by Zhang Yuebin and Xu Shijia
In recent years, Japan has been steadily rebuilding its military power and rewriting the rules that long restrained it. This shift hit a worrying new note when Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi implied Japan could intervene militarily in the Taiwan Strait. To understand why this is so alarming, it is necessary to revisit how Japanese militarism once took root, how it justified itself, and the devastating costs it imposed on Asia and the wider world.
Throughout East Asian history, Japanese militarism has been an unusual existence. Shaped by a particular historical and cultural trajectory, and reinforced by Japan's relative geographical isolation, it grew into an ideology that once fueled an empire spanning much of East Asia.
THE ROOTS OF MILITARY SUPREMACY
The rise of modern Japanese militarism can be traced to 1192, when Minamoto Yoritomo became Seii Taishogun and established a shogunate, a form of military autocracy that lasted for nearly 700 years. The samurai-dominated government, built on the belief in the primacy of armed force, ingrained a persistent mindset among Japan's elites that aggressive expansion was a legitimate solution to national crises.
For instance, Yoshida Shoin argued that losses to Western powers should be compensated by seizing territories in Northeast China and the Korean Peninsula, an ideology that deeply shaped the Meiji Restoration leaders.
A MILITARIST STATE BEYOND CIVILIAN CONTROL
Under Japan's modern imperial system, the military was granted extraordinary institutional powers, operating independently through key mechanisms:
Direct Access to the Emperor: the military headquarters (i.e. pre-war Japanese military institutions and leadership) possessed the "right of direct audience with the Emperor to submit memorials," allowing them to bypass the cabinet and report directly to the Emperor.
The Service Minister Requirement: The Army and Navy Ministers were required to be active-duty officers. By nominating or withholding candidates, the military headquarters could manipulate the cabinet.
Wartime Command Autonomy: the 1893 "Regulations on the Wartime General Headquarters" stipulated that all members of the headquarters should be active-duty officers, thereby completely excluding civilian officials.
In essence, the military could interfere in the affairs of the civilian government, but the government had no authority over military matters. Consequently, the military headquarters were elevated above both the government and the Diet, securing its supremacy in the state apparatus.
LEARNING THE WRONG LESSONS
Japan's militarism was further reinforced by its selective adoption of Western ideas. Prussia became a particular model. The Iwakura Mission studied Germany's military and political systems, noting that "the founding and development of Germany bear striking similarities to Japan. Studying this country's politics and social customs will yield far greater benefits than learning from Britain and France."
Their meeting with Otto von Bismarck, who espoused a worldview that "the strong bully the weak, and the large intimidate the small," solidified a belief in "might makes right" as a universal truth.
This ideology, disseminated throughout society, gradually gave rise to a militaristic system. Economically, Japan's industrial revolution was fueled by the ruthless exploitation of its own people and the aggressive plunder of other countries. Its invasion of the Korean Peninsula and China not only laid the foundation for Japan's industrial revolution but also spurred its development. This model of capitalism, built on aggression and plunder, formed the socioeconomic foundation of Japanese militarism.
Educationally, the Japanese government promulgated the "Great Principles of Education" in 1879 and the "Imperial Rescript on Education" in 1890. Centered on loyalty to the Emperor and state Shinto, these documents inculcated the ideology of emperor worship, the concept of a "military state," and the belief in a "divine nation." Militarist education thus became a core pillar of the system.
Under this militaristic system, Japan annexed Ryukyu, invaded Taiwan of China and the Korean Peninsula, launched war on China in 1894, provoked the Russo-Japanese War, and profited massively from WWI to emerge as a so-called "world power." Japan's path to modernization was, from the outset, a path of aggressive expansion and colonialism.
THE DESCENT INTO FASCISM
After WWI, this militarism evolved into its most extreme form: fascism. Civilian and military fascists agitated for "national transformation" and the "Showa Restoration" to seize state power and establish a powerful regime dedicated to overseas expansion and building of a global empire.
The February 26 Incident in 1936 was an internal conflict between the Kodo faction and the Tosei faction within the military, which led to the establishment of a fascist system from top to bottom, known as the "state of enhanced national defense."
Under the direct orchestration of the military, Japan embarked on a rapid and aggressive sequence: it provoked the Lugou Bridge Incident in July 1937, enacted the National Mobilization Law in April 1938, signed the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy in September 1940, established the Imperial Rule Assistance Association -- a fascist organization -- in October 1940, and finally launched the Pacific War in December 1941.
The fusion of domestic totalitarian control, foreign military aggression, and alignment with the European fascist powers created a short, frenzied phase of Japanese fascism. Its unchecked expansion ultimately provoked a united and fierce response from the world anti-fascist alliance, leading inexorably to its defeat. On August 15, 1945, Japanese militarism was compelled to announce unconditional surrender.
A LEGACY OF HORROR
Japan's wars of aggression inflicted catastrophic loss of life and destruction, bringing profound suffering to the peoples of Asia. The death toll across East Asia (excluding Japan) is estimated to have surpassed 19 million. Japan itself endured heavy losses: over 2 million soldiers and 800,000 civilians died.
According to a survey by Japan's Post-War Rehabilitation Agency, 119 cities were destroyed by air raids, 2.4 million homes burned, and 8.8 million people displaced. In the war's final phase, conscripted soldiers died in droves from disease, malnutrition, and starvation, or in suicidal "special attacks" and sinking ships.
Japan's wars of aggression were also marked by systematic atrocities that constitute one of the darkest chapters of modern history, leaving indelible trauma across the region. In China, the Nanjing Massacre, the relentless bombing of Chongqing, widespread "mass graves," and the grotesque human experiments of Unit 731 represent crimes of unspeakable barbarity. In Southeast Asia, the Bataan Death March, the construction of the Thailand-Burma "Death Railway," and the massacres in Manila and Singapore laid bare the brutal essence of Japanese militarism.
During the railway's construction, the Japanese military conscripted 61,000 Allied prisoners of war (POW) and 200,000 Southeast Asian laborers, subjecting them to merciless conditions. The resulting mortality rate reached 20 percent among the POWs and a staggering 50 percent among laborers, averaging over 250 deaths per kilometer of track laid.
Editor's note: The authors are Research Fellow and Assistant Research Fellow at the Institute of World History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Xinhua News Agency.
