LIFE OF PEOPLE LIVING IN JAPAN LEADING UP TO WWII

THE ECONOMY

• The Minsei Party government deliberately adopted a deflationary policy in order to eliminate weak banks and firms and to prepare the nation for the return to the prewar gold equality.
• The policy of deflation and return to gold was strongly advocated and put into effect by the finance minister Inoue.

POLITICAL AND INTELLECTUAL THINKING

• Political and intellectual thinking gradually shifted from economic liberalism toward more economic control under state management.
• There were many reasons for this such as influence of Marxism, apparent success of USSR, Showa Depression, the idea that deflation was worsened by excess competition, and disappointment with politicians and political parties.
• Many considered that the days of the US-style free market economy were over and from now on, state control and industrial monopoly would strengthen the competitiveness of the national economy.

THE SEIYUKAI PARTY

• Seiyukai was established in 1900 by the union of a leading politician and a former opposition party who decided to cooperate with the government.
• Its main policies were fiscal activism with an emphasis on public investment in rural and industrial infrastructure, acceptance of military buildup and expansion, and pleasing a narrow voter base.
• Seiyukai means "political friend society."

THE MINSEI PARTY

• Minsei Party was originally called Kenseikai but, later merged with another party to become Minsei Party in 1927.
• Its main policies were economic strictness and industrial streamlining, return to prewar gold parity, and international cooperation and peaceful diplomacy especially with the US.

POLITICAL TERRORISM

• Between 1931 and 1937 Japanese politics was gradually overtaken by the military.
• Within the army and navy, a few ultra-nationalist groups formed with the purposes of rejecting a party-based political system, uniting the nation under the emperor, introducing economic planning, and saving the rural poor.

INVASION OF CHINA

• On July 7, Japanese and Chinese troops had a skirmish at Marco Polo Bridge near Beijing. The incident was minor but Tokyo decided to send more troops to China. This began a full-scale war with China.
• After the Japan-China war erupted, political parties were weakened and later disbanded, the military completely took over Japanese politics, and the entire nation was mobilized to execute the war.

As young males were sent to war fronts, women were trained to defend the homeland. Due to the lack of weapons, they were provided with bamboo swords. Women and high school students were also mobilized to work in military factories.

Here is a famous photo of hungry children eating white radish. This shows an example of how some of the people in Japan were living at the time.

Here is a poster encouraging men to join the army. The poster says "Open up the fertile land of Manchuria: Young Volunteer Army for Cultivating Manchuria and Mongolia"