In 1931, Reijiro Wakatsuki again took over the post of prime minister from a stronger predecessor, but this time the deck was in any case stacked against any prospect for political success. The nation was sinking into the depths of the Great Depression, and the government lost control of young officers in the Imperial Army, who launched a conquest of Manchuria which had never been authorized by Tokyo.
From 1927-1929, Imperial Army-officer-turned-politician Giichi Tanaka attempted to guide Japan with a firm hand, aiming to crush radicalism at home and to use the iron fist in China. This hardline turn was resisted on many fronts, but the biggest problem emerged from the Army itself, which was slipping away from political control.
From 1918-1921, Takashi Hara skillfully led Japan’s first modern government which was truly commanded by elected politicians, a major step forward for democracy.
From 1911-1912, aristocrat Saionji Kinmochi returned as prime minister of Japan. Although his government had strong public support, it soon found itself in a budget confrontation with the Imperial Army. Neither side was prepared to back down.
From 1908-1911, Taro Katsura led a second relatively long and stable administration of Japan. The most consequential event was his government’s decision to fully annex the Korean Peninsula, wiping out that neighboring nation’s independent legal existence.
From 1901-1906, Taro Katsura served a highly consequential term as prime minister which featured the emergence of a new generation to the top leadership post and a war which established Japan as a Great Power in international affairs.
From 1892-1896, Hirobumi Ito returned as prime minister and had one of the most successful administrations in Japanese history. He presided over Japan’s first modern war in which it decisively defeated Qing China, overturned the traditional East Asia political order, and created its own colonial empire.
The Shingetsu News Agency has been keeping a running log of the major developments in Japanese politics since January 2012. The following is our contemporary account of the entire year 2012.
In 1993, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono made the most full-throated admission and apology acknowledging that Japan had coerced women across Asia into being sex slaves—euphemistically referred to as “Comfort Women”—for the Japanese military during the Pacific War. More recently, however, conservative politicians such as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Osaka Mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura have engaged in a campaign that is less about carving out a path toward reconciliation than to overwrite memories of an unsavory past.
Almost seventy years after the guns fell silent, the Second World War remains very much present in the media, with frequent reminders of the human cost of the conflict. In the case of Japan this includes the fate of the soldiers and civilians captured in the closing days of the war, when the Soviet Union declared war and quickly overran Manchuria.
