SNA (Tokyo) — From 1916-1918, General Masatake Terauchi spent a mostly unhappy two years as prime minister of Japan. He successfully carried forward Japan’s involvement in the First World War, but shadows darkened both at home and abroad. The Russian Revolution created a new challenge on the Asian mainland and declining living conditions for ordinary Japanese reached the breaking point.

Transcript

On October 9, 1916, Masatake Terauchi became prime minister of Japan.

He was the second direct protege of Genro Aritomo Yamagata to come to power, and like his predecessor Taro Katsura he was a Choshu man who rose up through the Imperial Japanese Army. In particular, he had played a role in the annexation of Korea and served as its first Governor-General.

Although billed as national unity government, the Terauchi Cabinet immediately faced political challenge. The day after its formation, three political parties merged to become the Constitutional Politics Association, holding a majority in the House of Representatives and led by Takaaki Kato.

Kato was distinctly bitter that the Genro had prevented him from becoming prime minister, and his majority party became set on a policy of noncooperation with the Terauchi government.

This led early in the next year to Terauchi’s decision to dissolve the Diet. In the April 1917 general elections, the Genro and the government got pretty much what they had aimed for. Takashi Hara’s Constitutional Association of Political Friends returned as the leading party, though short of a majority, and Kato’s party lost many seats and fell into second place. Smaller parties and independents held the balance.

By this time, another of the Genro had passed away. Iwao Oyama, a Satsuma man who had been one of the key founders of the Imperial Japanese Army, continued the process of thinning out the ranks of the ruling oligarchs.

This was still the period of the Great War, and as an ally of Great Britain, Japan was being asked to do more to help the war effort. Terauchi and the Genro were only too happy to do so, since they were eager to have good relations with the Western Powers once the war finally ended.

This led to the deployment of the Imperial Japanese Navy to the Mediterranean Sea, escorting British troop ships and thus freeing up more of the British Navy to deal with Germany’s unrestricted submarine warfare.

But not all foreign policies were going so well. In October 1917, the Russian Revolution overthrew the Tsarist government with which Japan had only recently formed an alliance. Russia then descended into civil war.

The final year of Terauchi’s premiership was dominated by a back-and-forth debate over whether or not Japan should land troops in Siberia to support White Russian forces and secure Japan’s own interests in the Russian Far East. Ultimately, it was agreed that the Imperial Japanese Army would make a landing in Vladivostok, though carefully limited in size.

Terauchi himself did not play a decisive role in the Siberia debate. He was critically ill from a heart ailment throughout 1918 and in fact was only convinced to remain in office at the insistence of Yamagata, his political patron.

The final blow to the ailing Terauchi was a furious one. In August 1918 inflation in the price of rice, the staple food of Japan, led to riots breaking out in Toyama Prefecture and soon spreading across the country. These riots were the largest in modern Japanese history. Thousands were arrested and more than 100,000 army troops were deployed against the Japanese population. Politically and physically, Terauchi was finished.

Masatake Terauchi resigned on September 29, 1918, after a term of 1 year and 356 days.

Just over a year later, he died from his illness.

This article was originally published on January 22, 2023, in the “Japan and the World” newsletter. Become a Shingetsu News supporter on Patreon and receive the newsletter by email each Monday morning.