What is Japanese militarism?

In February, 1929, Nanjing's Monthly Current Affairs published a news that shocked the world: The Thrilling Positive Policy of Manchuria and Mongolia in Japan-The Memorial of Tanaka Yoshiichi to the Japanese Emperor. The memorial to Tanaka, which once asked the Soviets to bid 3, yen and the United States to bid 25, yen, was published by China newspapers for free.

There is a legendary story behind this: in the late 192s, there was a wealthy Chinese businessman named Cai Zhikan in Tokyo. Cai graduated from Waseda University and participated in the League in his early years. He repeatedly conveyed the news he got from his contacts with Japanese elites to Zhang Xueliang through his good friend and secretary Wang Jiazhen. In June 1928, Cai Zhikan received a secret letter from Wang Jiazhen, hoping to get the "Tanaka Memorial". Cai Zhikan, starting with the contradiction between the Japanese political friends' association of young people and the Yuan-Lao people's political party, learned that the elder party was very dissatisfied with the arrogance of the young people, and deliberately frustrated their spirit by leaking out the plans of the young people's government. Cai proposed to Mu Ye Zhongxian, a representative of the Yuan-old school, that the top secret material be released by himself. In the middle of the night, Cai disguised himself as a supplement worker, sneaked into the palace stacks, covered the 67-page memorial in Tanaka with transparent drawing paper, and gave it to Wang Jiazhen. After Wang Jiazhen received the memorial, he immediately asked someone to translate it and reported it to Zhang Xueliang. Zhang instructed to print 2 copies and distribute them to the military and political officials in Northeast China, and sent 4 copies to the Nanjing government.

"If you want to conquer zhina, you must first conquer Manchuria and Mongolia. If you want to conquer the world, you must first conquer zhina. If zhina is completely conquered by me, other people with different clothes, such as Asia Minor, India and Nanyang, will fear me and respect me and surrender to me. " "Tanaka Memorial" inherited the tone of the mainland policy in Meiji era, but it was even more arrogant, "making the world know that East Asia is my East Asia and not dare to invade me", because at this time, Japan had been operating in Manchuria for more than ten years.

The Russo-Japanese War, which ended in 195, consolidated Japan's vested interests in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, and it was also the beginning for the Japanese to gradually import immigrants and colonial economy to Northeast China and Inner Mongolia. At first, Japanese immigrants imported to the northeast of China were mainly veterans and armed farmers, whose purpose was to provide information and backup for the Kwantung Army, manipulate local forces and resist the southward advance of the Soviet Union while engaging in agricultural production. Later, it was extended to ordinary farmers. By the eve of the September 18th Incident, the number of Japanese immigrants in Northeast China had reached 23,. In terms of investment, according to The Memorial of Tanaka, Japan has invested 44 million yen in railways, shipping, mines, forests, steel, agriculture and livestock production in Northeast China by setting up the "Southern Manchuria Railway Company" and "borrowing Japan and supporting * * * to keep the honor of * * *".

These Japanese immigrants who went to other countries to expand their territory and accumulate wealth have been in trouble from the beginning. At first, it was not suitable for the cold climate in Northeast China, and due to the lack of materials, the vacillation and boycott of immigrants occurred from time to time. "When the Japanese in Manchuria found themselves becoming the target of China's patriotism, the situation became more severe. By 1931, Manchuria's foreign affairs had been placed under the control of Nanjing, and the three northeastern provinces set up a new transportation committee, planning to establish a unified railway and telecommunications system ... China people are keen to build their own railways to weaken the Nanman Railway, develop Huludao Port to compete with Dalian, and gradually curb Japanese mining and forestry by refusing to extend the leased land or preventing domestic workers from working for it. " -The description of the situation in the Northeast at that time in The History of the Republic of China in Cambridge is consistent with the nervousness revealed in The Memorial in Tanaka:

"Unfortunately, after the European War, there were many changes in foreign affairs and internal governance, and the authorities in the three northeastern provinces woke up day by day and followed in my footsteps, striving for the prosperity of their industries, with the potential to push their luck. The rapid progress is amazing. "

"The benefits of Manchuria gained from the Russo-Japanese War were also greatly restricted by the Nine-Nation Treaty. As a result, the Chinese people can't keep flowing in. Instead, Chinese people flood in and move to the three northeastern provinces every year, which is like a million people in Ma Benteng. Even after I was full of power, I was given the right to make the remaining 8 people in our country have nowhere to live. "

"zhina people wake up every day. Although the civil strife is in full swing, its people can still be diligent and imitate Japanese goods to make their own generation. Therefore, it has hindered the progress of China's trade. "

in 1927, the "Nanjing Incident" which happened thousands of miles away when the Northern Expedition Revolutionary Army in Nanjing reclaimed the British Concession by force gave birth to The Memorial of Tanaka. The Japanese held an 11-day "Oriental Conference" specially for the "Nanjing Incident". "East" is China, and this geographical disorientation is based on the concept that "Japan belongs to the East geographically, but to the West politically; The Japanese belong to the East in appearance, but to the West in spirit. " The Japanese associate the "Nanjing Incident" with the obstruction of their colonial management in Manchuria, which they regard as a dangerous signal.

The "China Policy Program" formulated by the "Oriental Conference" is the blueprint for the secret memorial of Tanaka, which will be presented directly to the Japanese emperor in the future.

Quit from the League of Nations and don't stop until you are crazy

Four years later, the plot in The Memorial of Tanaka, which had already been revealed to the world, was acted on by Kwantung Army and became a fact. The "September 18th Incident" posed a difficult problem to the international community at that time: how to deal with Japan, a member of the League of Nations, which brazenly invaded other countries by force?

At the beginning of the incident, the League of Nations sent a fact-finding mission. "Japan despises all suggestions made to continue to maintain its internationalist role." In January 1932, the Kwantung Army occupied Jinzhou, and the Marine Corps landed in Shanghai. In March, it declared "Manchuria independence." Japan brazenly declared that Manchuria was "a place without division and exploitation in the world".

This statement echoes the increasingly noisy "national socialism" (that is, fascism) in Japan. "The war launched by Japan to actively develop itself is a just act, not just for selfish interests, just as the self-actions of other nations to promote awakening, break through the status quo and exclude occupiers and aggressors are regarded as just actions. Just as the class struggle within a country occurs because of this unjust difference, the international wars that belong to justice also occur to change the unjust difference. Britain is the richest man across the world, while Russia is the big landlord in the northern hemisphere. For Japan, which is a proletarian in the world with scattered islands as its national border, isn't there the right to wage war in the name of justice to seize the land monopolized by them? " It was the famous Japanese fascist madman North Ikki who made this amazing remark.

In the past, the humble pupils who followed the European and American teachers in the Luming Museum became so tough, besides the expanding fascist consciousness, it also had its economic basis: in the world economic crisis from 1929 to 1932, the international economic system based on the gold standard and the free circulation of goods and capital quickly collapsed-the Japanese saw no reason to look at other people's faces again, and in 1933, they withdrew from the League of Nations after Germany.

On the other front, militaristic literati continued to propagate their theories. Japan's domestic propaganda has entered an "extraordinary period", and pure literary works are regarded as leisure literature, which is sharply compressed; Newspapers often "open the skylight" because they violate the "wartime propaganda regulations"; The radio station reported the bravery of the "imperial army". Many famous Japanese writers and artists, such as Natsume Soseki, Ryunosuke Akutagawa and Akira Kurosawa, were once trumpeters of fascist militarism.

At this point, militarism has completely gained the upper hand in Japan's domestic politics and foreign relations, and militaristic Japan has embarked on the road of no return.