"Restore The Emperor Expel The Barbarians": The Causes Of The Showa Restoration

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to the
Showa Restoration in the 1930s is not an easy story to relate. The
transformation in Japan's governmental structure involved; the historical period
between 1868 and 1912 that preceded the Showa Restoration. This period of
democratic reforms was an underlying cause of the militarist reaction that lead
to the Showa Restoration. The transformation was also feed by several immediate
causes; such as, the downturn in the global economy in 1929Footnote5 and the
invasion of Manchuria in 1931.Footnote6 It was the convergence of these external,
internal, underlying and immediate causes that lead to the military dictatorship
in the 1930's.
The historical period before the Showa Restoration, 1868-1912, shaped
the political climate in which Japan could transform itself from a democracy to
a militaristic state. This period is known as the Meiji Restoration.Footnote7
The Meiji Restoration of 1868 completely dismantled the Tokugawa political order
and replaced it with a ...

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retooled, basing itself on the western
model. The Japanese government sent out investigators to learn the ways of
European and American industries.Footnote11 In 1889, the Japanese government
adopted a constitution based on the British and German models of parliamentary
democracy. During this same period, railroads were constructed, a banking system
was started and the samurai system was disbanded.Footnote12 Indeed, it seemed as
if Japan had successfully made the transition to a western style industrialized
state. Almost every other non-western state failed to make this leap forward
from pre-industrial nation to industrialized power. For example, China failed to
make this leap. It collapsed ...

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