Strong militarism allowed Japan to begin to catch up to European nations economically and militarily
Japanese Domestic Issues: Political and Economic Issues, and Their Impact on Foreign Relations
Political issues:
- Before the economic depression of the 1930’s japan was a democracy
- Although the democratic system was very weak
- Once the democratic system was removed, the government became more militaristic, which allowed the government to have more imperialistic views
- Large economic growth in the 20’s and 30's due to the expansion of the Japanese military
- Japan was lacking many important natural resources in order to supply their military, due to Japan being an island nation
- The need for resources caused Japan to have a more aggressive foreign policy
- Many requests were made to the allies during the first world war for German territory
- Eventually japan took many strategic locations from Germany, which benefited Japan economically
- Even this was not enough to supply Japan’s economy and lead to the invasion of Manchuria, which contained many of the resources japan needed
Political Instability in China
- China was not strongly held together socially and economically, which was caused by a weak government
- Many political views divided the nation which caused many social issues
- This overall made China a weak nation that could not fully mobilize itself in case it was attacked
- This gave Japan an opportunity for expansion
- Japan took the opportunity and attacked China, and invaded Korea and Manchuria