Historian quotes

Question 1

Impact of WWI - Melzer, Dickinson

Answer 1

• ‘Isolated the country’ – about continental and southern expansion during WWI
• ‘Established foundations of Japan as a global power’

Question 2

Impact of WWI - Ishizu (naval, policy), Lake and reynolds (racial, power)

Answer 2

• ‘Japanese felt betray by the British’ – about naval treaties
• ‘Foreign policy at the time can be characterised as internationalism’
• Japan felt ‘disappointment and disillusionment about American racial hostility’
• ‘Power alone determined the course of international affairs’ – about Paris peace conference

Question 3

Taisho democracy - Matsuo

Answer 3

• ‘Significant but flawed attempt at political modernisation’ – view on Taisho democracy
• ‘Failed to achieve true parliamentary sovereignty or social democracy’

Question 4

Taisho democracy - Ohno

Answer 4

• ‘Japan had the moral obligation to strive for global peace and prosperity’
• ‘One step forward and one giant leap backward on the road to democracy’ – about peace preservation law and male suffrage law

Question 5

Pacific war - Coox, Kuehn

Answer 5

• ‘Achievement of naval and air supremacy’ – reason for initial victories
• ‘Allied defenders were spread thin’
• ‘Results were strategically empty’
• ‘Stretched thin to cover the largest front in history’

Question 6

Pacific war - Maechling, Kawamura

Answer 6

• ‘It made hostilities inevitable’ – about embargoes
• ‘Blindness to his own predisposition in favour of military solutions’ – limitations of Tojo

Question 7

Pacific war - Harding

Answer 7

• ‘Force an acceptable arrangement with the US…rather than provoke an all-out war’ – reason for Pearl harbour

Question 8

Reasons for defeat - Kuehn soviet

Answer 8

• ‘Rapid soviet advance overwhelmed Japanese force’
• ‘Strategy for defending Kyushu was hopeless’
• ‘Just needed to capture airfields and enough defensive terrain’

Question 9

Reasons for defeat - Yutaka (demoralisation etc)

Answer 9

• ‘Inevitable outcome of the Japanese military repeatedly undertaking combat operations beyond its capabilities’
• ‘Imperial army was extremely slow to mechanise’
• ‘Caused a breaking point in soldiers’ – about constant marches

Question 10

US occupation - Dower (critical view)

Answer 10

• ‘The reverse course sacrificed democratic reforms to serve US cold war interests’
• ‘Democracy undermined by the reinstatement of wartime elites’
• ‘Prioritised US geopolitical strategy to bolster Japan as an anti-communist ally’

Question 11

US occupation - Packard (Pragmatic view)

Answer 11

• ‘Reverse course was a necessary balance of cold war pressures, economic and political stability and for Japan’s effective integration into the Western alliance’
• ‘Preserved core democratic reform’
• ‘Stabilised Japan to prevent communist influence’
• ‘Enabled post-war recovery and sovereignty’
• ‘Solidified independence as US ally’

Question 12

US occupation - Kumano (spiritual disarmament + consitution)

Answer 12

• ‘Engine of war’ – about Shinto
• ‘Race long stunted by ancient concepts of mythological teaching’
• ‘Forced to be free’

Question 13

US occupation - Duus and Kusunoki

Answer 13

• ‘Reforms eliminated much of the prewar political volatility’ – about constitutional changes
• ‘Destroyed Japan’s ability to prosecute war so that it would never again challenge the international order’

Question 14

Manchuria - Coox and Mitter

Answer 14

Coox:
* ‘Japan was at the point of no return’
Mitter:
* ‘Victims of a violent outburst of a feeling of imperialist entitlement’